The View Up Here

The impact of this week's immense losses to pop culture and media gluttony has yet to be revealed. I am especially saddened by Farrah's untimely passing. As girls, my best friend and I would play "Charlie's Angels," and Farrah was beyond any level of our imagined attainment. When other blonde TV actresses in the 60s-70s-80s were playing the ditzy bimbo (Suzanne Sommers, Goldie Hawn - don't get me wrong I love Goldie but c'mon), Farrah quit "Charlie's Angels" and did "The Burning Bed." Her fight, her spirit, her work are to be commended. Michael Jackson. King of Pop. Pedophile. I'm sick of the glorification of his personal life. The man was mentally ill and could've used some help while he was alive. Let's hope and pray someone helps his three kids. Ed McMahon was a class act on the Tonight Show, though I have no idea of the man as a human being. He left late night a legacy every bit as much as Johnny did. As a Buddhis...

My plans to teach this summer have been thwarted. I was prepped and ready to go on an English 100 class at the nearby community college, and I showed up on my first day of class to find an empty classroom. Moments later, the Dean walked in and apologized profusely that there were no students enrolled, therefore the class was canceled. This was to be a "run off" class that would have been filled with students from Eng. 101 who needed more developmental writing work. However, those students were not required to take 100, only recommended to, and as it so happens none of them wanted to. Firstly, as for my inconvenience, the Dean was very gracious and offered me half-pay for my time and trouble. I appreciate him and genuinely like him, so no hard feelings. But, as for the students, I think the college is doing them a great disservice by not requiring them to take Eng. 100 per their instructors' assessment. Those students are non-native speakers of English, as it so happe...