Why Burry in Worceter???

Apparently protesters on both side of the worm-food 'debate' can't spell. (Is it just me, or does he look like the guy who hands out Jesus or Hell? pamphlets and on the bridge over the Pike before Red Sox games?)

This picture by Nicolaus Czarnecki/Zuma is from a MotherJones.com article on the disposition of dead criminals. Initially the caption mislabeled the city as Cambridge, not Worcester. Some jerk decided to fix their error and own up to our stupidity.

Speaking of stupidity:

Why Worceter indeed. Perhaps the seven publicly funded Worcester marketing teams currently in existence can adopt this slogan and graphic. This picture comes from aidanfromworcester.com, and his write up of the protest is pretty hilarious.

Stay tuned tomorrow at 11:30AM, when I have a press conference in front of Billy Breault's house announcing my Kickstarter Vacation Project, #SendBillyToRussiaWithTheCorpse.

Another Worcester misspelling...

Usually we have to worry how the national news media will mangle the pronunciation or spelling of our fairy city.  Not today, folks.  Yahoo caught on to the Tornadoes' financial woes and their alleged lack of payments to Jose Canseco, and proceeded to file an article with multiple references to the Tornados.  They didn't reference Jose Canseco's pitiful stat line this year as a reason for not paying him.  (20 games played, .194 BA/.310 OBP/.250 SLG, 1 HR, 7 RBI and a surprising 3 stolen bases!

Here's a hint, Robbie Levin (and his editor).  Those little red dots that appear under words while you type?  It's not garnish. 

In Robbie's defense, there is a whole YouTube channel devoted to Tornados.

A funny thing happened in the T&G Comment Section!

I admit that I read the T&G comments, largely in an attempt to understand my fellow Worcesterites.  I rarely post because the level of hatred, ignorance and contempt for the English language makes my eyes bleed.

I wanted to read the comments in Thursday's article regarding President Obama's appointment of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB to see how my fellow Worcesterites felt about the CFPB.  Surprisingly enough there was an intelligent discussion of House and Senate rules, the Constitution, the possible constitutional implications of any future action by Cordray, and a rehashing of the recess appointment in recent American history.

I applaud the following T&G subscribers: Fitzgm, Alfred J. Lemire, I'm Just Saying..., and  IThinkForMyself. 

Traveller, -Q, unconventionalcontrarian, maclear, bigredone, v8chip: see the teacher after class.  You need to elevate the substance of your posts.

Live Estate Planning Chat at the T&G Website?!?!?!?

I hate it when my will gets tossed. Maybe Scott Croteau will help me with any legal challenges to my estate.

Remember when the front page of the newspaper was full of articles, and not grammatically incorrect filler pointing us to frivolous online chats, giveaways, and oversized color pictures? Content and good reporting sells papers, not cheap filler for the front page!

Street Power!

I didn't get a picture of it yet, but it appears West Pine Lane off of Moreland Street is now Westpine Lane.

Schools and Testing.

Today's (03/18/11) T&G article  by Jacqueline Reis raised some fair questions regarding the selection of charter school students.  Last night's School Committee meeting raised the following point:

"Information was presented on students at the newly opened Spirit of Knowledge Charter School, which serves Grades 7-9. The district found data on 85 percent of the school’s students from when they were Worcester public school students and found that those students scored higher on the MCAS exams than the district average."

If the selection process is truly a blind lottery, why are they getting the better range of students? Is it because parents of the better performing students are opting out of public schools in favor of charters schools? Is it because charters have a history of pruning out undesirable students?  Or is it merely because our charter schools don't have to educate the more challenging students, like special ed or limited English proficient students? And why did they find data on only 85 percent of the students? These are fair questions to ask and have less to do with pro- or anti-union politics if our tax money is going to charter schools that spend our tax money and keep the profits but aren't accountable to the general electorate.

If charters are more efficient due to better innovations and no union interference, why was a public high school like Brockton High successful in turning around their school? The answer is innovation in the classroom, input from teachers, parents and children, and a cooperative relationship between administration and teachers.  Innovation needs to come from the people in the classrooms, not from administrators, politicians and bureaucrats, as Gary Rosen points out in his most recent piece (03/17/11) in Worcester Magazine. I also recommend this article about the test grading process and hopefully we can turn the current debate on extending No Child Left Behind away from arbitrary testing programs and on actual learning.

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And while we are on the subject of learning, would it be too much to ask our local paper to spell Worcester correctly?

I assumed it would be corrected in the online version, but it hasn't been caught by 5:30pm today.

When Spell Check Fails....

From today's T&G: