Melissa Rooney Writing

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Statistician's Blues and Being Ordinary

Warning: Half way through, my #ThemeSong today (Statistician's Blues by Todd Snider) uses the F-bomb and talks about getting drunk. I wish there were a version where it didn't, because then I could listen to the whole thing with my 10-year-old. But we do enjoy the first verse, which makes for a very applicable mental math problem :-)

"They say 3 percent of the people use 5 to 6 percent of their brain

97 percent use 3 percent and the rest goes down the drain

I'll never know which one I am but I'll bet you my last dime

99 percent think [we're] 3 percent 100 percent of the time"

Note: The original song uses "with" rather than "we're" in the last line; but we're's the way my son and I heard it the first time, and we're sticking with it :-)



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My sons and I watched this video today and thought it's message was on target. I think every senior should see it - there's so much pressure on those kids to figure out who they are or want to be, and they're not even twenty yet!


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On the local level...

My 10YO son plays Pokémon Go with his sister, who is in college in Florida, and was delighted to discover that Dorothy Kitchen's violin bench at Oval Park (in Durham, NC) is now a Poke stop :-). Say what you will about this Pokeman Go thing, it *has* been getting us to walk as a family couple times a week.

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Work is well underway on the Stormwater Control Measure (SCM) that is giving the big EK Powe playground a much needed facelift. The project was organized by the EK Powe Elementary School PTA and administration, is being paid for through the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association and Durham Open Space and Trails Commission , designed by Landscape Architect Katherine Gill, and installed by Tributary Land Design. Durham Public Schools has supported the project and offered assistance as well. The project will regrade the upper portion of the playground and direct otherwise flooding stormwater to vegetated areas landscaped for optimal water absorption and student use. It's gonna be AWESOME!

Here's what the playground looked like in November 2020:

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Here's what it looks like today:

Can't wait to see what it's gonna look like when it's finished :-)

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Now it's time for another fortune-telling bath bomb (thanks MomB).

P.S. Thanks for Statistician's Blues, Danielle :0)