Current Events

YOU CAN tell you're getting older when: Current events in your time are now taught as history. Punch cards were state of the art. You find yourself driving under the speed limit on I-95. You remember Britney Spears making the news for her musical talents. You find yourself writing down the telephone numbers from a lot of TV commercials. Getting powder through a (Pixie) straw was legal. You remember when John and Milton didn't pay their taxes. Hmmmm, strike that.

The questions were tough: Which plant has a hollow stem? Which injury always affects the victim's neck? If a sidewinder slithers 490 yards in 3 1/2 hours, what is its rate of speed in feet per hour? But those questions and others were no match for 15 fifth graders from the Upper Dublin School District's Jarrettown Elementary School, whose answers earned them a first place in Pennsylvania, seventh overall, in a tournament of general knowledge. The March 23 Elementary Knowledge Master Open included about 19,500 fifth- and sixth-grade students facing 100 such questions on computer screens.

Those who have lived long enough to witness and participate in history in the making understand current events in a context different from that of younger folks. While younger folks know war and the past only abstractly, from video footage and newspaper reports, seniors' life experiences - through decades of good times and bad times - have shaped their thoughts, opinions and concerns, and seniors play an important part in our society, especially when it comes to voting. (Think of Florida, home of many retirees, in the last presidential election.

Half the students at Ivy League colleges can't name their home-state U.S. senators. More than a third haven't a clue who is prime minister of Britain, and 75 percent don't know who wrote "a government of the people, by the people, for the people. " A group of University of Pennsylvania students found that out by surveying 3,119 undergraduates at the eight Ivy campuses. They say the poll, which ranged from current events to sex habits, is the most thorough querying ever of Ivy League students.

If you think SDI is an ingredient in deodorant, you need the World Affairs Council. In February 1985, the Council embarked on the most ambitious project in its 39-year history, a two-year focus on SDI, the Strategic Defense Initiative, otherwise known as "Star Wars. " The highlight of the project was a conference presenting 30 proponents and opponents of SDI, including then- Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and former defense secretaries James Schlesinger and Robert McNamara.

I'd applied to the Urban Journalism Workshop through my ex-high school counselor. It was 1989, and I was a graduating senior. Surely they would reject me, I thought. After all, I only had one year left in high school and they probably only wanted the top students from future graduating classes. I thought I was washed up at the age of 16. After filling out and sending in the extensive application, I got the word. I was to report to the Daily News on Saturday morning for an interview.

It was the spring of 1968 and the world was churning around them. Carl Tepper wondered if he'd ever get to adulthood. "When you're 10, you think, 'I'm never going to make it.' Twenty-one looks like a magic age, and 30 looks like you're ready for retirement. " Randi Blumenthal lived for the spaghetti and meatball lunches served by the ladies in hair nets. Cindy Williams' mind was trained on the weekend, not world events: "I remember being very into who you were going to hang out with and not necessarily who had been shot.

Frederick Randolph Arnold McGee, a retired federal employee who was active in his community, died Thursday. He was 79 and lived in Bryn Mawr. A longtime resident of West Philadelphia, McGee first went to work for the federal government in 1943 as a junior storekeeper for the U.S. Signal Corps on Wissahickon Avenue. In 1943 he was drafted into the Army. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant, receiving two battle stars for service in the Pacific and the Philippines. After the war he returned to the Signal Corps as a warehouseman.

Hilary Charles Thomas, a retired bartender who followed sports and enjoyed discussing current events, died of cancer Jan. 24. He was 97 and lived in Nicetown-Tioga more than 50 years. "Schoolie" Thomas was a popular mixologist for many years at the old Nick's Tavern at Broad and South streets, and the Budweiser at 16th and South before retiring at age 65. Born and educated in smalltown McGregor, Tex., he was the oldest son of 12 siblings. He graduated high school in McGregor and attended Howard University where he played leather-helmet football.

PHILA. SCHOOL DISTRICT SIGNS UP FOR CHANNEL 1 As a senior in high school hoping to become an educator, I believe that Channel One would be most beneficial to students. It is obvious that we are in the middle of a technological time, and technology can be used both positively and negatively. While so many of us are so engrossed in our Nintendos and television shows, young children and teenagers may have no interest in what is occurring in the outside world. Since teenagers spend several hours a day in front of television watching shows that require a body without thought, why not have students watch a current events news magazine in school?

