I came across this proposal for some social engineering while walking home from work. This guy's graffiti is everywhere and it's often some form of political or social commentary. At least he (I'm almost sure it's a he) is thinking about things and not just tagging.
I spent all day yesterday working on a project for one of the librarians, making a list of all the fiction books of which we have at least two copies. She's hoping it will be useful when kids want to read a book in tandem, in what we call a "reading partnership," but they wound up being huge lists (871 titles for 5/6 grade, 570-something for 7/8 grade) so I think it's almost too much information. Anyway, it took me two days but it's done now. Today is going to be mostly meetings, I think.
Oh, and in the school lunchroom, I took some pictures specifically with blogger Mr. Pudding in mind:
Yes, those are his son Ian's "Bosh!" books, prominently on display. I'm not sure we're eating "Bosh!" recipes but the cafeteria always has at least one vegetarian or vegan option at the hot food counter, so they're thinking along those lines. Some days we have entirely vegetarian fare -- such a change from my own school experience, when our choices were this meat or that meat, though we did at least get vegetables on the side. And in high school we had an all-you-can-eat salad bar, which was considered the height of trendiness in the early '80s, even though I'm sure it was just iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and a couple of other unremarkable odds and ends.
When I was a junior I used to abuse that salad bar -- my friend Lisa would get a salad and the two of us would eat it, and then I'd spend my lunch money on candy bars. (Which someone in the school was usually selling as a fundraiser for some club or other.) No one ever said anything to us, if they even noticed. The funny thing is, I don't remember having any kind of internal moral debate about whether this was appropriate (or in fact stealing, which I suppose it was). When you're in high school it's more about "can I get away with this?" than "is this the right thing to do?"
I never had a school lunch and never even saw what they were serving, but since I left in 1971, I doubt there was a salad bar... not even iceberg lettuce. My favorite “school lunches” were when I cut out of school and met a friend at iHOP.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have that option, sadly. Our high school was in the middle of an orange grove, no restaurants for a couple of miles!
DeleteI didn’t just cut out, I cut! I had to take the bus to meet my friend and that was the end of school for the day. I have no clue how I got away with it.
DeleteOur schools here don't have cafeterias, the kids either bring their own lunch from home or buy something from the "tuckshop".
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I think every school in the USA has a cafeteria.
DeleteNice to see "BOSH!" books being advertised in this illustrious blog. Though they are plant-based, "BOSH!" books should never be used as plant stands. Please advise lunch room staff.
ReplyDeleteHa! I guess they misinterpreted the words "plant-based."
DeleteThe thoughtful person who writes the messages is a little cryptic but probably on the money.
ReplyDeleteHow much did Mr Pudding pay you to put his son's books in your library?
Sometimes the messages make sense, and sometimes they're less clear.
DeleteI don't mind graffiti, but I really love thought provoking graffiti.
ReplyDeleteI was always a "lunch from home" kid; my mother wasn't a fan of cafeteria food.
Lucky you! My mom would have died before she packed a lunch.
DeleteHurray for Ian!
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine a school cafeteria serving plant-based options although many of the supposedly meat dishes from the cafeterias in my day were known as being "mystery meat" by us all. What the heck was that in those sloppy joes?
You are so right about high school kids and morals. I think high school might be a time of life where you're trying to figure out which rules are important and which are ridiculous. Lots of blurring there.
I always try to remember that when I'm scolding high school kids. I made some bad decisions myself in those years, but fortunately none with life consequences!
DeleteThe summer I spent 3 weeks in Portugal, two weeks in the countryside and one week in Lisbon, the thing that amazed me the most was I never saw one piece of trash on the ground anywhere. same in Lisbon except in Lisbon there was graffiti everywhere, it covered everything, some street art but mostly graffiti. and I thought that was so ironic, that they didn't mind the tagging and other graffiti when they were so pristine about trash on the ground.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I remember that from Lisbon -- lots of graffiti. I suppose it's pollution of a sort, but the lines between art and tagging can sometimes be blurry.
DeleteI think I always brought a lunch from home ... I don't recall any hot food line in our cafeteria!
ReplyDeleteWe had a hot food line and, in high school, a separate sandwich/pizza line. And then the salad bar got installed!
DeleteThings have really changed when vegan books are on library shelves in schools.
ReplyDeleteRight?!
DeleteFor a few years of school we had very good cafeteria food and then the dietician retired and the lunches weren't as good as before. No salad bars at my school.
ReplyDeleteI guess they didn't hire another one? I'm surprised the school had its own dietician, actually. I don't know who made the decisions about what to serve at our school -- probably someone in a district office.
DeleteNo salad bar at my schools. Lots of pasta, meat, a single veg and peanut butter sandwiches galore. There was always a cookie or brownie for desert. Your school salad bar was ahead of the times. i do love a robust salad during the warm weather. I wonder if my local library has the Bosh books.
