voluntaryXchange

FOH for FMOOWMP (Office Hours)

Students have big trouble with this … especially early in their college careers.

Hat tip to these two pieces from NPR on how to overcome your fear of office hours, and how office hours are particularly foreign to students from rural areas.

Cross-posted from SUU Macroblog, which is required reading for my macroeconomics classes.

Navel Gazing: What Was that Guy’s Name?

For almost no reason, I’ve been trying to think of the name of a TV variety/talk show host from maybe 50 years ago.

For a long time … like maybe 3 years … I’ve had this picture in my head of this guy — but no name.

I’m not even sure why I wanted to know. It’s just one of my oldest memories, from somewhere back in the 1966-1970 range. My mother watching this daytime variety show during the summer, in black and white, hosted by a formally dressed older man I was comfortable with back then (probably because she watched it many times).

When I had that thought, I tried to recall the name, and I could not. I was quite certain that I had known it, and that a memory would eventually return. It didn’t.

I called my mom, in her late 80’s at the time. She had no recollection. She did note, correctly, that she didn’t watch that sort of thing much. And I agreed: maybe that’s why I remember it at all, because it was out of character for her. She pushed old hosts of The Today Show  on me, but I kinda’ know she didn’t watch that until she was sending me to elementary school at 8:30 five days a week … plus it was in color. So it wasn’t Hugh Downs or Frank McGee or even Joe Garagiola.

I went through the names I did remember. Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas … no … older than that. Art Linkletter, Ed Sullivan … no … but that was more like the era … just not that famous. We got more obscure (at least for me) … Jack Benny … George Gobel … Danny Kaye … Danny Thomas … Alan Funt … but no, the names and faces paired up nicely in my memory for all of them.

Of course, I ran off to the internet. Surprisingly, that got me nowhere. I guess no one has curated the right sort of list for what I was looking for. (In retrospect, I probably ran across the name in some of the bigger lists, but it didn’t ring a bell).

I more or less gave up. But, you know how this sort of thing goes. It nagged at me.

*************************

This morning I saw the headline that Diahann Carroll had passed away. I know who she is, but I was not a fan. But I clicked the article open … you know … something to read while drinking coffee. And there it was:

And then she won several times on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts program, where she first billed herself as Diahann Carroll.

The memory I’ve had is this guy:

Arthur Godfrey.

No wonder my mother didn’t remember: he didn’t have a variety/talk show of his own in that era: he was already past his prime.

He hosted Your All-American College Show in 1968. (Never heard of it). That doesn’t seem like something my mother would have watched anyway. Plus, it was also in color for at least part of its run.

He was also in the rotation as host of The Hollywood Palace in 1966. Wikipedia says that was mostly scheduled on Saturday night, so that doesn’t seem right. But it was in black and white at the time.

He also was a guest host on The David Frost Show several times from 1969-71. This show was in black and white at the start of its run. And back then, David Frost was a really big deal.

This show was daily, so that points to a scheduled time during the day. And it premiered about 2 months before I started kindergarten.

So I think that’s it. One of my oldest memories, from when I was 5, is my mother puttering in my parents bedroom, with Arthur Godfrey on the TV. And now the internet homes in very tightly … he guest-hosted The David Frost Show, in black and white, on July 22, 1970.

FWIW: that makes it not really one of my oldest memories. It’s just foggier. By then I’d finished kindergarten, and I do have a few dozen memories from that point or earlier. I don’t know about you, but the volume of my clear memories starts to really ramp up from second grade onwards.

Prettiest Song I’ve Heard In a Long, Long Time

Marginal Revolution (of course, who else?) pointed me to a song from Madagascar. And then YouTube’s playlists carried me to this one.

This is “Hay Hay” by Mahaleo. Mahaleo is actually the bunch of guys playing guitar and signing. I believe the women were added just for this video.

The song is in Malagasy (or Malagache as they would spell it). When I listen to this, I think this is the most musical language I’ve ever heard. It’s got Italian and French beaten hands down.

