Current Events and My Two Cents

• Medical Marijuana: Murf isn't a big hit on the local online newspaper when the topic of a recent article involves her city's recent decision to begin allowing medical marijuana dispensaries as well as 'grow facilities'.  An article yesterday was about the city council perhaps instituting an ordinance about how many of these places a city 4.51 square miles should have.  Last time I looked, I was the lone supporter while other potheads...I mean, anti ordinance supporters giving me the ol' thumbs down (-12 at the last count).   One person even called me a loon.  (My retort:  "I think a bag of Doritos is calling your name.")  I have a hard time believing that one every 500 feet is necessary in a city this small.   This problem came to light because people in a predominantly minority section of town went to their council member to complain about the dispensary AND that there was a growing facility in their neighborhood.   Go figure that the section of town which also has the most would have a problem with this.  Historically, the poorer sections of any town have always been where they would put something 'unattractive' like dumping waste or a field of marijuana.  Good for them for standing up and from what I've heard from others at our neighborhood gatherings, there are more that follow my train of thought then the chip munchers who spend their time leaving comments on the website.  It just boggles my mind that a city that is trying to improve its image and bring new businesses, people, and families to the city would even contemplate not doing something to limit the number of these places let alone the legality of it (I guess there is some discrepancy between local and state views on this).    They scrutinize a few acres of empty land in town to get just the right kind of business (Burger King - no; Family Dollar - yes) but yet something like can go on and on and on.  Hopefully I will read the newspaper today and find out that the ordinance is in place even if the plans still in development phase will get 'grandfathered' in. 

 

•  Cory Monteith:  I watched Glee for the first couple of seasons but lost interest once the wheelchair guy (who isn't really in a wheelchair...couldn't they have found a real handicapped actor?) kept getting the hot chicks.  My favorite was always Finn even during the storyline where Quinn discovered she was pregnant and made Finn think it was his even though they never had sex (he traced it back to when he was in a hot tub with Quinn and got a little too 'excited' just from looking at her and thought that was how it happened).   His death this past weekend disturbs me for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on.  I was hoping maybe it was an undetected natural cause or something related to his past drug use but alas, neither of those were what the coroner found.  He was only 31 and cute as a button.  Such a shame.

• Social Media and Writing:  ABC News had an article on its Facebook page yesterday that was rather interesting.  It was titled Social Media Makes for Better Student Writing, Not Worse, Teachers Say.  One of the interesting comments came from an English teacher who said "As an English teacher who is trying to improve student writing, one thing I see is that people are seeing greater ownership of their writing when they know it will be seen beyond the class and the teacher."  There is also an interesting comment about Twitter and texting by calling it 'pre-writing' because they are starting to express their thoughts.  Maybe there is hope for the younger generation next and it won't be all texting language.