my money’s on rahracheel – Nicole parties too much, billy will be watching football, and fred will be, um, working overtime at the diner – yep – got it

and everyone be sure to post comments about fred’s jacket – I didn’t get to that one until today (see last week’s post and the last comment – well, last for now)

“love letters to the dead” – good high school book – works for eighth grade gifted – nothing terrible for younger kids, but I would wonder how much they’d get out of it – pet peeve? the “perfect” boyfriend is in the book – as is the phrase “all guys want the same thing” – okay, by that logic, the perfect boyfriend either doesn’t exist or else is very sinister – and all I want most days is a good bowl of Wheaties so what does that say about the rest of guys??? 🙂

“ruth and billy” – great example of why you always read the epilogue – when they’re included – oh, I forget – none of you read non-fiction – anyway, the best part of this book was after the book – the author, an older guy, commented that today is all about experience and connecting – that people aren’t interested so much in truth or prior knowledge as they are experiencing things and being a part of groups – and I see that as a very true statement of pop/current culture – so I learned something

“thinking fast and slow” – this was my proud book read – Harvard economist about the decisions people make – and how we tend to think fast about things – it’s our nature – and while that can be good – it can also be the wrong decision – for example, most stocks sold are sold at the absolute wrong time – even by professionals – in part b/c people are bad at math – and in part b/c we hate losing at things – so winners are sold much more than losers in the market – which is a mistake – my favorite part of the book was the brief mention about public education – that you have a small sample size so you can never trust edu stats b/c they will contain outliers until the school is big enough – a statement that essentially takes down all current educational thought – LOVED knowing that – will be frustrating not to share that one in meetings:)

happy new year

maf