Fashion Week 2012: 'Style Moderne' Rules the Runway in Vivid Geometrics and Bold Colors

Carolina Herrera

Art Deco or 'Style Moderne' seems to be making a comeback for Spring. Popularized back in the 1920s, dresses were basically tubular: creative seaming, draping, embellishments and abstract, graphic design were added to define the style.

With it's beginnings in Paris, 'style moderne' flourished internationally throughout the 1930s and into the World War II era influencing all areas of design, including architecture (think Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center) interior design, industrial design, fashion and jewelry as well as painting, graphic arts and film. The style represented elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity and drew inspiration from ancient Egyptian and Aztec forms.

And now it's back! Donna Karan showed many tribal prints in her collections but a few pieces had subtle hints of art deco. Carolina Herrera, BCBG Max Azria, Tory Burch, Derek Lam and Alice + Olivia were more obviously smitten with the trend.  

Here's a few from yesterday and today's shows:

BCBG Max Azria

Tory Burch

Alice+Olivia

Fashion Week 2012: As The End of Summer Nears, Fashionistas Look Forward to Next Spring; Loving the 'Little White Dress'

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week started last week but the main shows happened yesterday, today and will continue as the week progresses. Using the website Style.com  I linked to several designer shows that I like and noticed some tangents among them and style directions where we might be headed after the long, upcoming winter.

Today's shows included Carolina Herrera (always a favorite for me) and another favorite, Donna Karan. Yesterday Diane von Furstenberg and Derek Lam previewed their collections. I'll go back to some of these designers as the week goes on but today I'll focus on the 'little white dress', perhaps the warm weather equivalent of the 'little black dress'.

Here are a couple of standouts:




Donna Karan, left.

 

Diane von Furstenberg, right.

Derek Lam, below

       

L.A.M.B mini dress, right.

Carolina Herrera, below.

My 9-11 Recollection

There are a million or more stories about 9-11 and today I've heard and reheard many. Most are dramatic, all are sad. I have one too, neither dramatic nor sad...it just is what it is and I thought I'd write it here as a matter of record mostly just for myself. As we sit here this evening watching a recounting of the day, I realize how much we lost, how much we've changed and how little we gained. Here then is what happened to my family that day:

In 1990, I went back to work after being a stay-at-home mom for 14 years. A graphic designer by profession, I had worked in Manhattan for several years before having my first child. By 1990, I had three children and had the opportunity to go back to work part time for our local newspaper, The Staten Island Advance. I was to be an art director and would enter the news business for the first time at the age of 40. My hours and responsibilities at the paper increased rapidly and by 2000, I had attained the position of the lead art director for the paper. My children, now that much older, were self sufficient and my thoughts turned to returning to Manhattan to work. I love New York City and missed the energy and excitement that the city provides.

The Word Trade Center concourse prior to September 11.

I started to job search and after about three weeks and several interviews, I was offered an art director position at The Wall Street Journal. The Journal was located downtown at 1 World Financial Center directly across from 2 World Trade Center. I had never worked downtown but for those of us living in Staten Island, the location was ideal. In December of  2000, I found myself getting off the X1 bus from the Island which stopped conveniently in front of the Century 21 Department store on Church Street. An entrance to the Trade Center was directly across from the store and I learned how to navigate the underground maze of stores, eateries and escalators that comprised the shopping concourse. There was an indoor  bridge that crossed over West Street into the beautiful palm-treed Winter Garden located in the heart of the Financial Center. From there it was a short walk to my building. This became my routine.

Because I was the newest art director, when it came time to choose summer vacations, I offered to defer mine until after Labor Day. My week off would start the second week of September and my husband and I made plans to go to Bermuda, departing Newark Airport on on Monday, September 10, 2001 the same day my son started his first real job at a midtown accounting firm. My daughter, the oldest, was also working in midtown. The youngest was still in college and was home.

The weather that week was beautiful in New York and just as nice in Bermuda. We spent the first day at the beach and looked forward to a relaxing couple of days. On September 11, instead of having breakfast in the hotel dining room with my husband, I stayed in bed watching 'Good Morning America'. Near the end of the show, the first report came in about a small plane hitting one of the towers. As the show continued past it's scheduled time and the reports became more dire, I dressed and walked to the restaurant to let my husband know. By that time, the news was spreading around the hotel and we headed, like most everyone else, back to our rooms to watch the broadcasts and to try to make contact with our children. I worried about them even though they didn't work in the area. I thought too about my office. Our desks were on the World Trade Center side but most of us didn't need to be in until 11 a.m. As we watched, we had a sense of the seriousness of what was happening back in New York, but at that early hour things were still sketchy.

The Trade Center concourse after the attack.

Calling home became an odyssey but by early afternoon, our children were accounted for. We were lucky enough not to lose anyone close to us, but discovered as the days went on, the devastating losses that some acquaintances and fellow Staten Islanders experienced. By the following day, we were itching to get out of Bermuda but flights were grounded everywhere. My husband and I became fixtures in the bar at the Elbow Beach Hotel, not to drink, but to spend hours watching their large screen TV. We weren't alone of course...it was standing room only. In all of the news reports, though, the fate of The Wall Street Journal offices was never mentioned. We never went back to the beach.

