Marc Fisher of the Washington Post:

While you were focused on Memorial Day weekend doings, the Prince George’s County school board tried to slip a scandalburger onto the grill without anyone noticing. It won’t be easy to scrub the smoke from this cynical maneuver.

Someone just said to me:

“You’re almost done. Keep your eye on the prize.”

Can someone explain to me what exactly this prize is?

I was curious to find out what the former Mayor of Cleveland, Michael White, has been up to since he decided not to run for reelecton last time around. I figured he had taken a job at Jones Day, or Squires, Sanders & Dempsey or had landed at a large not for profit like the Cleveland Foundation. I googled him but couldn’t find any useful or timely information regarding his whereabouts.

I finally resorted to emailing my parents, figuring they might have read something in the local papers about his latest gig.

Momma got back to me quickly:

From: Momma
To: Michael Oliver, Pops
Date: May 4, 2005 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: Where in the world is Mike White?

An Alpaca

The other day I was talking with a close friend about my most recent “unbelievable discovery.” A few months back, someone casually mentioned that their birthday was a month away. Armed with this valuable information, I went home and plugged it into my calendar. A month later, my calendar alarm for the birthday went off 2 days ahead of my friend’s birthday. I bought a card and got it to the person on the right day.

I was blown away! I excitedly told my friend about my new radical system for remembering birthdays.

“So then, like magic, my calendar reminded me two days before hand that it was my friends birthday!” I said.

My friend laughed uncontrollably as I spoke.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“How on earth do you think everyone else in the world remembers birthdays!” she said.

Truth is, I had never considered how other people did it. I suppose I assumed that others had a better memory or that people kept hand written “birthday lists” like my mother. As far as I was concerned, I had just discovered the “new world.”

I am reminded of Chris Rock’s comedy routine about people that are proud of things they are supposed to do.

“I take care of my kids!”

“You’re supposed to take care of your kids!”