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welcometomyweird · 2 years

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My Favorite Ghost Stories

“If we go by mere testimony and experience, more people have seen a ghost than have seen a kangaroo… yet we firmly believe in kangaroos.” – Dr. Alan McMichael (deleted scene from “Crimson Peak”)

Ghosts! Let’s talk about them! Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there’s no denying that ghost stories are a perennial favorite when we are looking for entertainment. We tell them around campfires and at slumber parties. Halloween is prime “spooky” time and, at one point, even Christmas was big for telling ghost stories by the hearth or by candlelight. (Charles Dickens wasn’t the only game in town. Look up M.R. James.)

The best ghost stories are the true ones. The ones that individuals have actually experienced. One of the very first books I ordered from the Scholastic catalog was a book called “Phone Call from a Ghost”. It was a YA collection of true ghost stories and I loved it. I read that book so many times that it fell apart. Why? Because it was validation that my experiences were not unique.

I live in Massachusetts. I don’t just live in Massachusetts. I live in Essex County. I live in witch hysteria central. The Salem Witch Trials are so named only because that’s where the actual trials were held. The accused and the accusers came from all over the county. The main cemetery in my town was once the farm of an accused (but not convicted) witch. While there may not have been anything metaphysical about her, she was kind of a 17th century Ma Barker. I don’t know if it’s because of that activity during her life, the property is still extremely active.

And that’s pretty much life here. You can’t throw a stone and not hit someplace haunted, whether it’s known to be or not. The three experiences I’m about to share are the most interesting because they all happened in daylight and one them was a shared experience with a friend. So, if you’re a non-believer, you probably should have checked out when you saw the title of the post. Now would be a good time to dip if this isn’t your kind of thing.

Saturday in the Park with Ghosts

Anyone who knows anything about Essex County knows that… there’s not much to do up here. And if you don’t know, now you do. Yeah, there’s Salem, but you can pretty do everything there in about 2 or 3 hours. When I need culture or good people watching, I go to Boston. For a number of years, I had a standing “date” with a friend of mine where we would meet up and just go adventuring in Boston.

In Boston, there are a few great spots that kind of serve as a nice respite from the noise and chaos of the city. The Christian Science campus is one of those places. (Ironic, I know, as both my friend and I are practicing witches.) There’s just a strong sense of calm and peace around the property and the architecture is absolutely gorgeous.

Well, on one very sunny summer Saturday, my friend and I were walking across the campus to the benches by the Mary Baker Eddy Library. The way the benches were set up at the time, there were two sets of two benches, each set having one bench facing Massachusetts Avenue (Mass Ave) and one bench facing the church. I didn’t say anything at the time to my friend, but I very clearly saw two men on the Mass Ave facing bench, engrossed in conversation. Consequently, I passed up that bench and went to the church facing bench. He didn’t say a word to me, but my friend also instinctively chose the church facing bench.

When we sat down, we both glanced over to the Mass Ave facing bench. Both of us being inclined toward men, it was going to be a casual look, you know. A quick little check out. Simultaneously, we both said “Huh, that’s weird” because when we looked at the bench… it was empty. My friend asked me what I thought was weird and I told him that I had seen two men on that bench. He told me he had also seen two men there. I described one man, he described the other and we had seen the exact same people. We looked around and there was no sign of them. They had completely vanished.

Revolutionary Spirit

This one also takes place in Boston. I was in the city by myself this time and I was heading to the Borders that had once resided near Downtown Crossing. I am a creature of habit and tend follow familiar routes when getting from point A to point B. The reason for this is that I kind of like to shut off the conscious mind and just run on autopilot while I’m trying work stuff out in my head. This was a retail therapy day and that was the mode I was in.

I was crossing a street and a corner I had crossed hundreds of times. This was the corner outside the old customs house. As I crossed the corner, I heard what sounded like a gunshot and smelled gun powder. At the same time, I felt someone grab me around the waist and pull me back and away from the building. I spun around to confront my assailant and there was no one there. Not a soul… on a Tuesday, at midday, in Boston. This was weird enough, but the phantom grabber set me on edge.

Hours later, I’m heading back the same way to get to the train station. This time, I just happened to look down and I see a memorial inlaid into the place where I had been grabbed and heard the gunshot. That corner was marked as the spot where the Boston Massacre occurred. The Boston Massacre happened on March 5th. The date that this experience happened was March 5th.

Dead President

This one is my favorite ghost story and probably my very first. This incident happened at a local beach in the summer of 1989 and, despite happening in broad daylight on a crowded beach, no one but me knew what had happened. You might want to buckle up for this one.

I have never learned to swim. I’m not as embarrassed about it as an adult as I was when I was a kid. When you’re a kid, you want to be included, so you won’t admit to some things because you don’t want to be left out. I was no different. I was spending the weekend with a friend and her family and they decided they wanted to have beach day. I never told my friend or her parents that I couldn’t swim. The only one in her family who knew was her then 16 year-old brother (about whom I was crazy) and he wasn’t with us that afternoon.

My friend and her younger brothers kept egging me on to get out into the ocean and I was feeling like a loser just sitting on the beach making sand castles. Thinking I was doing something smart, I found an old stone boat launch and I thought that if I kept the boat launch under my feet, I would be fine. And I was for a while. I kept going out a little farther. First to my waist, then to my chest. When I got to where the water was up to my chin, I slipped on some seaweed or got caught under a wave or something and I went under and immediately started panicking.

As I was flailing helplessly in the water, someone jumped into action to help. I very clearly remember an older, heavyset man with sandy hair and a thick mustache helping me up and out of the water. He was wearing what looked like red swim trunks and a striped tank top. There was nothing otherwise remarkable about him. He looked like any middle-aged dad you’d see with his kids at the beach.

Once I finished coughing up salt water and could finally see straight again, I looked around to see where he went because I wanted to thank him. He was nowhere to be seen. I spent nearly an hour scouring the beach and the park trying to find this guy and I couldn’t find him. I even described him to people and no one had seen him. I was 8 years-old, almost 9. I wasn’t automatically thinking “ghost”. I just thought it was odd that he didn’t stick around to make sure I was okay.

Fast forward 17 years and I walk into my U.S. Government class at the local high school. My seat faced a poster of all the of the presidents from Washington to then president Clinton. My eyes were kind of absently scanning the poster when they stopped on a familiar face. I got up and walked over to the poster to get a closer look and make sure I was seeing who I thought I was seeing.

My teacher looked at me like I had three heads and asked what was wrong with me. I asked him what connection (if any) did William Howard Taft have to our town. He said he didn’t know off the top of his head. I spent the evening at the library going through records. That’s where I found it. Where the park is now had been Taft’s summer residence when he was president of the United States. That boat launch I was on had been his boat launch. His carriage house is still on the property. So, nearly 60 years after his own death, he stood in the breach between me and mine.

Those are just a few of my experiences. Gods know I have so many more, but I picked these because I feel like most ghost stories seem to happen after dark and most of mine haven’t. Mine almost always happen in daylight hours. Even in my apartment! One day, I was turning to walk out of my pantry and I saw the faint image of a man in the doorway. I said “excuse me” and he stepped aside. I don’t know who he is, but I’ve seen him a few times. At least he’s polite.

If the non-believers managed to get this far, bravo. I’m sure you haven’t changed your minds and that’s fine. I just hope that when it’s your turn and it’s your story, you have a more open mind.

#ghost #paranormal #ghost stories #massachusetts

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vulcanette · 2 years

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twenty fucking years!

