tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12833694525972328562024-02-02T03:04:01.914-06:00Common SensePerhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it the superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides: Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine,
Common SenseCee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-30243662269024330122014-08-22T15:08:00.000-05:002014-08-22T18:15:21.054-05:00What I did on my summer vacationHow was your summer? I asked for about the 92nd time today. We'd staggered the kids' arrivals back to school, with freshmen coming on Monday, sophomores on Tuesday, and juniors and seniors on Wednesday.
The older kids always came in taller and skinnier than they'd left.
"Aight," said Shawn, "Boring," said Katie, and "Too short," said Brianna, smiling at me.
I smiled back. AndCee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-90586968102979493982013-12-17T20:58:00.000-06:002014-03-06T22:45:46.812-06:00Three Kings"I asked for everything. XBox One, PS4, iPod, iPad, everything."
Right, I said. And what did you put on your regular list? You know, for your relatives who don't have a million dollars?
He shook his head. "I don't think about that. If I thought about who couldn't afford things, Christmas wouldn't be any fun. All I do is build my list, ask for what I Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-77365833994947630092013-11-16T00:37:00.001-06:002013-11-16T00:37:22.217-06:00A Room of One's Own: For Your Wonder Walls
from the busy mockingbird
The internet feeds my soul, because there is such easy access to working artists across the world. I've taken about three good photographs in my entire life, which is possibly why I'm so drawn to some of these artists. So, I thought I'd collect a few here and share them with the world.
Interesting. I just pulled up all of the artists I want to Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-56362716295630914062013-11-05T17:48:00.001-06:002013-11-06T19:45:17.278-06:00Remember Remember the 5th of NovemberI always think of my Uncle Teddy on Guy Fawkes Day.
My Uncle Ted was a bona-fide hero, but I never thought about that when he was around because he was always too busy making us laugh. They called him Beady-Eyed Baader, because he often saw the enemy planes coming before the radar picked them up. No kidding. He tell his wingman there was a bogey on their two o'clock Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-28108209282203583842013-10-27T16:28:00.002-05:002013-10-28T17:34:50.031-05:00Add It Up"Well, you know, some part of this is they don't have their priorities intact," he said. "They're spending moey on iPhones when they need to be buying calculators."
I looked at him, considered a moment, and instead walked away.
I've learned not to engage. I always thought to myself that if a guy like that saw what I saw every day, there's no way that he could think like Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-82695054250171833752013-04-07T01:54:00.000-05:002013-04-07T04:17:03.789-05:00In Defense of Kim (No, Really)Tonight I ran to the Walgreens and the line was ridiculously long, so it was almost impossible to miss this magazine cover (I snapped the photo with my phone, so forgive the poor quality.):
Please consider this my open letter to Star Magazine.
Dear Star,
I understand that celebrities are your raison d'etre. I also understand that you need to sell magazines every week, and KardashiansCee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-71612821028874596032013-03-26T02:01:00.000-05:002013-03-26T02:11:25.904-05:00Scary"What are you looking at?"
I nearly jumped out of my chair at that. I'd been alone in my office late in the day and had just finished my last report when I began browsing the headlines. And I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for a good headline. This one read "Boy Charged With Killing Baby is 1000% Not Guilty." I mean, would you leave that news story unread?
So of course I was Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-75520352858561273362013-03-14T02:33:00.001-05:002013-03-26T01:28:36.077-05:00Kiss me, I'm a South SiderThe South Side Irish Parade was this past weekend, and everyone was very well-behaved.
We had to be.
There's actually two parades in Chicago in March. One, the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, happens on Columbus Drive near the Art Institute. Huge crowds come out for that one, and they have fancy floats. The big politicians attend, people bring their children, and it makes Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-83678628953666162642012-09-27T20:48:00.002-05:002012-09-28T09:34:28.972-05:00Chi-raq"Something's got to happen up in here," Sarah said. "This is too much."
I was sitting at the security guard station at the front door because we needed all of our guards outside. Some students from the school up the street had beef with our kids, you see, and had recently taken to showing up in groups, finding an isolated kid wearing our uniform, and jumping him. But of course Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-70916810249536234742011-11-10T22:27:00.000-06:002011-11-10T23:59:49.467-06:00Drew-A-Paw-LoozaMy sweet nephew Drew has autism. Many people don't understand what that means, and if they do, it's usually because they remember Rain Man. To truly understand what it means, you have to imagine Rain Man as a little boy, and then think about all the trouble that a little boy can get into.But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video must be worth a million. I made this videoCee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-83728601333624255202011-09-02T17:24:00.000-05:002011-09-02T17:42:47.710-05:00Confabulation
"You look tired," Michael said to me. He'd come into my office with his best friend Ashley because that's what they do.
