My occasional blog series
"Observations" was created to be an outlet to share a variety of topics that pop into my field of view as a result of a condition that many bloggers are afflicted with known as "blogger's eyes". In this state we view the world on the constant look-out for topics on which to write about. Today's blog came about from random odds 'n ends of things that I have noticed over the past few weeks.
- Finland has among the best schools in the world, ranking significantly above the United States. One of their key points is that less homework is correlated with better grades. This is news that every single American student will whole-heartedly get behind, not that our students aren't already skilled at getting behind.
- I had occasion recently to watch some amateur golfers attempt to play a short par-3 hole. For every golfer who hit their tee shot to within 50 yards of the hole, there were at least ten whose ball went no more than 10 yards from the tee. The amusing part of this was that they cursed and carried on as if they expected to do better.
- I saw a man munching a bagel as he walked across a very busy auditorium. As he walked, a handful of crumbs fell to the floor. He then stopped and picked up each and every one. He then popped them into his mouth. I am still not sure if every piece that he gathered up and ate was in fact a piece of his bagel.
- I was at a conference recently and was walking back to my room after a busy session. I passed by a lady in the crowd who called out my name. It turns out that she was the wife of a former colleague that I had met only once, some 10 years earlier. Talk about an amazing memory.
- If the above item did not strike you as interesting, then maybe this will. As I was leaving that interaction, just a bit further down the hallway, the same thing happened again. This time it was the wife of a former colleague that I had met only once, very briefly, some 15 years earlier. Wow.
