George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (concert from movie); 1945

You should see this at least once in your life because it's so magnificent. Gershwin's brilliance as a composer was matched here by the skills of the musicians themselves. Credits to the cameramen: they really caught the best part of the performance along with the audience.

On the road again....

 JUST so you know:  the toughest test you ever had to take is NOT in college. No, you most likely already passed it (although you probably would fail it again if you were an older person).

IT WAS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE.

No matter how you worry about that upcoming exam, NO ONE is going to have the traumas that afflict someone who fails his/her driver's license. Think about it:  NO one will stop you on the street and harass you for your G.P.A. or make faces over your transcripts...but they WILL give you a fine (or a reprimand) if you can't drive well. (Or maybe you SHOULDN'T be driving if you're that bad!)

I promise: for all the licenses I have earned for all the business endeavors I have been employed in, NONE have had the impact on my life as having the privilege of being authorized to operate a motor vehicle.  Nor have my entrance tests, final exams, mid-terms, or other assignments had as much significance as my license to drive. So don't worry about that test coming up, or that paper due: put your energy into PASSING it instead of worrying!
It's guaranteed to be a lot easier than getting licensed to drive a car!!

Conjunctions (FANBOYs) and Semi-Colons

 Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

F.A.N.B.O.Y.S.

    ,For

    ,And

    ,Nor

    ,But

    ,Or

    ,Yet

    ,So

And they’re preceded by a comma when they make up a complete thought in a sentence!

Conjunctions and comma splices

Normally, a complete sentence with two separate thoughts gets a conjunction.

•   Jack went to the movies, and Jane went to the skating rink.

(Each portion is complete by itself; they can form two separate sentences.)

   

If the conjunction is dropped along with the comma, a SEMI-COLON replaces it (see above).

   

FANBOY fakers! (boo! hiss!!)

•     However; moreover; therefore (when used in the middle of a sentence).

    (A complete thought/idea is needed before-and-after in the sentence.)

•     “Basketball is my favorite sport; however, I am also a track star.”
•     “I aced every paper; therefore, you could raise my grade accordingly.”

On the teacher's desk: the gradebook!!

 Some of my graduate business school students have been overlooking (or neglecting to remember) that a business brief is a short, to-the-point summary with details and problem-solving solutions that reflect the subject matter at hand. Sometimes, it's about a plan of action, or other times, a social dispute between two colleagues. Nevertheless, I have specified what my director wants: two full pages, single-spaced. 

With that in mind, the flurry of submissions I reviewed this morning, due yesterday, inspired this from me to the general population in both classes:

A business brief

Avoiding grief

Full pages numbered two

Would you please

See to these

And render just a few?

I wouldn’t mind

It’s really kind

A syllabus fulfilled

Would make me smile

For all the while

Instead of gradebooks drilled.

What's Really Under Antarctica's Ice?

A GREAT vocabulary (list)

 Yes, you need a good vocabulary, but you'll have an OUTSTANDING ONE if you can master these words.

How Scientists Solved the Mystery of a 300-Year-Old Megaquake

Elasmotherium - The Siberian Unicorn

How Inuit Build a Real Igloo in 1 Hour With Bare Hands ...

The size of the Sun is...well...

Think the Sun is big? Some stars make it look tiny — one could even swallow our whole solar system!

Our Sun might feel massive — after all, it can fit 1.3 million Earths inside — but in the vast arena of the cosmos, it's actually on the small side.

When compared to some of the largest and brightest stars in our galaxy, the Sun is more like a cozy campfire than a blazing inferno.

Betelgeuse alone is about 700 times the size of the Sun—and Antares is even larger, measuring around 883 times our star’s diameter.

To put that into jaw-dropping perspective: if Betelgeuse or Antares took the Sun’s place, they would engulf the orbits of planets all the way out to Jupiter. And the true titans of the universe go even beyond that.

Stars like Stephenson 2-18 are estimated to be over 2,150 times the size of the Sun, meaning it would swallow basically everything in our corner of the universe....and is also way too big to fit in this image.
 

"Dr. J." will operate on the basketball court for you

Once upon a time (when I was a little boy), doctors would come to your house to visit you if you were ill. Many years later, another man who was called "Dr." came to visit a lot of places, and he did some things that made people feel much better. He was 6'7" and had hands the size of a pizza (yes, he did). And he could jump too. He was Julius Irving, also known as "Dr. J."

 

Prehistoric Planet [2022 - 2023] - Hatzegopteryx Screen Time

Mastodons - The Prehistoric Tanks That Even Mammoths FEARED

No Robotics Blinking Original Dragon Puppet!

Jurassic World Marine Reptiles: The Dino of the Water | Full Documentary...

The Vampire Squid...is waiting for you to show up for dinner

 

Need I add more to this introduction?

