Sick

Screen, scan, one more test.

Congestion, flu symptoms, a little sneeze.

Temperature is normal, get some rest;

Take some time for yourself, if you please.

Stay home. What’s the fuss?

Doctor’s orders are a must!

What’s the malady? What is the malfunction?

One more thing to check as part of your care.

We want to rule out all possible assumptions.

There is a mass we noticed – you can see it here!

Nothing to be concerned about at all;

It’s probably nothing -- nothing at all.

Do you have any allergies?

Bad hips and wounded knees.

Any history of heart disease?

Nip and tuck cosmetic surgeries.

Nothing to it. Take it Easy.

Easy, easy, easy, breezy.

Waiting out this hammer toe.
Will you still feed me when I’m 64?

Carotid artery, pain in the neck;
Happens every day, what the heck.
Appendectomy, because it burst.

It’s a medical nightmare, really the worst.

  

Instruments and clipboards everywhere.

Proof of insurance for your healthcare.
It’s persistent and it is chronic.

Cleaning the system for a healthy colonic

Always best to catch these things early.

A little bit invasive -- a minor surgery.

Just one more thing;
Give your spouse a ring;

Before you go home;

You shouldn’t be alone.

If you don’t feel better in about an hour;

Contact your doctor and your higher power.

Dog Tired 8-6-18

Mary Lynn

Married once

Married twice;

Married thrice!

Mary Lynn Morgan-V-C-A;

Hyphenated three times, but not today;

On this anniversary of her birth;

She doesn’t have justify her worth.

To find love in the end;

You gotta be your own best friend.

Happy Birthday to you!

Have fun, whatever you do.

Wake up, walk the dog, let another day begin;
Then punch the clock and log yourself in.

Check in for just a few more hours;
Wake up and smell the flowers.

Picasso Muses

Picasso Self Portrait 1907

Fernande Olivier met Picasso in 1904 and by the next year they were living together. Their relationship lasted seven years. Both Olivier and Picasso were jealous lovers, and their passions sometimes exploded into violence

Head of a woman (Fernande) by Picasso 1909

Olga Stepanovna Khokhlova: A Russian ballet dancer of Ukrainian origin, was the first wife of Pablo Picasso (1918-1955). She was one of his early artistic muses and the mother of his son, Paulo. 

Portrait of Olga 1921 by Picasso

Marie-Thérèse Walter: French mistress and model for Picasso of from 1927 to about 1935, She is the mother of his daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso. She was seventeen years old and he was 45 in 1927 (He was still living with his first wife, Olga). Picasso moved on to his next mistress, artist Dora Maar.

Woman with a Mirror by Picasso 1932

Dora Maar: at the end of 1935, Dora Maar was introduced to Picasso.Their liaison would last nearly nine years. Dora Maar photographed the successive stages of the creation of Guernica in 1937. She is the model Picasso, often represents in tears.

Weeping Woman 1937 by Picasso

Françoise Gilot: Pablo Picasso when she was 21 and he was 61. Picasso first saw Gilot in a restaurant in the spring of 1943. Dora Maar, was devastated to learn that Picasso was replacing her with the much younger artist.  Gilot and Picasso spent almost ten years together. Their son, Claude, was born in 1947 and their daughter, Paloma was born in 1949.

Françoise Gilot 1953 by Picasso

Jacqueline Roque: Pablo Picasso met Jacqueline in 1953 at the Madoura Pottery when she was 26 years old and he was 72. In 1955, when Picasso's first wife Olga died, he was free to marry. He married Jacqueline in Vallauris in 1961. (Picasso was married to her until his death in 1973).

