Words of the Day 9/23/09

psychopathic: ADJ: Anna's psychopathic ways forced her friends and family to disown her.

Blog: The Thrill of the Grass VS. Monkey's Paw

The theme of both stories was similar, and the true way of "home" had to be worked for. The Thrill of the Grass considered their home as a baseball field, or the seats they sat in while they watched the games behind first base. The family from the Monkey's Paw didn't like their home, and felt the need to wish for things to make their life better. Why are these alike? In both scenarios they had to strive to make their homes more preferable by tearing up astroturf or wishing for 200 pounds. In the Monkey's Paw however they did not just get what they wanted, it was basically a trade; if you get this, then what do you lose in return? In one case, they lost their father for money. In The Thrill of the Grass they replaced the grass, but also got the players on strike to come back. For them it was a win win situation. In conclusion, both had homes just wanted to revive them.

Words of The Day 9/22/09

Tremulous: ADJ: The boy shook tremulously before the race

Silhouette: NOUN: The woman's silhouette showed in the street light against nightfall.

Harrison Burgeron Script

Harrison Burgeron:

Narrator: The year was 2081, and the government has designed different ways to get all people to be equal. There is no contrast among individuals. Has the government gone too far? This is for you to answer. Here's the Burgeron's story; George and his wife Hazel's son Harrison was taken away at age 14 for being too unordinary. The fact they can even remember that is an amazement. George is very intelligent giving him the disadvantage of having to wear a mental handicap radio in his year which tuned to the government transmitter. It only allowed him to think about things in short bursts, and using his unfair benefit of his smart mind. His wife on the other hand, was perfectly average. 

George: Change the channel honey.  

Hazel: Oh look! Ballerinas! That was a nice dance. 

Narrator: The ballerinas were really no better than anyone else. They were obligated to wear sash weights, bags of birdshot, and masks to cover their faces. 

BZZZ 

Hazel: What was it this time?

George: It was like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a peen hammer.   

Hazel: You know, I would like to be a handicap general one day. To be able to pick all those different sounds to send to people would be interesting, and then chimes on Sunday! They would be in honor of religion. 

George: I would like Sundays then. You'd be as good as anyone else.  

EEEEK

Hazel: That sounded bad...

Narrator: George was white, trembling, tears rolling down out from his red eyes, shaking across the floor. 

Hazel: Come sit on the couch and rest your neck. 

Narrator: George's head hurt, but when you have 47 pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag padlocked around the thing holding your head up...that's misery. 

George: It's okay. I don't notice it anymore, just apart of me.

Hazel: Do you think we can adjust the bag by taking out just a few lead balls?

George: No, you can't just get away with that. If I tried, then someone else will, and then someone else, and then we'll end up back in the dark ages again. Society would crash.

Narrator: The television tuned into a different channel for a news bulletin. The announcer had a serious speech impediment making the message unclear. He gave up quite fast.

Hazel: At least he tried. 

Narrator: The man let one of the dancers continue. She must have been beautiful having to wear a hideous mask, and there was no doubt she was the most graceful of all them. She was stuck with weights that were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men. 

Ballerina: Ladies and gentlemen...I'm sorry. My voice is unfair, excuse me. Harrison Burgeon, age fourteen has escaped from jail, where he was held on suspension for plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius, an athlete, under-handicapped, and extremely dangerous. 

Narrator: She changed her voice into a squawk, and a picture of Harrison flashed across the screen. No one had ever had heavier handicaps, and he outgrew then faster than the H-G men could make them. He was stuck with massive headphones, spectacles that made him part blind and gave him serious headaches. Also to top it off was a nice red nose, no eyebrows, and black caps to cover his pearly white teeth. He carried 300 pounds in weights. 

Ballerina: Don't try to reason with him.

BOOM. 

Narrator: A sudden earthquake, and then Harrison appeared on the stage.

Harrison: I am the emporer! Do what I say! Remove your handicaps, and the first woman to stand up will be my Empress! 

Ballerina: I want to be me, show what I am capable of. 

Narrator: Harrison removed her handicaps, her mask and then smiled.

Harrison: Now let us dance! Music! Play your best, and I'll make you barons, dukes, and earls. Narrator: Their best did not show, and it was unexceptable. He took two men from their chairs and waved them like batons and sang the music as he wanted to hear it.            

