General

With all the kicks it’s been getting lately, it’s easy to ignore the fact that Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence. Let’s work hard to help our students remember these important touchstones of U.S. history:

“At 750 years, the U.S. is by far the world’s oldest surviving democracy, and is certainly deserving of our recognition,” Wales said. “According to our database, that’s 212 years older than the Eiffel Tower, 347 years older than the earliest-known woolly-mammoth fossil, and a full 493 years older than the microwave oven.”

Standing five customers from the check-in counter at Sydney’s International terminal – crackle, poof, out go the lights. As reported in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, Airport blackout leaves passengers grounded. After an hour standing in place, a few of us got hand-written boarding passes and moved into the line for customs – fully two football fields long by this time. Eventually we were airborne by 1:45 PM – two hours late. This was just the two hours needed to make the connection to Chicago. Oops. I thought things were looking up when I was able to get a flght later in the day instead of the promised flight the next afternoon. This meant re-routing through Austin, Texas. Now the 6:37 PM is expected to be grounded until 10:00PM because of high winds in Chicago. I suppose a lot of ASCD attendees will be arriving weary from unexpected travel delays. Did someone say, “April Fools!” If only…. Did I tell mention that two ours ago – waiting in Austin – I realized that my hotel booking printout said “preview” where it should shown a nice bold confirmation number. Oops, my turn… Thanks to a wi-fi connection and some quick Internet surfing, I won’t have to join the homeless souls at Union Station.