Le Fictitious Local Diner

Rootin’ Tootin’

Required Reading – We are nearly through “Presenting Buffalo Bill – The Man Who Invented the Wild West” (Candace Fleming). Wow. This should be adjunct reading for any history course that covers the late 19th century.

Quirky take-aways from this outstandingly researched book:

– William Cody did not like Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer…and after “Custer’s Last Stand” at Little Big Horn, Cody hired Sitting Bull (inspirational leader of the victorious Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho) to be part of his Wild West show.
– While the US Government sought to “Americanize” American Indians (passing laws forbidding traditional clothes, housing, religious practices, etc.), the Wild West show was partially responsible for keeping these customs alive – Buffalo Bill’s insistence upon authenticity meant his Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Lakota performers could wear their traditional clothing, speak their language, live in traditional dwellings, etc.
– When the Wild West performed in London, Queen Victoria broke a 26 year seclusion (lamenting the death of her husband, Prince Albert) to attend the show (and LOVED it).
– We are still marveling at William Cody’s energy and leadership skills: managing 200+ performers (among which he was the central star OF COURSE), scores of horses, buffalo, elk, Texas steers, donkeys, deer, bears, full size wagons, a log cabin, a stagecoach, gigantic sets (vocab) and a brass band…not to mention food, accommodations, and travel arrangements. We’re exhausted.
– William Cody was not a perfect person; he certainly had a handful of glaring deficits. But DARN IT, my son and I are fans!

canada

Map Happy – Our “find each USA state and color it in” map is complete. My son looked forward to this activity every night; we would find the state in question, talk about its shape (Louisiana looks like a capital “L”, the Michigan “mitten”, etc.), and then ink in the state together. We’ve now started on the Canadian map. Vivien Bowers’ most enjoyable book, “Wow Canada!” is providing background info as we color in each province and territory.

Funny, thought provoking, excellent read for us – we are in the midst of a fifth reading of our favorite Gordon Korman book, “Schooled”. Such an original theme – a very centered, capable kid who has been raised in a defunct hippie commune is forced to matriculate into a public school. A+.

doily

Fancy, Fancy, Fancy! Story Problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – diner management has decided that a paper doily (vocab) under the condiments (vocab) on each table is a must. There are 10 tables and 5 booths at the diner. Each table will get a fresh doily before both lunch and dinner services. Will a case of 1,000 doilies be enough for one month? If each case costs $7.00, how much should the diner budget for doilies for a year? (answers at bottom of post)

Rootin’ Tootin’ Music – we found rambunctious, fast paced, toe tappin’, hootin’ and hollerin’ music to help us imagine Buffalo Bill’s mightily successful Wild West extravaganza:

– “Hoedown” from Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo” ballet, which premiered in 1942. I think we feel intellectually elevated every time we listen to anything by Aaron Copland:

– The theme from the long-running TV show (1959-1973) “Bonanza”, orchestrated and arranged by David Rose and Billy May. Voted by the Western Writers of America as one of the Top 100 Western Songs of All Time. Is it THAT difficult to be in the top 100??? Why not TOP 10? No matter – we love it:

– The theme from the 1960 American Western movie, “The Magnificent Seven”, composed by Elmer Bernstein. We learned that Elmer Bernstein was NOT related to Leonard Bernstein (but they were friends), that he composed for loads and loads of movies, his scores were nominated for 14 Oscars (winning in 1967 for “Thoroughly Modern Millie”)…Back to “The Magnificent Seven” – this classic was nominated for an academy award in 1961, but lost to “Exodus” (score composed by Ernest Gold). Tough break. BTW, this is a simply outstanding recording of the theme (but why the pineapple photo at the very beginning?):

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers: yes, and $84)

Salient?

Salients and Peninsulas – We are a fifth of the way through our “Where is That?” states-in-the-USA activity, and my son is learning more than just the location of the states. Two nights ago we learned about salients – and SURPRISE, we have lived in three of nine salient states: Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Connecticut, Idaho, Nebraska, Maryland, and Alaska. We learned that SALIENT is the correct geographical term for a PANHANDLE (side learning excursion – I had to show my son a real pan handle). We learned that a panhandle is surrounded by land, and a peninsula (where Big Peaches – star grandmother – lives) is surrounded by water. We also considered the customary definition of salient (meaning “most important”, “most noticeable”) (vocab). And my son also learned that panhandling (vocab) has nothing to do with pans or geography.