On Friday, an Air Canada flight opened up. We hastily packed and headed to the airport only to find thousands of would be vacationers trying to do the same thing. But as luck would have it, we we able to get on the flight and by early evening arrived in Toronto. There were no rental cars available, the trains were sold out. By late evening, we had secured a bus heading to New York's Port Authority. The prospect of a 13 hour ride was decidedly unappealing but it was truly the only way home...and that was where we wanted to be.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, September 16, we finally arrived in New York, eerily quiet and devoid of people, not at all like the city I know so well.



Going back to work on Sunday, I was relocated with my fellow journalists to New Jersey for almost a year.  I wanted to work in Manhattan. I was back in the suburbs.... but that was a small inconvenience as it turned out. By now, we all have realized the impact of that day: two wars, shattered families, financial chaos and so much death.

I was proud of my family who collected themselves in our absence and got home safely. I was proud of my paper for getting an impossible job done. I was proud of my city and my country for banding together and bouncing back from pure devastation, pure evil. While in Bermuda, the shop and restaurant owners were terrifically comforting to those of us from New York. My old paper, The Staten Island Advance, did a wonderful job of profiling the 274 Islanders who lost their lives that day.

Ten years later, it's still a moment, one we will never forget, and as I watch the TV coverage of the anniversary, a tear still comes easily to the eye.

Never forget. Never forget.

Reviewing An Old TV Series: 'The Winds of War' and 'War and Remembrance' Are World War 2 Sagas Worth Seeing Again

The Henry family from 'The Winds of War.'

Some cast members changed in the sequel 'War and Remembrance'.

Back in the late 1970s I was privileged to work for the publishing house of Simon and Schuster. Located in the heart of New York City across from St. Patrick's Cathedral with side windows overlooking the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink, I was unconsciously living a 'Mad Men' kind of existance (without the booze of course) for the three plus years I worked there.

Besides the prestige of the company and the fancy address, one of the best parts of the job was the accessibility to Simon and Schuster books and their paperback division Pocket Books, where I actually worked. Each month, Pocket Books published about 30 titles, many of them were reprints along with some paperback editions of best-selling novels. Simon and Schuster/Pocket Books had many famous titles: Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the Harold Robbins series, Agatha Christie series, lots of movie tie-ins and a couple of the Watergate tell-all books including 'All The President's Men.' Being a reader with a lot of friends and family who also loved to read, I was pretty popular back then since all of the paperbacks were free to employees.

Herman Wouk

Two favorite books that were published in paperback during my years at Pocket Books was a family saga set before and during World War II. They were written by Herman Wouk noted for many best-selling novels including 'The Caine Mutiny' which won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize. The first book 'The Winds of War' was published in 1971 followed by 'War and Remembrance' in 1978. Both novels were historical fiction following an American Naval family led by the main character Captain Victor 'Pug' Henry.

The novels shift between storytellers: the viewpoint of Captain Henry, a historical account of the events of the war, and a counterpoint by a fictional member of Hitler's military staff, General Armin von Roon. A decade later, the books were made into a highly anticipated and successful ABC TV series. The series won several Golden Globes.

There have been many great World War II books and movies. 'The Pacific', 'The Great Escape', 'The Pianist', 'Saving Private Ryan and 'Schlindler's List' come quickly to mind but none capture the sweeping effects of the war — before, during and after —on this ordinary American family who was the right place at the wrong time. Wouk's thirteen years of research and skillful composition is apparent in the seriousness with which the war both in the Pacific and European theaters are treated. Uncatalogued boxes of his research papers for the novels reside at Columbia University in New York.

When summer comes around and reruns rule the airwaves, my husband and I usually look for a series to satisfy our TV addiction during the hiatus. A couple of years ago we purchased the box set of "The Winds of War'. This year we purchased the sequel 'War and Remembrance'. Not being a qualified critic, I can safely say that there is some seriously bad acting in both parts. I won't name names, you can judge for yourself, but don't let that deter you from giving this memorable saga a try. If you didn't see it back in the 80s, you are in for a real treat but we enjoyed it just as much watching it again.

The books of course are even better. Both books and the multi-part TV mini series are available at Amazon. We went with the VHS tapes to save some money but the series is also available in the DVD format.