#that’ll knock you on your ass!#it was 20 years ago that I was in Woodbridge township NJ with a MP3 player #i was in Essex county first but yeah.#going through one of the worst most traumatic times of my life #and this album was there to get me through #and not only get me through but CARRY ME THROUGH #all the way through it all #I’m stunned stupid honestly I am.#thank you mcr thank you for everything

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antoine-roquentin · 3 years

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The court set standards on when and how jurors can be subjected to background checks by prosecutors and established a process for challenging those investigations if discrimination is suspected. The justices also called for a judicial conference on jury selection -- which means the ruling could eventually result in even more much-needed reform to that process.

It’s a rare and commendable decision to re-examine the longstanding, difficult questions about how to eliminate discrimination in jury selection.

Katherine Carter, public information officer for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, which handled Andujar's case, told me they're still reviewing the ruling.

"We believe the assistant prosecutor who tried the case acted in good faith based on the caselaw at the time" and "we do not believe that the prosecutor acted with any racial bias," Carter said. "We respect the ruling of the court and will apply it during retrial and any other cases going forward."

The undisputed facts about the proceedings make a pretty compelling case, on their own, that at least some implicit bias was at play.

One of the prospective jurors at Andujar’s trial was F.G., a Black man from Newark who worked for the East Orange Department of Public Works.

F.G. mentioned two family members who were cops. He’d grown up in a neighborhood with a lot of crime, and some of his friends had sold drugs. Crime victims also were part of his circles, including two cousins that were murdered, and a friend who was robbed at gunpoint.

“I think it just come[s] with the territory,” F.G. said.

F.G. stressed that he stayed away from criminal activity, the court said. He stated that he believed the judicial system was generally effective.

Prosecutors challenged F.G. for cause – meaning they argued he couldn’t be impartial or wouldn’t follow court instructions. They said his friends and background “draw into question whether he respects the criminal justice system,” according to the opinion.

Defense attorneys responded that F.G.’s story was typical for certain neighborhoods. The state’s position was “untenable” because it excludes too many people from places like Newark from serving on juries, Andujar’s counsel said.

The lower court rejected the prosecutors argument, saying there was no basis to dismiss F.G. for cause.

That's when the prosecution took a turn.

County attorneys ran a criminal history check on F.G., and found an open municipal court warrant for simple assault (which includes attempting to physically harm another person, and physically threatening someone).

Prosecutors then contacted the city fugitive squad to have F.G. arrested before the next day of jury selection. When that didn’t pan out, they told the judge they were going to lock F.G. up during the next court date, and they renewed their for-cause challenge. The court ultimately arranged to excuse F.G. and have him arrested outside the other jurors' view.

After all that, the charges against F.G. were dropped two months later. It also bears noting that an outstanding warrant doesn’t actually bar someone from jury service in New Jersey.

On appeal, the Supreme Court noted that the “practice of running background checks on prospective jurors raises a question of first impression.”

Prosecutor's said it’s “extremely rare” for them to investigate jurors’ criminal records. But there are indications that the practice is more common than one might imagine.

I asked attorney Dennis Drasco, a member of Lum, Drasco & Positan in New Jersey, about the prevalence of the practice. Drasco has served on multiple panels and commissions to study and improve jury selection for over a decade, both with the state judiciary and with the American Bar Association.

"The problem is that a lot people don't even realize the effect of certain practices," Drasco said. The court's ruling as to implicit bias "is a wake up call" that the problematic practice exists, he said.

The Supreme Court in Andujar’s case said it couldn't question “the State’s good-faith belief that it had the authority to run the background check.” Even defense counsel didn’t formally object when the government moved to arrest F.G. -- a prospective juror who wouldn't have been arrested otherwise -- as an apparent means of excluding him from the pool. (Defense attorneys did put concerns on the record that prosecutors singled out a juror for a background check, and that the move implicated constitutional due process concerns.)

The deference to the prosecutors' move by the court and opposing counsel suggests the practice isn't entirely uncommon, and the high court’s review of case law also shows the practice is at least generally accepted.

Iowa allows prosecutors to conduct background checks on jurors for good cause, and with a court order. At least six states allow it if prosecutors also disclose the information to defense attorneys. Just as many states, at least seven, “impose no such limits on the prosecution,” the court said.

New Jersey’s new rules require court permission before checking a juror's criminal history – and a “reasonable, individualized, good-faith” reason to believe it might reveal pertinent information that may not be uncovered by jury questionnaires or voir dire. Certain explanations will be considered presumptively invalid, the court said, including checking jurors' backgrounds simply because they express a distrust of law enforcement or lived in a high-crime neighborhood. And, if prosecutors move to strike a juror based on the results, the defense can still challenge that strike as discriminatory.

It’s a solid start, and the court clearly believes there’s more work to be done.

to summarize, a black guy showed up for jury duty and said yeah, he knew people who sold drugs cause he lived in a poor neighbourhood. prosecutors tried to strike him but defense noted that if we struck everybody who knew drug dealers from juries, we’d be ending up with racially biased juries. prosecution then ran a background check and came up with something minor to arrest him with when he showed up for jury duty. the new jersey supreme court ended up calling out the prosecutor’s conduct, although only verbally, but more importantly used it as grounds to give the defendant in that case a new trial.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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The Sopranos’ Funniest Moments

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The Sopranos’ genius was in telling structured stories with well-established themes, while still aping life in all its dirty, disorganised, contradictory, open-ended glory. The show wasn’t a drama, or a comedy, or a tragedy, or a farce. It was all of them. It was none of them. It was life.

Creator David Chase and his crack team of writers never lost sight of the essential truth that no matter how cruel, harrowing or horrid life becomes, it’s always laced through with laughs: oftentimes the laughter and the horror rise in tandem.

Here, then, are some of The Sopranos’ funniest moments, most of them enmeshed with the macabre, the monstrous and the melancholy.

South of the Border

S1, E9 ‘Boca’

In the machismo-drenched world of the mafia, even going down on your girlfriend is seen as a sign of sexual weakness, and quite possibly – in the non-PC words of Uncle Junior himself – ‘a sign that you’re a fanouk.’

Apparently, ‘they’ think ‘if you’ll suck p***y, you’ll suck anything.’

Whoever ‘they’ are.

News of Uncle Junior’s oral talents reaches Tony from a gossip chain, the final link in which is Carmella. Tony’s reaction, and the way in which he baits Uncle Junior with the intel on the golf course (culminating in Tony singing ‘South of the Border, down Mexico way’) is equal parts childish to hilarious – but funniest of all is how this schoolboy teasing serves as the pre-cursor to a Mafia war.

As Tony later tells Carmella: ‘Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this.’

Guess Whose Back?

S1, E10 ‘A Hit is a Hit’

Christopher sets Adrianna up in a recording studio to help realise her dream of becoming a music mogul. Things don’t go well. Her new band – the woeful Visiting Day – is ready to walk after a long and soul-sapping session during which they’ve produced nothing of worth. Christopher wastes no time taking up the mantle of manager to convince them that the show must go on. It’s fair to say that being motivational doesn’t come naturally to Christopher. Or, rather, it does, it’s just that his methods of motivation are rather more violent than most. First, Christopher throws the ex-addict lead singer a bag of crystal meth and orders him to take it. When that doesn’t work, he takes the only reasonable course of action left open to him and smashes a guitar over the man’s back.

There’s No Place Like Home

S2,E4 ‘Commendatori’

Paulie is incredibly excited to be visiting the motherland, and arrives full of romantic notions about Italy. All of these are systematically stamped out, mostly by Paulie himself, of whom an Italian gangster remarks at dinner, after Paulie requests tomato ketchup for his spaghetti: ‘And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit.’

Paulie’s beatific little smile as he drinks in the squalor of New Jersey on the ride home from the airport is pitch perfect.

