Thanksgiving

View 702 Thursday, November 24, 2011

THANKSGIVING DAY

Count your blessings. We still have many of them.

1030: Alex and Dana will be here shortly, with Rocko. I don’t suppose dogs actually anticipate future events, but they always enjoy playing together once Sable establishes her rules, which are that some toys are hers and not to be taken by visitors, but others can be regarded as community property. The categories change from time to time by some kind of logic that may date back to the wolves. Sable insists on being treated as a higher ranking wolf than any other dog in the house and that can lead to scrapping. I am sure this is of more interest to me than to you.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

I will give you one fact to ponder over the weekend.

Some Teachers Unions have pointed out that the average grade and high school performances in Wisconsin, which has teachers unions, are higher than the corresponding averages in Texas, which is a right to work state. This is true. The average student performance in Wisconsin is higher than the average student performance in Texas.

It is also true that the average black student performance in Texas is higher than black student performance in Wisconsin. The average Hispanic student performance in Texas is higher than the average Hispanic student performance in Wisconsin. The average white (non-Latino) student performance in Texas is higher than the average white (non-Latino) student performance in Wisconsin. The three classes are collectively exhaustive.

These facts are true, and they are not contradictory although they may appear to be. We’ll talk more about this next week, but if you are moved to comment I’m listening.

14:20 Alex and Dana actually came over as I was in the middle of writing that last paragraph. I had intended to post it this morning.

Since then we have set up the Thanksgiving dinner and the turkey is now roasting in the over; we have cleaned up the preparation clutter; we have had lunch; and all of us except Roberta who wasn’t feeling quite up to it have had a two mile walk. The dogs have been well behaved on the walk, but for some reason Sable decided that the pool is her drinking bowl and resented Rocko taking a drink. Her objections were verbal (I suppose a better word is vocal; Sable tries to talk and actually knows a few words, but I could hardly call it speech). I have finished the paragraph above describing the seeming paradox that Texas leads Wisconsin in average student performance in a set of mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive categories, but Wisconsin leads Texas in over-all average student performance.

I remind you that I was serious in soliciting stories of what a Paladin could do to make things right. I warn you that I may use your incidents in upcoming stories.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.