Cast 
(With changes made for War and Remembrance)

Robert Mitchum ... Victor 'Pug' Henry
Ali MacGraw ... Natalie Jastrow (Replaced by Jane Seymour, below right)
Jan-Michael Vincent ... Byron Henry (Replaced by Hart Bochner, below right)
John Houseman ... Aaron Jastrow (He was replaced by John Gielgud)
Polly Bergen ... Rhoda Henry (left)
Lisa Eilbacher ... Madeline Henry (Replaced by Leslie Hope)
David Dukes ... Leslie Slote
Topol ... Berel Jastrow
Ben Murphy ... Warren Henry (Replaced by Michael Woods)
Peter Graves ... Palmer 'Fred' Kirby
Jeremy Kemp ... Brigadier General Armin Von Roon
Ralph Bellamy ... President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Victoria Tennant ... Pamela Tudsbury
Wolfgang Preiss ... Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch
William Woodson ... Narrator
Dragomir Stanojevic-Bata Kameni
Günter Meisner ... Adolf Hitler (Replaced by Stephen Berkoff)
Reinhard Kolldehoff ... Hermann Goering
Werner Kreindl ... Colonel General Franz Halder
Rainer Penkert ... Grand Admiral Erich Raeder

Alexander Kerst ... Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
Joachim Hansen ... Field Marshal Alfred Jodl
Howard Lang ... Winston Churchill
Anton Diffring ... Joachim von Ribbentrop
Timothy Stack ... Yeoman Ryan
Barry Morse ... Wolf Stoller
Michael Logan ... Alistair Tudsbury (Replaced by Robert Morse)
John Carter ... Colonel William Forrest
Tom McFadden ... Hugh Cleveland
Roy Poole ... Harry Hopkins
Deborah Winters ... Janice Lacouture Henry (Replaced by Sharon Stone)
Joseph Hacker ... Lt. Carter 'Lady' Aster
Allan Cuthbertson ... Major General Tillet
Scott Brady ... Captain Red Tully

Film Errors (from IMDB Website)

• There is no cliff overlooking Pearl Harbor, as shown in the last scene.
• The modern maple leaf Canadian flag is seen in scenes shot in London. This flag was adopted in 1965. Prior to that the Red Ensign was the flag of Canada.
• Throughout the mini-series, set from 1939 - 1941, Captain Henry is shown wearing the Bronze Star Medal on his Navy uniform. The Bronze Star Medal didn't exist until 1944.
• Graphic near the beginning of Part 6 when President Roosevelt boards the train for Hyde Park New York, lists the location as "Silver Springs, Maryland". The intended city is "Silver Spring, Maryland".
• The series takes place in the late 1930s. At the horse race in Italy, people are wearing Adidas shoes and 1970s clothing. Most of the women in Warsaw have 1970s and 1980s dresses and hairstyles; only Ali McGraw and other speaking characters are in period clothing. At Warren's wedding, all of the bridesmaids have late '70s/early '80s dresses and feathered hair.
• When Pug and Pam speak over the telephone in London, Pug's telephone has a modern coiled cord, not a '40's-era straight cord.
• When Pug and Pam dine at the Savoy, a wine bottle appears on the table and all the wine glasses suddenly fill between shots.
• As Pug and Palmer talk before dinner, Pug is holding his drink with one hand, then with both between shots; a moment later, Palmer is holding his with his left hand, then suddenly is sipping it, then repeats.
• When Natalie and Aaron go to the Coliseum, Natalie has her arm under Aaron's, then as Rabinowitz approaches, in a rear shot they're suddenly standing apart.
• As the U-boats are submerging after the convoy confrontation it is clear that the footage of the subs surfacing was simply used in reverse. You can even see the Wolf Pack Commanders sub submerging while going backwards.
• When Commander Henry is assigned to convoy duty, he is seen on the bridge with other officers and sailors, all wearing talkers helmets. Only talkers wore them (this type of helmet allows the wearer to use earphones). Everyone else should have been wearing regular helmets.
• In the final scenes, Capt. Henry drives the 1940 Lincoln Continental up to the non-existent cliff (previous entry) and stops the car on a dirt road with the wheels straight forward. He then gets out of the car. In the last helicopter shot of Henry and the car, the Lincoln is now off the dirt road, in soft soil and the front wheels are turned to the right.
• BB 62 is identified as the USS Iowa. BB 62 is the USS New Jersey. The USS Iowa is BB 61.
• Adolf Eichmann never rose above the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the S.S. However, late into the mini-series, his character appears as a full SS-Colonel.
• While Byron and Pug are standing on the deck of the USS Iowa, the 50-star Navy Jack is seen over Byron's right shoulder instead of the 48-star flag that should have been flying.
• Torpedoes are fired at 3-4 second intervals, then shown running side by side in the water.
• When Byron meets Rhoda in Hollywood the sign on the hill overlooking Hollywood should say "Hollywoodland" not simply Hollywood. The 'land' part of the sign wasn't torn down until 1948 or 49.
• General Arnim von Roon's rank changes up and down throughout the mini-series. In June 1942, the narrator announces him as Major General von Roon. In later episodes in 1944 and 1945 he is demoted to the rank of Brigadier General. No German generals were ever demoted, even when falling out of favor with Hitler.
• The U.S.S. Northampton, as seen here, has one gun turret forward and two aft; the real Northampton had two turrets forward and one aft.
• The conning tower structure of the Devilfish, seen in December 1941, did not become standard on U.S. submarines until early to mid-1943.
• When Byron and Slote walk down the sidewalk in Berlin, the sign on the gray building behind them says Gradska Stedionica (Serbo-Croatian for Municipal Savings Bank), showing the scene was shot in the former Yugoslavia.
• During the Battle of Britain scenes, Air Chief Marshal Dowding (Head of Fighter Command) is incorrectly referred to twice as 'Air Vice Marshal'. Air Vice Marshal is 2 ranks lower than Air Chief Marshal. However, he is seen wearing correct rank insignia for Air Chief Marshal which is 1 row of broad black/blue braid, and 3 rows of medium black/blue braid around the cuffs of the uniform jacket.
• During the scene where Captain Henry flies in the RAF bombing raid on Berlin, the aircrew keep calling him 'Admiral' as they were mistakenly told he was an Admiral at the briefing. Even if this had taken place, all officers are addressed as 'Sir' by ranks junior in the RAF. They would have addressed him as 'Sir' not 'Admiral'.

