tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4124005218067540772011-11-27T16:56:25.808-08:00Random ramblings from an ex-newspaper editor, current teacher and proud father.Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-52871545562705958832008-06-08T19:23:00.000-07:002008-06-08T19:29:08.151-07:00

A fellow teacher gave me the following, which is attributed to Bill Gates. I haven't verified the attribution, but regardless, this is good advice.Rule 1: Life is not fair; get used to it.Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.Rule 3: You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-88712489181834201602008-03-23T11:48:00.000-07:002008-03-23T11:56:10.083-07:00

My cadet commander at San Gorgonio High School, a truly amazing 11th-grader named Brittany Contreras, has been selected to attend the West Point Summer Leaders Seminar -- a prestigious weeklong program for rising seniors held at the U.S. Military Academy. She is scheduled to report to West Point on 14 June 2008.The round-trip airfare from Ontario, Calif., the airport nearest her home, and Newark,

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-77485849264507347482008-03-04T23:26:00.000-08:002008-03-04T23:28:24.359-08:00

How do people like this become assistant principals?

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-79216850737090199032008-03-03T00:39:00.001-08:002008-03-03T00:39:51.900-08:00

This is hilarious! I think every parent can relate to this video ...

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-74263019618522996882008-02-21T22:16:00.000-08:002008-02-21T22:25:45.486-08:00

We got the call two days ago. Someone had found our beloved Snoopy, who'd jumped out the back of a truck and gone missing back in October.So we drove down to Coachella last night and had a joyful reunion with our puppy. He had apparently made himself at home in the backyard of a nice family, who took care of him until he let him get close enough to read his tags.Snoopy is home now -- at the

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-48384305586915314482008-01-21T02:52:00.000-08:002008-01-21T03:07:29.055-08:00

If you only keep track of me through this blog, you've probably written me off as dead or vanished off the face of the earth.Not so. However, "Editor. Daddy." is no longer a truly accurate description of who I am.The "Daddy" part is still true, of course. And the saying that holds so true for the Marine Corps ("Once a Marine, always a Marine") can just as easily be applied to editors. So in that

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-86643770348709625752007-10-07T12:09:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:33.308-08:00

Our border collie, Snoopy, jumped out of the back of a pickup truck two days ago en route to Grandma's house in La Quinta, Calif. He hasn't been seen since.If you happen to know where he is, please contact us.Lots more has happened in EditorDaddy's life in the last few months, which you'll get to read about a little later on.Come home, Snoopy!

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-5068205320401145722007-07-05T23:55:00.000-07:002007-07-06T00:28:58.107-07:00

Astute readers will notice a change in this blog's subtitle (or "drop hed" or "deck," as newspaper types are wont to call it).Indeed, it is true: My employment with the Great Falls Tribune came to a rather sudden, abrupt and unexpected end June 20 when the managing editor called me at home, on my day off no less, and asked me to come in to meet with him at 11:30 a.m. -- at which time I walked in

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-22153260923144513052007-06-12T14:59:00.001-07:002007-06-12T17:38:35.496-07:00

So the Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center in South Los Angeles, just a few blocks from the Compton middle school I taught at for a year, was in so much hot water with federal, state and county regulators over their shoddy handling of patients (to put it nicely) that it evidently was forced to change its name to King-Harbor Hospital and cut back from a 200-bed trauma center to what a Long

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-34919984831602791562007-06-06T09:33:00.000-07:002007-06-06T09:47:13.258-07:00

Baby steps to a degree.According to my University of Phoenix counselor's projection, I'll have a bachelor of science in communications on Sept. 7, 2009.Seems like a long way off. On the other hand, if all the weeks go as quickly as this last one has (I'm already a fifth of the way through my first class), it won't be so long at all.This online-learning thing is interesting. It's nice to be able

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-53108877155095718452007-06-06T09:31:00.000-07:002007-06-06T09:33:14.709-07:00