It’s the Jaaaccckkeett!

S2,E8 ‘Full Leather Jacket’

From the moment Richie Aprile is released from prison he’s on a collision course with Tony. In classic Sopranos’ style, though, the torch paper isn’t lit by Richie shacking up with Tony’s sister, or paralysing their mutual friend Beansie, but by the fall-out from a spurned jacket. Not just any jacket, though: ‘the’ jacket; the one Richie took off Rocco di Meo after an adolescent scrap.

‘Cocksucker had the toughest reputation in Essex County, but he never came back after I got through with him,’ Richie tells Tony, as he gifts him the infamous garment.

‘He later died of Alzheimer’s,’ adds Junior.

The look on Tony’s face as he tries to look grateful for ‘the jacket’ is almost as funny as the look Richie later wears in Carmella’s kitchen when he notices the sainted jacket hanging from the shoulders of the maid’s husband.

I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost

S2, E9 ‘From Where to Eternity’

When Christopher briefly dies on the operating table after an assassination attempt, he returns from the brink of death with visions and dispatches from the afterlife. Paulie takes these reports to heart, divining in them a supernatural threat. Not only does Christopher tell Paulie that the souls of his many victims still follow him everywhere he goes, he also brings back an oblique warning: ‘Three o’clock’.

This cryptic curse has Paulie slamming bolt upright in his bed each night with a scream on his lips. First he visits Tony, who tries to lead Paulie back to sanity.

‘You eat steak?’ Tony asks.

‘What the fuck you talkin’ about?’

‘If you were in India, you would go to hell for that.’

‘I’m not in India,’ says Paulie. ‘What do I give a fuck?’

‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you. None of this shit means a goddamn thing.’

Unconvinced, Paulie visits a spiritualist psychic, who ‘confirms’ that Paulie is being stalked by ghosts. ‘That’s satanic black magic!’ rails a terrified Paulie, ‘Sick shit’, before hurling a chair at the ‘ghosts’ and screaming ‘Fuckin’ qu***s!’ at them. Finally, he visits his priest to tell him he’s cutting off his donations to the church on the grounds that he should’ve been protected from hauntings. I defy you not to chuckle at the baleful glare Paulie gives the Virgin Mary on his way out of the church.

A Very Un-woke Wake

S3, E2 ‘Proshai , Livushka’

Livia Soprano – Tony’s murderously manipulative mother – proved just as divisive in death as she was in life, her demise precipitating a wake that was as awkward and corrosive for the characters experiencing it as it was rich and funny for us schmucks at home.

Tony never wanted any of Janice’s ‘California Bullshit’ at the gathering he and Carmella hosted at their home (or ‘that house, up on that hill’, as Livia would have called it). Janice being Janice, though, vetoes her brother’s ruling. She asks each of the assembled guests to share a thought, a memory of their mother, which – given that Livia was a sharp-tongued, anti-social harridan – doesn’t produce heart-warming results. No wonder the unknown man descending the stairs in the background behind them all decides to about-turn and get the hell out of there.

‘She never minced words,’ says Hesch, trying his hardest to accentuate the positive, ‘Between… brain and mouth… there was no interlocutor.’

Movies

The Sopranos: saluting the greatest TV drama ever made

By Jamie Andrew

The Sopranos: Explaining the Final Scene

By Jamie Andrew

Christopher’s rambling, drug-fuelled, ad lib on the nature of existence, rebirth and doppelgangers is a treat, the sort of new-age snash David Brent might have conjured up while fully sober. The silence doesn’t last for long, though, not least because Carmella has spent the duration of the tense memorial knocking back booze like a cooze-hound on Spring Break, and is ready to unleash hell.

Merry Stressmas

S3, E10 ‘…To Save Us All from Satan’s Power’

In the absence of Big Pussy Bonpensiero – taken on a long boat-ride to oblivion – the amply proportioned Bobby Baccala is the natural choice to become the new Satriales’ Santa. Except he doesn’t want to do it. He’s too shy.

‘The fucking boss of this family told you you’re gonna be Santa Claus,’ Paulie tells Bobby menacingly. ‘You’re Santa Claus. So shut the fuck up about it!’

The surly and reluctant Bobby proves a lacklustre substitute, an observation that’s articulated perfectly by Paulie when he says, ‘Fuckin’ ho hum if you ask me.’

It’s not just Bobby’s mafia colleagues that like to drop the F-bomb at Xmas. Even a little boy, unimpressed by Bobby’s schtick, issues a heart-felt: ‘Fuck you, Santa.’

God bless us. Every one.

Two Assholes Lost in the Woods

S3, E11 ‘Pine Barrens’

The Pine Barrens was the episode that cleaved most closely to all-out comedy, pitting hot-headed anti-survivalists Christopher and Paulie against a runaway Russian they’d failed to kill. The darkly comic shit-show unfolded in the unforgiving, snow-filled foliage of the eponymous Pine Barrens, where Tony and Bobby were eventually summoned to rescue the hapless pair.

It’s hard to pick a comedy highlight from this episode, as it’s chock-full of them, but highlights include Tony losing it at the sight of Bobby Baccala’s hunting attire (if James Gandolfini’s laughter seems particularly genuine here, try googling some behind-the-scenes facts – you won’t be disappointed); Chris and Paulie noshing down on sauce sachets like they were a gourmet meal, and the following misunderstanding between Paulie, Chris and Tony thanks to poor mobile reception:

Tony: (garbled, on phone) It’s a bad connection, so I’m gonna talk fast. The guy you’re looking for is an ex-commando! He killed sixteen Chechen rebels single-handed.

Paulie: Get the fuck outta here.

Tony: Yeah, nice, huh? He was with the Interior Ministry. Guy’s some kind of Russian green beret. This guy cannot come back to tell this story. You understand?

[line breaks]

Paulie: (to Christopher) You’re not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. The guy was an interior decorator.

Chris: His house looked like shit.

You Talkin’ To Me?

S4, E6 ‘Everybody Hurts’

Artie Bucco, Tony’s boyhood best pal, is a regular, hard-working chef. Even so, he’s frequently seduced by the luxurious criminal lifestyle he sees lapping around the fringes of his wonder-bread world. When a business deal to promote ‘the new French vodka’ goes awry and Artie finds himself $50k out of pocket to a swindling huckster he decides to channel his inner Mafioso and get his money back the Soprano way. Unfortunately, his inner Mafioso is no more ferocious than that possessed by any average member of the show’s audience – as much as proximity to Tony might convince us otherwise – and he gets the crap kicked out of him. Before that, though, his little Taxi Driver moment in the mirror, complete with mid-life crisis ear-ring and mobster posturing (‘Fucking shoes you’re wearing. What are they? Designer?’) is at once endearing, pathetic and very, very funny.

The mirror is no accident. He’s looking at us, looking at him, looking at ourselves.

Telephone Tough Guy

S4, E9 ‘Whoever Did This’

While Ralph Cifaretto is probably most widely remembered as a sort-of gangster Loki – a mirth-wracked trickster with a penchant for mayhem – most of his misdeeds were so loathsome that even the wider mafia disapproved: cheating on his grieving partner, beating a young pregnant girl to death, burning a horse alive (come on, of course that was him). Still, he did make us laugh, though, didn’t he?

No more so than when he pranked Paulie’s dopey-yet-adorable old mother in her nursing home (‘It’s a retirement community!’), announcing himself as Detective Mike Hunt, Beaver Falls, from the Pennsylvania police department. Not only did Ralph claim that Paulie had been caught pleasuring a cub scout in a public bathroom, but also that a small rodent had been discovered in Paulie’s rectal passage. ‘A gerbil, ma’am’.