Trivia from IMDB

• Herman Wouk's script ran 962 pages and contained 1785 scenes. It was shot in 267 locations, in six countries and on two continents, and took 34 months to film and 12 more to edit. There were about 50,000 costumes, and Robert Mitchum alone had 112 changes. When the cameras stopped, producer/director Dan Curtis had one million feet (185 hours) of film, which he cut down to 81000 feet. That was about 15 hours of air time (minus commercials).
• The bombing of Pearl Harbor was shot at a naval base in Port Hueneme, California, and the navy only allowed four days of filming
• The attack on Pearl Harbor sequence began filming on December 7 - the anniversary of the actual historical attack.
• Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw were considered too old for their respective parts by many fans of the books and production executives, but director and producer Dan Curtis insisted on their being cast.
• A federal jury in Los Angeles decided on 3 June 1991 that the "Winds of War" theme had actually been plagiarized from John Woodbridge, a professor of history at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, who had filed suit in 1986 claiming the theme was actually a song called "Sans Vous" ("Without You"), which he had composed in 1965.
• Barry Morse, Michael McGuire,Sky Dumont, and actress/producer Barbara Steele Heinz Weiss and Leo Gordon would all return for the sequel, 'War and Remembrance (1988)', but in different roles.
• Logan Ramsey who played isolationist Senator Ike Lacouture and Warren Henry's father-in-law, is actually Logan Ramsey, the son of Logan Ramsey Sr. who sent out one of the more famous messages in history: "Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill".
• At the time it was made, this was the most expensive television production ever mounted at a cost of US$40 million.
• Television acting debut for 'Ali Macgraw'.
• According to the book 'Movies Made For Television' by Alvin H. Marill, this production was filmed in over 400 filming locations over thirteen months. The book also states that this mini-series was originally intended to run for twelve hours instead of sixteen.
• Television acting debut for Robert Mitchum. 
• Ralph Bellamy plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in this production. Bellamy had played FDR twenty-two years prior to this mini-series in the film Sunrise at Campobello and in the stage version winning Broadway's 1958 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic). Later, Bellamy would reprise his role as FDR in this mini-series' sequel,War and Remembrance.
• Costing over $110 million, it was, at the time, the most expensive mini-series ever.
• Steven Berkoff, who played Adolf Hitler, is Jewish.
• Paramount, who financed 'The (1983) Winds of War', passed on financing this sequel, so ABC paid for it.
• When the series was shown on the ITV network in the UK in the late-1980s, several of the graphic concentration camp scenes were shown out of sequence. This was to ensure they were transmitted after the 9.00pm "watershed". There is an unwritten rule that potentially "offensive" images are never shown before this time.
• John Gielgud takes over the role of Aaron Jastrow from John Houseman. Gielgud was one of several actors who passed on the role of the law professor in The Paper Chase before Houseman was cast.
• Sir John Gielgud worked 8 months on this project.
• The scenes at Hitler's Reich Chancellery in Berlin were actually shot in and around the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
• E.G. Marshall previously played General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike. This is also his second time in a Herman Wouk adaptation. He previously played the prosecutor in The Caine Mutiny.

Check out a Facebook page dedicated to 'Winds of War' fans!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27027741658

Getting Schooled on School; 50 Kids In A Classroom? No Problem; 'Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally' and Other Educational Trivia

Back in the 1950s when I started school, the first day was a highly anticipated and exciting event. A few weeks prior, our dark green pleated jumpers and crisp white blouses with peter pan collars would arrive by mail in a brown box and the countdown would begin. My mother would take us shopping for green knee high socks and sensible brown shoes and pretty much that was it for the entire school year. We were Catholic school students and despite the lack of trendy clothes and pretty back-to-school dresses, our uniforms were a source of great pride.

