Pre-Ramble: I’ve found that a really good blog post comes out of place where there is some personal investment … of curiosity, empathy, frustration or annoyance (there’s nothing like a good rant). Also, I find that if I choose three topics and start meandering around in my head, I will eventually be able to pull together something moderately to skillfully compelling by the end of the time available, or my patience,  whichever comes first.

Blame it on the holidays – Lately it’s been tough to narrow in on a combination of topics that click.  And it’s not because the meaty topics aren’t out there … I mean, seriously – President Obama just took an elbow to the face on the basketball court (how’d you like to be THAT guy?!) … Prince William just got engaged (how’d you like to be THAT gal?!) … and everyone is holding their breath to see if we all spent enough on Black Friday to qualify for a recovered economy. What is not to like here? All of these are potentially perfect blog post topics … tantalizing, really. But today somehow, the only thing calling to me is fatigue-induced petty festering over grass on the other side of the fence. 

Yesterday was Sunday, so that means that the Sunday New York Times is here, which means that there is A TON of expertly crafted articles and stories about fascinatingly obscure subjects that I can barely bring myself to read, because they are just THAT GOOD. Even the wedding announcements are well-written and insightful.

I’m barely half way into the Sunday Magazine and already there’s a very thought-provoking article on the social change required to make Michelle Obama’s children’s health initiatives successful; a story about the new Vanity Fair iPad app (I LOVE Vanity Fair, and who doesn’t love iPads?); a fascinating piece on “four towering figures in the world of words” (pinch me); a quick look inside the highflying world of private jets; and a sneak peek into the life and times of writer and director, Nora Ephron (who loves to play craps, apparently) …

“… About 900 years ago, when I was a columnist at Esquire, they had a sales conference in Paradise Island, the Bahamas, and someone taught me [how to play craps]. It is such a great game. I will teach almost anyone how to play craps at a moment’s notice… I almost always have dice in my purse.”

So, I know.  What’s the big deal about this?  Who cares about craps?  The thing is, over the holiday weekend there were two Nora Ephron movies on the telly and one of them involved Diane Keaton, and then another movie randomly came on that had Diane Keaton in it as well. Come to think of it, even that ingloriously tepid film “Morning Glory” currently in theaters features Ms. Keaton in a starring role. 

Do you see where I’m headed with this?  Of course you do.

If I was an actress, I’d be Diane Keaton’s slightly younger, shorter, less luminous sister. I’ve been told that I look kind of like her, and occasionally that I have Diane Keaton-esque mannerisms. I think this is more due to the fact that I can come across as kind of up-tight (I am up-tight) and wear a lot of turtlenecks.

Well, so, in my writer’s mash-up world, we’ve got: the indomitable, yet perfectly self-effacing Nora Ephron looking perfectly relaxed in her perfect black leather jacket next to her perfect bouquet of perfect roses in her perfect Upper East Side apartment with the perfect view of the Chrysler Building … crossed with the chippily endearing (if somewhat overexposed) Diane Keaton … crossed with the eternally revered NY Times.

Which leaves me … sitting here at midnight at the kitchen counter, swirling what’s left of the day’s cold coffee into the sink, paging my way through the day’s old news, and glancing ever so slightly sideways at this stupid Ephron interview — twisting with envy at every casually tossed-off turn of phrase, every meaningful memento, every flawlessly unstudied photograph.  

The Take-Away:  As if gazing upon her tragic collection of unused tea cups in the middle of the night would suddenly endow me with the wherewithal to write a series of successful screenplays.

Pre-Ramble:  Hard to believe it’s Thanksgiving already … seems like I say that every year. I know it’s customary for Daisy (our dog) to serve as guest blogger on the Thanksgiving holiday, however this year she is busy chopping Brussels sprouts and candying yams, so it looks like I will have to do the honors.

As in past years, I have so much to be thankful for and I’m guessing you do too … the health and happiness of family and friends, the interesting and challenging work that we get to do every day, and thankful that our country is swinging out of the nasty economic slump that has sapped our spirits a bit over the last couple of years. 

Among all of those truly meaningful reasons for thankfulness though, I have to admit that I am also thankful for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — !

