You Know It's Sloooow News Day
when the blogger dips into the high school archives.
I am streaming the new Billy Joel record today and it has a live version of We Didn't Start the Fire. A song topical today because it was featured in The Fire episode of The Office and that episode aired in the marathon last Thursday. (Okay, I still don't remember whether or not days of the week are always capitalized. Same with seasons. I will look that up this afternoon. And how to use a bidet. I'm still not clear on that either.)
Anyway, here is my We Didn't Start the Fire story. In 10th grade I had one Mr. Seiter for a class I can't remember, and then I had him again in 11th grade for Sociology. Mr. Seiter was a Billy Joel fan. He came up with the greatest extra-credit scheme ever. Well, at least the best I ever encountered. In both classes, he had everyone take out a blank piece of paper. Then he played We Didn't Start the Fire. For every event or person mentioned in the song that you correctly wrote down on your paper, he awarded one extra credit point. For example, if wrote down - "Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray. South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio. Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television" you'd get 11 points. Well, I rocked that extra credit assignment (pun intended) - and it guaranteed me an A in the class twice. And to this day, I make a point of keeping those lyrics handy just in case the extra-credit assignment comes my way again.
Mr. Seiter. In 12th grade, he gave me a D- in newspaper staff - in the 4th term. He wanted to keep me from graduating. But that's another story altogether. My friend Schlupp also got a D- and we thought "maybe we ought to hire a couple of wranglers to go up there and beat the shit out of him" but we didn't want felony charges to go along with our bad grades.
Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore!
posted by h.justin @ 2:19 PM
2 Objection(s)!
2 Comments:
You can't dangle a story, like a teaching trying to prevent you from graduating, in front of us and not share!
By the way, if you like Billy Joel and you like crazy modern dancing and you like touring Broadway shows, "Movin' Out" is coming to SLC this summer. I, of course, am going to be gone, but I did see it in NY and I would see it again were I not going to be gone.
You always capitalize days of the week. I can't help you with the bidet.
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