The photo above is not mine but was typical of Catholic school classrooms back in the day. The only thing missing from this photo was the lone teacher of these 50+ kids, most likely a nun, who ruled the classroom autonomously with only a wooden blackboard pointer in hand as a deterrent for would-be 'cut-ups'. There were no aides, no compartmentalization of subjects, no free periods.  She had you and you had her from 8:15 A.M. to 3 P.M. Seriously, at the end of the day they must have been exhausted! Back then, Catholic schools were 90% religious teachers and 10% lay teachers. Now that ratio is reversed with many Catholic schools 100% lay teachers. 

Today, most school classes are typically in the 25-30 pupil range, many of the younger grades have aides, most teachers get free periods to get some homework done, blackboard pointers have gone the way of the fountain pen and smart boards rule the classrooms!

So on these days of getting back to school I thought I'd present some school facts to ponder. I've included a list of high school movies and a recommended reading list in case you want to get in touch with your inner Ferris Bueller. Anyone...anyone....

United States School Facts: K through 12 

(based on 2009-10 data)

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 13,809

TOTAL NUMBER OF K-12 SCHOOLS: 132,656
Elementary: 88,982
Secondary: 27,575
Combined: 14,837
Other: 1,262

TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 98,706
Elementary: 67,148
Secondary: 24,348
Combined: 5,632
Other: 1,587

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: 5,453

TOTAL NUMBER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS: 28,220
Elementary: 16,370
Secondary: 3,040
Combined: 8,810

TOTAL NUMBER OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: 7,400
Elementary: 5,960
Secondary: 1,080
Combined: 370

TOTAL K-12 ENROLLMENT: 55,235,000
Elementary: 38,860,000
Secondary: 16,375,000

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 49,266,000
Elementary: 34,286,000
Secondary: 14,980,000

TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1,729,963

TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 5,165,280
Elementary: 2,462,980
Secondary: 850,750
Combined: 1,851,550

TOTAL HOME SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 1,508,000 (estimate) or 2.9% (estimate) of America's school population

TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 2,224,470
Elementary: 1,457,960
Secondary: 620,840
Combined: 145,680

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 3,219,458
Elementary: 1,758,169
Secondary: 1,234,197
Unclassified: 227,092

TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS: 72,400

TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS: 456,270
Elementary: 207,230
Secondary: 69,240
Combined: 179,800

TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 146,630
Elementary: 94,800
Secondary: 42,400
Combined: 9,430

PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 15.7:1
Elementary: 15.5:1
Secondary: 16.2:1
Combined: 13.9:1

PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 11.1:1
Elementary: 12.1:1
Secondary: 11.9:1
Combined: 9.6:1

CATHOLIC SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 14.7:1
Elementary: 15.3:1
Secondary: 14.0:1
Combined: 11.3:1

TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDITURES: $596.6 billion
Current Expenditures: $506.8 billion
Instruction: $308.2 billion
Support Services: $178.2 billion
Food Services: $19.2 billion
Enterprise Operations: $1.1 billion
Capital Outlay: $65.7 billion
Interest on School Debt: $15.7 billion
Other Current Expenditures: $8.3 billion

AVERAGE DISTRICT PUBLIC SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $12,744

AVERAGE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $8,001

AVERAGE PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION: $8,549
Elementary: $6,733
Secondary: $10,549
Combined: $10,045

AVERAGE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TUITION: $6,018
Elementary: $4,944
Secondary: $7,826
Combined: $9,066

SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS:
Superintendents: $159,634

SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPALS:
High School: $97,486
Middle School/Junior: $91,334
Elementary School: $85,907

SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS:
High School: $79,391
Middle School/Junior: $76,053
Elementary School: $71,192

SALARIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL:
Counselor: $57,800
Librarian: $54,650
School Nurse: $64,260 (average)

AVERAGE TEACHER BASE SALARY:
Public School: $49,630
Private School: $36,250

PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF SALARIES:
Secretaries: $29,850
Accounting Payroll: $34,810
Teacher Aides: $22,000

HOURLY WAGE RATES:
Custodians: $13.74
Cafeteria Workers: $10.93
School Bus Drivers: $13.74
Library Clerks: $12.51

TOTAL FUNDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: $593,061,181,000
Federal: $56.7 billion (9.6% of total)
State: $277 billion (46.7% of total)
Local: $259.25 billion (43.7% of total)

In the 2007–08 school year, there were an estimated 119,150 K–12 schools in the United States: 87,190 traditional public, 3,560 public charter, 180 Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE), and 28,220 private schools. Among these schools, 52 percent of traditional public, 55 percent of charter, 85 percent of BIE-funded, and 19 percent of private schools enrolled students receiving Title I services.

In 2007–08, some 76 percent of public school teachers were female, 44 percent were under age 40, and 52 percent had a master’s or higher degree. Compared with public school teachers, a lower percentage of private school teachers were female (74 percent), were under age 40 (39 percent), and had a master’s or higher degree (38 percent).Pupil/Teacher Ratio

SCHOOL Q&A and Facts

Why is a school bus yellow?
Federal law mandates that school buses be painted that color

What inspired the invention of the glue stick?
The Lipstick

The first box of Crayola brand crayons cost five cents

The average #2 pencil writes 45,000 words.