Ralph laughed his head off.

Tony later removed it.

A Truth Injection

S4, E10 ‘The Strong, Silent Type’

Drug interventions are worthy and solemn rituals – they certainly aren’t supposed to be funny – but there’s something delicious about a room full of self-involved sociopaths with no impulse control and an insatiable appetite for pleasure assembling to pass judgement on Christopher essentially for having no impulse control and an insatiable appetite for pleasure. Christopher is at least self-aware enough to lobby this back in the faces of his supposed rescuers, pointing out that Silvio likes to sample his sex-workers; that Paulie’s hot-head almost dragged the Newark family into war with the Russian mob, and that Tony’s epicurean compulsions will probably kill him more quickly than Christopher’s drugs.

From the moment a bewildered Christopher emerges from his bedroom to find both families – blood and work – camped out in his living room, the laughs just keep coming, all the way through to the (inevitable) explosion of violence at the scene’s climax.

Christopher instantly recognises the host of the intervention, Dominic Paladino, as ‘the guy who broke into Stew Leonards that time and stole all those pork loins.’

‘Yes,’ replies a sheepish Dominic. ‘But… that’s not why I’m here today.’

Especial mirth-based mentions must go to Silvio and Paulie (the latter’s reaction to Christopher’s narcotic-related manhood problems is priceless), and their refusal to play along with the ‘care-frontation’.

‘When I came to open up one morning, there you were with your head half in the toilet. Your hair was in the toilet water. Disgusting,’ says Silvio, reading awkwardly from what is possibly the most unnecessary aide de memoire ever written.

Leave it to Paulie to lay the smackdown on this particular brand of ‘California bullshit’: ‘I don’t write nothing down,’ he says, ‘so I’ll keep this short and sweet. You’re weak. You’re out of control. And you’re becoming an embarrassment to yourself and everybody else.’

Drugs are bad. Mmmkay?

Dead Good Food

S5, E7 ‘In Camelot’

When Junior realises he can get respite from his house arrest through attending family funerals he starts to exaggerate and exploit ever more spurious links to get him out of the house for a few hours. While all around him are wracked with grief, his is the only face with a smile on it, enjoying the change of scenery, enjoying the food, wondering why everyone has to be so maudlin.

In a darkly funny scene he happily extols the virtues of the spread while attending the wake of a teenage boy. ‘Chicken’s nice and spicy, huh?’ he beams at a fellow mourner.

A Grave Error

S5, E9 ‘Unidentified Black Males’

When Tony agrees to pick up the tab for the headstone of a New York soldier who was slain, unbeknownst to him, by his own cousin, his men manage to add insult to injury.

We see the headstone. At the graveside. During the funeral service. And it says:

Peeps.

‘Peeps?’ spits Tony. ‘It’s a fuckin’ nickname! His family name is Pepperelli!’

Silvio hunkers down into full middle-management mode. ‘They’re gonna re-do it. Fuckin’ J.C. He’s dyslexic.’

‘What’s that got to do with it?’ asks an incredulous Tony.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

You could fill a book with The Sopranos’ funniest moments – Paulie’s rant about shoelaces, Bobby B botching a publicity shooting, Silvio’s poker-table tantrum, Little Carmine’s malapropisms, to name but a handful – so by necessity we’ve had to leave a lot out. What are some of yours?

The post The Sopranos’ Funniest Moments appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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eastendies · 4 years

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Essex is like most places in the uk, a lot of posh people and a lot of very working class people. Essex people are usually quite loud, flamboyant, brash. They're wildly considered to be stupid but that's only because of the celebrities that come from there. It's actually a nice place, with a bit of a bad rep. The accent I thought you had is a bit like Adele's speaking voice. I thought dude and ya'll were just online words, I forgot they're actually american words lol.

Me @ that first anon now that I have context abt Essex yeah i see you

I'm sure essex is a nice place like you said tho, I just can't get over the fact I've been assigned an English-County-sona and it's the one with the most flamboyant ppl out there I am NOT appreciating this vibe check

And yeah dude and yall are used a lot online tbh?? I don't use y'all a lot irl but i use it a lot online, though dude I say just SO much irl (prob cause i used to live in california)?? And I looked on YouTube and adele's voice is so pretty!! Thank you anon!! At least one of my followers thinks I'm fancy and I appreciate that

#anon #ask #this is so much to take in #like essex is just who i am now huh #i appreicate all the ppl giving me info tho you guys are the real mvps

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apparentlyadam · 3 years

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SIXTEEN

So um. I’m 16 years into life. What?

Yeah so November 17th was my birthday and my friend was at a funeral so that was great lmao. Just reflecting on my past is kinda crazy to how I evolved into current me!

Like how did I get to here? 2005, where it all started. My parents did what all parents do in order to create you (i wanna vomit omfg). Then November 17th 2005 at 23:28, I was pushed out my Mum’s Fahina and then that was me. I was originally supposed to be called Lincoln. Thank you dad for naming me Adam. ApparentlyLincoln does not work. No clue what my handle would be if I was named Lincoln. LittleLincoln. Naur. LateralFlowLincoln. I- anyways.

4 years later, I start school. 2009-2010 was the Academic year I believe (I’m not good with time to be honest). I don’t really remember much from that time. All I know is that I had a friend called Eva (or Ava I can’t remember) and she had a twin, I believe he was called Joseph. Their house was so nice. It was somewhat similar to this house. Emphasis on similar. I used to love going there, they were so nice. I was 100% closer to Eva though, main reason being I lived with 2 sisters at the time (12/13 year old sister and a 19/20 year old sister) and obviously my Mum (my parents split up when I was like 2).

Also to note, around these first few years of school, I had gone on my first holiday I could actually remember! It was 2 weeks at Disney Land (Florida) because my grandad was dying and he wanted to take us on a family trip and see us happy. Despite not being able to remember 100% of things, I can remember a few.

I remember being on one of the rides and it got stuck. I remember it was like Orange and Blue or something? It had a small loop in it (I was like 5 or 6 so it was basic as fuck). I remember we stayed in this lovely house, it was amazing. It had a big black front door, lovely white tile flooring, I vaguely remember some of the paintings on the wall. I remember one time me and one of my cousins went for a midnight swim with my dad in the pool. Speaking of, I remember I used to jump in the pool or something near the stairs in the pool, and I scraped the backs of my feet. I remember my nan (who is still alive) and my grandad nursed the backs of my feet back to existence. I remember going to Applebee’s (I’m pretty sure it was across the road) and always ordering the Orange Juice and Spaghetti. Oh and cause the water from the pool would give me extreme ear ache, my dad would have to put my Calpol (paracetamol for kids) in my food or drink because I wouldn’t have it by itself. Lol Sorry for that massive memory dump.

So my grandad sadly passed in February of 2012. When my mum told me, according to her I cried for hours. I still have a picture of him in my room, I hope he’s doing well chilling in the afterlife.

Anyways, fast forward a few months post-grandfather’s death, me, my mum, one of my sisters (the younger of the two), and my stepdad move 2 hours away to a county called Norfolk (for anyone who isn’t English, a county is basically like a state). Going from an extremely suburban area in my home county of Essex to the middle of nowhere in a place called Norfolk where people speak differently, there’s hardly any activity. Barely any moving cars. No real ‘life’ compared to Essex. I left all my old friends behind really. I only remained in contact with one friend, since her mum was a friend of my mum’s. Her name was Tilly. I wasn’t too fond of her (I’m sorry hun). But she was quite nice. Nonetheless, life does what life does and all I can remember post 2013 is nothing really. I remember that me and Tilly eventually lost contact, as did our mum’s.