Spam subject header of the day:"CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR EMAIL HAS WON ($200,000USD) AUSTRALIA LOTTERY"Gee, wonder if I can get my newly rich e-mail to buy me a house.Incidentally, the spammers are getting good if they can circumvent Google Mail's normally excellent spam filter. Lately I've been getting one or two a day in my Inbox. But I won't complain about one or two, when my "Spam" folder

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-1600594508950003782007-05-29T11:06:00.000-07:002007-05-29T11:55:05.370-07:00

Well, not physically (or I wouldn't be writing on my blog), but it sort of feels like it.Today's the first day of my first class in my University of Phoenix online B.S. program (that's Bachelor of Science, not the eight-letter expletive).So I've been sitting here in my easy chair in the living room, laptop in lap, figuring my way around my new "classroom." Sort of reminds me of my first day at

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-35941475184796164442007-05-27T10:37:00.001-07:002007-05-27T12:34:33.873-07:00

I was stunned to read this story about a devastating fire that destroyed the historic auditorium at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles.In my teaching days, I spent a year teaching cadets at Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School, whose students feed into either Garfield High or its archrival, Roosevelt High. I visited the Garfield campus -- and its beautifully maintained classic auditorium --

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-83949312113841510342007-05-20T11:34:00.001-07:002007-05-20T11:36:24.889-07:00

Here's an interesting look at the cultural revolution taking shape as a result of that now-ubiquitous new invention -- the camera phone.read more | digg story

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-62650031233885315642007-05-20T11:04:00.000-07:002007-05-20T11:22:24.078-07:00

Montana's current Legislature has made headlines for their inability to accomplish much of anything during the recently ended regular session besides childlike bickering.Evidently, our legislators back in 2003 didn't have that problem when they passed a bill allowing for the state to issue high-school diplomas to "qualified WWII, Korean War and Vietnam veterans in recognition of the life

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-51869957792883396662007-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:002007-05-20T10:54:21.963-07:00

Having worked in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I have firsthand knowledge of the challenges of being an educator in a large, urban public-school system. And I have a lot of admiration for the folks who dedicate so much of their time and energy to our kids.Especially folks like this woman, who has dedicated more than 50 years of her life to the students of L.A. Unified:She is "Mama G,"

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-79931601335700807952007-05-13T05:53:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:33.578-08:00

Vicky has been known to criticize herself for being "lazy" because she doesn't have a paying job outside the home. I'm always quick to shoot down her self-criticism, and anyone who thinks stay-at-home moms are lazy is hereby warned to stay a good distance away from me.On the contrary, our kids are lucky to have as their mom one of the most devoted, loving, hard-working women I have ever known.

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-66636725159980505222007-05-09T22:58:00.001-07:002007-05-09T23:01:00.105-07:00

Six men described by New Jersey's top law-enforcement official as "the model for post-Sept. 11-era terrorism" were ordered held without bail yesterday after being arrested for allegedly plotting to attack the Army base at Fort Dix.Authorities said the suspects had spent nearly 16 months hatching the plot, which included firearms training in the Poconos, reconnaissance trips to the base, and

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-39655573133907751392007-05-09T22:34:00.000-07:002007-05-29T11:55:40.388-07:00

I've finally decided to bite the bullet and finish my bachelor's degree. I've had a couple of good conversations with a University of Phoenix admissions counselor this week, and it looks like I might be starting my first class in their online bachelor's degree program in communications at the end of this month.I'm sure it won't be easy juggling the course work with my job and the kids (not to

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-29370829771269001072007-05-09T22:23:00.000-07:002007-05-09T22:41:08.438-07:00

Eddie's a cute baby, if I do say so myself, but there's no time when he's cuter than when he's sound asleep. See more pictures.

