Juggling With The End Of An Era

At The Greatest Show On Earth:2010

I wasn't one of those children who were frequently taken to the circus. Growing up, my parents took me to museums, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, zoos and libraries in and around Canarsie. I remember going to an Easter parade and school trips usually included a visit to a theatre to see some type of play or musical that got our young creative juices flowing.

It wasn't until I began working for the Canarsie Courier that received tickets to see Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth," which will finally close its curtains at the end of May.  

I can't even begin to document the problems and adversities faced by circus performers. Animal cruelty, punishment, unfair treatment of tigers, cats, elephants...all which have reportedly led to the decline in ticket sales.

While many animal rights' groups coined this the "cruelest show on earth," I still think it's a sad day when you can no longer take your child to see a show where humans are performing some of the craziest physical challenges. They're taking exciting looking risks most of us wouldn't even try. A fire-eater? A tightrope walker? Acrobats who spend weeks - if not months - honing their balancing skills? Where else can you watch a show that makes you say, "Wow! How did they do that?"

Feld Entertainment has had an announcement posted on their web site that states the "high costs" of performances, along with the decline in ticket sales, has made the show unsustainable to the company. Of course, we all know that it's not just about "times they are a'changing." The more people who protest against the way animals are trained/tortured, the less people are likely to buy tickets to see the circus.

I do question the timing of all this protesting. Let's get real! Many circus companies survived for centuries. Why didn't animal cruelty come to light in the 1950s through the 2000s? Where were all the animal rights activists when the shows began?

Nowadays, with help from social media, videos of cruel treatment is constantly leaked to the public so that we finally get a "behind the scenes" look at how elephants, lions and horses are trained under unfair conditions.
What about the humans? How are those clowns treated? Any allergic reactions to all that paint they have wear on their face? Is the fire-eating man getting compensation for the horrid acid reflux he's probably developed years ago?
While circus performers have their own unions that enforce their rights and provide legal backing, animals don't have the same protection in that capacity. So why don't we just keep the circus about humans and NOT animals?

The handful of times I went to see the circus as an adult, I admired the time, effort, energy and training that went into the show. Even if it seemed unnecessary to whip an elephant in such a way that it would jump on its hindlegs, I was still amazed at the show overall!
Where else can you see so many colors, hear so many sounds, and smell so many foods only served at the circus? Closing the circus not only means the memories that can be made for many children no longer exist, it means the next generation will never know the value of watching a LIVE show performed by individuals who challenged their physical abilities.
They're only gonna be able to view those shows on YouTube. Watching clips of the circus will be tantamount to witnessing a duel from the gladiator days - when REAL brawn and battles to the death existed throughout the Roman Empire! Well, not that barbaric - but challenging performances that once took ultimate skill and practice will be a distant memory and future generations will never see that type of energy again!

Our Brooklyn community saw the beginning of the end when former digraced State Senator Carl Kruger protested a segment of the Cole Bros. Circus which included acrobatic cats being thrown around like rag dolls. The Democrat said it was cruel for an animal to risk its life for the sole purpose of entertainment. Following that wave of awakening about the circus, the negative attention just kept on growing.

No more acrobatics to challenge the masses!

But can a circus survive and draw crowds without any animals in the show? Trapeze artists and magicians perform acts that the average person may never master. I still think a tiny bicycle steered into a circle of flames by a fat clown is hilarious! I know it's "outside the "box" to state this, but the existence of a circus also gives children hope that maybe some day they can be part of a show that travels all over the world. When a kid isn't cut out for college or aiming to obtain a highfalutin degree, what's wrong with the appeal of joining the circus? 

There are plenty of human circus acts - including Cirque du Soleil - that enlighten and inspire the masses. It's sad that the Ringing Bros. performances are now associated with animal cruelty and is no longer the greatest show on earth. Nothing will ever replace it, but then again, that's show biz!

Curse That Which Destroyed Cursive Writing!

When I was 8 years old and attending P.S. 115 in Canarsie, Brooklyn, my teacher appeared to be in her 60s or 70s (as was the style at the time - no young hipster-looking teachers back then). She wore those horrid loose-fitting multi-colored sweaters with tight necklines and bland dress pants. If it wasn't bad enough, she smelled like centuries-old perfume. A short woman, she sported gaudy necklaces that accentuated her tacky attire, she had those strings attached to her granny glasses, which she kept near the tip of her nose while peering down at us in disapproval.

I remember cursive writing...HBU???

How do I remember all of these details from my 3rd grade experience? 

As soon as the Department of Education (DOE) and Chancellor Carmen Farina announced that cursive writing is returning to our schools, it brought me back to my childhood and a time when something that was as simple as learning script seemed so frustrating and useless.

There's something regal about cursive writing - something classy and old fashioned about signing one's name or writing a personal letter in script instead of print. The question is - are children these days ever really going to use cursive writing in their adult years?

Sadly, I can say with confidence that I have no use for cursive writing at this point in my life. Other than signing my name on a check or to approve a credit card purchase in a store, when does one actually need to use cursive writing?

The renewal of cursive lessons isn't mandated and it will be up to individual school administrators to decide if and how the lessons are executed. One official said learning script would improve reading and spelling among students. They can also be better tuned in to reading historical documents like the Declaration of Independence.

Let's get real! Our writing culture is now an embarrassment to the amazing expressions/communications and evolution of Egyptian and Chinese writings - even though some were harsh, others were eloquent in style.