(Well, it's not interested in you as dinner--unless you live WAY below in the deepest levels--where there's very little light.)

A philosopher from Minnesota and legend of our time

 

Consider this: a novel. A short story. A movie. And a song--with a tantalizing violin behind a stuttering drummer who somehow is fluent in his rhythms alongside a haunting back-up vocalist who is encouraging the main storyteller. And he's got an attitude like a patient with a bad tooth at the dentist's office who's just gotten nitrous oxide--and it's kicking in full bore. What a masterpiece!

Up on the white veranda

She wears a necktie and a Panama hat

Her passport shows a face

From another time and place

She looks nothing like that

And all the remnants of her recent past

Are scattered in the wild wind

She walks across the marble floor

Where a voice from the gambling room is callin' her to come on in

She smiles, walks the other way

As the last ship sails and the moon fades away

From Black Diamond Bay

As the morning light breaks open, the Greek comes down

And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write

Pardon, monsieur, the desk clerk says

Carefully removes his fez

Am I hearing you right

And as the yellow fog is lifting

The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor

She passes him on the spiral staircase

Thinking he's the Soviet Ambassador

She starts to speak, but he walks away

As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches sway

On Black Diamond Bay

A soldier sits beneath the fan

Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring

Lightning strikes, the lights blow out

The desk clerk wakes and begins to shout

Can you see anything

Then the Greek appears on the second floor

In his bare feet with a rope around his neck

While a loser in the gambling room lights up a candle

Says, open up another deck

But the dealer says, "Attendez-vous, s'il vous plait!"

As the rain beats down and the cranes fly away

From Black Diamond Bay

The desk clerk heard the woman laugh

As he looked around the aftermath and the soldier got tough

He tried to grab the woman's hand

Said, here's a ring, it cost a grand

She said, that ain't enough

Then she ran upstairs to pack her bags

While a horse-drawn taxi waited at the curb

She passed the door that the Greek had locked

Where a handwritten sign read, Do not Disturb

She knocked upon it anyway

As the sun went down and the music did play

On Black Diamond Bay

I've got to talk to someone quick

But the Greek said, go away, and he kicked the chair to the floor

He hung there from the chandelier

She cried, help, there's danger near

Please open up the door

Then the volcano erupted

And the lava flowed down from the mountain high above

The soldier and the tiny man were crouched in the corner

Thinking of forbidden love

But the desk clerk said, it happens every day

As the stars fell down and the fields burned away

On Black Diamond Bay

As the island slowly sank

The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room

The dealer said, it's too late now

You can take your money, but I don't know how

You'll spend it in the tomb

The tiny man bit the soldier's ear

As the floor caved in and the boiler in the basement blew

While she's out on the balcony, where a stranger tells her

My darling, je vous aime beaucoup

She sheds a tear and then begins to pray

As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away

From Black Diamond Bay

I was sitting home alone one night in L.A.

Watching old Cronkite on the seven o'clock news

It seems there was an earthquake that

Left nothing but a Panama hat

And a pair of old Greek shoes

Didn't seem like much was happening

So I turned it off and went to grab another beer

Seems like every time you turn around

There's another hard-luck story that you're gonna hear

And there's really nothing anyone can say

And I never did plan to go anyway

To Black Diamond Bay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73N211qQCZU...

Punctuation marks explained

 

Perilous Points of Punctuation:  

Try http://chompchomp.com for online punctuation drills for kids (and adults who are learning English grammar)
 
•    Double dash --
•    Two hyphens put together
•    Stops action in sentence
•    Makes the reader stop for a moment
•    Creates a break in the flow of ideas to help focus on each thought.
•    It’s hard to believe—but it works—no matter how strange it seems—because the facts—bizarre as they are—confirm I’m right.
 
Brackets and parentheses
•    Use the parenthesis (parentheses is plural) to show how an idea is hidden (or otherwise not up-front)
•    (It’s hiding an idea in the sentence) that the reader “hears” in his or her mind as they read.
•    But if someone is quoted, “Then it’s obvious {for all intents and purposes} that a bracket does the job.”
•    “At times, a misquote uses {sic} to show something missing or misspelled.”
 
Slash away!
•    The slash works as an “either/or” component in punctuation.
•    It serves the purpose to say “him/her” or “he/she” or “this/that” in a sentence.
 
Ellipsis dots…just fade away…
•    Ellipsis dots show words missing from a quote, speech, or an interruption.
•    Use three dots…in the middle of the quote
•    Use FOUR at the end of a sentence (one is really the ending period mark), as well as the ending quotation mark.
•    “Friends…associates…colleagues…let me tell you a story….”
 
