40 North 83 West

Kurt Vonnegut passed away last night at age 84.  Like millions of other American students, I first read Cat’s Cradle while in high school and then immediately devoured everything else he had written.  He remained a favorite author throughout my college and young adult years.

I didn’t read his final book though- admittedly, I haven’t thought of Vonnegut for awhile. Tonight I’ll dig out my old copy of Slaughterhouse- Five, or maybe Breakfast of Champions, and rekindle an old flame.

Yahoo Obituary

NY parents are watching their mailboxes today for admission letters from the city’s elite preschools. This article from Bloomberg describes the anxious parents who are willing to shell out $15,000 per year- FOR PRESCHOOL!

Here’s a quote that made me chuckle:

Michael Bruder feared his 18-month-old son lost his chance at getting into a good private preschool when he pointed to a duck-shaped clay mold at a play date during the application process and said “pato.”

“I looked at the woman observing and said, `Pato means duck in Portuguese,”’ said Bruder, managing director and head of restructuring at Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s CIBC World Markets in New York. “She just looked at me like she’s seen parents try everything to make their kids look smarter.”

For fifteen-grand you do get quite a lot:

The draws include yoga classes, kilns, nut-free organic snacks, help with the same type of puzzle tots may encounter at kindergarten entrance exams and hard cardboard books that aren’t easily ripped by impatient young hands.

I’m glad that they offer puzzle-prep. That test killed me. But then again I went to public school.

It looks as though 170 Swiss infantrymen got lost at night and wandered into Liechtenstein.

170 soldiers and not 1 of them sprung a few Francs more for the knife and compass combo?

Here’s the story:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256098,00.html