Jacqueline with Flowers by Picasso 1954

In 1917, the artist met Olga Khokhlova, a Ukrainian-Russian ballet dances at Ballets Russes who became his first wife. Eventually, she retired from the company and traveled with Pablo to Barcelona, where she met his family. She was featured in the works like Portrait of Olga in an Armchair (1918). The two fought a lot, and Picasso soon became transfixed by Marie-Thérèse Walter around the late 1920s. In the year 1935, Olga separated from Picasso after she found out that Walter was pregnant with the artist’s child, but the artist refused to grant a divorce. Khokhlova was depicted in Picasso's art such as the painting The Minotaurmachy (1935) and Bullfight: Death of the Torero (1935) as a horse gored by the mythological minotaur, eg. Picasso himself.

The first significant woman in the life of Pablo Picasso was Fernande Olivier, who was his artistic muse that inspired his art throughout their seven-year-long relationship. The two met in 1904 and, just a year later, they began living together in his studio. Picasso and Olivier consumed opium, both were very feisty and frequently unfaithful to one another. Such a situation made Picasso very jealous and possessive, and allegedly he used to lock Olivier in their studio when he would leave.

Marie-Thérèse Walter was perhaps the greatest love of Picasso’s life. She was gentle, obedient, and served as the inspiration for some of his most sensual art—paintings and sculptures. Thanks to her physique, Walter was an ideal muse and model for Picasso's Surrealist period. The Large Still Life with a Pedestal Table (1931) is a disguised portrait of Walter or Sleeping Nude (1932) that manifests the artist’s infatuation with the sensory pleasures offered by Walter. In painting Guernica (1937), the artist presented Walter’s youthful features as a motif of innocence, while in The Farmer’s Wife (1938) he referred to Walter as a symbol of the indifference of European nations to the destruction of free Republican Spain by the Fascists.

In 1935, Picasso got introduced to Dora Maar, a gifted photographer, poet, and painter who instantly dazzled Picasso at the café Les Deux Magots in Paris when she took a knife and rapidly stuck it into the table between each of her fingers. Unlike Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was gentle and passive, Dora Maar was far more challenging especially in terms of intellect. Their love relationship was intense because Maar was part of the Surrealist movement and the artists in her own right. She was depicted through cubist style in a powerful Portrait of Dora Maar (1937).

Françoise Gilot was another Picasso’s lover and muse from 1944 to 1953, and the mother of his children Claude and Paloma. Very soon Gilot replaced Dora Maar as his primary mistress in his life and has become a strong holder of his happiness that resulted in the fruitful production of ceramics, sculptures, and his exuberant Joy of Life series.

The last significant woman worth mentioning was Jacqueline Roque who was Picasso’s wife, muse, and loyal assistant from 1953 until he died in 1973. When the two met, Jacqueline was twenty-seven, recently divorced, and working as a sales assistant at a shop on the French Riviera, where the artist produced his ceramics. Picasso was very much inspired by Roque, creating more pieces of art centered on her than on any of the other Picasso women. Interestingly so, on the night Picasso was to be buried, Jacqueline slept outside in the snow, stretched over his grave.

Generations Mom

Mom I miss you, That’s for sure.

I wish you could see what I see, so sweet and so pure.

And maybe you do - It’s just so profound.

Mothers make the world go round.

My wife talks to her mom nearly every day.

It’s the little things, I always say.

Standing through thick and thin, the mother of our two;

For richer, for poorer, we smile, we do.

She's mom to a girl and a boy...

They bring us so much happiness and joy.

Astounding as it is, our baby girl is a mom now;

She knows exactly what to do, and how.

Our boy, married a girl, a beautiful bride for our son.

Now as a mom, she is nearly a perfect one.

Incidental as I am.

I am a very happy man.

Memory and Cognition Reflection

Slavin’s summary of cognitive theories of learning (pp.154-155), is not a summary as much as it is an outline for a teacher to consider the educational psychology of how the brain processes information. It is useful to have a knowledge of theories about what causes people to remember (or forget) and how we as human beings learn. This paper explores several memory strategies and provides a little fun via YouTube at the end.