Hey - I never learned cursive writing so that I could head to a museum and decode scrolls of ancient script written in verbose styles never to be used again! Did I miss something? The only thing I remember about learning cursive writing was standing in line behind my classmates so that our ugly-sweater wearing teacher could yell at me for not fluidly forming my "r's" so that they didn't look like "n's". UGH!

After middle school in the 1990s, penmanship and technology changed the way students submitted their assignments. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, you weren't allowed to print OR use cursive writing in your book reports or for any academic submissions! Maybe it was because teachers, overall, found it so hard to read students' handwriting or maybe they wanted students to get a handle on technology and use word processors/computers to complete 10-page papers? 

At some point in the last two decades, the DOE and teachers mandated that handwritten academic submissions weren't just unacceptable - and abolished - they became reasons to penalize a student and give them a poor grade. Teachers would throw ANY and ALL handwritten assignments/homework back to you as if you'd passed them a snotty rag or the plague! How's that for creative encouragement and teaching students the art of writing! 

By the middle of high school, just about all handwritten assignments were banned. When I was enrolled at South Shore High School in 1994-1995, they cast us off to typing classes where our grades were based on how fast we could peck at the right keys on a keyboard without making mistakes!  This was a skill needed more than any other in the workforce - if you're not typing more than a certain amount of words per minute, you're useless to a company!

Good bye cursive, hello speed typing!

Go ahead, teach our children how to sign their names away - when they're adults it'll be their signature on a mortgage they probably can't afford - or on a check they won't use because as adults they'll pay their bills online. Yes, it's distinguishing to learn cursive writing and novel to revive its authentic style. But grading students for penmanship that isn't going to exist in their adult years serves no purpose.

"LOL" and "LMAO" all you want and say "WTF" when it comes to reading someone's atrocious handwriting! Children are growing up in a world where technology/ acronyms rule and a pen is just a silly and ancient writing tool...

Get A Hygienic Handle On Paying For Plastic

Every now and then I carry a canvas tote bag with me when I go shopping. I've collected a few free canvas bags over the years that are sturdy, somewhat spacious and have comfortable handles that don't give my arms or hands rope burn. How safe and savvy! 

Get your fill of juicy bacteria! Stop using plastic bags!

What if I had to make a habit of using those economically-friendly tote bags for every-day food shopping? Well, in the words of former American Idol judge Simon Cowell: "That's a no from me..."

I felt a bit relieved when the 5-cent fee proposed for plastic shopping bags in New York City was nixed. With yammering coming from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and State Department of Environmental Conservation's Commissioner Basil Seggos, the public is being convinced that sooner or later, they're going to have to dig into their pockets for change to buy plastic bags. For at least another year, legislation on the plastic ban is on the back burner. 

On a personal note, I would be hygienically disgusted if the ban/fee resulted in consumers having no choice but to use - and reuse -  their own material packaging. I don't want to be petty - but, hey, I'm going to be petty with this issue!

The first thing that comes to mind about having to food shop with a reusable material bag is the amount of germs that that thing is going to collect and spread.

You're going to place dozens of groceries that came out of a possibly dirty transporting truck - and packaged raw meat with hundreds of bacteria particles like salmonella and e coli - in your canvas bags to take home? Without disposable plastic shopping bags to create a barrier between leaks, germs and post-delivery dirt, you're directly placing all of those gross and raw items together in tote bags and into an impure environment.

Assuming that you're going to take about a dozen of those material bags with you when you have a massive amount of shopping to do, you're also going to be sitting those "environmentally-safe" canvas bags down on supermarket counters and floors in order to fill them with purchased groceries. Sounds simple enough right? 

Consider this - those canvas bags will touch dozens of nasty surfaces and then you will place those bags in your home while you're unpacking, subsequently transferring the bacteria and dirt to your living space. Hey - that's what you'll get for not paying 5-cents for plastic bags (if there are any available in stores by the time our Mayor is done!) 

Imagine having to be extra careful how you place those packages of raw chicken and beef in your material bags? That'll show those environmentalists that you're willing to risk your health to save the earth!

When you go to the supermarket now, the cashier probably separates raw meat/fish from the rest of your groceries in plastic bags.  Hygienically speaking, this is a safe way to transport food - especially if you don't want the package of meat to get punctured by other groceries. You know you're safe when contaminated, raw chicken juice doesn't wind up all over the place! As a matter of fact, if you Google "Preventing Cross Contamination" web sites across the board will advise consumers to use separate plastic bags for raw food.

You'll also waste more time cleaning those material bags - whether you want to or not. Those of us who are skeeved out by bacteria (and I hope that refers to the masses) will have to wash and disinfect canvas bags out immediately after heavy duty food shopping! If you're not grossed out by transferring dirt, raw food liquid and bacteria from the supermarket to your house..well, you should be!

As "toxic" as plastic bags are for the environment, they are easily disposable/reusable and safely help consumers transport raw food to their home in separate spaces. If poultry or fish comes out of its packaging for any reason and there's slimy goop at the bottom of the plastic bag, you can throw it out! No stains, no odors, no cross-contamination!  

It strikes me as odd that in a world where scientists are telling us about the "dangers" of raw... everything...and how cross-contamination is a serious issue - the State is more concerned about shop owners imposing a fee and telling us how plastic is our enemy! I don't think anything should change - and instead, our leaders should be focusing on more important environmental issues that will make us healthier.

If Mayor de Blasio wants to ban the use of plastic bags altogether, get ready for the biggest germfest of all time! If I had to choose between being political over plastic or looking out for my risk of exposure to harmful bacteria and contracting food poisoning...I think the answer is in the bag!