Pictures

I am suddenly reminded of the time when I was working at the Haines City Herald. I was sent to take a photograph of some students at the high school, about 20 or 30 students who were involved in some program, I don't remember what it was. When we looked at the finished photos it was odd to note that one of the girls standing in the front row was holding her T-shirt stretched out almost as if pretending to be pregnant but of course she was only joking around. That was obvious even if not very funny. Oddly, only a few weeks or months before there had been some stories in the newspaper about the problem of teenage pregnancy in the school newspaper. I think we did use the photo because my editors did not nix the photo even though it was quite obvious. Maybe we should have scrapped it but we always were needing photos and pretty much used every photo we could get was used even if we had to go out of our way and drive all the way to the high school and back just to get one photo and a little cutline with info. I don't remember if there was even a story attached. If these students want to make some weird statement, it happens all the time, all these photos with people smirking and blinking and posing and whatever. If some teenage boys might have given her a bad time, although I am only guessing, then that is probably predictable. Teenage boys going through puberty can be terribly mean to girls, there is no question about that. And when you are talking about teenage boys who are redneck lowlifes living in Central Florida, then the odds are great that such a girl with such an attitude would be given a very hard time. I would not be surprised about that.

Your Point

I sort of understand your point but I do not appreciate your point being made at my expense. Sure, it is dangerous to make generalizations. Nevertheless, there is no need to finger me and make me the scapegoat for everybody else's garbage. After all, I am NOT your maid.

Yes, I do remember well that in high school some people were going on and on about what a great school it was and how people were so much nicer there and not a bunch of derelict drug addicts as with schools in the United States. Some people coming from the U.S. talked about how bad schools were back in the U.S. and some people from the U.S. also complained about being put into dummies classes automatically in our school because they would not be able to keep up with us. Sure, plenty of people down there were not all that nice and quite mean actually and there were plenty of dummies who might not be able to keep up in the U.S. So, yes, it is dangerous to generalize that way. You could really hurt someone.

No Connection

There is absolutely no connection whatever between us and Nora Lam. I don't know anything about that. I do remember hearing that some people were saying that her books were not exactly accurate, that Nora had distorted her life's story to some degree. She might have come out of Shanghai but she was not even born yet when my grandparents were there in the 1910s and 1920s so I don't see any connection at all to us. Sue Olen said something about the controversy of Nora Lam's "China Cry" book but I never read it so cannot comment intelligently. There would be no connection between my high school assignments and Nora Lam. Maybe I should read that stuff but have not really thought much about it. Sometimes when I hear bad reports about these high profile people I don't think about it very much. It is not my job to figure out whether Nora was right or wrong. It does not matter in the least to me. I do think that ultimately the truth will prevail. Even if Nora was wrong on some points, that does not discredit Christianity generally speaking. Sometimes we do get off on tangents and certain people get away with much more than they should and are careless in their personal lives. Still, the gospel which is the good news of Christ is a story about how God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever might believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life. This is true always regardless of the messes that some individual people might make.

Nora

Nora was the heroine of the 19th century play by Henrik Ibsen which did a lot for legitimizing the idea of divorce and women's liberation at a time when society was very strict about those things and the role of woman was very very limited. So we studied this play in Spanish translation in Spanish literature class as part of our study of European classics.

Obviously there is no connection between our discussion of European classic literature and the story of Nora Lam, the Chinese woman who in the 1950s or 1960s divorced her abusive husband and became a famous minister and author. I remember Sue Olen talking about Nora Lam but I do not remember what Sue said nor did I ever read any of Nora's books or know anything about her. I just have no clue about Nora.

I was just doing my homework. That's all that was about.

Duck Report

Yes, I think I remember that this type of duck is mentioned in Henrik Ibsen's famous play, "A Doll's House," which we read and discussed in Spanish literature class, in Spanish translation of course. For some reason, Nora in one of her speeches near the end of the play, when she has decided to leave her husband and children to find herself, likens herself to a duck. I don't remember much about our final report on this book. We all took turns so maybe someone else remembers this. Of course, the play came after the science report but there is no connection between the play and the science report.

Duck Report

Yes, I did skip over the details of duck mating, didn't I? Something about the way they exchange hoots or quacks to communicate as they court among the reedy plants along the river shore, one quack two quack. Enough said about that. After all, the main point of that particular report was the imprinting of the little ducklings that hatch afterward. There was something peculiar about this particular species of Canadian duck, something about the father duck actually functioning as the mother. Yes, it was something like that. So the mother duck lays the eggs and then flies away on vacation and the father duck stays behind and sits on the eggs until they hatch. Then when they hatch the father is the one who is there for the imprinting part and tends to the young hatchlings until they can fend for themselves as adult ducks joining the flock. Yes, this particular duck species is mentioned or alluded to in the famous play by Henrik Ibsen, "A Doll's House." So it can happen that the father is actually the mother because the little hatchling does not really notice. The little hatchling only knows the first thing that it sees when it is born. So it is quite possible that the hatchling is imprinted on by the male duck rather than the female duck. After all, we are only talking about a duck.

Which reminds me how interesting it was to watch the repartee on the TV show "Moonlighting." I cannot imagine how they think of all that stuff to say. I would never make it as a comedy script writer. I just don't get it. My mind doesn't work that way.

Ducks

Which reminds somehow of ducks, specifically the oral report I gave in Mr. Schaeffer's 10th grade biology class. It was about a certain species of ducks and how these ducks are imprinted upon birth. The first thing they see is their mother so to speak. So if a mistake occurs and the first thing they see is a human being then they are going to follow the human around thinking that is their mother. The first thing they see could be anything, a picture of a duck or some other animal perhaps. Yes, that was an interesting report that I gave in Mr. Schaeffer's class. I remember it well, or maybe I think I remember it although I am not really sure anymore what I said. I know that my report was on ducks but am I confusing my report with someone else's ducke report? I really don't remember.