It’s not possible to get a decent translation of this (yes, I found something that’s not in the internet). But, I constructed this one with the help of Google, and some imaginative interpretation of the metaphors. I would love it if someone would offer to do better.

English

Malagasy

Hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay. Now you really feel it. For life is sweet. Hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, it’s cool To do good, Without complaining. When my parents were still alive, We were not permitted To do things only to impress others. Eeeeeee! What would our ancestors think of us? Their hearts might be broken. But we can’t stop the world. Even if our surroundings seem ugly. How could we stop? Hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, it’s tough. Life isn’t perfect, But what can you do? Hay, now my mother is not here, And I must endure, Even when hungry and trembling. Eeeeeee! What would our ancestors think of us? Their hearts might be broken. But we can’t stop the world. Even if our surroundings seem ugly. In spite of fists and fangs. Eeeeeee! What would our ancestors think of us? Their hearts might be broken.

Hay Hay Hay Hay Hay Hay, Izao vao tsapanao tokoa Fa mafy ny fiainana Hay Hay Hay Hay Hay, mafaitra Ny mikaroka ny soa Rehefa tsisy ny hitarainana Fony mbola teo i dada sy i neny Tsy nohenoina akory raha niteny Sy mba nanahanatranatra… Eeeee Raha mahatsiaro ireo taloha Mila ho vaky teo re ny loha Fa tsy misy ny atokona Ny manodidina ahy toa ngazana Nahoana no mitokona Hay Hay Hay Hay Hay, mafy izany tsy mba mitafy Afa-tsy ankanjo rovitra Hay, rehefa tsy eo koa i neny, Dia tsy maintsy mihafy Na dia noana sy mangovitra. Eeeee Raha mahatsiaro ireo taloha Mila ho vaky teo re ny loha Fa tsy misy ny atokona Ny manodidina ahy toa ngazana Ny totohondry no avokona Eeeee Raha mahatsiaro ireo taloha Mila ho vaky teo re ny loha

The Insanity of High School Class Scheduling

Does it seem like your kid’s class schedule for high school was designed by monkeys?

I am in my 7th and last year of dealing with this. I put everything into Google Calendar so the family has access to the whole thing if they need it. It takes over 2 hours to do this. Here’s why.

The school has A and B days. Fair enough. That would be easy to enter into a schedule.

But … those alternate days of the week: so A days are MWF one week, and TT the next. So that doubles the amount of data entry.

But … … the beloved American 3 day weekend makes that worse. Someone requires that those days off be evenly split between A and B days. Practically, this means that several times during the year an ABABA is followed by an ABABA instead of a BABAB. That adds several special cases that have to be fixed individually.

But … … … our schools came up with the wonderful idea of late-in Wednesdays — because — you know — kids and teachers go to school too much. So there’s a different schedule for those days too, and they’re A’s and B’s too. Let’s use lower case letters for those. So, the basic week is either ABaBA or BAbAB.

But … … … … that’s not the end either. We have two teacher conference weeks each year. These are done on a short day schedule, but not the same short day schedule that they use for Wednesdays all year long. Some dim bulb decided it had to be a different one. So now we have the possibility of not ABaBA or BAbAB but the somewhat shortened ABaBA or BAbAB.

But … … … … … it still gets worse, because during those conference weeks, when they do a short A and B day, they also do Wednesdays that are both short and different. Let’s call those α and ß, so really we have ABαBA or BAßAB.

So, a student or parent, for each week, if it happens to be a full 5 day week, still needs to know if it’s an ABaBA or BAbAB or ABaBA or BAbAB. Google has the ability to repeat those, but because there are so many special cases, the longest pattern in the entire year is 8 instances, which occurs for MF and TT schedules for 4 pairs of consecutive weeks in early spring. Here’s what it ends up looking like over the 37 week school year:

AbAB (School starts on Tuesday, rather than Monday)

ABaBA

BAbAB

AbAB (Same pattern repeated, but Monday off)

ABaBA

BAbAB

ABαBA (Shorter days this week, with a different Wednesday)

BAbAB

ABaBA

BAbAB

AbAB (Same pattern repeated, but Monday off)

ABaBA (Repeating last week’s schedule over 5 days)