I am mindful of the ongoing study of memory in the advertising industry, so ably and humorously portrayed by Sidney Greenstreet as the owner of Beautee Soap in the film adaptation of Frederic Wakefield’s The Hucksters (1947). He insists, as he pounds his fist on the conference room table that his brand leads in the marketplace because “we out-advertise” the competition. Furthermore, he claims, to be effective you must repeat the brand name and “irritate! Irritate! Irritate!” --- beating the consumer into submission to purchase Beautee Soap. Sullivan (Hey Whipple, Squeeze, 2016) recalls classic TV commercials for Charmin toilet tissue as memorable but irritating portrayal of a grocer who cannot resist squeezing the product because it is so soft. In advertising, the client banks on the belief that memory has the power to generate sales.

In school, over and over again, we are introduced to mnemonic devices we hope will assist learners in retaining information. Virtually every content area has something educators hope will be locked in the vault of the minds they hope to educate. In English (i before e, except after c or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh); In Mathematics (P.E.M.D.A.S. is a way to remember the order of operations – Parentheses or brackets first, then Exponents, then Multiplication, then Division, then Addition and Subtraction (left to right); In Geometry (memorize a2+b2 = c2 to understand Pythagorean Theory that says the Hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square roots of the other two sides of a right triangle); In Geography the names of the Great Lakes (H.O.M.E.S Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior); In Science (My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos is a way to recall planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune (Pluto lost its status as a planet); a would-be nun in The Sound of Music gave us a song to recall the basic 8 musical notes (Do-Re-Me-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do); In Art (Color Theory is on a wheel starting with primary colors of Red, Yellow and Blue).   

      

Slavin (p.149) introduced me to a study technique PQ4R (Preview, Question, Read, Reflect on the material, Recite and Review) which must be a cousin to a technique I learned in seventh grade SQ3R (Study, Question, Read, wRite, Review). I found a SQ4R explained from Oregon Library Information Services. I am quite sure that any version of such a technique, if woven into the instructional methodology of a classroom can be very effective.    

Five YouTube Links that I hope you will review follow. They are all short (2:36, 1:18, 1:49 and 6:02 and 3:03 respectively). I recommend viewing them in this order and after you have read this paper. (You can simply paste the link into your browser – they are all on YouTube). The last YouTube link is for your listening pleasure: “You must remember this…”

YouTube LINKS

The Hucksters Clark Gable Meets Sidney Greenstreet 2:36 (1947) on YouTube - link https://youtu.be/xHCJ5KZ4tdA

Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin TV commercial 1:18 (1960) on YouTube – link

https://youtu.be/nlOZaM0dz44

Order of Operations 1:49 on Your Teacher.com sample on YouTube - link

https://youtu.be/Y3CZ_JBQ0do

Oregon School Library Information System 6:08 SR4R technique for reading – link

https://youtu.be/ziofH7N8ZOE

Casablanca (1942) – 3:03 As Time Goes By Original Song by Sam (Dooly Wilson)

https://youtu.be/d22CiKMPpaY

REFERENCES

Sullivan, L. Hey whipple, squeeze this 5^th Edition (©Wiley 2016)

Wakefielf, F. The Hucksters (novel 1947) and movie staring Clark Gable

Slavin, R, Educational psychology theory and practice 12^th Edition (© 2012 Pearon)

August Leader

Impressive august leader;

Courtside, ballpark stands, recitals and plays;

Loyal as a golden retriever;

A parent in so many ways;

In Rob we trust, I’m a believer.

Cheaper in China;

Pet shop supplies;

EBITDA, lah-dee-dah;

Dustbusters, cutlery knives;

Butterfly kisses, the father cries.

Teary eyed, last in line;

A toast - qualified to make;

Genuine, heartfelt and fine;

Good to great, chocolate cake;

California vineyard wine.

Hardware sales, retail rings;

Cost of goods sold;

The troubadour sings;

And it never gets old;

A life full of sweet and healthy things.

Let's eat some cake

Birthday Cake

In the middle of cake season, at the end of June;

We celebrate the penultimate Morgan and the man in the moon.

