Leading Off
1. Anjali Datta will always be the valedictorian of Grapevine High School to me, no matter what district officials say. Fantastic work, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. Punish the kid who finishes four years of course work in three. Who has what most believe is the highest GPA in school history. They should be planning a special ceremony for her at graduation, not saddling her with the cop-out tag of “valedictorian-three years.” Chin up, Anjali. I’m sure some smart university will make up for the one-year scholarship they just took from you.
2. Dallas Fed boss Richard Fisher said something vaguely ominous about inflation last night in a speech in San Francisco. I’m not positive what it means, but I have a feeling I should visit the nearest haberdasher as soon as possible. I might need something to hold onto.
3. Phyllis Dawn Harvey, aka the “Tattoo Bandit,” received 19 concurrent life sentences and will have to serve out the remaining 20 years of the 30-year bid she was on parole for during her 10-day, 19-robbery spree last summer. “I just had a bad two weeks, a bad couple of years, a bad life,” she said. “Ya know what I mean?” Man, do I ever, Phyllis. For the last 10 days, I’ve been suffering from a nasty case of poison ivy. Whew. Driving me crazy. You know, now that I’ve typed that out, it’s not really that similar.
46 Comments to “Leading Off”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
It never pays to buck the system, no matter how smart and deserving you are. This is why I work a 9-5 job and decorate my apartment with Swedish furniture.
Double doggone darn, it’s going to be a good day. I agree with Zac on something.
They should be planning a special ceremony for her at graduation, not saddling her with the cop-out tag of “valedictorian-three years.”
She should at least get her own wall for the awards. There’s no way what she’s accomplished should be tainted by comparing it to normal standards.
And Zac, I can roll in poison ivy with impunity. Good genes.
I know very few people who enjoyed high school. You’re treated like crap if you’re different in any way — too smart, not athletic enough, gay, whatever. Hopefully Anjali can keep her eyes on the bigger picture and make herself a superstar in whatever she does. While she’s accepting a Nobel Prize in ten years, chances are the “real” valedictorian will be selling cars or chained to a desk somewhere. The sweet reward for us “different” kids is that we get to look back on high school as four years that we survived and made us stronger, not as the best years of our lives that we’ll forever yearn to get back.
Zac, I hear vodka is good for poison ivy. If you’ve gotten into it, pouring it on the area will wash away the oils. If it’s too late for that, drinking it will make you not care you’re itching.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/g.....ses-460424
I wonder what would have happened if Anjali finished high school in just TWO years? Jail time in Farmer’s Branch perhaps?
Anjali has learned her final, and most important lesson from Grapevine-Colleyville. She just learned that high school sucks and when she graduates from some Ivy League school or prestigious polytech in 2 or 3 years, she will have forgotten about her closed-minded ‘burb high school. Don’t look back, girl!
big deal, go on down the road. like she’ll need a dinky 1 yr scholarship anyways. she’ll have plenty of offers (highest gpa ever + perfect ACT = full ride). and it would still be proper for her to put ‘valedictorian’ on her resume (and ‘highest gpa in school history’)
at least it seems like the district put some thought and effort into trying to craft a solution. i dont know if this was the perfect answer, but it’s not the worst idea ever
gaylistdaily: you’re right, the kid who finished 2nd out of 471 students will probably end up selling cars. you’re an *****. why take a shot at that kid, what did he have to do with anything
RB: For the most part, I agree with you. She didn’t need the scholarship; she still gets the resume fodder.
I just think this is a situation where there didn’t need to be a solution. My guess? A parent brought it up. Not that Tyler kid’s mom, necessarily. But someone. They never would have looked at it otherwise.
That’s my hot sports opinion of the day, coming from someone whose father was a superintendent of schools and recognizes a familiar situation when he sees one.
I read the valedictorian thing this morning on DMN.com and was INFURIATED. There are times when rules can and should be bent. This is one of them. That’s okay though, because I’m sure when she’s the age that the crumudgens who are sticking to her are, she’ll be make 8 million times more money than them!