Then the next full ‘event’ or whatever I can really remember was in around late 2015. PGL. Now if you’re not English, that is the shit. I- girl. It’s amazing. It’s like 3 days long and in those 3 days, you get to go to this canteen hall, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were tons of activities, Kayaking, Abseiling. You name it, they probably got it. Then there were like evening activities after dinner. Like tag or capture the flag.

Then, we went the year after that, my school went again. Same thing really, we just different activities.

Then I can’t really remember anything after that for about another 6 months, until the end of Year 6 (2017). I was 11. It was quite sad. I cried because I was gonna miss my teacher. Yup...actually happened although I hated the school. She was an artist so she did us portraits of us and out future jobs. Around this time I was extremely invested in computers and all that jazz, so everyone was adamant I was gonna be working in that general area. Welp, look where I am now.

Anyways, I go to secondary school and instantly I’m just hated by most people, and by most people about like 99.99% of the school. Then obviously, 2020, human rights movements and COVID came and dominated the world. (The way only one thing in 2020 shouldn’t of happened and it definitely was not human rights movements) Then sparked working from home, fear of the unknown, fear of mankind and masks, sweet masks.

I was so afraid to catch COVID, I think we all were to be honest, a fear of the unknown. In March 2020, UK Schools were shut down for “2 Weeks”. That 2 weeks turned into 6 months.

Did I do any of the work? No. Did I regret it? Yes. Did I then finish 3 months of work in 12 long agonising days without doing anything else? Yes.

My mental health was actually the best it had ever been in lockdown. I wasn’t in a toxic environment with people I hated 24/7. Just me, my room, my dog and life. I discovered my love for music. I found a sense of belonging or self to a degree? I felt like I found my purpose in life. Like this was my calling (I went to spiritual church when I was younger, can you tell?), it was like I had that fire and drive that you have for your wildest dream.

We then returned September 2020.

However this year, I had a new English teacher, like actually a new one. She was new to the school. I then realised I love English and words. That kinda kick started my love for song writing as a form of therapy. So Miss, if one day I’m famous, I owe it to you. Literally this woman is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She’s like 24-25 so she understands are humour and doesn’t speak down to us etc. She’s just all round. A BESTIE. LIKE SIS I WANNA BE YOUR FRIEND.

Anyways we went back into lockdown for 3 more months in January 2021. During those months I had retaught myself piano and I guess that’s where my ‘music producer’ journey if you will began. But once we returned to school, everyone was so behind on content, so relieved I wasn’t the only one. It was a mess. Literally, not figuratively.

So to present day; I’m predicted to fail Math amongst a few other non-core GCSE subjects, revising for exams, applied to two colleges (one is a specialised Music College and another a standard college but with the same course), burning Demo CDs and avoiding COVID.

How I’ve changed beyond recognition, I’d like to think that music will take me somewhere, and for someone reason I am certain it will. I just wanna enjoy life and grow old...then die obviously lmao.

Anyways lemme be crediting my new self to some of the people around me:

Josie - You’re literally like a twin to me (no like we’re in sync all the time it’s weird)

My English Teacher - You’re just so motivating, caring and understanding

My Sister - For driving me to my college interview and also you’re just amazing

My Family - In general, they’ve been very supportive, regarding my passion to do music.

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davesmoviequotes · 7 years

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“There's no problem here. I was just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the southern colonies. My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War, the economic modalities, especially in the southern colonies, could be most aptly described as agrarian pre-capitalist.”

“Of course that's your contention. You're a first-year grad student; you just got finished reading some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison probably. You're gonna be convinced of that 'till next month when you get to James Lemon. Then you're going to be talking about how the economies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 1740. That's gonna last until next year; you're gonna be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood, talkin' about, you know, the pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social--”

“’Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth’? You got that from Vickers' ‘Work in Essex County,’ page 98, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or do you, is that your thing, you come into a bar, read some obscure passage and then pretend - you pawn it off as your own, as your own idea just to impress some girls, embarrass my friend? See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a fuckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!”

“Yeah, but I will have a degree. And you'll be servin' my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip.”

“That may be, but at least I won't be unoriginal.”

- Scott William Winters and Matt Damon in GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997)

#scott william winters #matt damon #good will hunting #movie quotes

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suzylwade · 3 years

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A House For Essex “Yes the gingerbread thing, I call it ‘the gingerbread house - but by Pixar’ because it’s too crisp! When I first saw it and they had the porta-cabins and all the builders were in them, I took some photos and I was showing one of the builders the photo I’d just taken, and he said ‘oh yeah, that’s the computer rendition isn’t it, coz we had that on the wall!’ And when we compared the two, they were exactly alike!” - Grayson Perry, Artist, ‘A House for Essex’. This festive, church-like structure may seem like an oddity among the pastoral hills and modest homes of Essex in Southeast England, but for renowned artist Grayson Perry, it was the realisation of a years-long dream of building a chapel dedicated to his home county. The spectacular holiday rental is one of the boundary-pushing homes available through ‘Living Architecture’ a UK-based nonprofit founded by philosopher Alain de Botton in 2006. Perry, along with ‘FAT Architecture’ aimed to build something that would not only be aesthetically stunning but also stir up conversations. ‘A House for Essex’ does, indeed, push its guests to think outside the box through storytelling, unexpected interiors, and a wild colour palette - all which blend to create a “gesamtkunstwerk” - a true collaboration between architecture, art and narrative. The exterior was inspired by wayside chapels, shrines, and specifically Essex’s ‘St. Peter’s Chapel’ a gabled stone structure dating back between 660 and 662. ‘A House For Essex’ is clad with green and white dimensional tiles which depict the life of Julie Cope, the fictitious saint to whom the home is dedicated; inside, one-of-a-kind Perry textiles and ceramics chronologically depict the rest of her story. The story goes that Cope was born during ‘The Great Flood’ of 1953, which decimated the entire East Coast of the UK. From there, she lived in the town of Basildon, married, got divorced and then remarried, before tragically being killed on the streets by a moped driver. According to the tale, ‘A House for Essex’ was built by her widow in her honour. (at Grayson Perry's House for Essex, Julie's House, at Wrabness) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP-af_qFVGE/?utm_medium=tumblr

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gethealthy18-blog · 6 years

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How to get bikini fit and making Nutella healthy

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/how-to-get-bikini-fit-and-making-nutella-healthy/

How to get bikini fit and making Nutella healthy

If it's any consolation my wife has a sofa to herself This is something we need to discuss

This is obviously a modern woman thing We need to fight We've got have our corner here We demand a sofa of our own It's time to feel better about ourselves because Essex people fixer Paul Mumford from Team Accumulator is here back in the studio

How are you mate? I'm alright I'm so optimistic about summer right now that on my way here this afternoon I'm driving along, I've got the roof off on my car I'm loving the breeze and the sunshine I pull up at the roundabout at the Army and Navy I'm sitting there, got you on and there's a woman in the car next to me

She's giving me some really strange looks Then I realise I've got Jason Donovan on just a little bit too loud So I turn it down You took the roof off however It's not a convertible so you had to get your oxy acetylene cutter out didn't you? Bit of an inconvenience Not as quick as just pressing a button

Shaping up for the holidays because we're on the run up now really aren't we it is May A lot of people are thinking about it I've had several conversations just this week alone with people saying, I've got some holidays books can you help me? I've got six weeks to do this and I've got to get into a bikini I've got to look good We do hear the same thing every year and we're all guilty of it to a degree when you book a summer holiday and you think I'm not gonna feel that comfortable on the beach

