The New York Times as learning tool

Thanks to Laurie Spigel, whose passion for the arts and whose style of teaching I love, we have incorporated the New York Times in our daily learning. There are so many ways to incorporate your hometown paper in your studies. News helps us develop a curiosity about the world, and become better thinkers. And sometimes in the mundane, can be found the sublime. Apart from news, the Metropolitan Diary on Mondays is such a read, and gives a distinctly New York perspective of life. Here are my picks from today's Diary:

Dear Diary:

We were on a crowded crosstown bus leaving Lincoln Center when this exchange took place, to the amusement of the post-opera crowd.
Driver: Would everyone please move to the back?
Passenger: There's no room in the back.
Driver: There's always more room in the back. Please move back.
Same passenger: We can't move. There's no space in the back.
Driver: There are people waiting to get on. Please move to the back.
Same passenger: I told you, there's no room in the back.
Driver: May I please hear from someone else?

Ruth Seiger Maisel

Dear Diary:

My grown-up daughter and I were strolling along Fifth Avenue, enjoying the spring weather.
We were talking about her job opportunities when a well-dressed gentleman of a certain age approached.
Evidently, he had been behind us for several blocks. He walked next to us without any sign of menace, smiling.
"Excuse me," he said, addressing my daughter. "She'll be giving you advice for the next 50 years. Just smile and let it roll over your back."
"Thanks a lot," I said, realizing that I might have been talking more than listening.

Jamee Gregory


Dear Diary:

It's not the Chrysler and not Time
Warner.
It's the vegetable stand on Third
and the corner.
Makes my heart beat with spring
afresh:
The vegetable man's back from
Bangladesh.

Peggy Keilus