Cue the violins…for Anjali, for the oppressed and suppressed masses trapped in high school. Anyway, I am much more interested in Richard Fisher’s comments and the speculation on what the next steps the Fed will take. As we all know, taming inflation is a much different procedure than combatting a slowing economy. Should be an interesting 2008, folks.
oops, i meant to say that the crumudgens are “sticking it to her”….and that she’d be “making” not make….maybe I should proof before I push ’submit comment’ in my angered typing frenzy
Zac: Someone whose father [...]
Gaylistdaily: can the bogus melodrama. Anjali is not Joan Crawford or Cher. Somebody in this very “room” does, indeed, appear to have a need to revisit unresolved issues from high school. Three guesses who.
Daniel: can the grammar and punctuation corrections.
Everyone else who thinks anyone cares about grammar and punctuation in the comments section of a local blog: get a life.
Fixed. Late night, early morning, poison ivy.
She is going to UT.
Dear GiveMeaBreakAlready:
We do have lives, thank you. We also care about grammar and punctuation; they’re not mutually exclusive. If you prefer the more free-form, punctuation-free world, you are welcome to decamp to Mark Cuban’s blog.
Tootlelou!
MC
I’d guess that the senior Valedictorian’s parents objected. I’d even also guess that they thought Anjali was deserving, however V’s get beaucoups scholarship offers, S’s not so much, and 3rd even less. IJS. Maybe she should be co-V or something. High School was/is, indeed, a beating.
i make a living using proper grammar and punctuation and get pissed when someone plays grammar police on a blog, especially in the comments section
if blogs are true sounding boards for local opinion, as many bloggers claim they are/want them to be then the launguage needs to be fluid and of the moment
hence using Tootlelou! is apropos even though it’s not even a word
I’m totally sick of gas prices talk, especially from those with cars who keep talking about electing for public transportation to save money. I did a very unlearned, unscientific cost-benefit analysis on a blog that deserves Frontburner attention:
http://msfw.typepad.com/blog/2.....s-and.html
Please take note that I corrected neither Zac’s grammar nor his punctuation, but rather his spelling. The former two have grown increasingly nebulous as Western civilization continues to implode, but there’s still only one way to spell, for instance, “peasant” or “fatuous.”
jrp,
Falling under the influence of Kerouac, are we, dear boy? Well done, sir! Bravo!
–and we have gotten off the subject having crazy conversations till dawn — I call up to a negro in a second story window of redbrick afternoon and realize that he is my brother lo these many miles from home in vast America — I realize I have four dollars to last me till Denver and curse at my wet shoes in the rain — just then Symphony Sid comes on and it is Bird blowing Ornithology, crazy — cheekbones high and somehow Indian-like, eyes Chinese and he is distinctly digging — I drag deep on the tea and experience childhood vanities of long-ago Lowell –
He didn’t mis-spell the word, he used the wrong word. And, in this case, that equals a grammar correction, not a spelling correction.
And now you’ve sucked me into your little “picking apart every word someone types” game. So I guess you win. Congrats.
I sense there are several fans here of Andrew keen.
You people have given me tired-head already, and it’s not even noon. Or Monday. Or noon on Monday.
Didn’t think you’d bite, but I stand corrected.
There’s still only one way to spell “picayune.”
Sorry folks but we’re supposed to be a nation of laws. If Anjali’s parents wanted her to be valedictorian then they should have read the district’s rules that provided the specifics on how the valedictorian is determined. We all have choices to make. Want to be valedictorian? Then stay for four years.
Now all the folks whining about how unfair it is for poor Anjali I suggest you offer up a rewrite of the valedictorian rule for the school district. AND remember there will always be exceptions to the rule. Trust me. If you say that the valedictorian is determined by who has the highest grade total during a 3 year period then eventually there will be someone who comes down the road and is ready to graduate in 2 years.
If you are going to play the game then learn the rules
My motto: It’s noon somewhere!