The colon
•    The colon announces something important: “Here’s the most-wanted list.”
•    To make a statement: “This grade will get your attention.”
•    To say “such as” and use a punctuation mark instead.
•    To set off a long quotation from the rest of the text.
•    Salutations (To whom it may concern:) or (Dear Aunt Helen:)
•    Time (7:20 p.m.)
•    Biblical citations (John 3:16)

The semi-colon; a break in a sentence without a comma

* Use them to break up a thought without using a conjunction: 

    ** for, and, nor, but, or, yet

•         (The semi-colon replaces both the conjunction itself and the comma that followed)

I often use semi-colons in places where I want a break in a thought process; it helps me (and I hope, the reader) to get closer to an idea

Double-Dash: stops you in your thoughts like hitting the pause button on a remote

• I like double-dash (it looks like --) because it makes you stop reading and think about something. For instance--it's quite noticeable--when you come across them because they grab your attention--and then you can continue.

(Use a parenthesis to hide a thought as though someone was reading your mind but not aloud)

• (I always said a parenthesis looks like you're cupping your hands to speak quietly so no one else hears you except the person you want to know something)

The variation to the parenthesis is the bracket. Brackets are squared and look like [ ]. 

1. To explain further, correct, or comment within a direct quotation: ...
2. To alter part of a word, indicating necessary changes from its original form: ...
3. To replace parentheses within parentheses

I use brackets in example #1 when I write: "It's easier to hide things [in a bracket] when you're quoting something."

The hyphen mark. THIS one is tough to explain. The closest I can try is "Two things that aren't anywhere alike but connected." I'm using this source because the Purdue University OWL program is really good for academics, grammar rules, and writing. 

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/hyphen_use.html

A 5-in-one book for multiple reading levels

Order here: 5:1 Book for Emerging Readers

What’s a 5:1 Book About? Glad you asked. To be direct, it’s about encouraging reading: for all ages. ESPECIALLY so, for children and young growing-up boys and girls—but also with a twist. 

The twist? It’s for adults to read aloud to young children. See, we know as educators that reading helps the mind grow stronger; it develops the imagination, and it opens possibilities of original, creative thinking skills that will come with new opportunities. 

 So, here, I’ve packaged a 5-layer “cake” of reading pleasure. (It would be a chocolate cake if I had my way, but sorry, this one is for reading, not eating. But you can “eat up” the stories if it helps feed your interest in reading! Or sharing the art of reading! So, here you’ll find a gradual phase of reading levels for children and also a top level for young people and even adults! (Yes, adults! We still have a lot to learn by reading, and in the stories from a very special high school with very unique students, you may find the ideas and interest to write YOUR memories! That’s what I did!) 

 And within this book are five different ranges of reading styles that will be suitable for young children: starting with “I am the Flumps,” and then going on to either the Platypus or Rose Plant & Blueberry Bush story, and then on to the Girl Who Made Friends with Dragons—and then, in time, on to the madcap high school adventures of eight friends who just look and act a bit...weird?! To be read alone or aloud: it’s anyone’s correct choice!  

The GOAT of the NBA: the greatest player's impact ever - Wilt Chamberlain

A short video clip for sports fans. I know there's a lot of debate about the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in the NBA and who was better. I certainly think Bill Russell was a champion player, teammate, and legend. But for the record, just watch Wilt Chamberlain MOVE Bill Russell by just using his forearm--and strength. Watch Russell fight for balance and position. I have a lot of other reasons to be a Wilt fan--especially because so many (close to 90) records still are intact--50 years after Chamberlain retired. By the way, the record for rebounds in a game (55) is held by Wilt--against Russell's Celtics. 

And I grew up in Wilt's era. I saw him on TV. He was unstoppable--against top opponents like Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed, and Nate Thurmond.
Rules were changed because of Wilt: goal-tending (he would go so high up for shots that the refs didn't believe it possible), widening the lane (6 to 12 feet), not entering the lane after shooting a free throw (Wilt used to take a running leap from the line and dunk). THOSE were Wilt's comments to Michael Jordan about "Who had the most influence." Wilt said, "They changed to rules to make it harder for me. They changed them to make it easier for you."
By the way: Wilt NEVER fouled out of a game. EVER. And he averaged 48 minutes.

(Wilt's strength was another story. When he dunked, there were times the ball bounced up as high as the rim after hitting the floor. He definitely dislocated Gus Johnson's shoulder by blocking an incoming dunk; Wilt didn't like being disrespected like that. And he broke Johnny Kerr's toe when he slammed one that hit Kerr's foot. Big Bob Lanier, who stood 6'11 and weighed 270, said "Wilt picked me up like a coffee cup and moved me for better position.") And that IS Gus Johnson, at 6'6", 245, being thrown off the court by Wilt. And Gus was one POWERFUL man himself. Not to Wilt: "You go there. I want this spot."

Wilt also stopped a bench of players from coming on the court simply by walking toward them: it was said they all stopped like they hit a wall. They almost did: a human wall. Wilt's shoulders were huge.