Story Problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – speaking of panhandles, the diner management team decided it is time to replace all frying pans. The chefs are delighted! 8 small-sized skillets are to be ordered at a cost of $25 each, and 8 larger fry pans are to be ordered at a cost of $75 each. How much will the diner spend for shipping (if shipping is 15% of the total order)?
A. $25 B. $80 C. $120 D. $200 (answer at bottom of post)

History is coming alive – Yay! Candace Fleming’s “Presenting Buffalo Bill – The Man who Invented the Wild West” has us on the edge of our seats. We are currently reading about Will Cody’s pre-teen years in the Kansas territory, where his family was caught in the territory’s “slavery/no slavery” struggle (a shameful blot on the pages of American history – teams of pro-slavery thugs from Missouri terrorized homesteaders who did not want Kansas to be a slavery state). As Will’s father was an object of death threats from the pro-slavery faction, and was often out of state, in hiding, a very young Will Cody had to provide the primary financial support for his large family. Working for a shipping company that delivered goods to military posts in Colorado and Utah, Will had his full share of wild west adventures (stampedes, shoot-outs, starvation). What’s going to happen next???

Roy Lichtenstein – two take-aways from Susan Goldman Rubin’s excellent book, “Whaam! The Art and Life of Roy Lichtenstein”:

1) What is a win-win situation? How about when a corporation commissions (vocab) artwork that will be accessible to the general public? We love Lichtenstein’s sculpture, “Tokyo Brushstroke II” commissioned by an architectural firm in Japan, and the crazy-gigantic-five-stories high mural, “Blue Brushstroke” commissioned by The Equitable Life Assurance Society in Manhattan. The win-win?
– thousands and thousands and thousands of people get to enjoy the artwork
– excellent PR (vocab) for the corporation
– the artist gets paid!
2) We are never too old to try something new: Roy Lichtenstein learned to play the saxophone in his mid 60’s! OF COURSE, we were enthusiastic about devoting an evening to a sampling of saxophone sounds:

Harlem Nocturne, composed by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers in 1939, played to perfection by the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The saxophone brings the sultry:

The Pink Panther Theme, composed by Henri Mancini in 1963. This is OLD footage, with Henry Mancini conducting. The saxophone brings the relentlessly sneaky:

The Prologue to West Side Story, composed by Leonard Bernstein for the 1957 Broadway production. The saxophone doesn’t take center stage in this piece, but does set the tone for a collage of NYC sounds and rhythms:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answer: C. $120)

It’s All Fun!

roy-whaam

Giant Cartoon Art – We are currently reading through “Whaam! The Art & Life of Roy Lichtenstein” by Susan Goldman Rubin. This book is filled with examples of his pop art of the 1960’s that both shocked (“this is art?????”) and rocked a generation. Each of Lichtenstein’s paintings was inspired by published comic book drawings of others, and I like that the author addressed the issue of copyright. My son likes looking at photographs of Lichtenstein’s art on display, with people standing near the paintings, so he can get an idea of exactly how large the paintings are.

bill-polka-dots

Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show – Hot off the press! Candace Fleming’s “Presenting Buffalo Bill – The Man who Invented the Wild West” was just published in 2016. We are only a few nights into this book and we are loving every minute. Oh my! Buffalo Bill – what a man with BIG vision and what a risk (vocab) taker! This book is part of our Native North American unit – we are impressed with the author’s excellent research and sensitivity regarding Lakota tribe members who were part of the Wild West Show (and this has provoked a short side study of the Lakota tribe).

Game ON – the other night, my son grabbed a pen, and I knew he wanted to communicate something – so I supported his wrist and here is what he wrote, “I want to play hangman.”!!!! Really? Well, OK! We have been playing hangman about 2 times a week for a month or two, but I had no idea he was liking this spelling game. I am relieved that his handwriting has improved to the point that I can read it. Huge communication progress!

