Rhode Island becomes fourth state to offer free tuition for community college.

Lawmakers in the Ocean State have passed a measure (with many stipulations) allowing free tuition at its community college through a program they label "The Promise Scholarship." There is only one community college in Rhode Island, but we are talking about a state the size of any backyard in Texas after all.

To qualify for the free tuition, students must have graduated from high school the previous spring, live in Rhode Island, be enrolled full time, and maintain a 2.5 GPA. Furthermore, after the two years, the student must continue living and working in the state for some unspecified amount of time. Might you be held prisoner for life in Rhode Island? Potentially, but I hear east Providence is lovely.

These sorts of stipulations fall in line with what the three other states that allow free tuition require. New York, Oregon, and Tennessee each allow various forms of free tuition, usually based on income and other variables. New York, for instance, limits free tuition at state schools to families who earn less than $125,000.

In case you're wondering, the median household income in New York is $60,850, although New York lawmakers say the $125,000 is still roughly the middle class.

In case you're still wondering, the IRS says that $133,000 places people in the top 10% of American income, meaning nearly 90% of New York qualifies for free tuition. If income is divided equally into upper class, middle class, and lower* class--with 1/3 each--somehow 90% just became 2/3 (middle and lower) in the state of New York.

Math is hard. Maybe a free algebra class at a community college might help.



*The euphemism of "working class" needs to end. There is no sense in allowing the term "upper class" without the equal contrast of "lower class," or to assume those in the other income brackets are somehow not "working." Tender sensibilities won't be offended by a simple fact. Lower class is simply a lower level of income, end of story.

John Grisham is a fan of quotation marks.

While on his first book tour in 25-years to promote his upcoming Camino Island, John Grisham was interviewed by various outlets. During one such interview with a site called Chapter16, Grisham was asked about a character in the new book who has rules for writing. One such rule is characters should always speak in quotation marks.

Such punctuation isn't en vogue amongst the high-minded literary set these days, though, so Chapter16 asked Grisham if his personal views share those with his book's character. Likewise, he was asked whether Cormac McCarthy (who started the trend) should be the only writer allowed to go quotation-less. Said Grisham:

"Cormac should be the only person allowed to do that. I think he started it. He has his own rules for grammar and writing. He’s Cormac. He can get by with that; the rest of us can’t."

Ehhh, I'm not even sure McCarthy gets by with it. His writing is like a lazy 6th-grader who just can't be bothered with his essay's basics because his fingers are covered in Little Debbie snack cake goodness and he's distracted by video games. That's Cormac in a nutshell.

Saturday Morning PSA of The Week: Littering never had such a catchy jingle before!

Today's public service announcements are all information and no imagination--but yesteryear's? Those were full of drama, plot lines, and cameos from B-grade celebrities, all wedged into one minute of absolute fantasticness.

Consider this a trip back in time to when PSAs were sometimes worth watching more than the Saturday morning cartoons.


Today:  You don't even want to know what Mississippi's roads look like by comparison.





Random Thoughts and Questions:
1.)  Wait--did the song just start out by calling me trash??
2.)  You really have to commend the state of Tennessee for admitting a sizable portion of its population is trash. That takes some guts.
3.)  I think I'm more impressed that this convertible can hold that much garbage. That's a testament to some quality leg room right there.
4.)  Is this a PSA about littering or the lack of state police oversight on Tennessee highways?
5.)  Don't we all really want to know who cleaned up all the trash after they filmed this? Like a gusty breeze didn't come around and send thousands of pieces of "fake" litter off into becoming "real" litter.

Tennessee bill might require all students to learn cursive.

There isn't much in this world that Democrats and Republicans can agree on, but apparently the need to write cursive is one.

State representative Sheila Butt has proposed a bill in the Tennessee state legislature requiring cursive be taught. The Republican lawmaker "authored the bill after being told by parents and teachers that kids today couldn’t read their handwritten notes," according to The Tennessean. Not to mention all the birthday cards from grandma and grandpa that look like indiscriminate squiggles.

It doesn't stop there. "Butt frets that the day may come when Tennesseans will no longer be able to sign their names legibly or read the Bill of Rights in its original form," says the newspaper. Because if there's one thing your average American does on a Saturday night, it's kick back and read the Bill of Rights in its original form.

But this is a noble quest, and Sheila Butt is not alone on her mission, as the entire Tennessee legislature seems to be on board, Democrat and Republican. Says Rep. Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat, “I think it’s terrible [...] because you really need to be able to write in the event that your computer or your phone or your iPad — all those batteries are dead.”

In case you're not keeping track, the reasons for learning cursive are as follows:

1.  Handwritten notes are indecipherable.
2.  Bill of Rights reading parties.
3.  Potential zombie apocalypse wiping out our electronic grid.

All valid excuses.




photo: Wikipedia