I LOVE that parade. I know that most of the acts in the line-up are designed to promote NBC programming, but there’s something about the tradition and spectacle of it all … the tall buildings, festive awnings and flowers and twinkling lights, … the halo of fall foliage hanging over Central Park and crowds of bundled waving people happily lining the parade route. I love the earnest high school marching bands, the lame lip-synched numbers of freezing pop performers, and the legendary lock-step kicks of the Radio City Rockettes.

Most of all, I love the balloons. There’s just something wonderful and happy about those big stupid balloons … Huge, colorful characters making their way slowly up Broadway. In this age of pixelated super-heroes zipping through cyberspace, there’s something about the lumbering tethered balloons that represents a slower, simpler time. They almost seem prehistoric in their silent, floating state.

The Take-Away:  So, as I was waxing on about thankfulness and the parade, there was an even more curious event going on in my own front yard.  About 15 minutes ago (in a particularly bold move considering the day), 9 wild turkeys strutted down the middle of the street in front of our house in a perfectly spaced line … turned the corner, still in single-file, and continued on until they were out of sight.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Pre-Ramble:  Lest you think that conferences are all work and no play, I offer up this photo as evidence of our walk on the wild side. 

Shown right are my colleague and I wearing the animal print robes we found waiting in the closets of our rooms at the Hotel Palomar on Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle. It’s actually 5 o’clock (happy hour) and we are just headed down to get some dinner, but had to give the robes a quick spin. (Thanks to the nice people in the hallway who gamely agreed to take the pic!)  

The Take-Away:  It is impossible to not have fun in a cheetah bathrobe.

If you’d like one of these thick thirsty specimens for yourself, check out the Hotel Palomar website where you will find a trio of robes including zebra, cheetah and giraffe in sizes L-XXL. (… Grrrrrrr ….. !)

Post-Note:  Shout out to our favorite front desk guest services professional — Hey Nick!

(And, if I ever write fiction, my first title is going to be “Happy Hour at the Palomar” … )

Pre-Ramble: The next in a tidy little series of blog posts I had planned about the Project Zero conference  was going to feature the power of the learning environment. I was going to talk about how inspiring, and reverent really, it was to partake in lofty discussions around the imperative of education with such a cast of renown experts and among such ”historically significant” works of art. 

As is the case with most museums of mention, Washington’s National Gallery is a splendid receptacle for artwork of all sorts. The playful interior atrium hosts a variety of works … from the spindly Giacometti sculpture striding across an upper walkway, to the gnarly human bust made of roots and branches (at right), to a colorful Calder mobile dangling overhead. This  environment provided a rich backdrop for our various explorations into the critical dynamics of teaching and learning for the 21st Century.

“Global competence” – Our lectures were filled with theoretical views on the optimal “mindsets” for teachers and students. We addressed the role of education to not only facilitate employability for a competitive global marketplace, but also to impart a sense of  actual “global competence” in future generations. We talked about the need to nurture students … to prepare them for the world they will inherit and the issues they will be called upon to resolve –economically, culturally, environmentally, … digitally. In the moment, this line of reasoning made complete sense. It felt important, valuable, proactive and scholarly.

Cut to a rickety, threadbare seat in an urban movie theater in the heart of uptown Minneapolis. The vintage venue was sprinkled with patrons who had come out on a cold November evening to see a documentary about education called “Waiting for Superman.” (Two yahoos who mistakenly came dressed in tights and a cape walked out after the opening credits.) Awarded audience honors for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, Waiting for Superman portrays a dramatic account of a “broken” education system as seen through the experience of five low-income students and their families.

“Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of [the film]. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.” – Sundance

Other reviews include:

“… powerful, passionate, and potentially revolution-inducing.” – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

” … the film is never less than buoyant, thanks largely to the dedicated and effective teachers on whom Guggenheim focuses.” – Variety

“ … a stunning liberal expose of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools.”  – William McGurn, WSJ op ed

“It’s hard to deny the power of Guggenheim’s lingering shots on these children.” – Scott Bowles, USA Today

“What struck me most of all was Geoffrey Canada’s confidence that a charter school run on his model can make virtually any first-grader a high school graduate who’s accepted to college. A good education, therefore, is not ruled out by poverty, uneducated parents or crime- and drug-infested neighborhoods. In fact, those are the very areas where he has success.” – Roger Ebert

“I urge you all to drop everything and go see the documentary “Waiting For Superman” at the earliest opportunity.” – Melik Kaylan, Forbes

The Take-Away: The contrast between education theory and education reality is striking. On the one hand, we’re mingling among Monets and Harvard academians to consider, in hushed tones, various analyses, syntheses and matrices. While on the other, we witness the breathless angst of defiantly hopeful parents as they wait in a crowded chaotic gymnasium to see if their child has been plucked up by fortune  – a lottery with very remote odds – to receive an opportunity to attend a “good” school, … an opportunity for a ”good” education, … a good life.