50 Days of Fun! I am stretching the definition of “fun”, but this is sort of diverting: we have started playing, “WHERE IS THAT?”. I place a blank map of the USA on the desk and I ask my son to ink a dot in the middle of a particular state. After he finds the correct state, we (hand-over-hand) color it in. Could this be a gateway activity – first the USA, then maybe the countries of South America? Then WHO KNOWS???

And if that weren’t enough – I have added a new resource tab (look on title block) – “The Bookshelf”. This is where I will keep a running list of the books that have worked particularly well for my son and me.

Box Lunches at Le Fictitious Local Diner – Everyone knows that box lunches (vocab concept) are by definition FUN! And here is a twist: the Local Diner’s box lunches are vegetarian, and include a bottle of kombucha that comes with it’s own teeny paper parasol. FUN! The lunches are apparently delicious, and the response has been enthusiastic: during the first week 30 boxes were sold on Monday, 20 on Tuesday, 40 on Wednesday, 10 on Thursday, 40 on Friday, and 20 on Saturday! Each box sells for $9. If it costs the diner $4 to put the box together (including the box and the napkins, etc), what was the diner’s profit for the first week?
A. $800 B. $160 C. $1,440 D. $60 (answer at bottom of post)

Music – It was time to learn more about the SNARE DRUM – Yay percussion instruments!

snare-drum

First, we needed to see how the snare drum was constructed. We learned that a band of narrow wires stretched across the bottom of the drum gives it that muffled rattly sound. We listened for the snare drum in:

– Blue Tango, composed by LeRoy Anderson in 1951, and was ranked by Billboard as the number one song of 1952! Sassy.

– Scotland the Brave – this pipe and drum corps classic is considered to be one of three unofficial national anthems of Scotland. BTW, in Scotland, the snare drum is called a side drum. BTW, we are the sort of people that really like the music of bagpipes. This footage is just so great:

– Bolero, composed by Maurice Ravel, as a one-movement orchestral piece for ballet, in 1929. From everything we have read – and can readily believe – playing the snare drum in this piece is a musician’s nightmare. Seventeen-plus minutes of the same rhythm over and over and over and over. But what a fine, fine performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted so carefully by Gustavo Dudamel:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Story problem answer: A. $800)

2016 – Gone, but not forgotten

2016: the year we learned more about – the California Gold Rush, the insanely brilliant architecture of Gaudi, the work of bees, Eugene Bullard, homonyms, Hannibal, dwarf planets, George Washington Carver, patents, rodents, Rube Goldberg, computation involving triangles, etc, etc, etc. Last night, my son took matching quiz that reviewed our academic studies from the past year, and earned an A+. Good year.

New book! For Christmas, a special aunt and uncle sent my son David Macaulay’s classic, “The Way Things Work”. This is obviously a mechanical engineering book lurking behind precise illustrations and hilarious examples. This past week, we became experts on “the inclined plane” and “the lever”. (In 2016, we learned a lot from Macauley’s books on “The Toilet” and “The Mill”, so we should emerge MENSA-worthy if we can absorb everything this comprehensive book offers.)

Story Problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – The diner spent a lot of money on electricity in 2016; management is reviewing usage to see if they can cut back (perhaps a weekly “dining by candle-light” event might make a teeny dent in the diner’s electrical consumption). To make decisions, management needs some facts: if the diner was open 6 days a week, how many days in 2016 were they using electricity? If the cooks were at the diner from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m., how many hours last year was the diner using electricity? (story problem answers at bottom of post)

Music Listening in 2016 – My son and I welcomed an additional 85 classical (in the broadest sense) pieces into our iPod library this past year. Last night, I presented a list of our fave 10 of these compositions and then my son picked his top three for listening.

