Another sign the American educational system is being flushed down the drain.
“Cursive writing becomes passé”
Or not. In short, schools are devoting less and less time teaching students to write, particularly in cursive. Many students and teachers don’t care:

“I can’t think of any other place you need cursive as an adult other than to sign your name,” she [teacher Debbie Mattocks] said. “Cursive — that is so low on the priority list, we really could care less. We are much more concerned that these kids pass their SOLs [standardized tests], and that doesn’t require a bit of cursive.”
Older students who never mastered handwriting say it doesn’t affect their grades. “A lot of kids have just awful handwriting. . . . Teachers don’t take off points for poor handwriting,” said Matt Paragamian, a 10th-grader at St. Albans School in Northwest Washington. Many of his classmates take notes in class on their own laptops and do homework on computers.

Unfortunately, I came of age in an era when there wasn’t laptops and we did have handwriting class. It’s not a memory I’m fond of. Usually, once the teacher issued an assignment, my classmates and I raced to see who finish first. I almost always lost. And since I was trying to write too fast, developed bad handwriting in the process.
Then it got worse; in addition to print we were required to start writing in cursive. I’ve never liked cursive and have never used it unless required to do so. I never got the point: if cursive is supposed to look nicer or more stylish, well, mine doesn’t. My loops and curls are irregular and jagged. And if you’re supposed to write faster in cursive than print, I don’t.
So although I agree students should spend enough time in penmanship so they can read cursive, I frankly don’t see the point in going further than that. There are more relevant things to learn.

. . . we’ll keep standing:

The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday, a later date than any Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far.
. . .
Schoomaker said he has received no new guidance from commanders in Iraq as to when the U.S. will be able to begin reducing the number of troops there. Last year officials had hoped to be down to about 100,000 by the end of this year, but escalating violence and sectarian tensions have prompted military leaders to increase forces.

Another stirring testament to the success of the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.
Pundits are often speculating on the effect domestic political statements have on the morale of American troops in Iraq. I wonder how these same troops must feel when they are falsely promised they will get to leave as Iraqi forces are trained. Perhaps it’s akin to being stood up on a big date . . . with bombs and bullets flying about.

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Keith Olbermann confronts Bush’s lies, slander, and rejection of reality.
Part 1:

Part 2:

Why don’t we hear Democrats speaking with this force and passion? Are they not doing so? Or is it simply not being covered? Part of the party’s perceived weakness on national security issues stems from their reluctance to appear bold even on the campaign trail.
Stand tall and speak as though your words are coming from your heart, rather than being read from a focus group report.

This afternoon I had a medical appointment in Maryville. Since I was headed down there anyway, I loaded up my bike in hopes of getting a Blount County ride in afterwards.
Turn out to be a great call; the weather was fantastic (temperatures in the upper 70s). I had downloaded the cuesheet for this ride (my first time), and headed to the Hubbard school.
The first five miles was a nice warm up featuring a few flat stretches amid gently rolling hills. I should say the first seven miles, because I took the wrong entrance to Butterfly Gap Loop Road and thus had bonus riding. Along the way I saw an interesting mixture of some nice (and not so nice) country homes.
Then I turned into the woods and hit what a presume is the basis for the name “The Wall”: Butterfly Gap Road. That’s a bugger of a climb; probably the steepest prolonged one I’ve done. I don’t know what the grade is, but it’s noticeably steeper than the Foothills Parkway. To make matters worse, much of it resembles a staircase, with short “landings” between sharp rises. The landings aren’t nearly long enough to catch your breath, what they do is prevent you from developing any sense of a rhythm.
I had to stop twice to catch my breath during the climb. It’s not unusual for me to stop when going up a mountain, but most of the time it’s because I’m sweating or want to give my legs a break. Here, I stopped because I was winded. There’s clearly room for improvement on that road next time I’m looking for a challenge.
Much of the way, Butterfly Gap Road (then Flatt Road) is a narrow ribbon of pavement through the woods (incidentally, fall colors are emerging on the mountain). But about 3/4s(?) of the way up, it goes through the “Top of the World Estates” area. Oddly, though I’ve traveled the Foothills Parkway many times, I’ve never been up the back way before. There’s a “hidden” lake, a retreat, and an assortment of houses and cabins. One can discover neat things while cycling!
I finally made it to the Parkway at the intersection with the campground. Since I had done all that climbing, I decided a short trip down the other side to the overlook was warranted. It was worth the extra time. I’m not good at flowery descriptions, but suffice it to say it was beautiful. The sinking “late summer” sun lit up the mountains to the east, while casting an orange-tinted shadows over the hazy ridges to the south. It’s one of those sights I wish I could save in a bottle; sadly, I only had about 10 minutes.
Funny thing happened while I was standing there. A pair of motorcyclists drove in and parked in the parking lot. A couple minutes later the guy walks up and asks if I would briefly leave so his female partner could go to her bathroom spot, right by the overlook (apparently, they’d done this before).
I said, “OK” (what else am I going to say?). As she is strolling up, he made a comment about there not being female facilities around. I told him of the bathroom at the picnic area (about a mile away).
“Yeah,” he acknowledged, as she proceeded to walk to the overlook and do her business. You’d think if they didn’t want to take five mintues to drive over to the bathroom she could at least go in the woods, away from where people stand to enjoy the view. But no, she had to go right there. Weird.
The ride down the parkway was fun. Approximately six of the seven miles is downhill, most of which I cruised at 33-35 mph. I passed five cyclists who were making an evening climb. With less than half an hour until sunset, it seemed a little late for that, but perhaps a night ride was in the works. Along the way, I caught glimpses of a half moon rising over the mountains. It was a great evening to be outside.
At the bottom, I took a left. And after a short (but thrilling) stretch on 321, I exited onto Old Walland Highway. An easy spin along the Little River was the perfect cool down from the afternoon climb.
All in all, another great ride.
Ride stats:
33 miles
15.7 MPH average
2:05:30 riding time