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-35647506469369668132007-05-09T21:53:00.001-07:002007-05-09T22:08:52.784-07:00

Hot on the heels of yet another brouhaha involving Los Angeles police officers, the City of Angels is being plagued by a massive wildfire that's devoured much of Griffith Park and threatened the nearby observatory, the L.A. Zoo and some residential neighborhoods.A few observations:Initial suspicions were that the fire may have been caused by a guy tossing a cigarette into the brush. If that's

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-16686836775496972542007-05-09T10:20:00.001-07:002007-05-09T10:21:10.446-07:00

Here's an interesting look at the future of the newspaper business, framed around the question, "Which major U.S. city will be the first to not have a daily newspaper?"read more | digg story

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-9854207672837424712007-05-08T19:47:00.001-07:002007-05-08T19:50:07.764-07:00

She was once in constant motion; her co-workers compared her to a roadrunner because of the way she darted around the workplace. But now Irma Ortiz sits at the edge of her couch, too winded to sweep her patio or walk her son to school without resting. She is slowly suffocating.The cause? Microwave popcorn.read more | digg story

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-78950721292166398142007-05-06T00:35:00.000-07:002007-05-06T00:47:35.747-07:00

There's something really, really wrong with this picture.Yesterday, I wrote that our educators have the most important job in the world. I believe that.Our military men and women -- the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who put themselves in harm's way in far-flung places across the globe to protect the freedom that makes this such a great place to live -- may well have the

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-9067223667806978102007-05-05T06:11:00.000-07:002007-05-05T06:52:50.308-07:00

I'm all for the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" in most cases. When it comes to the folks who are charged with educating and nurturing our children, though, I'm a little more wary. OK, maybe a lot more wary.So forgive me for seriously questioning the selection of Dick Kloppel, the principal of Great Falls' C.M. Russell High School, as Montana's Principal of the Year this week.This is

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-79366987828290955402007-05-05T05:23:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:33.764-08:00

To folks who know me well enough to have caught a glimpse of my near-fanatic obsession with all things Peanuts, it should come as no surprise that we have a dog named Snoopy.Our Snoopy isn't a beagle, though; he's a border collie (perhaps mixed with some other unspecified breed) that we adopted from the local animal shelter. He's still a puppy -- about a year and a half old -- and as cute as he

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-6707008622805194642007-05-05T05:13:00.000-07:002007-05-05T06:03:10.795-07:00

An administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., has made a mockery of our legal system and in the process, shattered the lives of a hard-working immigrant couple.If there aren't criminal charges that can be brought against this idiot, there should be.

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-25201494308383579862007-05-02T22:42:00.000-07:002007-05-02T23:04:07.704-07:00

If you follow my friend Stacy Byrne's Deadlines and Bedtimes blog (or read her monthly columns in the Tribune), you'll know that last week was TV-Turn-Off Week.Folks in parts of New Jersey might be wishing it were this week, instead.Seriously, whose idea of a sick joke is this? The only explanation that I can think of for Comcast's "programming error" is some jerk in a control booth somewhere

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-19957749171733116472007-05-01T23:30:00.000-07:002007-05-01T23:39:32.109-07:00

Want to see the Colosseum? Evidently, according to Google Maps, you can drive there from Great Falls.(You might want to bring your swimsuit.)Thanks to Sharon Stewart for the tip, on the Copyediting Off-List.

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-12323575738858366882007-04-28T23:47:00.000-07:002007-04-28T23:50:40.928-07:00

Take a look at the neighborhood where I spent much of my early childhood.Isn't the Internet cool?

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-44126327107653269742007-04-28T12:07:00.001-07:002007-04-28T15:08:18.083-07:00

In one of my more, well, adventurous career moves (well, OK, it was never intended to be a career), I spent about a year driving a Yellow Cab in Los Angeles.The "bandit cabs" referred to in this story are a real problem: They drive around in cars that look remarkably similar to the City-licensed cabs (right down to the artfully forged Yellow Cab Co. logo on the door) and steal fares from under

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-37019048645090930512007-04-27T23:20:00.000-07:002007-04-27T23:26:23.701-07:00

At the beginning of the month, I wrote a little something to mark the 96th birthday of the California Cadet Corps. On a whim, I decided to submit the piece to Associated Content, which is a Web site that publishes folks' writing and pays a small (trust me, very small) sum for the privilege.They decided to publish my story!Sorry. Had to brag a bit.

