The lord's year 2023 is barely a month in, and it's already running fast and loose:
+ When Pope John Paul II passed in 2005, I vividly recall the endearing, round-the-clock news coverage as speculation ran rampant about the next leader of the Catholic Church. When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the first papal leader to retire in centuries, passed just before New Year's, the news coverage seemed a tad more ambivalent. Perhaps it was because Benedict had been out of the public eye for awhile, a relatively short reign of eight years, but maybe because he wasn't the populist JP2 was. Benedict was a traditionalist (read: conservative) pope, and his death was mourned largely by more hidebound Catholics.
+ No one really knows anything Rep. George Santos (R-NY) because George Santos is a pathological liar, but the GOP doesn't care because they need his vote in a razor-thin majority *and* Trump supporters clearly couldn't care less about character issues. Sadly, he's not going anywhere.
+ After two months on a long-term assignment, I'm back to your regular, run of the mill sub life. This was a familiar group of middle school students, but the aforementioned behavior issues (especially in my last class of the day) was starting to wear me down. The teacher I was covering opted to retire, and the new teacher is more discipline-driven than I am. On the last day of my assignment, I had to remind the kids that this wasn't goodbye, just see you later. In fact, I was back in the building covering an aide the following Tuesday, and it felt oddly refreshing.
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