Lisa: A ball and a glove together cost $10. If the glove costs $9 more than the ball, how much is the ball? Elliot got this right immediately while I got it wrong and couldn't figure out why for like 5 minutes!
I’m sure I’m very naïve in many ways of my own, but this letter to editor (link) struck me as a profound misapprehension of how our political system functions:
To the editor:
In an earlier letter to the editor I suggested that the voters needed to use their votes to overthrow the American government much like the military coups are doing in third world nations. The question is, "What would that look like?"
We need to find someone who would be willing to give 4 to 8 years of their life to go to Washington either as a senator or representative. If we could get 25 to 30 such people throughout the United States we would be able to initiate reform by forcing the Republican and Democratic parties to sit down and negotiate real reform instead of bickering. Four to six senators and 8 to 15 representatives are enough to insist on reform.
How do we elect these people? We get their friends and relatives to support them by signing petitions so they are eligible to run for office. If I get 10 people to support a candidate and they each get 10 people it would not take much work to get this done. These people would belong to a truly "independent" party whose platform would be to force compromises to lower our national debt, get senatorial benefits in line with those of the working class and create a climate that would produce new jobs for the unemployed.
What if the professional congresspeople try to "hold up" this progress? Our independent party senators and representatives send out e-mails to the media and constituents describing the "pork barrel" or other special interest garbage that is causing our current problems. At the next election we, the voters, can get rid of the non-performing politicians.
Last week I was at a conference in Minneapolis, and on Thursday I happened to be walking by when some folks camped out in the middle of an intersection and were arrested to raise awareness about the foreclosure crisis. I stopped and filmed a bit of the action. The police acknowledged the protestors rights to assemble and speak but emphasized that this assembly was unlawful because it was blocking an intersection. The two chants that were being employed by the crowd were “WE-ARE-THE 99%!” and “STOP FORECLOSURES NOW!”
Indeed, it is shameful that we took such extraordinary measures to protect the wealth on Wall St. (admittedly also sparing everyone the pain from a collapse of the global economy) but have done relatively little to direct benefit of Main St.
For the second game in a row, the Knights faced a team with whom they were evenly matched. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as well as the first time. After giving up several turnovers and losing their starting QB to injury near the end of the first half, they lost 22 to 2 (dropping their record to 1 win and 4 losses). Early in the game, Elliot had a nice end-around run that went for a first down. After the Knight's QB was injured, Elliot played the rest of the game at QB and linebacker (instead of the usual receiver and linebacker). He completed two passes (one of which came agonizingly close to a TD on the last play of the first half), but he had a rough time overall (since the Knights had a hard time getting a running game going or stopping the pass rush). Considering he hadn't played any QB since pre-season practice and none in the shotgun formation that they're running now, I thought he did a good job. On one play when they were backed up to their goal line, he called a hard count and drew an off-sides penalty on the defense to get five extra yards of cushion. I was impressed that he thought to call that play in that situation.
Finn's team lost too…28 to 21. His TD streak ended at six games. He only carried the ball twice, so his opportunities were limited.