Where is the disconnect?  Superman?  Are you out there? Or, are you sitting in a classroom at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, waiting to finish up a few straggling classes before commencing to swoop in and save the American education system?  Hopefully, you are not struggling in a supply room somewhere, overcome by the evil educational kryptonite.

Pre-Ramble: I know a lot of words. I mean, as a writer I use them in one way or another practically every day, … so, I’m always intrigued/annoyed when I come across a word I don’t know. A quick scan of materials for the Project Zero conference that I attended last week, revealed that a whole bunch of “plenary sessions” were on the agenda.  

Huh?  … All those years of Latin for naught?! I could deduce from the placement of the term at the beginning and end of each daily session that these sessions were likely some kind of overview or wrap-up to the day’s events … and maybe “plen” was a close cousin of “plan,” … But the exact definition of “plenary” was still foggy. Wikipedia to the rescue – corroborating the general assumptions …

Plenary session is a term often used in conferences to define the part of the conference when all members of all parties are to attend. These sessions may contain a broad range of content from keynotes to panel discussions and are not necessarily related to a specific style of delivery. The term has been used in the teaching profession to describe when information is summarized. This often encourages class participation.

Good. Neat. Yep …  this is pretty much what went on in all those pre-plenary and post-plenary sessions. I had no problem with it. In fact, I have come to like the terminology and, like a 3rd grader who has learned a new word, use it whenever possible. (Plenary, plenary, plenary.)

So, the conference.  Project Zero, the host of the 3-day event, describes itself as, “an educational research group at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University,” the mission of which is to “understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels.” 

To enhance your understanding on that — the basic premise of Project Zero is to foster effective teaching and learning by using a set of simple “thinking routines.”  Thinking and the process of discovery can be made more “visible and knowable” by using a specific line of inquiry around, “seeing, thinking and wondering”  to engage students and reveal a “bigger picture.”  This learning model presents students with a problem or issue — a piece of artwork, science experiment, or even a math problem – and then prompts them to audibly answer the questions, “What do you see?” (just the facts) …. “What do you think?” (reasoning around the problem) …. and, ”What do you wonder?” (what questions come up for you about this).  Course materials describe the dynamic …

“Thinking has generally been invisible or done in isolation … the visible parts were only seen on tests and quizzes, by which time it [is likely] too late to make a mid-course correction … Thinking routines empower all the students, supporting differentiated instruction as each student gets to respond at his or her level of understanding … sometimes concrete thinking, sometimes abstract … nevertheless, students get to see the different ways of interpretation of the same concept, reflect on their thinking, learn from each other, and ultimately deepen their understanding.”

The Take-Away:  True to mission, the conference itself was a blend of big room lectures and small group discussions, each based on both broad lofty topics and focused concrete experiences. Over the course of the next few blog posts, I would like to share other aspects of the conference including the outstanding keynote speakers, the exceptional learning venues provided by the National Gallery and the Washington International School, and the vibrant overarching energy imparted by the greater Washington D.C. environment.

After that, we will have a closing Plenary Session.

Pre-Ramble:  So, by now you’ve probably heard about the Carnival cruise ship that was disabled by fire in an engine room earlier this week. Thankfully, the 4,500 passengers and crew are all fine and it sounds like they are doing everything they can to keep calm and carry on in spite of the suboptimal conditions.

Carnival president and CEO, Gerry Cahill commended passengers for their patience and fortitude and promised a full refund and a percentage off on a future Carnival cruise package to each person affected by the incident. In the meanwhile, he assured them that he would see to it that everything possible was being done to mitigate their circumstances. I’m sorry, but live music (two guys with guitars?), blackjack tournaments and trivia contests are no substitute for electricity, running water and decent food. (Without 24/7 buffets, what’s the point of a cruise anyway?)

