History and Herstory

The other day I was thinking about the lifespan of certain items we've encountered in our lives. My primary thought was dedicated to history books. When we were in 5th grade learning about our Founding Fathers, the War of 1812 and the Great Depression, we spanned a time frame of at least 500 years - if we're counting from 1492 (you know, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue...)

So here's my thing - and follow me here: As we got older, the history we learned was not necessarily from books, but from experience. There was no chapter that taught us about the Gulf War and whether or not it was important. There was no chapter that explained the bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. And, there most certainly has been, nor will be a textbook that would ever explain the consequences of the Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton scandal. No, many of the important parts of history of our current lives we learn from just getting older, watching the news and reading the papers.

Now, here's my real question: As the years go by and history happens - are the nation's history books getting bigger? I mean, now, 5th graders not only have to learn about the Declaration of Independence, but also about the aforementioned Gulf Wary, September 11th and even Y2K (yeah, remember that??) So, with more to learn - where are these teachers finding the time to fit all this information a nine-month long curriculum? Just askin'.

I also have an announcement: I will start having a daily news update, complete with information that my be useful, useless, funny, etc. - just for people who 1. don't open up a newspaper or 2. don't have time to laugh during the day.

Whack Facts:
Science: The Mars Phoenix lander detects falling snow on the Red Planet
Media: The New York Sun, a six-year-old newspaper with a conservative mindset, announced yesterday that it would close after publishing next Tuesday's issue
Political Fun Times:





I'll leave you with my pun of the day: I once met an untruthful deli clerk. He was full of baloney.