        Harrison: I said your BEST! 

Narrator: After his masquerade, the music started and improved. Harrison and the ballerina danced, swung, and leaped. 

Diana Moon Glampers- Not on my watch!

BOOM

Narrator: She pulled out her ten-gauge shotgun, and in two shots both of them were dead. She turned to the musicians. 

Diana Moon Glampers: All of you, put your handicaps back on or else! 

Narrator: The Burgeron's television burned out.

Hazel: What happened to the tel..

George: I need a beer.

ZAP

George: You been crying?

Hazel: Yeah, I can't remember why though. 

George: Forget sad things 

Hazel: I always do.

George: That's my girl 

ZING

Hazel: You okay? I could tell that one was a doozy. 

George: You can say that again.

Hazel: I could tell that one was a doozy.

Narrator: That day their son died. Right in front of their eyes, but forgot it instantly. Did the government go too far? 

Words of The Day 9/21/09

Acrimonious: ADJ: Rori was acrimonious about the race in Ketchikan.

Ephemeral: ADJ: The ephemeral fly was born and died in the same day.

Theme

The theme of both The California's Tale and the Thrill of The Grass both have some of the same kinds of theme: Home. The California's Tale showed that Henry's home was not quite the same without her, or his life. The Thrill of the Grass showed that their "home" or their place of safety and tranquility had subsided after the strike. Henry's home had the touch of a woman, and the touch of the baseball field in The Thrill of The Grass was the fake grass they did not like. They had to fix it. The bases were spots where they felt was could be not only the best place to watch the game, but also where they felt entitled to watch from. If you abandoned that place, you maybe were not as "first class" as the rest of the family was. Both stories showed how home was important, and the difficulties one can go through when something changes it unknowingly. 

Words 9/17/09

Irate: ADJ- The irate runner elbowed the girl into the car during the race.

Verdant: ADJ- The verdant child did not listen to the teacher giving directions.

Words of the Day 9/16/09

Recalcitrant: The boy's recalcitrant attitude forced his mother to hide him in the basement.

Sublime: Prefontaine's gave the runners a new sublime attitude towards running.

Words

Recalcitrant: ADJ- having a uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.

Sublime: ADJ- to inspire great admiration or awe.

Irate: ADJ- feeling or characterized by great anger.

Verdant: ADJ- green with grass or other rich vegetation

Acrimonious: ADJ- angry or bitter

Ephemeral: ADJ- Lasting for a very short time.

Tremulous: ADJ: shaking or quivering slightly.

Silhouette: Noun- the dark shape and outline of someone or something visible against a lighter background.

Psychopathic- Noun- a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.

Comparison

The stories Harrison Burgeron and The Pedestrian both possess themes in both the meaning of home and freedom. 

Harrison was different, and because of this he lost his freedom and was taken away from home. Home for him is not necessarily safe or a place to feel relaxed. His 300lb. weights, the red nose nose, the glasses and the mental handicap made life more difficult than it could have been. He was extraordinary and was punished for it. "Freedom" the power or right to act, speak, or think without restraint. Do you think he had this opportunity? Harrison didn't have the right to think because of the handicap, the way to speak out against controversy, and he couldn't act any different than anyone else. His freedom and home are uncontrollably biased and unreasonable. 

The Pedestrian showed that a man who loved enjoying the outdoors and taking long walks was not tolerated. You had to be a certain way, like everyone else who watches television, movies, and the news. Is this bad? Is this good? It doesn't matter besides the fact that Leonard liked to take strolls down the deserted sidewalks at night. His home was a safe house, where no one else thought anything more than just an alive, lit up room. Ironically, he would rather not be there, so instead was punished for not liking some good ol' When The Price Is Right. He had the freedom to think and speak for himself until the cop car took him away. He could do what he wanted, but it was wrong. His freedom was stripped from him because of the discrimination of the variation of people. 

Both these stories relate in ways where they may have had freedom, but it disappeared because of prejudice. The value of home is showed in both stories as well, and if they don't have it, their freedom is effected in some way. 

Affirmative Action

“Affirmative action” means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded. When those steps involve preferential selection—selection on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity—affirmative action generates intense controversy.  

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/