Music Appreciation, Friday, 1st Period

[furnaceface]

It was another one of those days. The sort where Jono had taken one look at the weather and immediately decided, no, he did not want to haul a stack of CDs to the school, nor did he want to bother coming in early in order to cue up a few dozen songs in a playlist.

And Hannibal wasn't about to slog up here on his own for that, either.

Jono did have the get-up-and-go to just poke around YouTube, and he'd hooked one of the school's larger screens up to a computer. He'd deny up, down, and sideways that he knew how computers worked, but it was hard to keep up that illusion when he was rigging them to widescreens like a champ.

Hannibal wouldn't be likely to make him forget that, either. Your secret was out, Jono!

That said, it wasn't exactly working as planned, today.

//I was going to just play a bunch of music videos for songs about the weather,// he said, once the class came in and settled down. //Get some of those songs about Stealing Sunshine and whatnot going so that we can at least get some summer vicariously through Canadian alternative rock one-hit-wonders. But the television seems to be taking tips from my stereo back at the Groovy Tunes.//

He narrowed his eyes at it.

"Which is to say," Hannibal said, "that it seems to have developed a mind of its own. Rather than playing what we're asking it to, it's decided what it wants to play and refuses to be dissuaded."

And that thing was not Summery, no. Or even Spring-like.

Hannibal eyed the television and shook his head.

"So, we hope you enjoy White Christmas."

Lies Your Other American History Teachers Told You, Friday

[imafuturist]

"Today, in honor of the protest in DC this weekend that you will absolutely get extra credit for attending," Steve said, "we're going to have a discussion about the Constitutional amendments."

"The second amendment says..." Tony cleared his throat, holding up his phone to read off of. "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

"Somehow, in the last ten years, a fringe part of the US with an unbelievably loud voice and a lot of money to throw at politicians, has interpreted that to mean 'Everyone can have an assault weapons because they are super cool.' And it's literally killing us."

Tony nodded along, looking guilty as, you know, a former weapons manufacturer and all. "In this case, context is key to understand what the amendment truly means. It was written during a time where no standing army existed in the country and loading a gun to shoot more than once took about five minutes."

"Not when an angry kid with no training can go and inflict incredible damage in the space of a few minutes," Steve said, "but somehow the ammosexuals--" he saw that on Twitter, "--have gotten it into their heads that if there is any sort of reasonable restriction, it means that the government is really coming to take all of their guns away. Which is insane, frankly."

"Insane and all a persistent thought," Tony said. "Nationalism, racism, and guns have been a rallying point for people in this country for a very long time. The greatest act of domestic terrorism in this country was committed for that reason."

Which was possibly a subject for another time.

"So, to encourage you all, we will be giving extra credit to anyone who wants to attend the march in D.C. tomorrow. Weather permitting."