The earliest pencil erasers were made from bread.

The popular playground game of kickball was invented in the United States.

True or false? A pencil can write in outer space, upside down, and underwater. TRUE

Calcium sulfate is more commonly called chalk.

In 1987 four public schools in Maryland/Washington, D.C started suggesting that students to wear a school uniform. 

Despite the back-to-school sales, consumers actually spend more during December holiday shopping. 

The name of the school where Jack Black (Dewey Finn is his name in the movie) taught is School of Rock.

In 1993 Purdue University students created crayons made of Soybean Oil.

In the movie, Stand and Deliver (based on a true story), Mr. Escalente (the teacher) helps his students achieve amazing success in math.

The lead in a pencil made out of carbon so you can’t get lead poisoning from a pencil lead in your hand because it’s not made of lead!

Identify the source of this quote: “The regular course was Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with; and then the different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
A. T. S. Eliot
B. Lewis Carroll
C. Mark Twain
D. Shakespeare

The latin phrase Robin Williams used to encourage his students when he played an English teacher in the movie “Dead Poet’s Society” is Carpe Diem. It means 'seize the day.'

In what movie did a teacher share his incredible passion for music with his students?
A. Mr. Holland’s Opus
B. An American Symphony
C. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
D. Gentlemen and Players

What famous actor played a student in "Welcome Back Kotter"?
A. Michael Douglas
B. Sean Penn
C. John Travolta
D. Adam Sandlar

In the movie “October Sky” only one teacher understands his special students could actually win what?
A. An Athletic Scholarship
B. The National Science Fair (and a college scholarship)
C. A Seat in the New York Philharmonic
D. A Lead Role in a Play on Broadway

The phrase, “Please excuse my dear, Aunt Sally” is often used to help students remember the order of math operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction.

Which of the following is NOT listed in the book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum?
A. Eating Jelly Beans is Good for You
B. Flush
C. Clean Up Your Own Mess
D. Don’t Hit People

D’Nealian and Zaner-Bloser are two forms of cursive handwriting.

Recommended Booklist: How Many Have Your Read?

My favorite book of all time!!

Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dante Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
Emerson, Ralph Waldo Selected Essays
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Homer The Iliad
Homer The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
London, Jack The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur The Crucible
Morrison, Toni Beloved
O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan Selected Tales
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William Hamlet
Shakespeare, William Macbeth
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles Antigone
Sophocles Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie

High School School Movies

• Hoosiers - 1986
• Rushmore - 1998
• Cooley High - 1975
• American Pie - 1999
• Grease - 1978
• Dead Poets Society - 1989
• The Last Picture Show - 1971
• Rock 'n' Roll High School - 1979
• Peggy Sue Got Married - 1986
• Lucas - 1986
• Carrie - 1976
• Donnie Darko - 2001
• High School - 1968
• Mean Girls - 2004
• Say Anything... - 1989
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off - 1986
• Election - 1999
• Boys N the Hood - 1991
• Clueless - 1995
• American Graffiti - 1973
• Heathers - 1989
• Rebel Without a Cause - 1955
• Dazed and Confused - 1993
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High - 1982
• The Breakfast Club - 1985

Laboring Over Labor Day Trivia, I Discover That Unions Are The Reason for This Seasonal Holiday: Hold the Politicos, Pass The Ketchup

Peter Maguire

Who is the father of Labor Day? 

Matthew
Maguire

Peter McGuire, an Irish-American cabinet maker and pioneer unionist, is considered the Father of the Labor Day holiday, when he proposed a day dedicated to all who labor at a meeting of the Central Labor Union on May 18,1882. Another early labor leader was Samuel Gompers who founded the American Federation of Labor (AF of L).  Matthew Maguire (unrelated to Peter), a machinist and a member of the Knights of Labor, also has a claim on the title. As secretary of the New York City Central Labor Union in 1882, he might have issued the invitation and certainly would have been involved in planning the celebration. 

Why do we celebrate this holiday? 

The roots of Labor Day are in unionism.  It began as a celebration of all of the hard working laborer leading to the fight for fair wages and all of the employee rights enjoyed today.

The first Labor Day parade in Union Square, NYC.

When did Labor Day start? 

In September 1883, New York workers staged a parade up Broadway to Union Square. Few, if any, workers got the day off. Most were warned against marching in the parade with the threat of getting fired. Despite the warning, more than 10,000 workers showed up for the march. Led by mounted police, bricklayers in white aprons paraded with a band playing “Killarney.” When the marchers passed a reviewing stand crowded with Knights of Labor a holiday was born. Twelve years later, on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland, long a foe of organized labor, but under voter pressure, signed a Labor Day holiday bill designating the first Monday in September for the holiday.

