Duke's Mixture 06.2026: Hodgepodge and Wednesday Quotes

Welcome, friends.  Combining 2 posts in 1 today.  Joining Joyce for this week's Hodgepodge Fever and joining Kym for her Wednesday Quotes.  As I send this post to publish, I am recuperating from having the El Paso grandbabies spend the night at our house.  We had a bang-up time but I will need to catch my breath tomorrow!!

Hodgepodge Fever

1. June 17th, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I'm guessing somebody is going to tell me they weren't born yet but that's part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here. 

The summer of 1994 was one of the hottest on record here in El Paso.  The all time record high temperature was recorded on 06.30.1994, so just a few weeks after O.J.'s car chase.  It was a rare summer when my daughters were with their father for a few weeks.  I was working summer school. When I would get home around 1:00 pm, I would strip down to my skivvies and lay on the bed under the ceiling fan for a bit until I could cool off.  I remember watching from my bed O.J.'s very slow procession during the 2-hour jaunt around the LA freeways he traversed. 

The following summer I was again working summer school.  It was also very hot.  And I would come home everyday and cool off while watching the O.J. Simpson trial on TV.

If the glove don't fit, you must acquit.

                             ~Johnny Cochran, Simpson defense attorney 

2. What's your favorite summer salad that isn't the traditional tossed green lettuce kind of salad? Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad of course)?

I guess this chicken salad would be my favorite summer salad.  After I make a recipe once or twice, I rarely use the original recipe again.  So, I have altered this recipe a bit - using a mix of nonfat plain yogurt and light mayo.  Sometimes I use almonds and a touch of almond extract instead of pecans.  Sometimes walnuts.  Instead of the cranberries, or in addition to them, I have also used pineapple and blueberries.  Every variation has been met with rave reviews from PC.  

making chicken salad

I do like fresh fruit (and dried fruit) in salads.  Have been meaning to try this sunshine fruit salad recipe.  Maybe I will make that a summer bucket list activity. 

3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be? 

When I think of chivalry, I think of a Judy Dench as Queen Elizabeth in the movie "Shakespeare in Love."  The Queen steps down from her carriage and encounters a puddle.  Her courtesans are very slow to remove their capes in order to drop them over the puddle to clear the Queen's path.  In a later scene, the Queen discovers another puddle on her path and decides to wade through it rather than wait for her bumbling courtiers to lay down their cloaks.  Chivalry kind of feels like that to me - kind of awkward for both the chivalrous and the recipient of the chivalry.  

I asked Google to explain/define 'chivalry' and was provided with a description of chivalry in a 'modern' relationship:  "an intentional practice of mutual respect, care, and thoughtfulness" [source].  This kind of chivalry is just an example of the Golden Rule.  Treating others the way we want to be treated ourselves.  I don't think this modern chivalry is dead.

I'm all in favor of mutual respect, care and thoughtfulness but I don't need or expect PC to take his jacket off so I don't get my feet wet!!  

4. Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska? Have you ever been to either? Are they two places you really would like to see? How do you feel about 'Hawaiian pizza' aka pineapple on a pizza? Have you ever eaten Baked Alaska? 

I was delighted by a week long Alaskan cruise (my first cruise) we took in the spring of 2025.  Felt like a queen, or at the very least a princess!!  Cruising is a wonderful mode of travel.  

We are talking about flying to Hawaii - neither of us have been there - and then taking a cruise around the islands.  Both of us would really like to see the Pearl Harbor Memorial and I know the country is a tropical paradise.  

PC and I regularly eat ham and pineapple pizza on thin crust from Dominos.  So good.  Had to look up a photo of a Baked Alaska.  Thinking I have probably never eaten it before but I am sure game to try it!!

5. World Cup play is happening now...are you interested? Watching any matches? Did you or your children play soccer/futbol? There are eleven US cities hosting matches-

-Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York with the stadium in NJ, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle, along with  three cities in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey) and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver)-

You get free tickets to one of these matches. Which city do you choose? Tell us why. 

I am not really watching the World Cup.  My son-in-laws are both interested in watching so they are 'representin' our family.  My youngest daughter, Lauren, did play futbol.  The coach told me that she was a fast runner and good player, just too polite!!  She wasn't aggressive enough at going after the ball.  We have taken Lucia and Cami to the park to kick around the soccer ball and Declan likes soccer.  

Of, the 16 cities mentioned above where the World Cup is being played, I have been to all but 6 of them.  I have no real desire to go to any of those cities in Mexico.  Cancun, yes...Guadalajara, not so much.  So, my answer would be Philadelphia or San Francisco. My kids loved their visit to SF and there is so much history in Philly.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The El Paso grandgirls are spending the night tonight (Tuesday).  We have tried this once before and it was a very, very long night for everyone.  Cami wound up getting in bed with Campa and me.  Lucia cried herself to sleep in our upstairs guest room while I laid beside her patting her back.  Poor babies.  But they were much younger then.  I have all hope we are going to do very well this time around.  

