December 8, 2025
The beginning of the sunset as I left Amherst.

Today started off difficult, but by noon it was better and by 1 I was pretty optimistic and glad to be where I was.   David and I went to the Black Sheep for lunch and I had a bagel and lox, cream cheese and capers.  That made me very happy, but what was even better is remembering the final years of my doctorate.  Between the Reading and Writing Program and the Center for International Education in the late 80s I belonged to a really good group of people.  Together we put on several conferences and lead what was called The Literacy Speakers Series which brought people from all over the place to come and speak about new progressive ideas on teaching literacy.  I have a great story about driving to the Boston Airport with Marilyn Gillespie to pick up Brian Street who was flying into the International Airport.   We were so star struck, it could have been Paul or Sting we were meeting.
And in the very first conference we did Denny Taylor and Susan Lytle, who were again stars to us, arrived, took their jackets off and helped us set the place up.  We were wowed by this, wowed by the we are all in this together mentality being shown to us by our elders, our mentors.
The reason the Black Sheep reminded me of so many of those good memories is that it is where we'd all go to drink tea and design our new project.  Some of those people I still see, some I haven't heard about in years and others I'm on fb with  and occasionally catch up on something exciting some one is doing.  FB gives you a false sense of continued intimacy with an old friend.  
Anyway, after lunch we went to the Cinemas and saw Hamnet.  OK, go see it.  Let's talk.  I really liked it but I'm not sure why and it deserves discussion.
Then I drove home and cooked a little dinner and all I want now is to go to sleep.  I'm such a whimp.


On an average day I get 25 hits on this blog.  Today I've gotten over 150.  Why is that?  I also usually get hits from about 4 different countries, today about 15.  I wish there was a way to get feedback.  I still don't know if I will continue this in 2026.    I really want to create something much more interactive.  Any ideas?  




 

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