Those Great Third Grade Teachers

Freakonomics has a post thanking a third grade teacher, and the Post reports on a Wall Street type memorializing his third grade teacher.  My third grade teacher was Charlotte Kenyon, who had, in today's language, had gravitas, both literally and figuratively.  Back in the day the obese were a rarity in the land, but Mrs. Kenyon was fat.  But she was also determined and dedicated.  The student grapevine told stories about her, usually exaggerated.  But having stories told about one means the teacher was significant, and she was.  She was the teacher alumni would use as a reference point, a shared experience, a force of nature: "you went to the Forks, did you have Mrs. Kenyon?"

Unlike the two posts I link to, I can't recall any particular anecdotes or inspiration she gave me, except for the time she  called me to the blackboard for a spelling quiz.  My memory is likely wrong, but I'm thinking I thought I was hot stuff then, smart, reading ahead of classmates.  But the blackboard exercise somehow revealed my shortcomings in spelling, something I needed.

Anyhow, she ended up with a school named after her.

A Totally Partisan Congress? No

One aspect of the progress of the new farm bill is the existence of bi-partisanship.  Here's a Politico story on the problems in the Senate with rice and peanuts.  While there's tension in both Houses, the tension now is among the "Aggies", as Sen. Chambliss calls them.  The Senators and Representatives with allegiances to different commodity groups are sparring, but I expect them to come together in the end.

There are the outliers who are moved by policy ideas, which can correlate to partisanship.  A few Republican members oppose federal expenditures on agriculture, reflecting their general positions (and the lack, I suspect being cynical, of significant agriculture in their district.

We Love Our Schadenfreude

A link to John Phipps who links to a Youtube video.  If you drive a Lamborghini you're fair game to the rest of the world.  We can laugh because no one was injured.

218 Frogs, Not a Prince Among Them

Speaker Boehner is quoted in a Politico article bemoaning the difficulty of assembling 218 frogs from his Republican caucus in order to pass a bill.

How a Stonehead Handles Phone Solicitors

His post.  One surprise is the casual mention of receiving solicitations from outside the UK.

The State of Morality

By many measures the state of morality in the US is strong, and getting stronger.  That's not the way the people see it though, according to this Politico report.

Farmers Didn't Like Big Cities: Corruption in the Capitals

John Sides at The Monkey Cage posts on a study which shows the level of governmental corruption is higher when the state capital is more isolated. One factor is there's more news media coverage when the big media are closer to the capital, therefore less corruption.

Thinking about our capitals, most of them are not in the principal cities of the states.  I presume it's because there was a tug of war between the rural districts and the urban areas.  The farmers didn't want to add to the power of New York City or Philadelphia or Boston by making it the capital, so the compromise, given the power of the rural areas, was to make a smaller city the capital.  Today we just think that Albany, Harrisburg, and Springfield are naturally the capitals, without realizing the path by which they got there.

Saverin: Why Singapore?

Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield in the movie, is receiving lots of attention because he's renounced his U.S. citizenship, presumably to avoid paying some taxes on his money from Facebook.

One thing's not been explained in the news articles I've seen: why Singapore?   Well, as usual Wikipedia has the answer: Singapore's tax rules encourage tax evasion.

France Is Safer Than US and the French Are Tougher

That's my takeaway from Dirk Beauregarde: " Even on Tuesday (May 15th), as the newly-inaugurated président’s motorcade drove down the Champs Elysées, François Hollande stood up in his open top limo waving and smiling at the crowds, as torrential rain poured down."

There are some of us who remember Presidents in open limousines as they were before Nov. 23, 1963.  None remember when Presidents were rained upon in their inaugural parades.

Google's Driverless Car Comes to Washington

Here's a Politico report on the car's success in navigating Capitol Hill streets, not the halls yet. It includes this question:

But there are questions about its viability — will consumers buy into losing control behind the wheel?

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76459.html#ixzz1vEYR7joD

Speaking only for myself, I could see buying it--I'm nearing the point where my self-confidence is my driving ability is starting to fade, so an old geezer I've love the ability to delegate 99 percent of the driving to a computer.  I suspect that's how the innovation will come; something like Segway which was promoted as revolutionary but has turned out to be a niche filler.  Between geezers and drunks there's a big niche to fill.