ReplyDeleteNowadays they can't serve peanut butter because so many kids are allergic. It's a shame!
DeleteAs a student I always ate on fish stick day (usually Friday) and whenever they had apple crisp. Otherwise, I brought my lunch from home. As a teacher, they had a baked potato bar and a fajita bar on occasion and I enjoyed those. Now that everything comes from a central kitchen, the choices are more standard. They used to make a delicious monster cookie that had everything in it: oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chips, etc. When I asked for the recipe, they gave me one that would feed 300 people. I could never quite bring myself to do the math to cut it down. LOL
ReplyDeleteHa! Well, if you ever have to host a family reunion, you can use that cookie recipe. :)
Deletehmmm, as "war" goes , humans do not need encouragement for any sort of war.
ReplyDeleteOur school cafeteria was basic- "mid"...No variety and pretty much processed except for sloppy joe day. The kitchen ladies made it from scratch with home made buns.
I like the idea of all you can eat salad and sharing it with a buddy. Not wrong or right just good common sense. The sugar and chocolate probably got you through the day- so - All good! Plus you may have contributed to a worthy cause, like camp fire girls!
I think it was the marching band selling the candy bars, usually. Our kitchen ladies made a lot of our food, at least when I was a younger student. Nowadays I think it's all pre-prepared at a central kitchen.
DeleteI never attended school with a cafeteria. You went home and your poor mother was tied down with midday meals. I don't know what working moms did, but there were few at that time. A lot of self employed women -- seamstresses, piano teachers, cake bakers and decorators like my mom, that sort of work -- worked from home.
ReplyDeleteI always envied kids who got to go home for lunch, but yeah, it must have been a drag for the mothers! I think in the USA, where things are more spread out geographically, it's often not feasible for kids to go home at lunch.
DeleteI got lunch money from Mom, but I would buy milk and an ice cream and keep the rest.
ReplyDeleteHa! I was usually too hungry not to eat lunch!
DeleteI think your high school salad lunches could be termed "working the system" since you seemed to then spend your money on fundraisers, thus benefitting the school ecosystem in another way! And congrats to Mr. Yorkshire's son! I'll have to look into Bosh!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's true. At least I was putting the money back into the school!
DeleteI think I only ate in the cafeteria for part of my freshman year in high school. After that I brought my own lunch. I don't remember if it was the food or the angst of figuring out where to sit (I didn't have a gang of friends or anything), but I do know I got a lot of reading done!
ReplyDeleteDid you not eat in the cafeteria even if you brought your lunch? I think at our school we HAD to eat in the cafeteria.
DeleteI follow BOSH! on Instagram and have their website bookmarked. They have some fantastic stuff! I wish I could get some of their products where I live. As for school lunches... I remember eating them most days in lower elementary (they had wonderful homemade rolls and beef stew), but brought my lunch from home the majority of my school years.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I remember elementary school lunches being especially good! I wonder if they were really better back in those days or if we were just less critical, being little kids?
DeleteI never heard of BOSH. Interesting. Cafeteria food -- all I remember is the pizza. Oh, and salisbury steak. Never again! (Well, maybe it's better when it doesn't come off a food palette!)
ReplyDeleteHa! I used to LOVE Salisbury steak. Or "chicken-fried steak," which we often got. Don't ask me what that means.
DeleteWe have a little canteen at the hospice , the food is wonderful x
ReplyDeleteIt's great when institutional food turns out to be good! It's a rarity!
DeleteThank goodness you've left your lawless past behind you!
ReplyDeleteHa! Somehow I escaped juvenile hall. :)
DeleteHow wonderful to have a son who writes books. I don't think your behavior with the salad bar was much of a problem. We didn't have any choices at lunch. Everyone got the same crappy meal when I was in junior high so I usually packed a lunch. When I was in high school, we were allowed to leave the campus for lunch so a friend and I usually wandered off to a nearby lunch counter and probably returned late more times than we should have done. I bet that high school has put the kibosh on going out for lunch since then. Too much drinking and drug use went on over lunch, and some of it was done by me.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Yeah, I think we were actually prohibited from leaving campus at lunch -- not that there was really anywhere nearby to go. Maybe by the time we were seniors we had the freedom to do that. I honestly don't remember.
DeleteA little voice in my head is saying that Mr. Reed may have recommended the Bosh! books to the library purchasing person - and why not? They are excellent!
ReplyDeleteOur cafeteria was just a place to contain the food mess. They served white milk, chocolate milk, and orange juice, plus chocolate bars and potato chips. Really. You had to take your brown bag lunch from home. No nutrition nonsense in those days! lol
Ha! I honestly didn't! I was pleasantly surprised to see them, though. Our lunches were quite balanced nutritionally -- we always had vegetables, though I'm not sure how many kids actually ate them. (I did, but I was unusual that way!)
DeleteI am glad Olga will be okay.
ReplyDeleteSo far, so good! She doesn't seem to even be aware she's had teeth removed.
Delete