10 pieces we first listened to in 2016 –

Ave Maria – Arcadelt
Banjoland Buffoonery – Kirkhope
Brandenberg Concerto No. 3 – Bach
Harp Concerto in A major – Dittersdorf
Organ Symphony, finale – Saint-Saens
Persian March – Strauss
Sailing By – Binge
String Quartet No. 2, scherzo – Borodin
The Anvil Chorus (Il Trovatore) – Verdi
Toccata in A major – Paradisi

My son’s selections for last night’s listening –

– “Banjoland Buffoonery”, composed in 1998 by Grant Kirkhope for the Nintendo 64 video game, “Banjo-Kazooie”. A short piece, packed with rollicking fun, AND an excellent (and accessible for the likes of my son and myself) example of theme and variation:

– “Persian March”, composed by Johann Strauss II, in 1864. My son cannot stop his toes from tapping to this marvelously exotic march (expertly played by a Polish youth orchestra) (SO heartening to witness excellence in youth):

– “Sailing By”, written by Ronald Binge in 1963 and used by BBC Radio to introduce the late shipping forecast. This sweet, slumberous waltz gets our vote for most soothing lullaby. When we just cannot deal with one more thing, THIS is our music:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers: 1) 312 days 2) 5,304 hours)

So Cool

A three-chapters-a-night book! Ordinarily, I read one chapter a night from our academic resource du jour, but my son is having none of that for “Jim Thorpe – Original All-American” by Joseph Bruchac. This biography of the Native American/Olympic medalist has captured his attention and he will accept nothing less than multiple chapters at each reading. We are currently reading about Jim’s high school years; certainly my son did not know about the US government-imposed boarding-school system for Native Americans one hundred years ago, and neither did I. (Some ideas were good, some were so misguided…a LOT to think about. How would we have managed this differently?) The book was written as if an autobiography (vocab), so my son has now learned to distinguish between a story told in the 1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person “voice”. As per usual, zig-zag learning.

App Happy – About once a week, we spend time with the FIRST RATE “Professor Astro Cat’s Solar System” app on our iPad. Graphics: elegant and hip. Material covered: EXTENSIVE. (This is a GREAT app for anybody looking for quirky conversation starters.) For my son, the information presented and even the quizzes: ENGROSSING. The merest sampling of what we’ve learned:
– what an AU is (astronomical until – the approximate length between the sun and earth)
– how old my son would be on Mercury
– about the largest mountain in the solar system (on Mars)
– about the planet with diamonds (!!!)

Bringing out the Christmas lights: story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – The diner is hauling out their old Christmas decorations and the plan is to edge the roof with their retro strings of larger bulbs. It takes 12 strands of lights to do the job. Each strand has 25 bulbs. 4 strands have no malfunctioning bulbs, 4 strands have 5 malfunctioning bulbs, and 4 strands have 10 malfunctioning bulbs.

1) What is the average number of malfunctioning bulbs on each strand? 2) How many bulbs need to be replaced? 3) If a new colorful bulb costs 50 cents, how much will it cost to replace all the burnt out bulbs? 4) To be prepared for future bulb burn out emergencies, how many extras bulbs should be purchased if the diner wants to have 10% extra bulbs in storage? 5) How will the diner look when all the lights are put up?

Bringing out the sleigh bells: our music theme last night – Hey! It is getting cool here – in the past week, we plummeted from 70 degrees to the high 30’s. Time to bring out the sleigh ride music (with jingling bells a must):

We started with Mozart’s “German Dance No. 3 in C” (referred to as “Sleigh Ride”), K. 605, composed in 1791. For some reason, it is difficult to find outstanding orchestral performance video footage of this piece…but it is the melody that we are after:

Next, “Troika” (vocab: troika – a three-horse open sleigh), from Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kije Suite”, movement 4 (BTW, I really slow down every time I have to write LIEUTENANT…such an unreasonably difficult word to spell). This was composed in 1933 and was part of Prokofiev’s first film score. Such a delightful piece, but we especially listen for the iconic Prokofiev discordant “edge”. You can tell this was filmed in the ’70’s – check the conductor’s (Andre Previn) hair-style and glasses:

Finally, the obvious choice, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride”, written during a heat wave in July, 1946. Adorable performance:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers: 1) 5 bulbs 2) 60 bulbs 3) $30 4) 30 bulbs 5) So cool!)

Old Business

An old name is a new name – How did this bit of news pass us by? My son and I just learned that the citizens of Barrow, Alaska voted this past October to change the city’s name back to its ancient traditional name, Utqiagvik! (Doesn’t everybody know that we love knowing stuff like this?) The town has been called Utqiagvik – meaning “place for gathering wild roots” – for the past 1,500 years but has been officially “Barrow” since 1825. Apparently, the governor of Alaska has until mid-December to rule on the name change. Will the governor want to mess with the decision of the people in America’s northern-most city? We are standing by!

