June 7, 2018 WASTED TIME

If you're a teacher than you already know--the BEST day of the year is ALWAYS--the SUNDAY when you know you don't have to go to work ON MONDAY. Yup--can't believe I  made it through another school year. NINETEEN YEARS--guess I'll stick around for a few more--if they'll have me. I feel badly for all the TEACHERS & STUDENTS STILL in school though. TEACHERS are literally BABYSITTING at this point.  Seriously folks--you're kidding yourself if you think there's any REAL LEARNING GOING ON. The downhill started after APRIL VACATION. NOT KIDDING. The kids have seen every SHOW a hundred times and they are AS SICK OF YOU AS.......(fill in the blank) Snow days--SHMO DAYS--let it go. FREE ERIC--I MEAN free those poor HAPLESS souls/teachers.  They probably can't even string a decent sentence together at this point. They've HIT rock bottom--CAN'T even pretend to be NICE anymore. YUP--Bribing the kids with--candy--extra recess--WHATEVER IT TAKES--to make it through the day. That's what I'd do (have done) --it's survival of the fittest.

It was definitely survival of the fittest for the Mather twins after Conrad Lowe came to town in Jincy Willett's satirical novel Winner of the National Book Award. First of all, I must confess that I picked this book up because I thought it was a National Book Award winner and only realized that that was the title of the book after I got home. So glad I found it though. One of the fun things about this book is that it's set in Rhode Island so you will immediately recognize all the sites. This darkly comic novel is the story of twins--opposite in every way. Abigail is a promiscuous mail carrier and her sister is a virginal librarian. After the two befriend National Book Award winner Guy DeVilbiss and his wife, they are introduced to Conrad Lowe. Lowe is also a writer and a bit of a psychopath. Lowe becomes obsessed with Dorcas who refuses his advances so he settles on Abigail.  This is where the trouble begins. The characters  are unique, quirky, and deeply flawed, but so much fun. Willett's writing is spot on about Yankee pretension and what's it like to be a New Englander. This book sort of reminds me of A Confederacy of Dunces--so if you liked that-- you will definitely enjoy this book. It's about 340 pages--5 mile run--that will have you laughing out-loud and deeply disturbed.