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I was recently asked, “What scene, from literature or from a movie, do you think is the most memorable?”

The first thing that came to mind was from Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. [See http://www.annefrank.com/ and http://www.annefrank.org/] (The film, The Diary of Anne Frank, was on TV recently. While I didn’t watch it, seeing the ads for it probably influenced my choice.)

Anyway, she wrote, “It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”

Every time I read that, I am astounded by the strength of spirit. She and her family (and millions of others) endured hardships and prejudice far beyond what most of us will ever face. Yet she believed in inherent goodness, in spite of everything…. That just floors me!

A coworker recently showed me Soliloquy of the Solipsist by Sylvia Plath. A solipsist believes that the self is all that exists. My initial reaction was that that describes most of our students. How self-involved does one have to be to stop in the middle of a crowded hallway forcing everyone else to detour around you?

On further reflection though, it occurs to me that if they were truly solipsists they would not feel the persecution bordering on paranoia that many of them do. As the bodies (and eventually the minds) develop, there are periods when we feel we have no internal control at all. We fail to realize the power that we do have and therefore fail to exercise it properly. Blocking traffic or disrupting class is self-centered and inconsiderate. But not caring how we affect those around us is not the same as not admitting they exist.

The American Red Cross is in many ways, a fine organization.

You should know when you donate to the American Red Cross that you are donating to the organization, not to the relief of any particular disaster. This means that some part of the money they raise in the name of a big disaster like the recent tsunami will likely be used to subsidize other programs and smaller disaster relief projects. This makes sense, but they were not always very upfront about that.

You should also know that, while their fundraising costs and administrative costs are not out of line overall, they paid a former CEO over $1.5 million severance for a total over $1.9 million for her last six months in the position. The current CEO has a base salary of $450,000 a year. (See report on Give.org.)

They appear to have worked hard in the last couple years to address some rather insensitive actions toward specific victims that were widely reported in the media.

Who do you trust? A great resource for information about national and international charities is www.give.org. According to their web site:

Give.org is the web site for the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.

The BBB Wise Giving Alliance collects and distributes information on hundreds of nonprofit organizations that solicit nationally or have national or international program services. It routinely asks such organizations for information about their programs, governance, fund raising practices, and finances when the charities have been the subject of inquiries.

Charities are asked to document how they comply with 20 Standards for Charity Accountability. These include how the organization is governed, how they spend money, the truthfulness of their representations, and their willingness to disclose basic information to the public.

The site has a page devoted to Caution Donors on Tsunami Relief Appeals and a page listing some of the charities involved in tsunami relief efforts. Clicking on the name of any group takes you to a page with information specific to their compliance with the 20 Standards. Use that information to help you decide whether to donate.

In the south, we call a knit cap a toboggan. One of my nephews pointed out to me that dictionaries don’t list this as a definition for toboggan. So that got me wondering and I did a little looking around on line.

Since the term is so common in the south, I was a bit surprised that none of the dictionaries even listed it as slang or regional dialect. More surprising though was that I couldn’t find any definitive explanation for why we call it that. Maybe it’s because it’s the type of hat one wears when tobogganing.

I did find several references to debates (OK, arguments) between northern and southern coworkers. (You call it WHAT?!) Many people call it a stocking cap or beanie. In the northern tier into Canada it’s a toque, tuque, or took. There’s no dictionary definition of took as a hat that I could find, but that didn’t stop the northerners from being derisive toward the southerners for calling it a toboggan. At least we spell it correctly….