Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/548049
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS GoodmorningRedBluff. I know it is hard to believe, but many of you are wrapping up your sum- mer with last- minute travel. Or perhaps you are planning a trip to purchase clothes for your children who will be heading off to school just two weeks from today. Speaking of school, al- though no one has asked for my opinion I think I liked the system better when students were actually given a full sum- mer vacation rather than the start, stop and restart system we have today. As you can probably guess, in addition to being an excep- tional athlete I was an excellent student, especially if one real- izes that the measure of one's intelligence is not necessarily tied to the letter grade one re- ceives on one's report card. Because I am a reason- ably social human being who craves attention wherever I can find it, I very much en- joyed attending school. We lived directly across from the high school cafeteria, and I would normally head off to school at least a half hour early. I put this time to good use by visiting with friends, or pitching my lunch money in a "closest to the wall" contest with Harvey Puckett. Harvey ended up with an awful lot of my lunch money. I rarely missed a day of school, and looked forward to most everything school of- fered. Yet for some inexplica- ble reason, the day I looked forward to more than any other in the calendar year was the last day of school. If memory serves, summer vacation started around the first of June and sometimes lasted until mid-September. We started school every day at 8 a.m. and were released at 3:30 p.m. We had two weeks of va- cation at Christmas, and two more days at Thanksgiving. In those times it was very com- mon for almost the entire local teenage population to work in prune and peach orchards and packing sheds, and oft times the harvest was still going on deep into September. I would guess that for a variety of rea- sons our local orchardists no longer depend on students to meet their labor needs. One look at the local school calendar tells me that one might need an advanced de- gree just to decide when to take their kids to school. School begins on August 12 and closes on June 2, which by my count amounts to 42 weeks with a potential 210 days in the classroom. Class starts at 8:20 a.m. and releases at 2:47 p.m. This looks pretty straightforward until I take a closer look and find the follow- ing impacts on this schedule: School is not in session dur- ing 13 designated legal holi- days during the school year. School is not in session dur- ing 17 additional designated local holidays during the ac- ademic school year. School is not in session after 12:45 p.m. every Wednesday of the aca- demic school year (that totals 80 hours, which equals 13 full days). School is not in session after 12:45 during 10 parent teacher conference days (and that totals 20 hours, which equals three full days). Upon subtracting legal holidays, lo- cal holidays, early release days, and minimum days, I am left with the equivalent of 174 full teaching days. While it may appear I am de- riding the current education system, my wishy-washy self will not allow me to do so with- out pointing out the follow- ing. For 40 years or so I worked very closely with local school administrators and school boards and I have found these folks to be dedicated to provid- ing community children with the best possible education. More importantly, I have three bright, articulate, high- achieving grandchildren, ages 8, 9 and 11, who attend lo- cal public schools. For what- ever reason, I think I have fol- lowed their academic progress in school even more closely than I did with their parents. I have been to every conceivable grandparent's day, as well as to open houses, back-to-back to school functions, and other programs. I have helped them with their homework and closely examined their report cards. I can tell you that these children, without exception, have been fortunate to have bright, dedicated teachers who spend extra time and—many times—personal finances, to provide my grandchildren the best opportunity to learn. My concern does not lie with those folks on the front lines who are doing the very best they can to educate my grandchildren. And yet, search via Google for world- wide education rankings, and the United States consis- tently seems to be slipping as compared to other industri- alized nations. Are we doing enough? Is 1,044 instructional hours per year enough? Are we teaching the correct subject matter? You be the judge. •••• Speaking of grandchildren, I just returned from the 6th annual Grandpa's Camping Trip at Almanor Lake. Every year Jack Fennel, Tom Amund- son, Larry Jantzen and I load up our six grandsons, ages 8 to 23 and head up to the lake for 3 full days of fun and frolic. Absent direct parental over- sight, we conduct ourselves in accordance with one single camp rule, that being, "There are no rules." We spend our time riding bikes, fishing, hiking, swim- ming and making the perfect s'more over the campfire. Absent direct parental over- sight, we make our trip spe- cial by allowing the boys to eat a half bag of Double Stuff Oreo cookies when ever they like and drinking a soda pop every 20 minutes is the order of every day. We let them whit- tle on sticks with sharp knives and play in the campfire until we smell burning hair. While we tolerate the brushing of teeth, cleaning other parts of the body is strictly prohibited. Making fart noises, real or in- vented, is in order every day and snoring loudly is always encouraged. Oh by the way, we do have one more rule. No matter what, do not tell your mother or grandma what we really do on Grandpa's Camp- ing Trip. •••• Tonight at the State Theatre at 6:30: Farmers Market Cook- ing Demonstration followed by movie Julie and Julia. Demo is free, film is $5. