Happy Birthday!

It's Grandma's Birthday and then Mom's, so I'm splitting the difference by posting this today. See you guys in Hawaii.



(yeah, yeah, I know: the song was about Martin Luther King--but it's Stevie Wonder, and I couldn't get him to record a new version. Mr. Chin wanted to be faithful to the original.)

Is the Oven half full?

From today's headlines: Teen Pregnancy Up!

Of course, the better way to say this is that teen pregnancy rates in the United States fell for an astonishing 15 straight years, before rising slightly. However, I have no doubt that somewhere somebody's blood pressure is rising over today's troubled youth.

The headline news plays well to activists and Sunday School teachers who prefer to take a dim view of the rising generation. (Just like the well-documented emphasis on negative economic news over the last 7 years, even at times when by all (uh, informed) accounts the economic news was actually good.) Notably, teen pregnancy rates rose dramatically beginning in the 1970s and peaked 1991, before the recent, protracted decline.

Of course, even the 1991 rate did not approach the 20th-century peak in teen pregnancy in the 1950s. (Your grandma didn't tell you that, did she? And it certainly wasn't on Leave it to Beaver.)

I would say that despite all of the disintegration (tongue-in-cheek) of the moral fabric of society under the influence of TV shows like Murphy Brown (gasp!) and now movies like Juno and Knocked Up, today's kids are doing pretty well. Young women reach menarche 3-4 years yearlier than at the turn of the century, and get pregnant as teens at lower rates than their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Not too shabby. But there WAS a rise this year. Shame, shame.

Arguably, the 1950s problem was only having crummy entertainment options like, uh, the radio and, um, Leave it Beaver (leaving it up to, well, never mind) that made kids go for switch blades, hot rods and high teen birth rates. Maybe if they had more entertaining TV and movies the moral fabric of society wouldn't have been so, er, loose.

In other news, rates of sexual activity among teenagers stayed at roughly the same level as . . . they've been for the last 200 years. But don't tell your Grandma that either.

Of course, the USA (being the backwoods cousins of the enlightened North) has a much higher teen pregnancy rate than most other "rich countries" (you know, Denmark, Sweden, Japan, etc.) according to a recent UN Report. That report points out the correlation of teen pregnancy with poverty rates and the US's embarrasingly high rates of poverty and disproporionate levels of teen pregnancy among its growing poor population. So we're still pretty degenerate and embarrassing to the other Northern Nations--but that's nothing new. We've been both of those things ever since the Mayflower set sail.

CFB: Strength of Schedule

Very interesting information on out of conference scheduling in CFB.

Iz for good measure

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

Speaking of Bob, I just downloaded this song and If I Only Had a Brain sung by Mr. Schneider. But then my Finnish friend just reminded me of another version:



Yeah, I'm excited about Bali, but even more excited about Hawaii.

By the way, the Wizard of Oz is very well written.

See, I can't scare anybody.
They come from miles around
To laugh in my face and eat in my field.

Said a scarecrow swinging on a pole,
To some blackbirds sittin' on a fence,
"Oh, the Lord gave me a soul,
But, forgot to give me common sense."

Said the blackbirds, "Well, well, well.
What the thunder would you do with common sense?"
Said the scarecrow,"Would be pleasin'
just to reason out the reason
of the wishes and the whyness and the whence"

If I had an once of common sense...
(If he had an ounce of common sense)

(Well, what would you do Scarecrow?")

I would while away the hours
Conferin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain
And my head I'd be scratchin'
While my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.

I'd unravel every riddle,
For every individle,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts I'd be thinkin',
I could be another Lincoln,
If I only had a brain.

Oh I-- could tell you why,
The ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thought before,
Then I'd sit-- and think some more.

I would not be just a nothin',
my head all full of stuffin',
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry,
Life would be a dingle derry,
If I only had a brain.

If I only had a brain--
(If he only had a brain.)

I could tell you why
The ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thought before
And then I'd sit-- and think some more.

Ya, it would be kind of pleasin'
To reason out the reason,
for the things I can't explain.
Then perhaps I'd deserve you,
and be even worthy of you,
If I only had a brain.

I could dance and by merry,
Life would be a dingle derry,
If I only had a brain.

If I only had a brain.
(If he only had a brain.)

Flowerparts

And, in case that wasn't enough Bob for ya, here's another ditty.

Capn Kirk

I think I can safely say that this is what we all want.