BAbAB

ABaBA

BAbAB

AB    (Three days off for Thanksgiving)

ABaBA (Repeating last week’s schedule over 5 days)

BAbAB

ABaBA (Followed by 2 weeks off for Christmas)

BAbAB

ABaBA

AbAB (same pattern repeated, but Monday off)

BAbAB

ABαBA (Shorter days this week, with a different Wednesday)

BAbAB

AbAB (same pattern repeated, but Monday off)

ABaBA (Repeating last week’s schedule over 5 days)

BAbAB

ABaBA

  bAB (Two random days off for the teachers)

ABaBA (But not repeating the last week on a 5 day schedule)

BAbAB

ABaBA (followed by a week of vacation)

BAbAB

ABaBA

BAbAB

ABaBA

BAbAB

The school has problems with attendance. I wonder if it has anything to do with the students not knowing where they’re supposed to be?

BTW: I need to know the schedule so I can manage rides (our school has not buses at our distance). I have 3 different pick-up times, and 3 different drop-off times. That’s an improvement over last year.

It gets worse. Our local school district does zero coordination with the universities within the state. We are mostly on MWF and TT teaching schedules. Also, while our Christmas breaks overlap, as well as our three day weekends, Spring Break does not, nor do the 2 shorter vacations the kids get off for no reason I can think of.

*************************

I strongly suspect almost all of this is a problem created by legislators and accreditors who require a fixed number of class periods or hours (rather than a more flexible range), and by unions that tweak the schedule to create more time off for members.

I Can Confirm

Three decades before Uber Eats and Door Dash, I delivered for a large Italian restaurant.

And on some long shifts I was part of the 28% of drivers who pilfered a snack out of someone’s order. Usually a single chicken wing out of a bucket of 50 (this was in Buffalo), and never more than 2 or 3 in an evening. Usually this was during the Friday and Saturday dinner rush when there were several hours where there would never be time to grab something back at the restaurant.

Two Car Graveyards

There was a minor story on the news about a car graveyard appearing in the middle of a rundown residential block in the UK.

It reminded me that there are two visible from I-15 in central Utah. Both appear to be graveyards, rather than actively working junkyards.

This one, at the end of the dirt road leading in from the right side, is around mile marker 212 is and over ten miles from the nearest town:

It is in an arroyo, and only visible if you are heading north. You can zoom in and out if you go to Google Maps. Here it is on Street View:

This  one near mile marker 165 is also only visible heading north:

It’s hard to tell, but this looks like the cars are abandoned in an old sand pit. You can zoom in on it here. It’s on the outskirts of Fillmore. I couldn’t find this one on Street View, which is odd because you can see down into it from a passenger car.

This is kind of a weird thing … I know. But these are mostly posted for personal interest … I’ve been driving by these about once a month for a few years, and they’re landmarks for me now. For some reason, they always make me think of Kermit and Fozzie Bear finding an old rusted Studebaker in The Muppet Movie.

BTW: It may be an acquired taste, but I always find both areas to be far more scenic to drive through than they appear on satellite images.

Cross-Country Driving Trivia

Surfing from this, I found a few details about the first woman to drive across the U.S. The trip was sponsored by an automaker that promoted driving by women.

In 1909, 4 women (only 1 of whom could drive) took 59 days to drive 3,800 miles from New York to San Francisco. It was paved less than 5% of the way. With few maps, they mostly followed telegraph poles; more wires led to bigger towns.

That sent me back to the first person to drive cross-country. In 1903 it took 63 days, and was done on a bet, without much corporate support.

************************

Navel Gazing

My mother drove Buffalo to Long Beach and back, twice, in 1936 and 1938. Even when she first told me about them in the 1970’s she remembered very little, and there are no pictures. Petrified wood in the Painted Desert is the big memory, so she did do Route 66 in the good ol’ days. She was 8 and 10, and in her defense I guess I don’t remember much of my first big road trip — Buffalo to Boston — when I was nine (although I remember a whole lot more about Boston than she ever did about Long Beach).