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-62141812222237497282007-04-27T22:34:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:33.907-08:00

It's never fun hearing your own address on a police scanner. Occasionally, though, it can be a bit humorous.Last night, I was working away in the newsroom when I heard the dispatcher send an officer to this call:We have a 9-1-1 call, sounds like a very small child who keeps saying "Hi" over and over again ... tried calling back but not getting an answer. Need a welfare check, please ...When the

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-71228760551713198112007-04-11T01:17:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:34.293-08:00

Cheyenne and Billy have both been on spring break since last Thursday.They go back to school today, much to the relief of their exhausted mom and dad.Don't get me wrong -- we love getting to spend time with the kids. But there's that old saying: "There can be too much of a good thing."A little more than a week ago (it seems like a month!), I wrote about how I was worried the boys would come down

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-80822995940792026382007-04-04T23:01:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:34.642-08:00

On April 5, 1911, the California Legislature and a visionary military officer named Brig. Gen. Edwin Alexander Forbes established what would become known as the California Cadet Corps.Forbes, the adjutant general of California, was facing a shortage of troops in his National Guard and devised an unprecedented recruitment strategy: Train the state's high-school students in basic military skills

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-34242641455452841522007-04-04T21:18:00.000-07:002007-04-04T21:20:49.365-07:00

Speaking from experience as a former middle-school teacher, there are some folks who do not belong in a classroom, let alone in the principal's office.

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-83334786001109625332007-04-03T14:04:00.000-07:002007-04-04T03:05:43.976-07:00

He's not yet 2, but Eddie is already becoming quite the reader.OK, so he probably isn't reading in the sense of actually making sense of the weird-looking squiggly things on the page, but he loves to pick up a book (or be handed one), gleefully exclaim "Book!" and proceed to open it, turn the pages one at a time, and narrate his own version of the story in his own dialect of baby talk.This

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-5061983667356398662007-03-31T00:27:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:34.782-08:00

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.Vicky and Cheyenne have both been sick most of the week -- coughing up a storm, running fevers, throwing up, the whole nine yards. Cheyenne didn't go to school three days out of five.Now historically, when one of us gets sick, it touches off a two- to three-week mini-epidemic that will render every last one of us in varying stages of deterioration, despair

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-60807433318165085382007-03-31T00:06:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:34.978-08:00

This post on DadBloggers hit home.Eddie is a Daddy's boy -- no question about it. We think it's because right after he was born, Vicky was put on bed rest for several weeks and most of the diaper-changing, feeding, rocking-to-sleep and other baby duties fell on my shoulders. In any case, whenever Eddie is sad or upset and wants to be picked up, if we're both home, he'll come running to me and

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-43422840772025246712007-03-29T23:05:00.000-07:002008-12-10T04:31:35.150-08:00

They grow up too quickly.Eddie will be 2 in August. Yet it seems like just a week or two ago, maybe a month at most, when he was so tiny I could cradle him in the crook of my elbow and rock him to sleep at night in the recliner.Life, for him, was relatively simple then: He woke up and cried loudly. Mommy picked him up and nursed him, or Daddy brought a nice warm bottle. He sucked contentedly for

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-412400521806754077.post-49835936001670143812007-03-24T11:45:00.000-07:002007-04-04T03:05:05.936-07:00

The simple, obvious answer: It's a blog.I suspect you already figured out that much, so let's drill down a little further.A colleague of mine at the Great Falls Tribune, where I work as a copy editor, started a blog called Deadlines and Bedtimes. She talks about the adventures and challenges of being a working mom. So I thought, Why not start a blog about the adventures and challenges of being a

Willard Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01981978675533086420noreply@blogger.com0