I've been getting that a lot lately. Sometimes when you're a teacher you look at administrators and think about all the ways that they're messing everything up and then you become an administrator and you mess things up, all the while thinking longingly of those days when Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-24433124427268302142011-04-20T15:53:00.000-05:002011-09-15T20:07:56.811-05:00Simple GiftsMy name came over the loudspeaker. Report to the main office, they said. I'd been expecting it, ever since our Parent Coordinator told me that some kids were looking for me. They had something for me, she said. I shouldn't go too far. So I ran a quick errand but apparently it wasn't quick enough, because a teacher stopped me on the way back to the office saying that she wanted to reschedule Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-23426131761926313222011-03-12T21:03:00.000-06:002011-03-12T21:55:09.800-06:00Part-TimersWe decided to stop for a drink after work, Susan and I.Some guy sat down next to us. "You girls teachers?"Susan was showing me some papers that her ESL students had written because I was still relatively new to teaching and couldn't figure out how to grade a stack of 150 essays in less than a week without going quietly crazy. Each one seemed like it took twenty minutes, and the kids never read Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-56891763857323674502010-05-24T23:12:00.000-05:002010-05-24T23:52:21.304-05:00Washington ParkWhen it finally gets warm in Chicago, I want to spend all my time outside. I mean, I want to sleep outside. I need the time, see, to soak up as much sun as I possibly can before winter comes and I want to hide under a rock. A warm rock.My students disagree. I was getting coffee this morning when I noticed Ron sliding into the building, so I stood in the doorway of the teachers' lounge so I could Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-71831544718902803512009-03-05T00:13:00.000-06:002009-03-05T00:27:01.634-06:00Out of the Darkness OvernightA few weeks ago, I heard a commercial on the radio for an overnight walk to raise awareness for suicide prevention. I thought about it for about half a second and knew that I had to be a part of this.You see, every member of my family is a survivor of suicide. Over twenty years ago, my cousin Joey died by suicide, and my cousin Christopher died only a few months ago, in November. I think of my Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-59875734680765277232009-01-27T22:28:00.001-06:002010-01-21T22:55:20.322-06:00Bad DogNot too long ago, God rewarded me with a dog. You scoff? Of course he came from God. It's no mistake that when you spell God backwards, it's dog.What I find most hilarious about this turn of events is not only did I get a dog, I got a very bad dog. Seriously. Here. There he is. Just look at him. I had to put a bandana on him because he's such a badass. I've got him as my background on my computerCee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-1172294775917609602009-01-18T00:42:00.000-06:002009-01-18T02:41:47.485-06:00Liars' Club"Hey Cecilia," said Paul, a guy who's in my class in principal school. (Yes, I know.)I like Paul. He's sweet and a little goofy over the baby his wife just had. He talks about staying up half the night with the baby and that makes me grin."Do you know a girl named ... " he mangled the name so badly that at first I said no. But then, it occurred to me: he meant Elizabeth. She never goes by her Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-87886177886643180532009-01-13T22:08:00.000-06:002009-01-13T23:11:20.071-06:00Down Goes the Teenaged HoodlumFive kids were shot at a basketball game at Dunbar High School last Friday. It was a big enough incident that it made the news all across the country -- people called and emailed me to make sure I was okay, and that it hadn't happened at my school.No, it didn't.After the first phone call, I spent about a half hour frantically searching the internet to find out first where the shooting had been (Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-60717147113450885302008-11-05T21:19:00.001-06:002008-11-10T00:23:13.360-06:00Sí se puedeA few years ago, I went to an immigration rally in New York City. As a teacher in Brooklyn, I'd seen firsthand what it meant to be an illegal immigrant in this country, and what it meant to the children who were trying to pull together a future, and I was angered so by all the meaningless roadblocks that I went down to Union Square with an American flag in my hand and shouted, "Sí se puede!" Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-75226524386126784402008-10-14T20:17:00.001-05:002008-10-15T00:42:33.302-05:00The WomenI'm always a little chagrined when I like Woody Allen's new film.I don't even know why I see them. It's always at the back of my mind, and I can never fully enjoy them. Here he is, one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, and every film he makes is colored by what he did. It's because, of course, I can't forget about his personal choices. The man married his adoptive stepdaughter, forCee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-31731130246965604872008-10-06T23:49:00.000-05:002008-10-07T23:28:48.667-05:00six ways of looking at a cubs fanIt's like battered wives' syndrome, my friend Melissa says. Why else would we keep coming back? Year after year, they disappoint us. We pray that next time, this time will be better. And when they fail us? We swear to ourselves that never again will we believe in them, but of course we do. Because there's always next year.I bought a shirt one year. It said Chicago Cubs 2000: Our century Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-836898314218656102008-09-26T19:56:00.000-05:002008-09-26T22:30:13.661-05:00My Night with Elie WeiselNot many people actually get to meet their hero.Last night, I got to meet mine. You see, there's this man named Elie Weisel. He's a Holocaust survivor and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. His memoir Night tells of the year he and his father spent in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, the names of two places I wish I didn't know.I've been teaching his book to sophomores for the Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-82480869698257682372008-09-24T16:01:00.000-05:002008-09-24T23:32:27.055-05:00Letters from the FrontSo they told our kids when they were freshmen that they would be in the same homeroom class all four years of high school, and that their homeroom teacher would remain with them throughout. This didn't work out exactly as planned -- with the dropout rate as high as it is and teacher attrition as high as it is, most of the time the homerooms ended up getting combined or their teachers Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-31255356994164963322008-09-18T21:26:00.000-05:002008-09-18T21:27:25.611-05:00My life story on a postcardThere's a writer named Michael Kimball, who for an arthouse project decided to start interviewing people across America and writing their life stories small enough so that they would fit on a postcard.Of course as soon as I heard about this, I knew that he should do mine. Because I not-so-secretly want to be famous.That was some time ago -- he posted the story today. Enjoy:http://Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1283369452597232856.post-63956668260501146962008-09-15T20:35:00.000-05:002008-09-15T21:24:33.845-05:00Street cred"Yo, Miss Baader," said Maurice. He was stowing his gym shoes in my cabinet on Friday, as he did every morning because he didn't trust people not to steal them from his locker. "Did you almost get jumped yesterday?"I looked up from my laptop. Um. No?"You sure? Nothing happened to you yesterday?"Well, I considered. I guess when I went grocery shopping some homeless guy asked me for some Cee Bee Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04931955576290311262noreply@blogger.com0