How do we celebrate Labor Day?
At one time, Labor Day became the launching pad for Democratic presidential candidates to announce their campaigns. Candidates Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson came to Detroit to jump start their races and woo union support. As big labor’s leaders lost much of their clout with the rank and file, many workers spent the three-day holiday enjoying backyard barbecues, boats and summer cottages: the fruits of their victories. This is how we celebrate today...the holiday is no longer marked by parades and marches for unionism.

Haymarket Riots, 1886.

When was the first labor strike in the United States?
It is thought that the first labor strike in America was in 1836 when a group of Maine fishermen refused to work after not getting paid by the owners of their boats. Other contenders are an 1872 strike when Peter McGuire and 100,000 workers hit the streets in the largest incident the nation had ever seen or perhaps the 1886 Haymarket Riots in Chicago.

What we earn:

• The median annual income for full-time, year-round women workers in 2009 was $36,278 compared to men’s $47,127.1
• In 2008, of the 33,905,000 dual-career couples, wives earned more than their husbands 26.6% of the time.
• In 2010, the median weekly earnings of full-time working women was $669, compared to $824 for men.
• In 2010, the median weekly earnings for women in full-time management, professional, and related occupations was $923, compared to $1,256 for men.
• In 2009, full-time working married women with spouses present had median usual weekly earnings of $708, higher than never married women at $577 or women of other marital status (divorced, separated, or widowed at $646.
• In 2009, married men with spouses had median usual weekly earnings of $936, higher than never married men at $608 or men of other marital status at $761.
• In 2009,  full-time Asian female workers had higher median weekly earnings than women of all other races/ethnicities as well as African-American and Latino men. 

What we do:

• Gaming services workers: 85,000
• Hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists: 718,000
• Chefs and head cooks: 281,000
• Firefighters: 258,000
• Musicians, singers and related workers: 179,000
• Bakers: 183,000
• Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 286,000
• Service station attendants: 96,000
• Farmers and ranchers: 825,000
• Pharmacists: 232,000
• Teachers: 6.5 million

Other Work Data:

• 7.3 million workers have more than one job. 
• "Moonlighters" comprise 5% of workers.
• There are 10.3 million self-employed workers.
• There are 20.3 million female workers in educational, health and social services industries., the most popular field for women,
• There are 11.3 million male workers in manufacturing, the most popular industry among men.
• There are 15.8 million labor union members nationwide.
• 13% of salaried workers belong to unions. 
• The number of people who work at home are approximately 4.5 million.
• Labor force 154.5 million includes the unemployed.
• Unemployment 9.2% (June 2011)
• Main union industries are petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, creative industries, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining, defense, biomedical research and health care services, computers and robotics.
• Among the nation's workers there are 80.0 million men and 69.1 million women who represent 66% of the civilian adult population.

Commuting by the numbers

• The average time it takes an American to commute to work is 24.3 minutes.
• 87.7 %, drive to work
• 77 % drive alone despite rising fuel costs.
• 4.7 % of commuters used public transportation to get to work. This was an increase of about 0.1% from 5 years ago.
• The top cities for public commuting are Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
• Portland, Oregon has the highest percentage of bicycle commuters among large cities with about 3.5% about eight times the national average of 0.4%.
• Boston had the highest percentage of people who walk to work at 13 percent.
• 2.5% of all Americans walk to work.
• 10.7% of workers car pool and 77.3% of those ride with just one other person.
• Commuting times: Four of the five counties that make up New York City have the longest commuting times of all U.S. counties with population of 250,000 or more. Queens County commuting time is 41.7 minutes.  Richmond or Staten Island takes 41.3 minutes, the Bronx takes 40.8 minutes and Kings County or Brooklyn takes 39.7 minutes.
• The average American spends more than 100 hours commuting to work each year. 

Hurricane Flora and Fauna: As Irene Socks the Eastern U.S., Here's a Primer to Learn More About These Troublesome Storms

Palm trees bend but rarely break in a hurricane.

In a highly anticipated and publicized weather event, Hurricane Irene swooped into the New York area last night leaving by morning. By all accounts, Irene was a messy and inconsiderate guest. Leaves, branches and trees littered city and country streets. Water flooded roads, intersections, basements and beaches. The wind whipped up and took down lots of power lines leaving many of us in the dark. The only good thing: with the sales of flashlights, generators and the panic stocking of personal food pantries it just might give the economy a small boost. Maybe.

Tree down on Lighthouse Hill,
Staten Island

But what are these things that cause so much misery and inconvenience? Hurricanes are severe tropical storms with a large low pressure centers producing intense winds and heavy rainfall. They are formed in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico gathering energy as they come in contact with warm ocean waters. Hurricanes form but do not occur in the South Atlantic Ocean because the waters are too cold. Seawater evaporation increases their power. Rotating in a counter-clockwise direction around an "eye", hurricanes have winds of at least 74 miles per hour that damage buildings and trees when they make landfall. The rain, wind and waves combine to wreak havoc in cities, towns and beach fronts in their path.

In that respect, Irene performed admirably. What follows is a primer of hurricane facts and vocabulary words.

