Debra Wexler

How should parents, teachers, counselors, and high school students think about the costs and benefits of higher education? What explains the disconnect between the data and the vibes in higher education? RSVP: ckbe.at/4apQCQO

Yep. Did she wink? Did she have something in her eye? Who can say for certain?

Hochul winked at us

Truly I am here for all of @governor.ny.gov’s impossibly quaint scandals.

I'm old enough that I saw this movie...in theaters.

Outstanding news.

I know this storm is bad because the soccer fanatics have not yet begun shoveling out their field.

I just ran some errands and it’s drizzling and quite mild out there. I know temps are set to drop but it’s hard to feel like a blizzard is imminent. #nyc

They’re just making up weather terms now.

So many 80s bangers were really about the constant, looming threat of nuclear war!

I work in comms, so I still have to check Twitter occasionally for professional reasons. Thank you to whichever @governor.ny.gov staffer was responsible for this delightful and utterly wholesome political screw-up. Simpler times...

The Double Life of New York's Black Oyster King Thomas Downing was a fine-dining pioneer with a secret.

We did include Downing's Oyster House, the most famous oyster house of its day, owned by a free Black man who was a leading abolitionist. While New York's elite dined on oysters upstairs, Thomas Downing and his son George secretly operated an underground railroad site in the basement.

Amazing. I researched and scripted a walking tour of Black history in Lower Manhattan 20 years ago and now want to go back in time and add a location.

I recently got an email that my daughter was exposed to Whooping Cough, so that was fun. (Thankfully it didn't spread at all, presumably since vaccines are required and near universal in NYC schools.)

⬆️⬆️⬆️

I worked in a NYC agency press office and budgets were in my portfolio. I weep at the excellence of this.

Poughkeepsie is my dividing line.

Four hours later there are still quite a few of them out there re-shoveling.

Whenever it snows, a group of dudes almost immediately shovels out a soccer field in the park across from my apartment and there are like 30 of them out there right now. They are dedicated! (I unfortunately cannot get a decent photo due to my window screen.)

He Helped Make Mamdani. Can He Make Others?

I really struggle with the fact that my daughter’s friend from high school is now some big power player. And he wasn’t even in her class, he’s two years younger. #nyc

Monday is a PD day for high schools and students are not in session so 🤷‍♀️.

(And this is following Regents Week when they've barely attended as well.)

She left for a work call at her school early & it wasn’t snowing yet. I also hadn’t heard snow was forecast. I get city alerts but for some reason it didn’t come until several hours into the storm. She doesn’t always wear a proper jacket but tends to wear boots most days so this was bad luck.

Ferron : Snowin' In Brooklyn Released in 1984 on her "Shadows On A Dime" album, 'Snowin' In Brooklyn' is one of those intimate, confiding songs that Ferron is known and loved for. I inserted wind sounds from one of my own songs at the beginning, for effect. The lyrics to the song are reprinted below. SNOWIN' IN BROOKLYN I thank you your letters though they come to me slowly I hear the city's in a panic with its first foot of snow I want to answer you quickly having read you again 'Cause it sounds like you're dancing with time's favorite friend And it's everyone's secret and muttered refrain That for all of our trouble we be lonely again It's old human nature, It's cold or it's hot But if it's snowin' in Brooklyn You say it's snowin' in Brooklyn Well if it's snowin' in Brooklyn I'd say snow's what we've got. It won't pay you to think that your move caused the break Sweet love has its chemistry sometimes it don't take But you sound lke you whip yourself you sound like you hurt How long do you plan to sweat it in that moldy hair shirt? If you're thinking of coming back then come back you will If you're afraid of them talking, friend They're all talking still It's old human nature, It's cold or it's hot But if it's snowin' in Brooklyn You say it's snowin' in Brooklyn Well if it's snowin' in Brooklyn I'd say snow's what we got. It'll be cold as the ocean if you don't take the train But I hear if you know where you're going You can beat half of the pain So don't mind but I called your sister and she'd gladly take you in You're thirty years old, admit pride doesn't win Life moves so mysterious with its cute little spins And it's everyone's koan and door to get in It's old human nature, It's cold or it's hot I think of you often, I like you a lot But if it's snowin' in Brooklyn I'd say snow's what we've got. And it's everyone's secret and muttered refrain That for all of our trouble For all of our trouble For all of our trouble We be lonely again. ~Ferron copyright 1984 (Nemesis Publishing) Ferron's Website: http://www.ferrononline.com/ Note: If anyone objects to this video presentation due to copyright infringement, please make contact and it will be removed.

Anyhow, it’s Snowin’ in Brooklyn

Life hacks:

1. Check the weather before you leave the house.

2. Never wear Chucks in the snow.

Clearly you never read Lizard Music by @danielpinkwater.bsky.social. It’s persuasive.

Why have test scores been going down for a decade? Experts don’t really know. Leading theories include screens, school expectations, and the pandemic.

New: A look at what we know and don't know about the last decade of test score declines.
–They've been remarkably pervasive and started before the pandemic.
–Other countries have been hit too.
–Experts (and everyone else) have theories, but not definitive answers.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/01/08/w...

I'm sure you've heard it millions of times, but your dad has brought me so much joy over many years. One of my most memorable days was when you both came to see the Pixies at Oberlin when I was a student. I didn't want to impose and say hello, but just know it was a life highlight for a superfan.

Same same. Takes bow.

My acceptance speech definitely involves @marcelias.bsky.social.

It’s a great place to go if you’re training for a marathon.

Also, apparently the baggage hold lock on our plane won’t open. OY.

a group of men standing next to each other with the words the wooorst Alt: a group of men standing next to each other with the words the wooorst

Why is JFK airport so consistently awful
In every way.

Just too proximate for me.