"Why Are People Like That?"

Amazon purchase link.

Lyrics by Bobby Charles

they take your love and your money
they take your sugar and your honey
they’ll take you skinny or fat
why are people like that?

they take your house and your home
they take the flesh from your bones
they take the shirt off your back
why are people like that?

[Junior’s harp]

they take your phone and your clock
take everything that you got
they laugh behind your back
why are people like that?

[guitar solos]

they take your love and your money
they take your sugar and your honey
they’ll take you skinny or fat
why are people like that?
they take your phone or your clock
they take everything that you got
they take the shirt off your back

why are people like that?

They’ll take your dog and your car,
They’ll promise you’ll be a star.
They’ll break your heart and leave you flat,
Why are people like that?
I don’t know why they act like that,
Why are people like that?

...Don’t be like that...

First song of the year: "In a Town This Size"

Charlie Musselwhite (at left in a photo I took at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon) performed the version I used in our first class of the year.

Want to try the gapfill exercise before you read the lyrics below?

First, here's the song itself, via YouTube (but audio only). As you listen, fill in the blanks below.

Here's where to fill in the blanks:

Chorus: In a ________ this size, there’s no ________ to hide
Everywhere ________ ________, you meet _________ you know
You _________ steal a kiss in a place like this
How the rumors would fly in a _________ this size.

In a smoky _________, in the back seat of a car,
In your own little _________, someone’s sure to find you out,
What you _________ and what you think, what you eat and what you _________,
If you smoke a _________, they'll be talking about your breath.

Chorus

(he) Oh, I _________ a fight with my _________ last night,
Before the moon went down, it was _________ _________ town
(she) How I made him _________, how I said _________,
If it’s true or _________, it don’t count a lot.

Chorus...

If you'd like to use this in your own classroom, here the exercise in a handout format.

Now, the full lyrics:

In a Town This Size, Kieran Kane 

(performed by Charlie Musselwhite with Kelly Willis)

In a town this size, there’s no place to hide
Everywhere you go, you meet someone you know
You can’t steal a kiss in a place like this
How the rumors would fly in a town this size.

In a smoky bar, in the back seat of a car,
In your own little house, someone’s sure to find you out,
What you do and what you think, what you eat and what you drink,
If you smoke a cigarette, they'll be talking about your breath

In a town this size, there’s no place to hide
Everywhere you go, you meet someone you know
You can’t steal a kiss in a place like this
How the rumors would fly in a town this size.

He: Oh, I had a fight with my girlfriend last night,
Before the moon went down, it was all over town
She: How I made him cry, how I said goodbye,
If it’s true or not, it don’t count a lot

In a town this size, there’s no place to hide
Everywhere you go, you meet someone you know
You can’t steal a kiss in a place like this
How the rumors would fly in a town this size. In a town this size. In a town this size.

---

At the concert where I took the picture above, Charlie Musselwhite sang this song about his first days in Chicago. I'm somewhere in the front of the audience.

401, 401V, 501V: English-Language Reading Diary

Source.  

Happy Knowledge Day 2016

Source.  

We wish you a happy new academic year filled with opportunities to grow in knowledge and confidence and readiness to serve! See you in class!

To our dear graduates!

Last tea-and-conversation hour this year: Wednesday, May 25

This time we plan to meet for MORNING tea, at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Look on bulletin board for location.

Institute students, please come and say goodbye before we all scatter for last exams, graduation, and summer.

Group 401 Online Exam

This year, we are using an online exam to save classroom time.

There are advantages in taking the test in the classroom -- for example, if students do not understand something, we teachers are able to answer questions within reason. Here you will not have the same help. On the other hand, you have fewer limits on time, and perhaps less stress. I hope the different circumstances compensate for each other. In any case, please be honorable and take the test as if you were being watched by me and the other students!)) Time limit: 90 minutes.

First, here are the four audio clips for the four sections of the test. After the audio clips you will find the test itself. (Please contact me right away if you have trouble with any of the audio clips; I can send you the clips as e-mail attachments or messaging files, or give you access to the audio some other way.)

Listen to each clip TWICE. Of course you should feel free to take notes while listening.

Part one: Richard Branson, "Life at 30,000 Feet"
TED's Chris Anderson interviews businessman Richard Branson (founder of the Virgin Group of companies). In this part of the interview, Anderson asks about education and bringing up children.




Part two: "Ain't Scared of Your Jails"
Two Freedom Riders, John Lewis and Frederick Leonard, describe the arrival of their bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 20, 1961. Leonard then describes what happened at the bus station and the office below. Finally, Federal representative John Siegenthaler describes the violence in front of the station, and tells what happened to him.




Part three: Ray
This recording is from the end of the film. We are in the rehabilitation clinic where Ray Charles is undergoing court-ordered treatment for his drug addiction. Dr. Hacker and Ray Charles are playing chess, and Hacker is talking to Ray. After the doctor leaves, Ray gets angry, throws over the chess table, and accidentally falls on the floor. Suddenly he is dreaming – the scene is the front yard of his childhood home, and we hear the sound of Ray splashing in water. We hear three voices – his own, his mother Aretha’s voice, and his brother George’s voice. (I have amplified George’s voice a bit so that you can hear it more clearly.)




Part four: Einstein and Eddington
The first part of this recording is the lecture that Arthur Eddington gives at Sir Oliver Lodge’s request, summarizing Albert Einstein’s 1905 monograph on Special Relativity. In the film, this scene is followed by the anti-German riot, in which Eddington is slightly injured. In the second part of today’s recording, his sister Winnifred is helping him with his injuries from the riot. As she cleans his wounds, he tells her about his lecture on Einstein.




Please finish this test by Tuesday evening, May 10.

1. Remember to listen to the audio files twice before answering the questions.
2. You may make notes while you listen.
3. When answering the questions, you may answer with simple phrases or complete sentences. Some answers may only require a few words.
4. Be honest. Do your own work, don't consult with others. However, you may use a dictionary.
5. Please end after 90 minutes.
6. Be sure to push the "next" button after each section and push the "submit" button when you have finished the fourth section (Einstein and Eddington).
7. UPDATE! If you need to stop before you have finished, simply go to the end of the exam and push "submit." That will send me your partly-finished exam. Then, when you are ready to continue, go back to this blog page and take the same exam again, skipping past the parts you have already finished and only finishing the parts you were not able to do the first time. (But you must enter your name again so we will be able to connect the two exams.)

Thank you!

Here is the test form.