Qu to the ack

Overheard in the Public Garden, from a young woman showing her friend around: And right over there, there's the famous duckling posse.

Cause for alarm?

Should I be concerned that the Red Line tunnel at South Station is filled with smoke?

Something almost not quite like that

This dialogue happened between me and a ten-year-old student who has a pet bird.

Me: OK, that really just needs a little more practice; I can't really say anything else about it. I mean, I can, but I don't need to.
Student: Yeah, you could say that it sounded like it was coming from the bird and that she was trying to talk through her tail!
Me: ...talk through her tail...
Student: It's like in this book (Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men) where this one character says something about "...them sayin' my playin' sounds like a spider tryin' to fart through its ears."
Me: I could say that, but it wouldn't be nice. Or true.
Student: But it would be funny!
Me: Well, yes.

QotD

"I love NEC. It's like basket weaving for musicians, only really hard." --- A cellist friend of mine

Probably not quite appropriate

In a hall where I teach, a 9- or 10-year-old girl complained to her grandmother that the book she'd just picked up was "too hard". I was about to indulge in some gratuitous mental snarkery, when I noticed that the book was "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Yyyyeah, um, let's see if we don't have some Nancy Drew or Babysitters Club for you around here somewhere, dear?

Whoa

OMG, the sight of the inbound train approaching Savin Hill is more than a little alarming.

What Teachers Really Want To Tell Parents

I often consider myself greatly fortunate not to be a classroom teacher, because I simply could not do it, and I have great admiration for those who are and who care enough to do their best.

However, due to certain parental types, their hands are often tied, and some of the best teachers, no matter how much they love their students, are quitting because of the parents.

And as long as I'm writing open letters

Dear sir-who-appears-to-have-seen-better-days,

I don't mind when people don't have money to tip me. I did, however, find it a bit disturbing that you croaked "I don't have any money; this is all I have" and threw a half-smoked (thankfully no longer smoldering) cigarette on the ground at my feet.

I mean, thank you for not throwing it my case, I guess...

Puzzledly,

TAF

Almost right

Dear public school string teachers:

I could not do what you do, and I greatly admire you for it, but please, teach your students the appropriate bow hold for their instruments so I don't have to fix the young violinist who's been using a cello bow hold for a year.

Love,
TAF

(A new student came to me yesterday, and after I watched her play, I asked "Is your teacher a cello player?" *big eyes* "YEAH! How did you know?")