Anyway, I have never met anyone who did the trip before she did. But, her parents were rich and in a position to take a long time off of work, so it may have been a thing with the country club set back in the 30’s.

FWIW: I still haven’t done east to west completely, although I have done a 2,400 miler, a 2000 miler,  and a 1900 miler on 3 different parts of it. I have also done 1,300 north coast to south coast.

Thomas Friedman Gets What Scares Me

He’s worried that Trump will get re-elected, possibly easily. Me too.

Dear Democrats: This is not complicated! Just nominate a decent, sane person, one committed to reunifying the country and creating more good jobs, a person who can gain the support of the independents, moderate Republicans and suburban women who abandoned Donald Trump in the midterms and thus swung the House of Representatives to the Democrats and could do the same for the presidency. And that candidate can win!

But please, spare me the revolution! It can wait. Win the presidency, hold the House and narrow the spread in the Senate, and a lot of good things still can be accomplished. “No,” you say, “the left wants a revolution now!” O.K., I’ll give the left a revolution now: four more years of Donald Trump.

That will be a revolution.

I tend to think of Friedman as a twit who can turn a phrase well enough to be worthwhile reading once in a while.†

But here I think he gets the broader point: just because Republicans have a candidate many people will vote against (me included), this does not mean the Democrats should also come up with a candidate that people will vote against.

I would add two things. First, incumbents rarely lose, which plays to Trump’s advantage. Second, Democrats love Obama, and yet he put up the third worst showing of an incumbent running for re-election since Hoover: he should not be viewed as an ideal.

† I still tell this story. I highlight books. A lot. Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is a book I read cover to cover, enjoyed very much, and highlighted not one thing. It was intellectual cotton candy.

Buffalo Near the Bottom

I fled Buffalo 30 years ago next month: a job in another state called.

The U.S. Metropolitan Area Economic Freedom Index helps explain why.

Of the 52 metropolitan areas with populations over a million, Buffalo ranks 50th.

And things aren’t good in upstate: close neighbor Rochester (half an hour of country from outer suburb to outer suburb) is ranked 51st. Pity actually … Rochester had a lot going for it 30 years ago before its big hometown corporations tanked.

Now, this is published by Reason, so you can imagine the priorities embedded in their data (and recall the argument made here many times that all rankings like this are questionable).

Anyway, Buffalo is not at the very bottom for government spending. But, In 9 survey years going back to 1972, it was never higher than 49th in tax burden, and never higher than 50th in labor market freedom.

WalletHub (disclaimer: they occasionally quote me, but don’t pay me for squat) has an alternative ranking. Out of 150 cities, Buffalo ranks 114th.

WTF: Just noticed that it is no longer the Buffalo-Niagara Falls MSA, but rather the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls MSA. Cheektowaga? Yes, it’s a big suburb, but one of several. My guess is that it gets included because the airport is in it. Anyway, Cheektowaga was always in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls MSA, so it is a change of name rather than region.

Via Newmark’s Door.

R.I.P. Johnny Savuka

In my circle, I’m the world music person. It’s a good thing the vXgirl is in Africa, or I’d be making her listen to Savuka all day. Frontman Johhny Clegg has died.

Lot’s of people will be showing this video of “Asimbonanga” with Nelson Mandela on stage. I believe that’s Mandisa Dlanga with the ridiculous voice leading him out.

For my part I would have liked to have found something from their performance on SNL to post, but I’ll have to settle for a song I’ve always thought was a good one for newbies:

I got turned on to this music by a woman from New Zealand who was working at a pub called the Bricklayer’s Arms in the West End in 1983. Of all things, she was moving on to South Africa, which at the time (as an American) I thought was kind of crazy. Can’t remember her name, but I wonder how her life’s journey turned out.

Anyway, that was his previous band, Juluka, which was mighty good too. I’m going by ancient memories, but I believe this seminal version was one of the songs she’s sneak on to the pub’s sound system when the office worker clientele had gone home:

When African music (for me) consisted of King Sunny, this stuff was a revelation.

FWIW: I think with this find, for once, I got out in front of Paul Hinz for musical curiosity.