Hurricane vocabulary:

• Storm surge: giant walls of water with extremely dangerous heavy waves
• Typhoon: a hurricane of the western Pacific area and the China seas.
• Cyclone: name given to hurricanes in the Indian Ocean.
• Hurricane Hunters: brave aviators who work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). With missions that last about ten hours, the crews pass four to six times through the storm. The planes carry radar, sophisticated computers, and weather instruments that determine characteristics such as temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and wind direction inside the hurricane. The crews also release instruments that measure temperature, air pressure, and wind at different levels as the devices drop through the hurricane toward the ocean. By mission's end, NOAA can warn everyone in the hurricane's path.
• Coastal beach erosion: the wearing away of land, the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage.
• Saffir-Simpson scale: used to classify hurricanes in the United States. It was invented by engineer Herbert Saffir and former National Hurricane Center director Robert Simpson.

Hurricane facts:

• Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean runs from June 1 to November 30.
• Taping your windows in preparation for a hurricane is a waste of time because flying debris will smash a taped window as if the tape weren't there.
• Since 1979, Hurricanes have had alternating male and female names but before that, only female names were used. They are the only weather event that is given personal names. The first hurricane of the year is given a name beginning with the letter “A”.
• The first hurricane with a male name was Hurricane Bob hitting near New Orleans in July 1979.From 1950 to 1952, tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean were identified by the phonetic alphabet (Able-Baker-Charlie-etc.).
• Two hurricanes were named Alice in 1954. One in June and one in December.
• Many hurricanes exist harmlessly in the sea dying there when they pass over areas of cooler water.
• In Australia hurricanes are called willy-willies.
• Hurricanes can also produce tornadoes. They are not as strong as regular tornadoes and last only a few minutes.
• The fastest forward speed for a hurricane was the New England Hurricane of 1938 reported at 70 mph. The forward speed for an average hurricane is less than 20 mph.
• The first hurricane to hit the American Colonies happened on August 25, 1635.
• On September 8, 1900, the United States' worst weather disaster hit Galveston, Texas with more than 8,000 deaths. In a category 4 hurricane, a 15-foot storm surge flooded the island, which, at that time, was less than 9 feet above sea level. Now, the sea level of the island has been raised, and a sea wall has been built to try to protect the city.
• In September of 1928, the Okeechobee hurricane, or San Felipe Segundo hurricane, was a deadly hurricane that struck the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Florida becoming the second recorded hurricane to reach Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale in the Atlantic basin.
• In 1938, a man on Long Island bought a barometer. The instrument signaled a hurricane but thinking it defective the name went back to the store to complain. When he returned, his house had been swept away from a hurricane. The barometer was correct.
• In 1944, the US Navy's Pacific fleet was crushed by Typhoon Cobra, which sank three destroyers and damaged many ships.
• In 1952, Hurricane Fox was a strong and deadly tropical Atlantic cyclone. Hurricane Fox was the first storm to be named in an official weather bureau advisory.
• In 1967, a hurricane in Texas caused more than 140 twisters.
• In 1969, Hurricane Camille wrecked a hotel where a alleged hurricane party was being held and killed 8 people. A TV movie called 'Hurricane' was created out of this story
• In 1970, a hurricane in Pakistan killed more than 300,000 people. A hurricane name is permanently retired and another name replaces it if the storm is really devastating.
• Bangladesh was a country that was created from a hurricane when in 1970, this region of Pakistan was struck by a cyclone with a resulting huge loss of life. The people felt their government did not do enough to help after the disaster so in 1971, they voted to be independent of Pakistan and Bangladesh was born.

Clement Wragge.

• In 1971, Hurricane Ginger lasted for over three weeks.
• In 1989, Hurricane Hugo completely destroyed several forests in South Carolina. 
• In 1992, the costliest hurricane of all time occurred in Florida, It was called Hurricane Andrew.
• In 1995, 11 hurricanes made landfall in the United States. 
• In 1999, Hurricane Floyd was barely a category I hurricane, but it still managed to mow down 19 million trees and caused over a billion dollars in damage.
• in 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area, became the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States.[3] At least 1,836 people died in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.
• September is the busiest month for hurricanes. August is the second busiest.
• Palm trees grow mainly in tropical parts of the world because in strong hurricane winds, their flexible trunks rarely break.
• The word hurricane comes from the Taino Native American word, hurricane, meaning evil spirit of the wind.
• The first time anyone flew into a hurricane happened in 1943 in the middle of World War II.
• A typical hurricane can dump 6 inches to a foot of rain across a region. A slow moving hurricane produces more rainfall and flood damage than faster-moving, more powerful hurricanes.
• Most people who die in hurricanes are killed by the towering walls of sea water that comes inland.
• The man who first gave names to hurricanes was an Australian weather forecaster named Clement Wragge in the early 1900s.
• The planet Jupiter has a hurricane which has been going on for over 300 years. It can be seen as a red spot on the planet. This hurricane on Jupiter is bigger than our Earth. See the oval spot below.