Animals of yesteryear – our current course of study: “Lost Animals – Extinction and the Photographic Record”, by Errol Fuller. Fuller’s research is thorough and each chapter follows a particular species from it’s heyday to its regrettable demise (mostly there are a LOT of bird species that are no longer with us) (and we really wish color photography had been around before the pink headed duck of the Ganges River became extinct). Last night we read about the thylacine – a species that was in existence when my son’s grandparents were children. The stories captivate, stay with us, and I think make us more aware and maybe worried for the distant future of every healthy animal we see.

Well, here is an OLDIE – we are enjoying “Understood Betsy” written by Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1917. This classic shows up on many recommended reading lists, and I was finally persuaded to give it a try after reading a mini-bio of Ms. Fisher on the always informative “Focus on Fraternity” blog (franbecque.com). Happy surprise! This book presents a wealth of information about how things were 100 years ago, there is a dash of adventure, and a pervasive advocacy of self sufficiency which should put this book on a required reading list for parents and teachers.

Story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – The diner is bringing back an old tradition for the month of December: cloth napkins. They are going to see if it is more economical to rent cloth napkins or to purchase napkins and have them laundered by a service. The diner goes through 200 napkins daily. Cloth napkins rental price: 200 napkins for $25. The laundry service charges $10 to wash and press 200 napkins, but the diner would have to purchase two days worth of napkins first (at a cost of $3 per unit). If the diner decides to use cloth napkins for December, should they rent or own/pay for a laundry service? What is the least they can spend for this festive endeavor? (answers at bottom of post)

The music theme this past week: PARODIES (vocab) – When I was in 5th grade, my friend Pam received the best-record-album-ever at her birthday party: Allan Sherman’s “My Son the Nut”. I absolutely collapsed in laughter just looking at the album cover (Mr. Sherman, up to his neck in assorted nuts); I did not believe that anything could be more screamingly hilarious (hey folks, this was the early 1960’s – simpler expectations). On top of a great album cover, THE CLEVER PARODIES! What fun, some 45 years later, to share this listening experience with my son.

This past week, we matched up a few songs from “My Son the Nut” with the classical compositions from which they were inspired:

“Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”: the lyrics were written to a theme from Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” (1876). “Dance of the Hours” was also used in Disney’s “Fantasia” of 1940.

“Hungarian Goulash No. 5”: the lyrics were written to Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5” (1869). Gustavo Dudamel conducts in this video – and you know how I feel about Mr. Dudamel. MERCY.

“Here’s to the Crabgrass”: the lyrics were written to Percy Grainger’s “Country Gardens” (1918). This performance by the Hastings College Wind Ensemble really scoots along.

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Story problem answers: the diner should definitely rent the napkins, renting will run $775. Purchasing napkins and paying a laundry service will cost almost twice as much.)

Le Menu du Jour

~Oh, what a tantalizing offering~

Appetizers –
May we suggest – une petite matching quiz to review things we’ve been learning about lately?

Followed by – a bit of drawing with pastels, focusing on TEXTURE

Zen perhaps – a game of hangman: last night’s word was “vowel” – my son has just learned the difference between vowels and consonants (my bad for not explaining this YEARS ago). Now that he recognizes the prevalence of vowels in all words, the time spent playing our hangman games has significantly decreased.

For le final appetizer delicacy – a story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner:
The diner’s back room is being decorated with crepe paper streamers for a homecoming banquet, and it is going to involve THE PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM! (FYI, my son understands square roots, but to cut WAY down on time, we used the iPad for this calculation).

The room measures 15 by 20 feet and the party planners want to criss cross royal blue and bright green (school colors) crepe paper streamers from the ceiling corners. Streamers are to be taped and artistically twisted together from one corner of the room, diagonally, to the other side of the room. OMGOSH, right before their eyes, a HYPOTENUSE!
1) how far is it from one corner to another (diagonally across the room)?

2) how many feet of streamer are needed to stretch from one corner diagonally across the room to the other corner, if 1.5 times the hypotenuse are needed to achieve an esthetically pleasing twist?

