January 14, 1994

Today has been officially proclaimed by me as "Celebrate Your German Heritage Day." Although I just decided that not more than a minute ago, I think it makes sense, seeing as fritag is one of about five German words I know, PLUS we sang and analyzed some little German death tune in Sunrise¹ this morning (Mark Buechs3l, Mr. Ketchup himself², even translated the piece for us; something about rest in piece: Ruhn...). But anyways, seeing as I myself have 1/8 German blood, I figured I could get in on the act myself. Maybe I'll change my name to Helmut and eat sauerkraut all day. Or not. Thought for the day: (although not related to Germany) If any of the four major TV networks offered Mr Kill³ a lucrative deal to show his life story in some big-time sweeps month ("Not bloody likely!" But we're talking hypothetically here), in an exposé entitled BERNIE K!LL: Algebra Teacher, it would probably be NBC, seeing as they already have a contract with Homicide: Life on the Street's Ned Beatty (most famous for the 1972 Burt Reynolds movie Deliverance) who would be perfect for the role. Think about it. Picture Beatty with thick-framed glasses ... Speaking of educators, Mr Anderson ... oh wait, I said educators now, didn't I? Ah yes ... I meant to say classroom supervisor and personally depressed psychotic⁴. Apparently, our friend Richard (who has decided to take the rest of the year off, in effect, eliminating sectionals, section leaders, the Jan 23 Schubert recital, state music contest, the SICA contest, and just about everything else in order to become more like a regular choir -- to have what he calls a "laid-back" style⁵) said today in Concert Choir that there are 40,000 homeless people in Chicago, and when someone told him there weren't that many, Anderson replied, "Well, tell that to the asshole on Channel 9 I heard it from." -JMC 12:19 pm

1 In 10th and 11th grades, I sang baritone in the Sunrise Singers choir, so named because we met before school, at 7 AM.

2 Mark was a lanky, fey foreign-exchange student from Germany; "Mr. Ketchup" refers to some joke he made while on a choir field trip that I don't totally remember now.

3 My 10th-grade advanced algebra teacher, notable mostly for his psoriasis and his habit of tucking his left hand behind the seat of his pants while writing on the chalkboard.

4 "Personally depressed": heh, as opposed to what? Mr. Anderson was the choir director through my sophomore year, after which he was fired for his obvious mental instabilities (most apparent when he would erupt at us for no apparent reason). (I also heard rumors of his having taken photos of female students in bathing suits and someone having found a porn video in the VCR in his office.)

5 This was particularly strange because he was known for being such a hard-ass and slavedriver most of the time.