The Weekly Wrap: October 2, 2022

I was reminded this week of how weird the U.S. education system is.

When I was in elementary school, we lived in Florida. As a part of science class, we learned how to track hurricanes. We used pencils, rulers, and paper maps to draw cones of uncertainty and eye paths. We tracked every hurricane that hit the state of Florida that year - including Hurricane Andrew. This assignment not only taught us meteorology and a little math but also provided local learning.

We moved from Florida to upstate New York in 1995. Up there, I learned about all the Native American tribes who lived there along with a lot of local revolutionary war history. The local Alachua county history I learned in Florida was no help here. Instead, we focused on Otsego county and New York.

The U.S. is HUGE. It's important to not only learn national and international history, but state and local history as well. While most of my county history is lost to time, I appreciate that I was given the chance to explore it.

This does make me wonder, however, how much is lost in our state by state system. I moved to four different states before I went to college. My K-12 educational experience was jumpy. Since each state has different rules, moving from one to the other means I got some stuff twice and missed other things entirely. I had the privilege of parents who filled in the gaps with books, trips, and conversations. Not everyone is so lucky.

Now, with all the book bans and curriculum conditions (looking at you CRT scare tactics) I know that students in many states are being short changed. It's not fair that some students get broad and informed exposure to topics and skills while others are kept in the dark.


Also, update from last week, my husband could, in fact, be bothered enough by the cobwebs. He took one for the team and cleared them out.

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• I don't know what I think about this butter board trend. [Food Network]
• What boredom can do for you. [WaPo - gift link]
• Baby puffin chucking is, apparently, a thing. [NPR]
• What you just heard is thousands of public university faculty members screaming in rage. [Chronicle of Higher Education - may be paywalled]
• The library reference desk and the right to privacy. [Syllabus Project]
• These are just gorgeous. [Ronny Tertnes]
• Bookmark these charcuterie board ideas for the holidays. [PureWow]

• Your body has lots of clocks and medical science is trying to harness them. [The Daily]
• How words find their way into the dictionary. [The Indicator]
• We should value our time and how it relates to our happiness more. [Hidden Brain]
• The ecological power of grasslands. [Short Wave]
• The surprising history of a mythical animal and cancer research. [99% Invisible]

• I was in the mood for an apocalyptic disaster flicks. Netflix promoted How It Ends  in my list, so that's what we went with. The first half is more of a road trip apocalyptic film. The scenarios the heroes encounter mostly feel real. The second half and ending, however, were meh. In fact, the ending was entirely unsatisfactory. [Netflix]
• On the Husband's night to pick a movie, he went with Gunpowder Milkshake. We both really like the lead, Karen Gillan, and he decided to grab something from her filmography. This movie felt very graphic novelly. The shots and scenes are all very stylized and deliberate. I had to look up if it was, in fact, based on a graphic novel. (It's not.) Also, this movie features one of the coolest libraries I've ever seen. I would like to visit it. [Netflix]

• I love having a sous vide. I made cumin chicken with black beans. This is so easy when I can spice the chicken and have the husband sous vide it during the day. Then everything else gets cooked in one pan. Quick, easy, and delicious. [Real Simple]
• One time I made chicken cordon bleu from scratch. It was delicious but such a pain in the ass to make. This week, we went with the frozen variety that you throw on a baking sheet and toss in the oven. Sure it's not as good but it's easy. Plus, the end pieces are basically chicken nuggets which meant our kiddo ate them. We served it with a sized of frozen mixed veggies. [Barber Foods]