3) if both colors will be used from corners to corners, making sort of an “X” in the middle of the room, how many feet will be needed of each color? (answers at bottom of post)

Le Main Course –
A favorite book author team, Dr. Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman, who put together “Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space”, have a new A+++ book out (YAY!): “Professor Astro Cat’s Atomic Adventure” – another case of we-cannot-wait-to-open-it-every-night. So far, we have learned about gravity (we threw a whole bunch of things up in the air and watched the inevitable happen), the scientific method (brother Jim is a molecular biologist, so we are taking a personal interest in the scientific method), the periodic table (organizational perfection), protons and electrons (the speed of those elections mesmerizes us). We are spellbound by Professor Astor Cat’s topics – well chosen, well explained; and graphics – SPLENDID. This book should be on everyone’s Christmas list.

For side dishes – our current fiction novel: “Gabby Duran and Troll Patrol”. YES. And a reading from our current Tom Gates book (“Tom Gates Extra Special Treats – not”). YES.

To cleanse zee palate – a poem: tonight’s selection, “Keep a Goin’” by Frank L. Stanton, a journalist for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper and Poet Laureate of Georgia, appointed in 1925. This poem has been stuck in my head for decades (when my sister was in the 4th grade, she chose to memorize this poem, and in the process, said it aloud so many times that everyone in the family to this day can recite it). Thank heavens it is fun, uplifting, grateful. Good for everybody.

And finally, le dessert tray – three elegant morsels from Frederic Chopin:

“Grande Valse Brilliante”, a waltz composed by Chopin in 1834 and used in the ballet “Les Sylphides”, which premiered in 1909. Everybody who has taken ballet lessons has tour jete’d across the dance studio (hypotenuse style!) to this absolutely charming waltz:

“Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor”, AKA “The Funeral March” to ALL kids (“pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you”), was composed in 1839. A perfectly creepy recording from 1910:

“The Minute Waltz”, more properly known as Chopin’s “Waltz in D-flat major”, composed in 1847. A bit of false advertising, as this piece actually lasts just over 2 minutes:

Bon appetit!
Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane Heiserman
(Story problem answers: 25 feet, 37.5 feet, 75 feet)

The Larger Picture

Looming Large: Hannibal and Elephants

“Hannibal Crossing the Alps on an Elephant” by Nicolas Poussin (1620-ish)

About Hannibal – we are reading from the Wicked History series, “Hannibal – Rome’s Worst Nightmare”. Hannibal Barca: an ambitious warrior with strategy skills perhaps surpassing history’s most effective military leaders. We are currently reading about Hannibal’s most outrageous achievement – crossing the Alps with 100,000 soldiers and 40 elephants. Interesting fact – when all was said and done – the Alps crossed and the war with Rome over (this would be the second Punic war – and isn’t PUNIC is such a weird word?) – only 1 elephant remained. (HEARTBREAK) (but isn’t the painting elegant? We LOVE it and we’ve ordered a poster of it.)

My son and I wanted to know more, so we also read “Unsolved Mystery: Where did Hannibal get his War Elephants?” from the Ancient Origins website (ancient-origins.net). This excellent short article: highly recommended.

About Elephants – we are reading from Cheryl Bardoe’s book, “Mammoths and Mastodons – Titans of the Ice Age” (titan – vocab). Absolutely text-book worthy. A mini-mini sampling of what we’ve learned:

elephant (mammoth/mastodon) tusks are “ringed”, similar to a tree trunk. Layers of ivory are added every day and reveal all sorts of stuff, like the elephant’s age, whether the female gave birth, food consumed, and the climate.
The remains of Columbian mammoths have been found in Texas! It seems so strange to us that these prehistoric creatures have walked where we walk. Crazy.

Large Pictures – Here is an abrupt change of topic: my son and I love looking at the ridiculous inventions of Rube Goldberg. However, Goldberg’s illustrations are so detailed, it is difficult for two people to absorb everything while sharing a book. So, we have found a most useful vehicle for enjoying the engineering shenanigans of Mr. Goldberg: a wall calendar! A big calendar page is the perfect size for us to appreciate every nuance of Goldberg’s contraptions.

