Back Again, then Back to Vacation

Phew!  August is turning into quite the traveling month in the Neighborhood.

Just got back from a week in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, followed by several days in Atlantic City, NJ.  Yet once I returned, I learned that our friend’s cabin in Maine is open, so I’ll be off to Maine next week.

I will be posting every day this week as time allows.  I am going to try–emphasis on TRY–to post at least once, maybe twice, from my rustic manse to all of you.  Until then, a few thoughts:

• Rehoboth Beach has to be one of the best vacation areas in the United States.  Mr. D has been here three times, and I enjoy it more and more each visit.  The beaches are clean and wide, the towns are quaint and manageable, the restaurants are plentiful–if also on the pricey side–and the people are generally nice and agreeable.  You can truly relax there, so make it a stop next summer, unless you like to be rowdy.  The frat boys can go to Dewey Beach, one town over.
• Atlantic City, on the other hand, is a dump.  Everything I rhapsed about Las Vegas has found its polar opposite in AC.  The beaches smell, and they’re dirty.  It’s too crowded.  The boardwalk has the rumpled-down look that’s a cross between a late-80’s Coney Island and Calcutta, with the charm of neither.  Amidst the casinos–which are pale comparisons to their Vegas brethren–lie some pretty appalling slum areas.  I can’t say it’s safe, even though we weren’t victimized.   The place is just miserable and depressing, and its nearby towns are no better.  Ocean City, NJ is an eyesore without the “quaint charm” of its Maryland counterpart.
• I heard that mayoral control of schools has been restored in New York, with some minor tweaks.  This is to be expected.  Although I think the tweaks are much too minor, mayoral control works for the time being.  That doesn’t mean however, that we shouldn’t find an alternative.
• What is this nonsense I hear about Obama considering lengthening the school day and year?!  I’ll cover the resurrection of this dimwitted idea in tomorrow’s post in which I will put forth my own proposal for education–strengthening graduate education programs, from admissions to academic rigor.

Have a good night, everyone!