But this is where people go wrong because they say right I want to get fit for my holiday but they don't plan about how they're gonna do it I don't know if you've booked a holiday for this summer Tony but when you booked a holiday there's a lot of planning involved isn't there? Once you've booked the holiday you book your accommodation, you think about how you gonna get there, you book time off work You might probably go shopping several times to buy special stuff to take away with you So there's a lot of thought goes into getting ready for your holiday but when it comes to getting yourself in shape to go on holiday there's no plan One of my favourite quotes: There's no point having a destination if you don't know how to get there

Good quote I suppose the other thing to avoid is getting into this oh that's it now I'm just gonna stop eating for the next three months Because that's the crazy thing Yeah absolutely crazy This is something you should be doing

If you did this and behaved yourself to a certain extent all the time then you wouldn't have that 6-week panic when it comes to holiday season I can't stress enough how important it is that we move as human beings because it's what we're evolved to do It's why we're such a great animal on the planet Why we've been so successful is partly due to the fact that we move with such dexterity and in several different ways Yet more and more we're becoming as a human race very lazy

Because we've built all these gadgets to make it so easy for us to be lazy We've built remote controls for the TV so we don't have to get up, we've got chairs so we don't have to stand I think part of your exercise regime in this modern world is looking for the remote control I'm going to tell you something secret Tony My wife's gonna kill me

So when we sit in our living room we've got sofas facing each other and the TV off to one side and my wife loves the remote control until she can't decide what to watch On the other sofa is me and my daughter's who is coming up to 18 We have the other sofa and my wife, I don't know why she gets her sofa to herself but she does So anyway rather than get up and past the remote control to us so we can decide what to watch she'll throw it across the living room And she is the worst to thrower in the world

So rather than it landing on the space between me and my daughter Kyra, it will end up hitting one or either of us If it's any consolation my wife has a sofa to herself Does she? Yeah This is obviously a modern woman thing I think we need to fight

It's wrong We need to fight We've got to have our corner here We demand a sofa of our own The whole point I'm trying to get to here Tony is any scheme that it makes us move more every single day is a winner in my book

There's this thing coming up called 3030 Essex I'm getting really excited about it A fantastic idea Yeah tell me more about this so 3030 Essex Yes it's been put together by the Active Essex foundation

They're a charity that provides sport and recreation facilities across Essex They've launched this campaign which starts and runs throughout the month of June The idea is is just to encourage people to move more every day by committing to doing 30 minutes of exercise every day for the 30 days of June And you can do any number of things or any combination of things For instance if you don't do any exercise now just get up and walk for 30 minutes a day

Even if you do it in 10 minute chunks Or do a combination of different things and there's going to be lots of activities over Essex that are championing the the 30 30 Essex campaign Why don't you come try this out? Why don't you give this a go? Various different sports you can try or different activities you can try All to encourage us as a county to become more active And it's it's such a simple idea but such a brilliant idea and because my whole philosophy and the reason why I launched The Accumulator in the first place is to make it easy for people to make exercise a regular thing and a habit

I'm going to ask you a very personal question now Would you like to see my rings? What I've got here are my rings for last week Now this is the fitness app that I use which is on my phone Other fitness apps are available This is from my watch on to my phone

And I have to fill rings every day and every day if I don't fill those rings I feel bad So as you see I fill the rings every single day Anything that can help you to get out and do that exercise because I wouldn't have thought of that 30 minute thing but that tells me I've got to do 30 minutes in a day As you say sometimes it can be a chunk the other day and your wouldn't be going out in the afternoon and I'd about another 20 minutes to do So I was putting the washing away and rather than taking the whole lot up the stairs at once I took it in bits

Put it in the drawer went back down again went back up took it again Now I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't in the back of my mind thinking I've got this thirty minutes to still do How can I do 30 minutes around the house? Another thing my friend Peter does who lives in Canada which is a great idea When he goes supermarket shopping rather than get one of those small trolleys which are kind of sort of a halfway between a big trolley and a basket, he'll get two baskets So he'll carry the baskets around with milk and bread and all that heavy stuff in and he'll carry two baskets around the supermarket rather than push a small trolley

Because obviously there's more calories expended This is great So anyway 3030 Essex it's called I'm gonna put all the links are on my website the page that I put together for all the stuff that we talked about on the show is teamaccumulatorcom/essex

Everything you need to know about 3030 Essex is there How to register, how to get involved they've got a Facebook page they're on Twitter and all the social media bits Let's talk about one more thing which is your Achilles heel when it comes to food Now what's yours? It's chocolate White chocolate which is really bad for you because it's not really chocolate

It's just sugar and fat Yeah that's why it tastes so good But my weakness is again not gonna use a brand name but that nutty chocolate spread that comes in a glass jar Is it the one that rhymes with rutella? That's the one, yeah So that's my weakness and I never really liked the stuff but my daughter started liking the stuff and she started bringing it home and now it's in the house and I'm just not responsible for my actions Tony

So that is what you're going for? That's my weakness So I thought right how can I make this stuff healthy? Because that nutty chocolate spread is almost 50% sugar Which is not great So I played around with a few things, did a little bit research and this is the result Now this is 12% sugar

What's great about this I'll give you that and give you a spoon because no one actually spreads it on anything do they they just grab a spoon It's like peanut butter isn't it? So what's good about this is you get one taste at the beginning and then at the end you get a bit of an aftertaste of the chocolate

You do! Are there dates in this? No there's no dates in it It's got my favourite in it A very very small amount of banana Of course now you said it Essentially the three main ingredients are banana, cacao powder or cocoa powder if you want to use that instead and peanut butter

Mm! And that's it And a few other little bits and pieces as well all blended together It works so well It does doesn't it? It's amazing yeah that's really good mate

It doesn't taste exactly the same as the stuff you buy in the shops but it as is actually really nice isn't it? I feel I should have brought some more for you You're romping your way through that But the other good thing about it and I played around with the ingredients is if you like it a little bit chocolatier, if that's a word then you put more cocoa powder in, if you like a little bit of a banana edge you can maybe put a little bit more banana in and if you like the nutty stuff then you can little bit more you can play around with the ingredients according to your taste And what's the percentage in there again? Roughly 12% You need super sweet banana You know the extra ripe ones that have the black bits on them If you don't have one of those handy then may be a little bit of honey wouldn't go amiss just to sweeten it up a little bit

But obviously the older the banana gets the sweeter it gets So that's the trick with that but it's so it's so easy to make That's amazing really So we've got a recipe on teamaccumulatorcom/essex

See a little video of me making it in the kitchen as well Check out the videos and of course it's all available on Facebook as well isn't it? teamaccumulatorcom/essex Go to that page and you'll get all the information about everything we've talked about today All the stuff to do with 3030 Essex and how you can get involved and really do get involved because it's for a good cause and it's such a simple thing to do

Gives you a good excuse to get up and get active everyday throughout the month of June Then the recipe as well that's on teamaccumulatorcom/essex Wonderful I tell you what good to see as always Thank you so much, congratulations on that

It's wonderful It's a winner, really nice An absolute winner We'll do it again very very soon teamaccumulator

com You can find Paul on there of course with all the videos and lots more information particularly about 3030 Essex We'll see you again soon buddy

#and #bikini #Fit #get #Getting #Healthy #How #Making #Nutella #To

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evnoweb · 6 years

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This Week in Ontario Edublogs

This only good thing about August is that the sun gets up a little later so I can sleep in more. Oh, and it’s another day closer to my birthday.

The best thing about Fridays is great content from Ontario Edubloggers. From the URL, this is the 320th post that carries this title.

“Hey! You taught us that!”

From Lisa Corbett, an EQAO post appearing in July!

It’s a wonderful tale of planning by a Grade 3 teacher to make things right so that students are best prepared for their writing of the test. I’ll bet that many teachers will agree with her approach.

