Reading Comprehension

I did not watch the Oscars, mostly because I hadn't seen any of the nominated movies.  (Sad, I know, but when movies give you headaches, they're just not worth it.)

I do plan on seeing 10,000 B.C., 'cause it's by the guys who did Stargate and Independence Day.  Especially now that there are more trailers, and they are showing the pyramids.  I haven't made up my mind about the now-delayed Star Trek, and I'm sure I'll see The X-Files, but that'll probably be it until Half-Blood Prince comes out.

Anyhow, I did flip onto it in time to see the People We've Lost montage, and was interested to note that I recognized very few people this year -- probably because many people were behind-the-scenes folks.

I was a little taken aback when Roy Scheider was not shown, but, being a reasonable TiVo owner, I rewound to the beginning, intent to look for him.

And then I noticed that the montage was from January '07 to January '08.  Roy Scheider died in February.

So, I went, "Hmph," and went about life, figuring that he'd show up next year.

And then I read this, on imdb.com:

Some analysts were suggesting that in the haste to mount Sunday night's 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast following the writers' strike, the show's writers failed to research their material sufficiently. That might have accounted for the omission of some names from the annual list of the "departed." Several writers immediately noticed the fact that Roy Scheider, who died on Feb. 10, was overlooked, as was Brad Renfro who died on January 15. A spokeswoman for the Academy said that Scheider's death came too recently to be included and of Renfro, she said, "Unfortunately we cannot include everyone." (my emphasis)

Okay, the Brad Renfro thing...whatever.

But I find it very, very ironic that somebody complaining of "lack of research" didn't include in their own research...I dunno...watching the montage and reading the dates?

Spring Fever

I love my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I really do. For better or for worse, it's when a lot of things begin to click -- particularly in the late fifth-early sixth graders.

There's just one problem.

The giant cloud of hormones that begins to hover over the room right around this time of year.

Superhero came from home upset but pulled himself together. The Boss was flouncing around. Sleeping Beauty was playing dumb all morning, waiting for people to do stuff for her, and then swinging her jacket around and saying "Toro! Toro! Toro!" to Aide S. Bulldozer was grumpy (but he has a rash all over his body; I'd be grumpy too).

And PH spent all afternoon wailing in his Ridiculous Baby Voice. I mean, all afternoon. Aide S would get him simmered, then he'd ramp right back up again.

However, we continued to work on our presidential primaries book -- we've just now finished with Super Tuesday (yikes) -- and it's been a huge success.

(I'll take what I can get.)

Angel can name (as in, I hold up a picture and ask, "Who is this?") Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee. She just today identified that Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. We're working on "Republican."

(She also came in today and said, "Did you watch the news on Friday?"

"Probably," I said. "Did you?"

"Yes!" She grinned, all excited. "They said Obama has the most points."

"You mean from the primaries?"

"Uh huh."

"What about Hillary Clinton?"

"She has to get more points or she'll lose."

Squee!!!!

Then, as we were filling out our books today, we came across Mitt Romney several times (still Super Tuesday, ya know).

"But Miss Spoowriter?" she said, frowning. "He quit."

(I, at no point, had told the kids that. Ever.)

"You're right; he did. But these happened before he quit."

"Why he quit? He won a lot."

"You're right; he did win a lot. I'm not sure why he quit."

Double squee!)

PH can name Barack Obama and can find Hillary Clinton.

The Boss and Sleeping Beauty can find a picture of Barack Obama without having one to match, and can name him from his picture.

Bulldozer can identify Hillary Clinton as "The Girl" and can match pictures of all the candidates.

Superhero and M can find Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton versus each other, with prompts (e.g. "Find Hillary Clinton -- the girl.")

Mr. Voice and Elastigirl are both finding the girl consistently, given both blank distracters and other candidates as distracters.

And we've only been doing this for a couple of weeks! Woo-hoo!