That's 39 but who's counting!

One of my favorite sources of things to talk about in a blog posting is the surpassingly odd aspects of life today that are thrust into the limelight via the wacky filler items you can find on many of the major on line news sites like CNN and indeed dear old www.Fredericksburg.com . For example this headline from CNN.com fairly begs further examination: “Jumping sturgeon whacks jet-skier” Maybe I read articles like that for the same reason I’ll pause on the Jerry Springer show when I’m channel surfing but I really want to see the fish that can take out a guy on a jet ski.

It’s not what anyone would call a major news site but in her blog posting today on Blue Ridge Blog, Marie Freeman talking about the new school year in Watauga County North Carolina and says there is a new rule at Watauga County High School limiting students to 39 bathroom trips per semester. She predicts they’ll give up on that within two weeks. I give it one week: one day to realize the impracticality of it and four days to figure out how to back off the idea without formally admitting what a knot headed idea it was to begin with.

Who will keep track of how often the kids go? Will there be potty monitors with clip boards in the hall? Maybe they will print and distribute 39 bathroom passes to each student, thus creating an active black market for them and when that gets going can the counterfeit potty pass be far behind? Will there be a roll over provision for unused passes from one semester to another like unused cell phone minutes?

Who in the school administration came up with this idea and then had the nerve to propose it in front of the other school officials? Boone is way out in the mountains of western

North Carolina

but I’m surprised we didn’t hear the hoots and howls of laughter all the way up here.

Of course there could be a perfectly logical explanation for how this came to be; it could be a little known provision of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Nah, that’s too far out even for the Feds, right?

Right?

Comments

[Jane]

Hilarious, Jim! Reminds me of my very short stint at GEICO where I was informed by a 13-year senior employee while attending my orientation that she was allowed six minutes to use the bathroom. I thought this odd, but stated I felt I could probably "do my business" in six minutes until she corrected me and said that was what was allowed for her entire shift! And Big Brother keeps accurate track over there because workers must log in and off their headsets. I resigned after four days of "orientation."After all, what does one have to look forward to if she only had six minutes after 13 years of tenure? Hilarious? I think not!

[World Peace Religion]

What happens if you take 40?

[rhonda]

How, exactly, did they determine the average student needs only 39 annual bathroom trips? Was there some argument between 38 and 39? Did they do scientific studies to come up with that number?

What an idiotic plan!

[Susan]

Lets just get some more rules to make these kids break. Holy cow...what if one of them has a severe case of the poohs? What about gals with their monthlies? Geesh!