We are taking them with us to our writing group meeting, with Happy Meals in tow.  Then we will come home, maybe watch a movie, put on face and foot masks,  and have bedtime snacks, before tucking them into bed in the upstairs guest room.  They don't like to sleep together - even in a queen-sized bed like we have - so I have blown up a twin-sized air mattress and put it beside the existing bed.  

Tomorrow we will do all the things:  paint, park, swimming until time to take them home around dinner.

Wednesday Quotes:  The Art of Teaching

This week I wanted to join Kym at A Fresh Cup of Coffee for her Wednesday Quote series as she is talking about the art of teaching.  I truly believe there are people who are born teachers and people who in spite of having all the education, credentials and certifications, can't teach a lick.  And an epidemic of misappropriating funds in public education.  Year after year, I have seen administrators scramble to spend the last of their annual budget on just whatever in order to not leave an money in their accounts.  Because if money is left unspent, that money is taken away (at least in my district) and budgets are decreased the following year.  

Waiting For Superman

A few years ago, I watched a documentary entitled "Waiting for Superman" about the many issues plaguing public school education today.  

One of the things I found most appalling about the many problems with public education was the number of teachers who can't or won't teach.  And yet these teachers were untouchable, unfire-able.  The documentary talked about district Lemon Rooms where some of these people were assigned day after day because they had been removed from their classrooms but couldn't be terminated.  It is almost impossible to fire a teacher and I have seen it myself over and over.  

At one campus where I worked, there was a computer lab teacher who turned on the lights in his classroom and did nothing more than that everyday.  Ours was a Title I school serving children living in poverty.  Children who had no access to technology at home.  We had a beautiful lab with probably 50 computers but the man hired to teach the children did nothing but wander the halls, drink coffee, and visit with other inept teachers.  

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." ~ Benjamin Franklin

If only he had involved the children in learning to use technology.  And yet there are so many dedicated, hard-working teachers who spend much of their own time and own money to provide the very best learning experiences for their students.  

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." ~ Albert Einstein 

Terribly Troubled School District

I have been employed by the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) since 1989, working fulltime from 1989-2013, and then as a substitute teacher/librarian from 2014-present.  That's a lot of years.  What - going on 37 years?  Can that be right? Yup, it is!!  Goodness.

Anyway, I consider myself somewhat of an expert on EPISD since I have been with the district for so long.  What a ride it has been.  I have never seen such a troubled district in my life.  We should be in the business of preparing children for success.  Instead, this district specializes in chaos and criminal behavior.  

Here is a list AI compiled of the most recent scandals.

• "The "No Child Left Behind" Cheating Scandal (2006–2013):  EPISD was rocked by a massive, district-wide fraud scheme orchestrated to artificially inflate standardized test scores. Administrators manipulated the system by pushing English Language Learners out of school, inappropriately placing students in the wrong grades, and improperly denying credits to students transferring from Mexico. Former Superintendent Lorenzo García and other top officials pleaded guilty to federal charges, resulting in state intervention and the lowering of the district's accreditation." [source]  This resulted in the Texas Education Agency taking over the school district for several years.  EPISD's accreditation was lowered.  

• "Recent Internal Audits & Personnel Controversies" (2025–2026):  Following a recent financial audit, EPISD administrators were found to have skipped top aides' performance evaluations and mismanaged technology department assets—including over $1 million in discrepancies and surplus tech left to gather dust at closed campuses. Additionally, a former EPISD police sergeant filed a wrongful termination suit after he and other officers were arrested and charged for allegedly framing fellow officers and attempting to oust the police chief." [source] This auditing scandal just broke. The district all of a sudden has a $52+ million dollar deficit.  Apparently, the superintendent, then the interim superintendent just spent money or allowed others to do so that the district didn't have.  

• Technology Mismanagement (2024-2026):  An audit of the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) revealed massive mismanagement of district technology funds and equipment, including a surplus of 929 unused interactive touchscreens worth $2.3 million. The audit also found that over $800,000 in Dell servers were left unoperational and unused for up to two years." [source]  In my substitute teaching experiences just this past school year, I have seen students new to their campuses go without tablets or devices which has limited their learning experiences when the rest of the class is using technology.  This is absolutely unacceptable.  

In a district like El Paso Independent School District, the good teachers, the quality administrators feel unheard and unsupported by central office.  And it's small wonder with so much corruption happening at the district office level. Students and teachers are largely forgotten.  

“We have the opportunity to get an education and make something of ourselves. We have many reasons to hope for great happiness, but we have to earn it.” ~ Anne Frank

When I think back to the education my parents received 80 years ago with paper, pencil, textbooks and chalkboards, I am further convinced that public education is moving in the wrong direction.  I don't have the answers to fix things but EPISD has a lot of problems to fix with the new school year starting in less than 2 months.

Your Turn

How do you see public education in your community?  Are the issues administrators have inflicted on my school district the same kinds of things you are seeing in yours?  I would be interested to know.

Hope you will stop by to visit Joyce and Kym.  I think you will find their posts very engaging.

Thank you for spending some of your day here with me.  I appreciate every visit.

Hugs and kisses,