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. William Tells Education evolves over the generations Cartoonist's take It's July, and we know what that means: time to celebrate the American hot dog. July is National Hot Dog Month, you see, a glori- ous month when the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council tells us about the history of the dog and shares new reci- pes. According to the council, sausages, such as hot dogs, have been around a long time. They were mentioned in Hom- er's "Odyssey" as far back as the ninth century B.C. Frankfurt, Germany, cred- ited by many as the originator of hot dogs (frankfurters), cel- ebrated the 500th birthday of the hot dog in 1987. (There is some dispute surrounding the original city and creator of the hot dog, however.) The American hot dog "comes from a widespread com- mon European sausage brought here by butchers of several na- tionalities," the council says. There are a couple of notable dates in the American hot dog's evolution, however: In 1871, the council says, "Charles Feltman, a German butcher, opened up the first Co- ney Island hot dog stand selling 3,684 dachshund sausages in a milk roll during his first year in business." (A dachshund is a small German dog with short legs and a long body.) Then in 1893, during the Co- lumbian Exposition in Chicago, several visitors were intro- duced to dachshund sausages wrapped in a bun (though there is still some dispute over the or- igin of the bun). The little hot dogs were a hit. That same year, the porta- bility of the hot dog in a bun made the tasty item a natural for baseball games. Hot dogs and baseball games have been a happy couple ever since. So how did dachshund sau- sages get the name "hot dog," you ask? "Some say the word was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day," the council says. "Ven- dors were hawking hot dogs from portable hot water tanks shouting 'They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!'" Well, as legend has it, a "New York Journal sports cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, observed the scene and hastily drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell 'dachshund' he simply wrote 'hot dog!'" In any event, the hot dog has since become an American sta- ple, as in the famous 1974 ad- vertisement: "As American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet." According to the council, Americans each eat 60 hot dogs on average every year. We con- sume 155 million on Indepen- dence Day alone. From Memo- rial Day to Labor Day, we con- sume more than 7 billion. Which brings up another American pastime: protesting the American hot dog. About this time every year, people who hate hot-dog eating tell us that hot dogs are killing us — that they have too much fat and sold. We are told by People for the Ethical Treatment of Ani- mals that hot dogs can include "glass, plastic, metal, bone, ro- dents, and other miscellaneous ingredients ... ." That sounds like a Harry Potter recipe. It also sounds mighty tasty, so long as it's ground up, stuffed into a sau- sage casing, grilled to perfec- tion, smattered with mustard and washed down with an ice- cold beer. We are told that animals used to make sausages are treated inhumanely. Though I agree we must do better in the way we treat farm animals, we should treat all God's creatures with dignity and respect — then eat them. In any event, it is summer. It's time to grill up some iconic American dogs and wash them down with an ice-cold Amer- ican beer that also originates from German immigrants. If you can find one of those. In 2012, Budweiser was sold to a Brazilian/Belgian company. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Tom@ TomPurcell.com. Tom Purcell Americana on a bun — the all American hot dog One look at the local school calendar tells me that one might need an advanced degree just to decide when to take their kids to school. StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393-0707, fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 Your officials Tom Purcell July is National Hot Dog Month, you see, a glorious month when the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council tells us about the history of the dog and shares new recipes. According to the council, sausages, such as hot dogs, have been around a long time. They were mentioned in Homer's "Odyssey" as far back as the ninth century B.C. Bill Cornelius OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, July 29, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4