And more large pictures! (at Le Fictitious Local Diner) – A large picture frame (3′ x 4′) has been installed on the wall next to the cash register at Le Fictitious Local Diner to showcase EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH.

If the diner employs 3 excellent cooks and 5 efficient and really nice waitresses, over the course of 4 years, how many times might each employee be designated as “employee of the month”? If the recognition comes with an honorarium (vocab) of $50, how much will the diner budget for this per year, and how much should each employee accrue (vocab) over the course of the 4 years? Lastly, if the diner spends $15 to get a glossy print of each EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH, how much will the diner spend on the photos in a year? (semi-trick question: some employees may be declared EOTM more than once in a year, and there is no need for duplicate photos, no sir, not at $15 a print). (answer at bottom of post)

The Elephant in the Living Room – music to celebrate the largest terrestrial (vocab) animal:

Baby Elephant Walk, composed by iconic American composer Henry Mancini in 1961 for the movie “Hitari”. This piece won a Grammy in 1962.

Pink Elephants on Parade, from the 1941 Disney movie, Dumbo, composed by Oliver Wallace and Ned Washington. This movie segment received a bit of bad press, as many thought a film for children should not glorify hallucinations resulting from the mixing of the elephant’s water with champagne. Ya know, this footage IS sort of disturbing.

The Elephant, from Camille Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals”, composed in 1886. The orchestra’s double bass perfectly matches the heavy lumbering steps of the elephant.

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH

(story problem answers: 6 times, $600, $300, $120)

Working for Peanuts

We begin our botany unit: “George Washington Carver – Ingenious Inventor”, another “Graphic Library” book, this one by Olson/Tucke. (These books are pretty fun, formatted comic-book style, including a surprising amount of interesting information. Not bad, not bad at all). Anyway, George Washington Carver, FATHER OF THE PEANUT INDUSTRY, has won our hearts: he was focused, deep thinking, moral (vocab), inventive, industrious, and profoundly generous. But back to the botany angle: Carver ended up with three patents for peanut oil utilization (hardly representative of his many many many inventions and contributions). We spent a few minutes wondering what Carver’s scientific response would have been to the present day widespread peanut allergy crisis. We also decided that we wanted to know more about other botanists (vocab), so books on Gregor Mendel and Luther Burbank have been ordered.

Story problem time – the SUMMERTIME SWEETHEART SODA SPECIAL at Le Fictitious Local Diner: Hoping to entice the after-movie date crowd, the diner has run a midnight ice-cream soda special (a large-sized soda with two straws and a side of fries) every Friday and Saturday, since June 1st. Well! This has been so popular that the diner went through two boxes of straws (1000 straws to the box) in June alone! If the special is priced at $5.00, how much did the diner gross on the special in June? If the cost per serving works out to $2.00, how much did the diner net from this special in June? Extraneous question: if a box of 1,000 straws costs $17, what is the price per straw (round up)? (answers at bottom of post)

New fiction reading: We are intrigued by “Gabby Duran and the Unsittables” by Elise Allen and Daryle Conners. This book is original and refreshing, with new concepts and vocabulary all over the place. The introductory adventure involves a movie production (so new words: set, line, soundstage, props); subsequent adventures involve INTERGALACTICS. Adding to this, protagonist Gabby Duran, is a high schooler intent on being an orchestra soloist with her French Horn (and consider us admonished via the internet; we’ve learned that this instrument is properly referred to as the HORN, not the French Horn). So, do you expect us to let it go at that? Our choice for classical music listening last night focused upon compositions that showcased the HORN. We wanted to appreciate the deep, comfortable, warm echo-y sound of Gabby’s horn.