But, the response from this student…

just has to make the ol’ teacher heart feel good.

Will Self-Reg Fix My Relationship With…?

From the “Self-Reg” blog, we welcome new blogger Nancy Niessen who address the question posed to her as to whether self-regulation would help with a relationship with a sister.

I’d hate to think that one solution is the answer to everything but it seems to be for those who have embraced the self-regulation theory.

The post digs into how Nancy sees self-regulation as a way to address stress like this and takes us through a number of thoughts.

With every post that I read about self-regulation, I feel that I learn just a bit more. Is it everything to everything?

Learning about Self-Reg doesn’t mean that everything will suddenly be perfect in our relationships. That’s not realistic. We can’t eliminate stress and not all stress is negative.

Kids Can Smell Fear

Weeeeel, maybe “sense” is a more accurate word than “smell”.

Matthew Morris deals with the notion of occasional teachers and I think that we all know and recognize that there aren’t too many more easy targets in education. Yet, it’s a hurdle that new teachers these day must jump over as they wait for that permanent job.

The description in Matthew’s post though vividly brought back memories for me of my first few days in the profession. I did get hired directly from the Faculty of Education in June to start a career the day after Labour Day.

And, I do remember being 23 or 24 going into a home room with students who were 18 or 19. From an outside viewer, I would be the one wearing a tie. I smile looking back now – a tie in September in hot/humid Essex County? The best part was that Matthew included references to geese. It’s so true.

Maybe that was the smell. Nah, it probably was the fear. Yeah, definitely the fear. And, as I recall, it was totally unfounded. They were a great contact for my first contact with my own students.

De-emphasizing Grades in Secondary Science: A Shift in Perspective

This post, from Amy Szerminska was one that I was waiting to read. I had read an earlier post about her thoughts of going gradeless in secondary school science.

Until I read her post and understood how she made it work, I would have been totally in agreement with this…

A gradeless classroom seemed like a great idea for Art or English, but certainly not Science.

Of course, I wasn’t an Art or English teacher so maybe there is a justifiable difference between an 89 and a 90. I know that in Computer Science there really isn’t an I did enjoy the negotiated grade with a student.

It seems to me that if a student can bring a rational explanation to the negotiation table with a teacher and prove her case, then you’ll end up with the best assessment possible. Not to be confused with “whining for marks”.

The First Follower

Lisa Cranston and I worked together for a number of years. In fact, in this post, she describes a project that we both worked on as a team. I do have some stories about that project to be shared offline…

This is a post about leadership and getting that “first follower”. Lisa makes reference to a workshop that she attended and a context set with this video.

youtube

Mostly, leadership videos like this are geared towards those aspire to be formal leaders.

But, in education, aren’t we all leaders? It’s easier for formal leaders because they might inspire in formal settings. Outside that formal setting though, might you not garner followers who are just watching your actions? If you believe that, you might never know when that first follower might appear.

MEMORIZATION VS. AUTOMATICITY: BACK TO BASICS OR BEYOND THE BASICS?

Kyle Pearce knows his mathematics and has been featured on this blog so many times. I like reading his thinking and, honestly, I actually do some of the examples that he illustrates his point with. For me, mathematics is mostly fun.

Once we get over the Health and Physical Education debate in Ontario, can another election promise be on the horizon?

“Let’s ditch discovery mathematics and get back to the basics”

One of the pillars of the discussion about sex education is the curriculum was introduced in 1998 and the internet was accessed via dialup.

So, I wonder, when we “get back to the basics” what year do we set our time machine to? Whose basics? I certainly want today’s youth to understand mathematics better and key concepts earlier and better than I did when I was first introduced to them.

This is a nice post and Kyle provides a link to download a cheat sheet at the bottom of the post.

You know, maybe if we dropped the term “mathematics” and replaced it with “computational thinking”, the naysayers would go away. Change by intimidation. That’s the ticket.

What’s So Hard About the Digital Classroom?

Sue Dunlop asks the million dollar question.

If we had the definitive answer, we could solve so many ills. As Sue correctly notes, we buy travel online, do banking, and so many things digitally without a second thought. Students communicate seemingly so easy. So why doesn’t it transfer to the classroom?

My theory? I think there are equally a million different answers.

There really is a disconnect between real world applications and the environment that happens in the classroom. The desktop typically is locked down so that only certain elements of functionality are available. In theory, it keeps the technology more reliable. But does it really?

But I think that’s only part of the situation. Does the classroom teacher really know what successful use looks like? Does the classroom teacher really have the time to understand all the ins and outs to truly understand what’s possible? Answer – some of them. There will always be the first adopters and those visionaries that are experts in their field and know what is possible. Knowing what it looks like when it works is so important. So often, professional learning opportunities are about the functionality of a piece of technology with only a passing reference to what it looks like in the hands of a student learner.

But that’s the beginning – does the technology truly deliver? Teaching and all that it entails remains in the professional judgement of the teacher. Trying and testing out new alternatives and evaluating them is time consuming.

I could go on but I feel like I’m being an apologist instead of a realist. Or maybe both. Or maybe neither. It’s a difficult topic.

To be honest, I don’t have the ultimate answer. I’m not sure that there is a single answer that fits here. I can see most sides to any discussion on this. Perhaps you have the answer. I’m sure that Sue would appreciate a comment on her post if you do.

I do like the reference to the blog post “Digital is default” listed in the comments.

Another Friday and another list of great blog posts to check out. Hopefully, there’s something in there that catches your interest.

You can follow these bloggers on Twitter as:

@LisaCorbett0261

@beyond_worldofk

@callmemrmorris

@szwildcat

@lisacran

@mathletepearce

@Dunlop_Sue

This Week in Ontario Edublogs published first on https://medium.com/@DigitalDLCourse

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strivesy · 6 years

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Kyle Pearce: How to Make Math Visual

Kyle Pearce on episode 304 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Kyle Pearce talks about how to make math visual for students. Discussing current theories supporting effective math teaching, Kyle helps us understand how to improve math understanding with kids who struggle.

Free Digital Citizenship Webinar: Thursday, May 10 at 5pm ET, join me for the 9 Key P’s of Digital Citizenship sponsored by NetRef AND get a free pilot of NetRef’s internet management and monitoring solution. Sign up at www.coolcatteacher.com/netref

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

How to Make Math Visual

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e304 Date: May 3, 2018

Vicki: Today we’re talking with Kyle Pearce K-12 math consultant in Greater Essex County, Ontario.

So Kyle, today we are talking about making math visual. Why do we want to make math visual?

Kyle: Well, hi Vicki. Thanks for having me.

Making math visual is something that’s near and dear to my heart. For years I was trying to teach students in high school and I found that often students were struggling, like in many classrooms.

Why do we want to make math visual?

When I started making math more visual, I was able to access all the learners in my classroom. That sort of sprouted into some of these new ideas, such as makingmathvisual.com.

Vicki: So give me an example of how you’ve made math visual.

How do we make math visual?

Kyle: Well, what I’ve actually tried to do now is I actually try to start from a concrete stage, where we try to look at the math in the real world.

We think about younger grades in mathematics, we do a great job with this, right? We count objects around the home. We then use linking cubes and square tiles, and we do all kinds of fabulous things with manipulatives.

But then as we get a little older, things become a little more difficult. I believe it really stems from our ability to actually understand the conceptual understanding behind the mathematics.

Most of us were taught procedurally in nature, and thus we tend to do the same thing. so when we think about things like multiplying fractions, we’re more likely to teach students a bunch of steps and procedures, rather than actually allowing them to see the mathematics that we’re actually engaging in, which will make that procedure a whole lot easier, later on when they’re ready.

