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Face Off

A wire service story in the Wisconsin State Journal, datelined Midland, Texas: "As Principal Scott Skidmore understands school district policy, all students must be clean-shaven, even if the student is just twelve years old and even if his mustache looks more like peach fuzz. Skidmore, head of James Brooks Middle School, ordered Stanley Diaz Jr. to shave or face indefinite suspension."

Gentleman Farmer

Vice President Al Gore, graduate of St. Albans Academy in Washington, D.C., and Democratic Presidential hopeful, quoted in the Des Moines Register about the lessons he learned growing up with his father, Senator Albert Gore Sr.: "He taught me how to clean out hog waste with a shovel and a hose. He taught me how to clear land with a double-bladed ax. He taught me how to plow a steep hillside with a team of mules. He taught me how to take up hay all day long in the hot sun."

Frontiers of Free Enterprise

An item in The Progressive Review, a Washington, D.C., newsletter: "McGraw-Hill has published a new version of a math textbook used in about fifteen states that is filled with exercises serving as soft advertising for corporations such as Mattel, Kellogg, Sony, Nike, Warner Brothers, Burger King, and McDonald's. Sample: `Will is saving his allowance to buy a pair of Nike shoes that cost $68.25. If Will earns $3.25 per week, how many weeks will Will need to save?' The question is accompanied by a photo of some Nike shoes."

Now You Know

Joffree Leggett, mayor of Trenton, North Carolina, quoted in the Free Press of Kinston, North Carolina, on African-Americans: "They're not leaders. A black man would rather work for a white person."

Military Intelligence

Defense Secretary William Cohen, quoted in The Seattle Times, speaking to a group of Microsoft employees: "I will point out that the prosperity that companies like Microsoft now enjoy could not occur without having the strong military that we have."

Learning Gap I

From an article in the Boston Herald, datelined Shelton, Connecticut: "A school bus stop was relocated after a parent complained his daughter could see a replica of Michelangelo's `David' from the route. ... Mark Del Vecchio said that when his ten-year-old daughter told him she was offended by the statue, he asked that the bus stop be moved. `A lot of people think I'm ridiculous, but you've got to remember how tall a school bus is,' Del Vecchio, a single father of three daughters, said yesterday. `The view you actually get from...