Howzabout some POSITIVE reinforcement?

On the way up to Northampton, Massachusetts, today, the electronic traffic signs on the highways in Connecticut read:

DRIVE SOBER OR GET PULLED OVER. 

Now it struck me (okay, to be completely honest, mostly because I misread it at first), that perhaps a more positive approach to behavior modification might work better, and so it SHOULD read:

DRIVE SOBER AND GET A PULLOVER.

 

Imagine earning a nice v-neck or crew (perhaps one that says "A Toast to Drink-less Driving!"), if a driver gets stopped by the highway patrol and PASSES the sobriety test.  All of a sudden, it's no longer, "Oh, no, COPS!" but rather, "YES!!!! Papa needs a sweater!"

 

***

 

Why, yes, I will accept, if nominated, the position of Commissioner of the State of Connecticut Department of Public Safety.  Thanks for asking.

I must confess that I'm not a fan of the most recent...

...tourism motto for the State of Connecticut, "Still Revolutionary," since it really is as far away from "The Land of Steady Habits" (i.e., the true Nutmeg State) as one can get.

That said, there's something I find very fitting about the newest iteration of the campaign (see below), which seems not unlike a commercial for some erectile dysfunction medication (you know, the kind that plays incessantly during broadcasts of professional golf). 

All they really need to do is to plop the couple down into adjacent outdoor bathtubs, with their backs to us, staring out at Long Island Sound, watching vintage Whalers footage, or maybe idling in their tubs in the stopped traffic of I-84.

 

 

 

But, then again, if this is our new tack, maybe it's just time for a different motto altogether:

 

Connecticut

We're here

when you're ready

 



Well, that's an unexpected source!

Isn't the state of Connecticut sponsoring an "Ethics Day" akin to the famed Chicken Ranch brothel in Nevada holding an abstinence conference? 

Not that it isn't a noble idea, but the host lacks some credibility, no?

Educational Play or Pay

There's an appropriately doomed movement afoot in Connecticut to get public schools to repay the state any money it has been sent for each student who drops out before 1 April.

While the desire for reimbursement of its investment is understandable, the target of the repayment request should not be the schools; it should be the student and/or the student's family.

My wife, who is far smarter than I, has always thought that the portion of one's property taxes (or rent) that goes to education should be billed and and have to be paid separately. In this way, everybody, especially the students and their families, would see how much "free" education actually costs. If everyone saw the actual cost to each household, it's a good bet that most families would be far less casual in their approach to school. As it is now, the costs are hidden and easier to ignore. Making the total each household is paying each month (just like heat, gasoline, cable, food, and the rest of one's budget...) more evident, even without an increase of any kind, I'd bet, would yield an invaluable return in increased seriousness on behalf of the student and in the involvement/encouragement/pressure from the student's family:

"Junior, do you know how much today's classes are costing us? You bet you're going to school this morning, tomorrow morning, the morning after that...! If we're paying, you're staying!"

Money talks, but the way the education bill is paid now makes it too easy for students and their families to forget how much they're investing in Junior's education.

And, as a result, it's easy to see dropping out as much less of a waste than it is.

What's in a name?

What's it say that the budget of M. Jodi Rell, governor of the great state of Connecticut, proposes the elimination of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women?

Permanent: It's the New Temporary!

That's what makes the State of Connecticut the GREAT State of Connecticut

Word came down from our Dean that the Governor of Connecticut, M. Jodi Rell, in order to help with the huge deficit that we're facing, has prohibited all future purchases of periodical subscriptions (what possibly could academic departments need with such things?), promotional materials (pens, t-shirts, et al.), and window cleaner.

That should shave off millions!