Today is Sunday, June 8 and there are just 200 days until Christmas.  I have already started getting the Christmas CD’s ready, but the lovely Elaine will not let me play any of them yet.  Today we recognize the birthdays of Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Frank Lloyd Wright and Barbara Pierce Bush.  On this day in 1786 the first commercially-made ice cream was sold in New York, in 1824 the washing machine was patented by Noah Cushing in Quebec and in 1968 Gary Puckett & the Union Gap released “Lady Will Power.”  It is Commonwealth Day in Swaziland and Botswana, Children’s Day in Massachusetts (my mother used to claim that every day was children’s day) and today is the last day of the National Asparagus Festival in Michigan.

I realize it is too late for you to make this year’s festival, but it is never too early to plan for next year.  The National Asparagus Festival is held each year in Oceana County, Michigan, which is known as “The Asparagus Capital of the Nation.”  This year’s list of events boasted a parade, food show and an Arts and Crafts Fair.  Some of the other exciting events included the Scottville Clown Band Mini-Concert, the Asparagus Farm Tour, the Asparagus Dinner and the Entertainment Tent which, on Saturday night, featured “The Rocket Fuel Haulers.”  They have an on-line site where you can purchase “I (heart) Asparagus” bumper stickers, “Spears To You” T-shirts, baseball T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts and other nifty items.  For those of you sitting on the edge of your seat awaiting the announcement – Danielle Kokx was crowned 2014 Asparagus Queen.

Asparagus has been used as a medicine owing to its diuretic properties.  It was pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC.  Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season and dried it for use in the winter.  Only young shoots are commonly eaten: once the buds start to open, the shoots quickly turn woody.

Water makes up 93% of the vegetable’s composition.  It is low in calories and very low in sodium.  It is a good source of Vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium and zinc.  It is also a very good source of dietary fiber, protein, beta-carotene, niacin, vitamins C, E and K, folic acid and chromium.  That is just a partial list of the nutritional properties.  But all of this brings up the main question – Why a national festival?  The answer is simple – Why not?

I have threatened to discuss this next item a number of times.  This past Wednesday night made me decide not to put it off any longer.  That was the night that the faculty of the school where my wife teaches held a dinner to honor the four women, including the lovely Elaine, from that building who are retiring at the end of this school year.  So there I sat, in a room full of teachers, along with the other spouses of the retirees, listening to all these people speak in a language foreign to us mortals.  They talked about students, district policies, core curricula, SGO’s, state testing, etc.  The other husbands and I just sat there feeling like we had been placed in a room with a group of tourists from the Netherlands and told to entertain them.

This type of thing is endemic in the teaching profession.  If there are two teachers in a room, they cannot help themselves, they start talking about teaching.  It is even worse when there is a group of them.  And it does not get any better when they are retired.  They still do it.  We have several friends who are retired teachers.  Whenever we get together, they start talking what I refer to as “that teacher s---.”  In a way, it is simpler for me.  I just sit and nod my head and occasionally interject things like, “Really?” or “Can they do that?” or “And no one notices this?” 

Fortunately for me, I am able to come up with pithy comments that have some relevance to the conversation.  It reminds me of when I was in grammar school and a new student came into my class.  He was from Germany and spoke essentially no English.  So the thinking at the time was to just let him follow someone around and he would learn English as he went along.  Even for the 1950’s this was a poor idea to help him assimilate to life in the US, in general, and our school in particular.  Nonetheless, that was the plan.  He was assigned to me for a while and I did help him learn a little, but not anything they really wanted him to learn.  Fortunately for him, and me, they had him follow someone else.  But I digress …

We have had several parties where all these education people were together at the same time.  They got going talking their teacher stuff and I just sat and watched how animated they got.  Every once in a while I would freshen a drink or make sure the snacks were restocked, but for the most part I just sat and thought about this interesting profession.  When I was working and got together with my co-workers we talked about all sorts of stuff.  Every so often we would mention a particular customer that was familiar to everyone and we would have a laugh over something they did.  Generally, we tried to talk about anything but work.  We figured that if we were not getting paid, we should not be “working.”

This is not so with teachers.  Once a person becomes a teacher, they stay a teacher for life.  It is in their blood and they cannot get away from it.  It consumes them and becomes a part of them.  From a social standpoint it can be somewhat boring for the non-affected individual, but for the teacher, it is an opportunity to talk about something that very few people truly understand – the education of children.

On a serious note let me say that I am proud to be associated with so many teachers, so many people who are concerned about the future of the children they work with.  I have always found it interesting that people who have so much influence on the development of children receive so little respect and, quite frankly, are paid so little for their efforts.

On a less serious side, let me just say, “People, talk about something else occasionally!”

This week our fact tells us that the testicles of an octopus are located in its head.  According to female opinion, it is the exact opposite for human males.