Our inspiration for classical music listening last night – Gabby Duran’s French Horn:

– George Frederick Handel’s Water Music, Movement 2, from Water Music Suite No. 2, composed in 1717 to humor King George I, who desired music for a concert on the River Thames. My son and I love this jaunty full-of-energy fanfare:

– Gustav Holst’s Venus, from The Planets, composed in 1916. “Venus, the Bringer of Peace”, begins with a horn solo, and the horn provides the backbone for this L O N G dreamy movement (just a teeny touch boring compared to the rest of the planets in the suite) (but very restful, if you need to fall asleep) (and sort of sad, too) (OK! Not our favorite, but still a good “front and center” for the horn):

– Maurice Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, first written for piano in 1899, then orchestrated by Ravel in 1910. This is a slow processional dance, with the horn taking center stage for the introduction. An excellent choice for anyone seeking background music for a good hard cry:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers: $5,000, $3,000, 2 cents per straw)

Inventors Invent

Patents and Inventions – every night for the past few weeks my son and I have looked forward to opening Travis Brown’s book, “Popular Patents”. We’ve read about patents issued for the adding machine, barbed wire, the moveable-frame beehive, billiard balls, bottle caps, cannons, the safety elevator, fertilizer, frozen foods, glass bottles, helicopters, and the zipper. What we love is that each story has some crazy angle (like how zippers were called “hookless fasteners” until an order for 150,000 units were placed by the Goodrich Company for their “Zipper Boots”). And we continue to notice how EVERY single story reveals inventors that carry patents for MULTIPLE non-related items. They cannot seem to stop: inventors invent!

Speaking of Fertilizer (first US patent for artificial fertilizer granted in 1859) – we read through (OH MY GOSH) “TOILET – How It Works”, meticulously illustrated by David Macaulay. This is a quick little book that can give EVERYBODY a basic knowledge of their toilet and a HUGE appreciation for every city’s wastewater treatment plant (on behalf of all clueless citizenry, thank you wastewater treatment plant workers) (possibly a type of employment that might be worse than being a middle-school bus driver).

Yoohoo! Vikings! We are reading through another Graphic Library (think glorified comic book) offering, this one about the Vikings, “Lords of the Sea – the Vikings Explore the North Atlantic”. My, these were a hardy people. We are finding it interesting to put the Viking explorations to North America in timeline context with the likes of Christopher Columbus and the Mayflower Pilgrims. And BTW, we’ve learned that Vikings never wore helmets with horns.

Reading for fun – My husband and I enjoy the screenwriting of Anthony Horowitz (think “Foyle’s War”), so when I found out that he wrote for the young adult level, I knew my son and I would want to give this a try. We have started his book, “The Falcon’s Malteser”. Lots of things to explain to my son as we read along (starting with the title), but this is a very fun, very clever detective novel. Perfect level for my son.

Who’s Cooking at Le Fictitious Local Diner? (story problem) – in August, the diner is offering two week-long (Monday through Friday) cooking camps; one for 7th and 8th graders and one for high school students. The class fee is $200 per student and includes lunch every day and a chef hat. There is room for 10 students in each camp. If it costs the diner $4 for each lunch, and $50 for cooking materials for each student for a week, and a chef’s hat costs $6 each, how much will the diner spend on each camper? At the end of camp, how much will the diner have netted? (answer at bottom of post)

Only Fun Music Allowed (our classical music theme last night) –

“Dance of the Hours” (note: this piece has a LONG 2 minute intro – the high voltage fun begins about 7.5 minutes into piece), from the opera “La Gioconda” (1880) by Amilcare Ponchielli. Even though this music was hilariously and successfully used in Disney’s “Fantasia” and Allen Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”, we were sorry to learn that “La Gioconda” is actually a heart-wrenching tragedy. But anyway:

“Chicken Reel”, written in 1910 by Joseph Daly (and used in several animated cartoons to depict rollicking farm life), and arranged for orchestra by LeRoy Anderson in 1946. Anderson had so much fun with this – beginning with the ridiculously grand aggressive Paso Doble introduction. Great piece:

“The Pink Panther”, the iconic Henry Mancini piece composed in 1963. (My son and I love the triangle action.) This short film clip showcases Henry Mancini as conductor, as well as bits of Pink Panther cartoon magic:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answers: $76, $2,480)

Jane’s Cool School

My adult son has autism. He is non-verbal. This blog is about our learning-at-home program.

Le Fictitious Local Diner

Rootin’ Tootin’

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Salient?

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It’s All Fun!

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2016 – Gone, but not forgotten

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So Cool

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Old Business

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Le Menu du Jour

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The Larger Picture

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Working for Peanuts

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Inventors Invent

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