Caveat: x is English

pictureI went into the classroom at nearly 10 pm, and Jeongjae and Donghun were still in there, studying for some vocabulary quiz, presumably. But Jeongjae was looking at his math book.

“You guys are still here?” I asked.

“Yeaaasss,” intoned Jeongjae in that laconic voice of his.

I pointed at his math book. “That doesn’t look like English,” I observed.

He glared down at the offending text as if it had suddenly appeared on his desk unexpectedly. He pondered his predicament for only a moment.

“Ohhh. but Teacher! There is x! X is English.”

“Yes, I think that’s English,” his friend agreed.

I couldn’t really argue. Though maybe “x” is more Latin, than English, in a math problem. But, well… who was I to argue? (Note that the image is not Jeongjae’s math problem – just a random image of a math problem in Korean with an ‘x’ in it that I grabbed out of the intertubes. I’m not sure Korean 7th graders are doing precalculus.)


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Caveat: The Fish Ran Away With the Moon

What I'm listening to right now.

The Dirt Band (AKA The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), "Fish Song." This song is from their album All the Good Times. I had a hard time finding a youtube of it – they must be in the copyright-police-state crowd – they or their publishers / labels. I found a live version that's not too far different from the studio version I know so well, which is what's embedded above. It's a good song.

Sat here by this stony brook until the Grey day turned to dust
When up swam a fish with a children's book thought that I was lost
He was on his way to the salmon hop, that's where they go to breed
Saw me sitting on this log and thought I'd like to read

The night was cloudy but the moon he found a hole
He said that he felt bad for me cause I had no place to go

Why aren't you at the harvest ball with some sweet young gal
You just sit like a bump on a log and call that fish your pal

Well, I told him I was an orphan, lived here all alone
But many people have often tried to catch and take me home
They never caught me

Thought that I was a hiding, call this log my home
But the fish and the moon and a sweet young gal
All want me for their own

The night was cloudy but the moon he found a hole
He said that he felt bad for me cause I had no place to go

So I met that girl at the harvest ball, she took me to her room
While I slept in children's dreams, the fish ran away with the moon
The fish ran away with the moon
The fish ran away with the moon

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