National Spelling Bee protests: Should we simplify English spelling?

If you haven't read this yet, you totally should. It's a great piece, and as good for the writing craft as it is for the content.

National Spelling Bee protests: Should we simplify English spelling? - CSMonitor.com

As an interesting side note, Mrs. TANBI and I have very different reactions to the end of the piece. I think it has something to do with the nature of primary school education at the time when we learned to read. I can read through the text at the end no problem. I think it's because I was toward the end of the school kids that got phonics. Be interesting to know if there's something to that.

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• 14:49 Lunch with the Kralls #
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• 20:59 Check, carry the one. #alinea #

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• 11:49 Good CSMonitor story about protesters at the Spelling Bee. j.mp/dmtQEK (via @ebertchicago) #
• 11:50 @aerdin that dinner is tomorrow #
• 11:59 When a school caves in to racists and turns the brown faces on a mural of its students into white ones, that is vile. (via @ebertchicago) #
• 12:03 Google insists my parents house is in Glencoe. Really, it isn't. Who do I see about that? #
• 15:18 Michael's should have an "original customer" line. #
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• 16:09 Waiting in a line #
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• 13:15 @KendraSerra life in the tubes - wear a cup #
• 13:17 @joshsmith3 it may have been the editing, but I think he was pretty over it #
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• 21:09 List: Plane, Wedding, Alinea, Plane #
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• 12:13 staying away from campus today #
• 16:04 Might have good Samaritan-ed my way into a chore. Oops. #
• 17:16 @tcschwa isn't the data plan comparable pricewise? they say 90% of customers wouldn't exceed the cap if it existed now. #
• 20:23 RT@ESTAtweets: The official press release on the ESTA-PLASA Merger: bit.ly/cYYi0U bit.ly/aLosxm #
• 23:46 Too bad Chef Kenobi. We'll miss you. #
• 00:19 RT @ebertchicago: British climber conquers Everes t, goes blind. Friends forced to leave him to die. j.mp/cLU1p6 #

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pr0n

1 in 5 men and a little over 1 in 8 women. Maybe they ought to do some research before legally mandating people be fired.

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• 14:49 One Important Reason Why We Are Out of Money reason.com/blog/2010/06/01/one-important-reason-why-we-ar #
• 16:14 Limbaugh Is Right: The Gulf Spill Is 'Not Unique' thinkprogress.org/2010/06/01/limbaugh-unique-spil l/ #
• 16:41 Appropriate to be looking at designs for MidSummer during the summer? Perhaps. #
• 19:15 @frontrowcenter5 I've done Moto. Doing Alenia this weekend. #
• 19:18 @caryatiddreams random fact #2, most filters don't catch that gas. SCBA recommended if exposure is substantial, which it pretty never is. #
• 22:34 Attendance at tomorrow's presidential event is by invitation only, but we'll have a webcast: ht.ly/1SN95 (via @CarnegieMellon) #
• 23:09 @ caryatiddreams fresh air and good ventilation are usually a good idea. #
• 23:38 Should I be watching Ashes to Ashes? #
• 23:57 Anyone know anything about the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H55? I'm looking for a new camera. #

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Up a Very Steep and Narrow Staircase

A post a day for the month of June. Unlikely. Does seem like the sort of thing needed to get on track again.

And I do have a few unshared photos.

The last show of the year this time around featured a very long steep staircase. I've decided to share some photos from the installation.

Step One: Bridle enormous steel thing and raise it up...


The play position wasn't parallel to the system pipes we were using as a crane, so the piece needed a little bit of a leash for positioning.

Step Two: Have someone else bolt it to the upper landing...


Thank you Hardwareman. It is worth noting at this point that during this installation my two most used tools were a big stick (I think there's a photo of that on 452's Facebook) for a lever and a Trucker's hitch. You can go a long way with simple machines.

Step Three: Have some idiot, preferably someone covered under workman's comp, go remove the rigging. Maybe take a picture while you're there...


Of course at this moment the thing that concerned me the most was dropping my phone. Did I mention that the staircase as well as being tall and steep also goes into the trap room? No? Well, it also goes into the trap room.

Step Four: Like the box says: "Lather, Rinse, Repeat." Do it again, maybe a little lower this time...


And it's a staircase. Here it is from the house...



All in all not as much of an ordeal going in as we thought. All the parts were bigger and heavier, and you had to move a little more slowly and deliberately, but pretty much it went the same as many lighter things have gone before.

Shorties

• 13:52 RT @ebertchicago: Aren't you getting tired of people hating one another? What do they think they get out of it? #
• 14:23 @golan love that Enter Sandman. The later post making things into Waltzes is cool too. #
• 22:31 Hmm. Paint not sticking. That's a new one. #
• 00:15 Hour after hour of Future Foods. How did I miss this show? #

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