A Sample-Mix of my iTunes

Here's a new toy -- the iTunes Signature Maker -- which takes a sample of songs from your iTunes, extracts a snippet of each, and mixes together a musical signature of your musical taste.

Here's mine.

Because the Inspirations and Enthusiams of Youth Should Remain a Part of Life for Life

The Groucho Marx Name Generator

We'll Be Watching This Very Closely

It was only a matter of time before concerns about the Indian River School Board, the district's budget, and the fate of the Southern Delaware School of the Arts hit the newspapers. Molly Murray reports on the situation in a story in today's News Journal (Parents fear arts school will close).

We know that the Board is looking for ways to save money. Recently, they very publicly decided not to cut the Junior ROTC program in the district after parents of kids in that program became vocal. In at least one news story on that decision, it was reported that the Board would look at other programs for savings. The list of programs under consideration included the School of the Arts.

That stirred up quite a few of us who have children at that school. Karen works at the school, though I don't worry about her finding a good job if the school closes. Karen is very good at what she does.

The other day, I drafted a letter to the members of the School Board. I forwarded copies to a number of local legislators and I'd like to share it with you, as well.

I am deeply concerned about suggestions that the Indian River School District might consider closing the Southern Delaware School of the Arts as part of an effort to save money. This would be a tragic mistake.

I have supported the School of the Arts from the days when it was only an idea under consideration by the District. I felt then that it was one of the best ideas for improving education that I have encountered. Since then, the School of the Arts has proven that a school that fosters academic progress through integration with the arts can produce students who excel academically and artistically and show advanced social development.

My wife and I enrolled our oldest daughter as part of the first first-grade class in the School of the Arts in the fall of 1998. We used the School Choice option to move her from the Cape Henlopen School District, and schools just down the street from our home, to the School of the Arts, almost an hour away from our home. Over the years, her consistently high scores on the state tests, her success in the Academic Challenge program, her progress as a dancer, her growing skill as a musician, and her selection to the Junior All-State Chorus have shown me that the educational approach pioneered by the School of the Arts works, and works wonderfully well. Our youngest daughter is now in fourth grade at the School of the Arts. Her academic and artistic development are on pace to match her sisterÂ’s.

I'’m a proud parent; I will always think my children are above average. And I stand in awe of my wife's ability to help our daughters take full advantage of their classes and homework. But I also know that my children have been blessed to have had a chance to take part in an arts-integrated school. The staff at the School of the Arts includes some of the best academic teachers and arts instructors that I have ever encountered. Their working together to integrate the arts and academics has helped my girls reach their full potential.

They are not alone. Students from the School of the Arts score very well on the state tests; the school itself is rated as a Superior School.

Our experience has proved to me that the School of the Arts must remain an option for education in Sussex County. As members of the Indian River School Board, you have a responsibility to provide the best educational opportunities to the people of the District. The Southern Delaware School of the Arts is one of the best you have.

It would be a terrible mistake to risk damaging a school this successful.

In today's story, Molly includes a quote from the School Board President, Charles Bireley, who says "I can assure you we have no intention of closing the School of the Arts."

That's promising, but I don't think we should relax just yet.

. . . a few weeks ago, [PTO President Candace] Thune and some other parents attended a finance meeting and learned that district officials consider the arts school a special program.

"We want everybody to know we are considered a program and not a core school," she said.

We'll keep an eye on the Board and try to make sure that they don't play around too much and mess up what is a wonderful school.

A Visit to Kingston-upon-Hull

Instead of the YMCA and a treadmill this noon, I took a brisk walk out the marsh trail at the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. I've used this trail for mid-day exercise before. This time, though, I was determined to make the full hike out to Kingston-upon-Hull, the 17th-Century farmhouse two miles out on St. Jones River.

It was a bright, warm day. No blue skies, but not a bad day for photography. I've posted a short photo set focused on the area right around Kingston-upon-Hull. It can serve as a companion to the marsh trail photo set I posted in November. That one was based on the first half of the trail.

I rather enjoyed the old house. It offered ancient brickwork and weathered windows.

This is an interesting corner of Delaware history. The State Archives offers 1677 survey language and a map of the nearly 500 acres of farmland and marsh belonging to John Briggs and Mary Phillips "By Vertue of a Warrant from the Court at the Whore Kill dated the 12th day of March 1677-8."

