Starbuck

First though…

I was just watching last night’s Daily Show with guest Diane Ravitch author of the book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” The premise is that the “no child left behind” policy has made American public schools worse not bad teachers which apparently, if you watch Fox news, is a huge epidemic in this country. John Stewart has a lot of fun making fun of the backward rhetoric on Fox about how teachers are so greedy, just sucking down money from taxpayers while wall street bankers can’t possibly be asked to resume paying higher taxes because their happiness and prosperity is fundamental to our well-being as a nation. All I have to say about that is that I’ve lived with a few teachers and there’s another one in our building right now. There is no such thing as a Summer vacation for teachers. Hell, there’s no such thing as a WEEKEND for teachers. Anyway, what made an impression on me was the study she cited about how our wealthier schools are out-performing Finland (that great benchmark [?]) in test scores but it’s the poor, racially isolated schools in places like Baltimore, Detroit, Washington DC (I was surprised she didn’t mention Chicago – I learned in college that Chicago as of that point still hadn’t de-segregated its schools) where kids are hungry, homeless, sick and starving that have low test scores. Not a big surprise. I kind of started crying at that, thinking about such huge systemic failure of our country to provide for its CHILDREN. As always when I learn facts like that I wonder what I could do about it.

Anyhoo…

Last night Henry and I continued our 3rd date discussion of Starbuck.

Oh Starbuck, how we love you. Let us count the ways

1. There is no other character like you out there.

a)Somehow you manage to be bad ass and feminine all at once.

b)You are strong and confrontational but never a bitch (like Admiral Cain).

c)You are beautiful but you don’t look like Barbie and in fact are preferable to her.

d) We don’t know why, but you always seem to be the underdog even when you are the baddest pilot in the sky and you always manage to win.

2. MVP of everything

a) Flying

b) Sniping

c) Rescue

d) Tactical plotting

e) Boxing

f) Drinking

g) Pyramid

h) Talking smack

i) Leading (although you wouldn’t think you’d be good at this given how self-destructive you can be)

j) Escaping

k) Interrogating

l) Basically, you are the go-to person for every special job there is.

m) Also, Art and Swearing

3. My favorite: even though you are good at everything, you are charmingly insecure and soft on the inside

a) Lee Adama – seasons 1-4

b) Anders

c) Sharon after she’s a cylon

d) C. Tigh – admit it, you like each other

e) Admiral Cain

f) Helo

g) Kat

4. Even though you never quite do what we want you to do, except when you are about to die and we want you to live and then you live, we could never not love you. Even when you sleep with Dr. Weenis instead of Lee, or when you marry Anders instead of Lee, or when you get drunk and act stupid instead of not doing that, we love you.