Outliers in February are important too;

But nothing to make much ado.

It is the end of June – Let’s eat some cake;

Serve it up at your place on the Lake.

It goes something like this;

I'm oldest of four in a family of six.

We kick off the season of cake.

Count the parents and it’s a crazy eight.

May Day --- it’s time for cake!

By mid-June cake in a camp cabin is also great.

Cake in the rain it matters not, we love the stuff.

In July, can there ever be cake enough?

August rolls around and we’re seated again;

Flowery icing on cake at a table for ten.

Autumn months are more about pumpkin pie

Then temperature drops and snow flurries fly

Happy Birthday Dan. Happy birthday to you.

You look like a monkey and you are one too.

Cosmic Wheel Birthday Wish

Happy Birthday to a true Cosmic Wheel!

Choir boys, alter boys, boys will be boys.

Hot Air Balloons, up, up, and away;

In-A Gadda-Da-Vida drum solo noise;

Magnificent clouds by the bay.

Gasparillla Island pirates - ahoy!

Hit it as hard as you can - that’s how you play.

Cold Beer and cheap cigars;

Barefoot bus driver crushes concrete;

Remembering discos, beaches and bars;

Glorious days, even in defeat.

Emerging ahead, albeit with scars;

Life is so precious, so, so very sweet.

Single-lens reflex photographer, a good eye at-large.

The Red Cross is saving lives every day.

The first mate on a flying bridge is a man in charge.

Blended families, Real Estate Lives, Uber driver on his way.

An impossible shot at the buzzer --- to win;

Greg the Great does it again and again.

Poster artwork by Peter Max

King Daddy-O

Head of the clan;

Royalty about the house;

You do the best that you can.

Pray for the respect of the queen, your spouse;

Merely a mortal, and only a man.

At the end of the day, whatever you do;

The dividends come from those who love you.

Artwork: by Jean-michel Basquiat

Golf - Morgan on the PGA tour

Brooks Koepka completed a double-dip at the 100th PGA Championship. With his win at the 2018 PGA Championship, Koepka is the first golfer since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win two majors in one year. Tiger Woods created roars, defending champion Justin Thomas challenged and Adam Scott pulled even. But Koepka held off all challengers at Bellerive Country Club. I was a volunteer in the big merchandise tent on premise. 

I have served as a volunteer for security at The St. Jude Classic at  TPC Southwind near Memphis,  Daniel Berger repeated his PGA Tour win here in 2017 (June). He won last year June 2016 too.

I worked the BMW Championship (part of the FedEx Cup playoffs in which Camilo Villegas emerged victorious). I was on the communications committee at that event held at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 2008. I also worked the Senior PGA Tour Championship as volunteer assigned to leaderboards and as a hole marshall in 2013. 

I’ve been to The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club (Jack Nicklaus’ course) in Ohio, the Doral in Miami and visited TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Of course, I watch a lot of golf on TV.

Needless to say, I have an appreciation of just how good these guys really are on the PGA Tour. In 2018, I was thrilled to work merchandise sales at the 100 PGA Championship at Bellerive in Saint Louis. 

 

   

Greatest of all time

           She Goat 1950 (Cast Bronze 1952) Picasso - Museum of Modern Art

Social Media shorthand for greatness;

As the headline scoring of LeBron James;

Talent, teamwork, hard work and finesse;

Season after season in critical basketball games;

Records rank among the first and the very best.

Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee;

Clay became Muhammad Ali, objects to war. 

The greatest fighter that will ever be;

Says Senseless fighting, dying must be no more;

Instead we need peace love and harmony.

Picasso Cubism changes onlooker P.O.V.

Women are muses over a lifetime; 

Guernica travels for all to see;  

Perhaps the greatest artist of all time.

Sculptural She-Goat - midtown New York City.

Basketball, boxing, modern art,

Whatever hero you admire;

Believe in yourself from the very start;

With love of the game, passion and desire;

Because it always begins and ends with your heart.