Vicki: Now, what you’re doing is actually based in research. Tell us about that research.

Tell us about the research around this idea

Kyle: Yeah. There’s quite a bit of research about the importance of concrete manipulatives as well as visuals.

One such theory is called concreteness fading. In this research, they suggest three stages. Although I would argue that within each stage, there are more subtle stages as well.

Generally, we want to start with a concrete stage where we’re actually looking at physical manipulatives. So for example, if I’m counting donuts in a box, it’s great to have a context. It’s great to actually have the donuts.

Over time, what will happen is students will become comfortable with that concept, and they’ll stop needing the actual concrete manipulative. They’ll start moving to the more — what we call “visual” stage. They can actually make a drawing or some sort of diagrammatic representation of this visual.

Over time, we tend to use symbols, like numbers and operations, in order to represent these visuals. But the problem is that many of us tend to start with the symbols and try to unpack them for students, rather than starting with concrete and working toward those symbols.

So that’s really the push from this research and what I’m trying to do with my website and in my classroom.

Vicki: OK, so the problem is with high school. So we’re moving into algebra, and we know how important algebra is.

How can teachers get started, in addition to going to your website?

How do teachers make things more concrete or more visual? I mean, they start off at your site, but are there things they can do in the classroom?

Kyle: Absolutely. You know, I can get into the higher grades. If you’re in grade 11 or grade 12, things do get more abstract. There the visual might be something like graphing. It’s great to be able see it happening in the real world, aside from the graph as well, or at the same time.

But when we think about middle school and heading into subject areas or courses like Algebra 1 in the US, we can be doing things like solving equations by actually showing students how equations work, whether that be with a balance model. We can do this with all kinds of different manipulatives on the web. SolveMe Mobiles, for example, is a great tool online that really makes solving equations visual and very intuitive.

So there are all kinds of tools that are out there. It’s just unfortunate that not all of us are aware of them yet, anyway.

We’re hoping to try to share some of that through this show, here today.

Vicki: So Kyle, what do you think is… if you’re working with a math teacher, and they’re struggling to really help their kids understand math, but you know you can kind of tell that the teacher is struggling, too.

Where do they start, if they’re kind of a struggling math teacher working with struggling kids to kind of move in this direction?

Where does a math teacher who is struggling with a concept even begin?

Kyle: Yeah. I think that we really have to focus on understanding our curriculum, and that doesn’t… That’s not just knowing the curriculum we need to teach, but also understanding where it comes from.

So if I’m teaching a grade 9 class, for example, and I’m trying to teach a concept, and I’m not really certain why that concept works. I’ve really got to start doing some research online. Luckily for us, you know, Vimeo and YouTube and Google just in general, we can be going and learning about some of these concepts, and really trying to think of them from a conceptual standpoint.

So if my lesson sort of sounds like steps and procedures, “Follow this, and do this, and then do that and then that,” that might suggest that maybe I’m not that comfortable with the conceptual underpinnings of that concept. That means that I’ve got a little bit of homework to do first, before I can then help my students.

Vicki: But math teachers are so busy. Or they might think, “Well, I’ve always taught it this way. Kids just aren’t paying attention like they used to.”

What do you say to that?

It’s not me, it’s the kids.

Kyle: Absolutely. I felt that way. I was there.

I taught the majority of my career from a procedural standpoint.

Again, we’re not teaching that procedures are not important, because they definitely are.

But the reality is that if students aren’t understanding the concept, that they’re not understanding how it works, if it’s just memorization of steps and procedures, or they’re just trying to mimic what the teacher’s doing?

You can imagine that as they go through school, eventually they’re going to lose their interest in mathematics. The engagement’s going to go down.

And that’s typically what we see, as students struggle, they sort of think, “Math must not be for me.”

But if I’m teaching it where only students who are really good memorizers and are able to regurgitate content can do mathematics, then we’re really not being equitable to all the students in our classroom.

So we really want to access that concrete and that visual as a way to lower the floor on problems, and really help students understand the mathematics so that they can work toward some of the procedural fluency that we’re hoping they will achieve by the end of our course.

Vicki: Kyle, if you could travel back in time and talk to Kyle, first year math teacher about this, what would you say?

What would you say today to a younger you?

Kyle: Oh! I would say, “You think you know so much, Kyle, and you know so little. Every single day, I realize that, you know, I really didn’t know a whole lot. I like to say now that I have a university math degree in procedural fluency, but about a grade 7 or 8 level in conceptual understanding.

So I am still learning as well. And I’m hoping that with all the teachers online and with our teachers and colleagues at schools that we work with, we can all support each other to better understand the math in service of our students in our classroom.

Vicki: Wow. And how many years have you been teaching, Kyle?

Kyle: This is my twelfth year, and second year in the K-12 math consultant role. So I’ve learned a ton, getting to spend all kinds of time in elementary as well as secondary. I just can’t wait to continue to learn.

Vicki: Do you think students are different now than when you started?

Are students today different than students of years gone by?

Kyle: You know what? I think we’re all the same. I mean, the world around us has changed quite a bit. But you know what? Nowadays we do such a great job at making sure that students come to school. We’re seeing a lot of different students that we might not have seen twenty or thirty years ago. A lot of students might just drop out if they felt that school wasn’t for them, so right now, we’re keeping lots of students in the seats, all the way through high school to get a diploma.

I think we’ve just got to do some digging in order to make sure that we can help all students succeed because I truly believe that everyone is a mathematician.

Vicki: So Kyle, give us a 30-second pep talk for math teachers to reach every child in those seats.

Why should math teachers try to reach every kid in every seat?

Kyle: I want to say that if I’m not understanding where that math comes from or where it develops — if I don’t understand how math develops over time, that’s from K-12.

I like to think that if I’m a high school teacher, I can’t just focus on the secondary curriculum. I need to understand how students learn math in grade 1, how they learn it in grade 2, all the way up to grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 in order to have success in order to have potentially reach all of those students in my classroom.

Vicki: Wow, that sounds overwhelming, Kyle! Is it possible?

Kyle: I think it definitely is. And I think as we continue to do this learning together through things like the internet, when you can go on Twitter and see people posting animations of math concepts. Little 20-second video clips. I can learn so much in such a short period of time.

If I’m looking for that learning, I can find it. You’ve got so many people willing to lend you a hand, so just make sure that you’re not scared to ask for that help. Someone will come to help you out for sure.

Vicki: Well, as we finish up, what are the hashtags where you’re finding these?

Where do we go to find help?

Kyle: I love looking at the Math Twitter Blogosphere. That’s #mtbos.

Now a lot of people are using #iteachmath as well. I like to do a lot of my posting of visuals on http://MathIsVisual.com as well as the Twitter handle @mathisvisual.

Vicki: So, we have all of these resources. We also have http://MathIsVisual.com that Kyle has created for all of you math teachers to be more remarkable and to make math more concrete and more understandable for all of our students.

Thank you, Kyle!

Kyle: Thank you so much, Vicki! I hope everyone has a great night!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Kyle is the K-12 Mathematics Consultant with the Greater Essex County District School Board, where his passion for mathematics fuels him to uncover creative ways to spark curiosity and fuel sense making through the inquiry process using tasks that are contextual, visual and concrete. He shares his most recent noticings, wonderings, and reflections in mathematics pedagogy and effective uses of technology on www.tapintoteenminds.com and www.mathisvisual.com.

Blog: https://tapintoteenminds.com

Twitter: @MathletePearce

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Kyle Pearce: How to Make Math Visual appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Kyle Pearce: How to Make Math Visual published first on https://medium.com/@seminarsacademy

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