One of Our Billboards is Down

One of Our Billboards is Down
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

This Hooters billboard came down in the gale-force winds that blew through southern Delaware on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. I was going to leave it as just a Flickr posting, but the winds are back today, reminding me that this is what's in the news for this area this week.

I wonder what else will come down?

In Honor of Dr. King

So we don't forget, I wanted to share a link or two.

First, to a great archive of news coverage about the man whose life and work we honor today. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Newspaper Articles Archive is a project of NewspaperARCHIVE.com. It's worth a look, when you have a moment.

Next, to a virtual recreation of what it was like to live under segregation. Just so there is no misunderstanding, this site was created as a reminder of what odd twists racism and inequality can lead us into. It does not celebrate segregation. It saddens me that I have to try to clarify this, but I think I do.

And Again, The Air Gets Just A Little Cleaner

Add another state to the list of places I'm now somewhat more likely to visit and spend money in. According to the News Journal, the Governor of New Jersey has signed into law an indoor smoking ban.

The indoor smoking prohibition has worked well for Delaware. I'm glad to see it spreading out; New Jersey is the eleventh state now.

The New Jersey law exempts Casinos. I'm sorry for the Casino workers who will still have to breathe-in that smoke, but looking at it selfishly, I don't really mind something that will make it even less likely for me to go into a casino.

I was amused to see news coverage of protests against the law before it was enacted by "exotic Dancers." They felt it might threaten their customer base. I don't think it will.

I suppose they felt an instinctual threat from any law targeting one of the vices.

New Digs

Friday, I took a brief tour of the Haslett Armory in Dover. The old National Guard Armory has been gutted and reconfigured as a new state office building. The project has been under way for several years. My group is one of the offices that will move there in February.


This is one of the outside hallways on the third floor, where I will have an office. The old armory was dominated inside by a huge gymnasium area. It was used for indoor military training and vehicle storage and was two stories or more inside with large windows along each wall.

In reconfiguring the building, the state wisely left those windows intact and built two floors of offices within that huge space, leaving an open airway up each outside wall.

The Armory is on Legislative Mall in the center of Dover. We'll be surrounded by other state offices and kitty-corner to Legislative Hall. This is a big improvement. Our present office is several blocks away, across the St. Jones River and isolated from the rest of the government. Meetings out of the office always required a car. Now we'll be in walking distance of many of our colleagues.

Or, they can come to us. The Armory will have several conference rooms, large and small. It looks like I will be able to hold most of the meetings I host in the rooms that will now be available.

This is an interesting situation. This year is my 16th as a state of Delaware employee. I'm with my third different agency. In all that time I've never had a new office, never had furniture that wasn't some form of hand-me-down. I'm not complaining, but I will say that this is a different feeling.

There we were, a handful of people waiting to move to a new work home, trying to get a feel for what the place will be like.

End of the Season

This is what happens when your Christmas Tree dries out drastically. This is what was left after we had removed the decorations and lights and lifted the tree out of its stand.

We keep our tree up at least through January 7 each year. The seventh is Christmas Day in the Eastern Orthodox Catholic faith. Karen was raised in that church, and we married in that church. Karen now hangs out with the Methodists, but we like to keep a link to the Orthodox faith as well.

We worried that this tree wouldn't last until Little Christmas this year. It made it -- barely -- and now it's time to take the tree out to the state park for recycling.

Another Sign That We May Be Sending Too Many People Into Prisons

From the Seattle Times comes word of a new idea to deal with prison overcrowding. This idea is from our friends in Idaho: Idaho senator suggests sleep shifts in prisons

State Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes suggests what is known as a "hot cot" plan. Under the plan, some prisoners would share a bed. One would sleep in it by day, another by night. (I will not stoop to the obvious prison-sex joke.)

The hot cot sleep shifts would be for volunteers only, with better prison job assignments as a possible incentive.

"I can't find any place in the nation that's doing this --— or in the world, for that matter --— but why not? The rest of the nation works in shifts," Geddes said Thursday.

At first blush it sounds like a good idea, but prison officials point out that beds aren't the only things in short supply. There are also needs for correctional and medical staff, the cost of feeding inmates, and the need for additional wastewater treatment capacity to take into consideration.

Other folks have asked what might be done to keep people out of prison in the first place.