The opening-night audience - longtime fans of 1812's annual news-and-views send-up This Is the Week That Is - cheers to see Patsy (Jen Childs) back in South Philly, wearing her pink Eagles sweatshirt, giving Washington a piece of her mind. When she announces that 1812 Productions is the only company devoted to comedy in the whole country, she offers an aside, "I know, I know. Can yez stand it?" All the expectable, mockable suspects are rounded up for our amusement: the Republican presidential candidates, the Occupiers, Greece, superheroes, the Republican presidential candidates, President Obama, Michelle Obama, Wall Street bankers, spin doctors, the Republican presidential candidates, Harvard professors, newscasters, television talk shows, and, wait, did I mention Republican presidential candidates?

TO COLUMNIST Fatimah Ali: If you really listened to Rush and Glenn Beck, you'd know they aren't trying to make a class distinction between the poor and unemployed and the middle and upper classes. Their concern is where we'll get the money to fund the extension of unemployment. When you take on the tea party people (those angry racists that threaten your worldview), would you dare believe that they might be just concerned people like me who perhaps don't agree with the direction our country is taking?

YOU CAN tell you're getting older when: Current events in your time are now taught as history. Punch cards were state of the art. You find yourself driving under the speed limit on I-95. You remember Britney Spears making the news for her musical talents. You find yourself writing down the telephone numbers from a lot of TV commercials. Getting powder through a (Pixie) straw was legal. You remember when John and Milton didn't pay their taxes. Hmmmm, strike that.

THE DEVIL'S Ten Commandments: 1. Thou shalt do drugs, smoke and drink. 2. Thou shalt curse, argue and fight. 3. Thou shalt steal, cheat and lie. 4. Thou shalt hate, revenge and destroy. 5. Thou shalt torture and kill. 6. Thou shalt molest and rape. 7. Thou shalt dishonor thy parents. 8. Thou shalt commit adultery and sin on Sundays. 9. Thou shalt start battles and wars. 10.Thou shalt love and serve only Satan. The awful news stories each day are of people who do the devil's work.

IT'S BACK-to-school time. So I've crafted my own Cliffs Notes regarding the news of the day: In a front-page election story, the New York Times recently detailed an important difference between candidates Bush and Kerry: Namely, the way that tickets are distributed for their campaign events. In the Bush world, volunteers WORK for the right to obtain the good seats by manning phone banks, or engaging in other grass roots activities. In the Kerry campaign, the tickets are DOLED OUT regardless of elbow grease.

Those who have lived long enough to witness and participate in history in the making understand current events in a context different from that of younger folks. While younger folks know war and the past only abstractly, from video footage and newspaper reports, seniors' life experiences - through decades of good times and bad times - have shaped their thoughts, opinions and concerns, and seniors play an important part in our society, especially when it comes to voting. (Think of Florida, home of many retirees, in the last presidential election.

Frederick Randolph Arnold McGee, a retired federal employee who was active in his community, died Thursday. He was 79 and lived in Bryn Mawr. A longtime resident of West Philadelphia, McGee first went to work for the federal government in 1943 as a junior storekeeper for the U.S. Signal Corps on Wissahickon Avenue. In 1943 he was drafted into the Army. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant, receiving two battle stars for service in the Pacific and the Philippines. After the war he returned to the Signal Corps as a warehouseman.

New events you may have already missed at the 2000 Olympics: 10,000k Road Rage - Drivers awarded points according to how aggressively they respond to someone driving slow in the left lane, failing to use a turn signal or just tooling along, minding his own business. To win, a competitor must demonstrate the ability to simultaneously flick his lights, honk his horn and issue a single-digit salute while reloading. (Non-automatic weapons only.) 50mg Steroid Pump - The best dopers in the world go for the gold, not to mention irreversible liver damage.

Hilary Charles Thomas, a retired bartender who followed sports and enjoyed discussing current events, died of cancer Jan. 24. He was 97 and lived in Nicetown-Tioga more than 50 years. "Schoolie" Thomas was a popular mixologist for many years at the old Nick's Tavern at Broad and South streets, and the Budweiser at 16th and South before retiring at age 65. Born and educated in smalltown McGregor, Tex., he was the oldest son of 12 siblings. He graduated high school in McGregor and attended Howard University where he played leather-helmet football.

Ed Sickles' students have toured the United Nations and questioned former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, never leaving their classroom. Their travels to New York, the Middle East and even the Berlin Wall have been through interactive cable television programs. Sickles, a Montgomery County Intermediate Unit teacher working at Abington High School, believes cable is an educational tool. "Cable television is a great deal . . . I've used CNN every day for about 10 years in my social studies classes as a way to teach current events," Sickles said.