Well, so, good, … they’re doing everything they can, … blah, … blah, … And here comes the USS Reagan loaded down with 60,000+ pounds of food and supplies. Hooray!! Yay!!! … Phew … we were all getting pretty hungry here …… Thank goodness for the emergency rations which include Pop Tarts, croissants (ooh-la-la), crabmeat, and SPAM. 

Wait. SPAM?!?  I’m sorry. Is that fourth word in the series S-P-A-M?  Is this one of those insidious word association games or did someone air-lift 60,000 pounds of SPAM into that already god-forsaken situation?? 

…. So, the ship was out of food, and of all the edible substances on the face of the Earth, someone in the upper levels of management in the Carnival organization made the executive decision to send in SPAM?  … What, were they all out of …. Well, shoot! … The punch line here would be … “were they all out of SPAM?!”

Jus’ sayin – Even the Chilean miners got Albacore tuna and power bars.

No offense intended toward Hormel, the Minnesota company that actually makes the canned “meat” product. They have admirably continued to evolve and embrace their brand identity over the years. Did you know that there is a SPAM Museum, a SPAM Fan Club (“… an exciting club unlike any other…“), a SPAM Office Products division, and a SPAM recipe exchange?  

Souvenirs - The SPAM gift ideas are truly inspired … refrigerator magnets, baseball caps, stadium cups (SPAM smoothie anyone?), luggage tags (particularly appropriate for this gig), and shot glasses (shown above). Let’s hope the air-freight contained some shot-worthy beverages as well.

The Take-Away:  Cheers to the swift and safe return of this boatload of passengers. As Mr. Cahill suggests, “[These folks] will have many memorable stories to tell at dinner parties for the rest of their lives.”  (I’m guessing that Mr. Cahill is going to have his own line of lively banter — in addition to being pelted with SPAM cans, Gerry is also going to be hit with some pretty meaty lawsuits.)

Post-Note: Just in time for the holidays — For a delicious Baked Apples with SPAM Streusel recipe, click here. (WARNING: recipe includes a photo.)

Pre-Ramble:  So, if a writer is wearing a tiara at her desk, but no one sees her, does she not have delusions of grandeur?

The Take-Away:  Random.

Pre-Ramble: So, I was planning to tell you all about my upcoming field trip to Washington D.C. … for a conference on teaching and learning put on by the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero. The subject matter is very relevant to the work I do as a grantwriter and consumer of all things creative.

It’s fascinating stuff really, and even more enticing is the fact that many of the sessions are going to be given on the premises of the National Gallery and other locales in and about the National Mall. (By now you must know how much I revere the National Mall.) I was planning to toss out some of the session titles to build suspense …

• Ways of Seeing, Feeling Imagining and Observing
• Art and Narrative: The Role of Information and Imagination
• We All March to Different Drummers: Using Models to Raise Awareness of How, Who, What and Where We Are Affects Our Perspective
• Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education ( … this one’s for you Mom and Dad)
• Exploring Ethics in a Brave New Digital World: The GoodPlay Project

I know!! – It’s going to be a great, thought-provoking couple of days!!  (Maybe Barack will sit in on a session or two — sounds like he could use a little tweak in perspective … )

Well, so, but, then, as I was skimming through a couple of links, I came across this.

Five-year-old, Aiden Reed, a boy who loves, loves, loves monsters, has been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. That’s him over there sitting up in his hospital bed with a blanket full of markers drawing pictures of … yep, monsters. Could he be any cuter?

So, the story is, Aiden’s Mom and Dad are getting ready to put their house on the market on account of the steep medical bills when Aiden’s Aunt Mandi steps into the picture. She decides that she wants to try to help out by selling some of Aiden’s monster masterpieces on the Esty website (an online shop where folks can sell their homemade arts and crafts). Her goal was to sell 60 of them at $12 apiece. (60 X $12 = $720 …  which should cover about 2 liters of saline and a cup of lime jello.)

As of the Today Show report today, Auntie Mandi has sold 2, 460 of Aiden’s monster pictures – ! (There’s $30,000 to kick around.)

The Take-Away: Yeah, I’m going on a neat trip to learn all kinds of things about learning and creativity, and I can’t wait to relay some of it to you on the blog here … But, for today, upbeat-as-only-a-child-can-be-Aiden-Reed is selling monster drawings and I just had to write about that.

