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Wouldn't being on location/embedded actually make her MORE tech savvy? And I feel that that scene set a tone for the entire show so far, Mac is consistently dithering and fretting about something. Her background and experience should make her the coolest cucumber on the show, not someone who goes frantic on a regular basis.

First episode, first season: Mac, who is supposed to be an intelligent, accomplished woman, is a dithering idiot who manages to send an embarrassing personal e-mail to the entire corporate e-mail list. Every episode, both seasons: pretty much everything Maggie does. Several different episodes: women get angry and physically assault the men they're arguing with. Why? Would this happen on a regular basis in real life, in a professional setting? So unlikely.

I felt that the women were particularly underwritten/poorly written in the first season, and was hoping for an improvement in season two. Nope! Just as awful.

Recently finished and Little Brother is San Francisco's "One City One Book" pick for this fall. Cory Doctorow is coming out for a series of events, he'll be speaking at my nephew's high school in a couple of weeks. My nephew and I were laughing the other day, it's supposed to be in the voice of a San Francisco high school student, but the author is so clearly English. He gets a lot of SF details very right, but some of the phrasing is just so very wrong. It's a fascinating book though, sort of upper-level YA, and definitely upper-level paranoia-inducing. Now: to be

I hope you bought them all. You could make everyone here very happy!

Most of the kids on my nephew's high school soccer team are Hispanic. At practice the other day, two girls walked past and one of the kids said to my nephew, Hey, that one would be a good girlfriend for you, she's got freckles, too. And another one said, Man, that's racist, and also, she's his sister.

Night 2 at the Fillmore showed "presale has ended" within about 45 seconds. I was able to keep clicking on Night 1, but kept getting the "not enough tickets available message". Night 1 is just now showing "presale has ended".

Haven't been reading much this year, which makes me sad. Most recently: Tragic. An interesting concept, short stories based (some more loosely than others) on historical source material: letters, trial transcripts, newspapers, etc. A bit pretentious so far. I may warm up to it...

Another thing to factor in to this equation: private schools would have had absolutely no reason to keep your son, unless you were paying specifically for special help. It's easier for them, and makes their test scores look better, etc., to simply not accept students with learning or behavior issues. Public schools aren't perfect, and yes, parents need to advocate for their children, but those programs are available. I can't tell you how many families I know who started off their kids in Catholic schools because they believed they were so much better than the local public schools, and had

I'm not saying this adds up to an extra two months a year, but in a conversation I had this weekend, unrelated to teacher salary/benefits, a friend told me that she is required to do individual assessments of each student in her kindergarten class, once in the fall and again in the spring. Rather than leave the class unattended (or attempt to give them a project to do "on their own", which she knows from 20+ years of experience doesn't really work like that), she and the other kindergarten teacher at her school each take sick leave on those days, so that a substitute can be brought in and the

So very sorry for your loss, Tracy. Much love to you and your family.

I was going to say: fiv. Or maybe nin.

He was a character on The Brady Bunch, right?

Wait, is Mad Men a documentary?

It doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter who Don Draper is, any more than it matters who I am, or who you are.

New guy?

Thank you, sir!

Oh, you'll do just fine around here!

Welcome to VC, Mr. Draper! Laminated Cat is a Loose Fur song, which is often performed by Wilco, sometimes as "Not for the Season": http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/03/the-15-best-non-wilco-jeff-tweedy-songs/ You'll also want to check out http://www.owlandbear.com/wilco-archive/ , particularly the demos at the bottom of the page. (Warning: those links will lead you down a rabbit hole of Wilco-related goodness. I apologize in advance. )

This is one of my favorite things ever posted on VC. I think the decreased need for hard-copy trading contributed to the slow-down around here, too. I had so many good interactions with people through B&Ps and vines. Once it because so easy to either BT or download on-demand, those relationships just weren't being formed anymore.

Best part of that teacher's pictures: year 3, the no mustache experiment.

Ooh, I'd be very interested in something about the Hatfields and McCoys. Let us know if it's any good!

So after the Mitfords and JFK, I decided I couldn't carry John Sayles around with me just yet. Next up then, three slim volumes:

Not exactly YouTube: http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/h52sr1/inside-amy-schumer-abusive-couple At about 1:03: "I hope the next time you go to a concert..."