What’s the over/under on Peterk having never experienced the joys of waking up with confetti in your underwear, and your underwear on the ceiling fan?
@Bethany Mythbusters busted the vodka-poison ivy thing awhile back
@Steve I’m going to fill a suitcase with gasoline, then pay American $15 to check it for me
Anjali’s counselor lied to her. The counselor told her she’d be a candidate for valedictorian when she graduated in three years. If the counselor had given Anjali accurate information, then she could have made an informed decision. She could have spent another year in high school fun classes and goofing around, and get her scholarship and still have the highest GPA in suburban history.
Folks, one more reason to flee the suburbs. MOVE BACK TO DALLAS WHERE IT’S SAFE!
I am very disappointed that he didn’t mention the CONFIRMATION of the Simpson-Wentz baby. I expect more from you, Zachary.
Unlike Daniel, most people who have romantic notions concerning the work of the Beat generation in general, and Kerouac in particular, have never read their stuff. I presume that Daniel was quoting Kerouac to expose just how bad (badly?) he sucks. That goes for Ginsberg, too. Naked Lunch might be the exception.
Marty,
Actually it was spur-of-the-moment parody. Give the Beats credit for inflaming the literary passions of youth for a half-century now; any mature assessment would have to concede that they do, indeed, suck. But tread lightly on my sentimental favorites, if you please. (Ditto the above paragraph for Salinger and, hell, even Hesse for that matter.)
I agree that Burroughs is a significant cut above the other Beats.
Daniel:
Your parody was so spot-on (fooled me) that it probably wouldn’t qualify as “parody,” because it exceeded in quality the real thing.
Speaking of sentimental favorites, I have a fear of re-reading Franny and Zooey or Sidhartha for the mature-assessment problem you identify.
That’s why I limit my reading these days to D Magazine.
Phyllis Dawn Harvey, cactus juice for mayor.
Screw ‘em. Make them both co-Salutatorians. Phyllis Dawn Harvey can give the commencement speech on grade inflation.
condemn and/or mock my writing style and/or compare it to the beats and then mock and/or condemn them, but i ain’t changing, and i think you’re giving them to much credit to assume their mid-century writing style influences 21st century blog comments
again, i care for the language and grammar and punctuation and all as much as the next guy, but i’m not getting paid nor receiving a grade for the words typed here and therefore don’t give a damn what style of typing folks use here nor will i conform to whatever style yous are trying to hold the comments section of a freaking blog to, man
and for what it’s worth this FB is becoming too addictive, man, i really enjoy what tim, EC, adam, zac et al are pumping out of late and love what everyone has to say. thank you all
That made my head hurt.
Bethany, you made more than my head hurt when you forced me to confront such loathesome imagery as would drive many men to desperation, crouched shittypantsed in an alley, huddled over a crackpipe.
Suffice it say that I have since prayed to my maker that Peterk never experiences the joys of waking up with confetti in my underwear — though I suppose I would take at least some small comfort if said underwear were on the ceiling fan.
Daniel, I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not now. The thought of making you shittypantsed made me giggle.
Anjali, Grapevine H.S.
1. when she is honored for future academic achievements in college and Grapevine tries to claim her as a grad she should just tell them they are #1 with the Hawaiian good luck sign
2. another reason to get out of Government schools and go to private schools who believe in academic achievement.
We had a similar situation in my school - probably driven by upset parents, or a spoiled kid.
I only claimed that “many men” are shittypantsed, or would be when called upon to visualize Peterk waking up in their underwear. (The construction allows for two possible interpretations. Is Peterk wearing my underwear? This I could endure, albeit with grave misgivings. But my special torment was to imagine my drawers on me, with Peterk himself, the man in full, somehow in them, nestled amid the equally inexplicable confetti. Just as this awful realization dawns on me, Peterk stirs and awakens. This I can never forgive!)
We haven’t established whether I myself am in that particular subset of men.
Daniel: Hmmm…true. Are you?
Not in the Biblical sense.
“shittypantsed” would be a great name for Industrial Blvd.