Pre-Ramble:  Election returns are so festive … and, even amidst all of the drama around who will be elected in this precinct or that, so predictable … (particularly in Minnesota where the decision between Tweedledum and Tweedledee isn’t complete without a massively expensive and time-consuming recount).

Such a patriotic scene … the huge furling American flag backdrop; … tidy color-by-number map to designate states that voted red and states that voted blue; …  goofy mascots; … the big scoreboard with a running tally of percentage of votes in; … and, the requisite quasi-diverse panel of  “experts” wearing red and blue striped ties and offering up continuous color-commentary.

Pass the Cheetos - What a fun game this is!  … ”Shellacked” Democrats, heads hanging, make barely-audible conciliatory sounds about faulty listening skills and aggressive agendas … Emboldened Republicans point told-you-so fingers and exchange high-fives, using words like ”The American people have sent a message!” … Referendum … and, Two more years, succa!!! … The only thing missing here are dread-locks hanging over a couple of collars, scantily-clad dance teams, and fans in face-paint.  Go Red!!! Go White!!! Go Blue!!! My team wins, your team loses!!! We are so going to bury you!!! Nah-nah-na-boo-boo!!!

Except, this isn’t a game.

We don’t get to just dust ourselves off, pack up the pom-poms and fire the coach when it’s over. This entrenched political exercise has some very real consequences in the lives of ”ordinary Americans” — those people that candidates keep pandering to, but really don’t know how to define or reach. While the victor du jour is busy printing up new calling cards and changing the name plates on the revolving door, who is doing any meaningful work for the American people?  The fall-out from of this volley of fist-pumping and hand-wringing is that neither team actually has the time or traction, nor, I fear, intention, to move the ball forward in any meaningful way.

The Take-Away: BOTH PARTIES are “misunderstanding the message” of this election. The dynamics of this repetitive, binary, zero-sum-game have become exhausting and dysfunctional. The last thing we need in our precarious economic recovery period is another round of trash talk and celebration in the end-zone. We need some important stuff done around here. 

We need to get this house in order so we can have jobs to do and actual houses to come home to. (Never mind clean air and water, decent healthcare, and a competitive edge in the global marketplace.)  We need the politicians who have been granted the honor of public service to buckle down, roll up their sleeves, and GET THEIR WORK DONE. As far as I can see, the only way they are going to do that is to stop playing partisan games (are you listening, Representative Boehner?) and work t-o-g-e-t-h-e-r. 

Seriously. The American people aren’t some arm-chair quarterback — WE ARE THE COACH. And, unless I am mistaken, the coach gets to call the plays. It’s TEAM AMERICA we’re working for, so damn it, … get out there … one … two … three … break!

Pre-Ramble: ‘Twas the night before voting day and all through the land …

I don’t know why I’m always surprised by political campaigns, and why I tend to tune them out. It’s weird, because, if you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I am a fairly politically engaged gal.  I pay attention, and I care, which makes it even more dichotomous to me that I refuse to watch political ads on television and delight in actively tearing every piece of politically charged direct mail in half before tossing it directly into the trash.

Bring in the clowns – On the other hand, I so wish I had been able to attend Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear,” last Saturday on the National Mall in Washington D.C.  According to a follow-up story in Sunday’s NY Times, the event was, “part circus, part satire, part holiday parade, … a political rally without politicians.” There were flags and bands and speeches, and Stephen Colbert wore a sweet pair of navy blue pants with white stars all over them. I mean, these guys are political satirists, right? Comedians?

But there was something more.  Thousands of people (or Colbert’s estimate of 6 billion … ) don’t travel across the country to hear a couple of jokes …

“For many who came, the rally was an opportunity to take control of the political narrative, if only for one sunny afternoon … Beyond the goofiness, the rally seemed to be channeling something deep — a craving to be heard and a frustration with the lack of leadership … less by President Obama than by a Democratic Party that many described as timid, fearful, and failing to stand up for the president’s accomplishments.”

I actually think Steve ‘n’ Jon are only half right. Foreshadows of this frustration were present way before the ink had  dried on Obama’s Audacity of Hope. The American people are frustrated because they aren’t being heard by any party on Capitol Hill. Things are a mess and there’s a huge disconnect and people don’t know what to do with that. 

The Take-Away: Here’s a thought – In solidarity with the call to “be heard,” step out into your own little rally and deliver a few punch lines at the ballot box today.