and the cradle will rock

one day, as mrs. armbruster was teaching our 8th grade english class; mr. brooks emerged from his history class in order to confer with her. i couldn't hear what was being said, but as she was listening; she was looking down at the desk of the student closest to her. our school desks in those days were made completely of wood. one could read all kinds of messages which had been left gouged into the surface by previous students. you might find out who loved whom, why someone sucked, or which team ruled. all of a sudden, mrs. armbruster's countenance darkened and she prepared to explode. she looked up, and with the threat of retribution in her voice, demanded to know which grade "van hallen" was in as someone had scratched into the desk surface the proposal that "van halen rules." we truthfully explained that none of us knew where "van hallen" could be found, and she vowed to "get to the bottom of this" matter.

20 years later, i got another dose of similar confusion.

jackson is experiencing some symptoms of asthma. i have had this disease for most of my life, and have unwittingly passed on the defective gene to my son. over night, he was having such difficulty, that we decided to have him use my albuterol inhaler. we took him to doctor duong yesterday and she promptly prescribed some medication for him. jackson informed us that she preferred him to use the nebulizer to get his medication, because it would be hard for him to effectively use a "van haler." i said "somebody get me a doctor."

as we left blockbuster today, j-man and i stopped at the curb, and checked the traffic. after looking both ways, jackson declared that we could go because the "ghost is clear." he was right...i couldn't see one either.