But a kid is supposed to be a kid!

Everyone here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in still-mild! Auburn Hills, MI hopes you've recovered from gorging on turkey and stuffing. Christmas music is in the air (some radio stations started just after Halloween, but we refused to listen) and the tree is lit in the lunchroom.

To get you in the holiday spirit, we offer this link, http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=340713 , detailing an altercation at a local kid-centric pizzeria. Sometimes, you have to just shake your head.

It reminded someone around here of a past trip to a similar restaurant/arcade. A young male employee, about 6'1" and maybe 110 lbs, was making his way to the Sky Tubes with a wet dry vacuum. Seems one of the young patrons had, shall we say, lost his pizza. When asked how much he was getting paid to scale the Sky Tubes to suck up the offending puddle, the employee replied with defeat, "Minimum wage."

He was quickly reminded that's why he needs to study and get to college.

Movie Maniacs

We didn't go see the blockbuster, record-setting movie over the weekend because we prefer our vampires to be blood-thirsty monsters as opposed to emo-chic teenagers who can't quite open their eyes all the way.

But a few of us around Teacher's Brunch HQ in foggy-morning Auburn Hills, MI are pretty geeked for this coming weekend's opening of "The Road."

Any other literature-based films we should keep an eye out for?

More Words!

The New Oxford Dictionary has announced its Word of the Year, hot on the heels of our post from yesterday.

Their Word is "unfriend."

An article about it can be found here.

Nominate a Word of the Year

The American Dialect Society is accepting nominations for the 2009 Word of the Year, and the 2000-2009 Word of the Decade.

As the site says:

The best "word of the year" candidates will be:

—new or newly popular in 2009
—widely or prominently used in 2009
—indicative or reflective of the popular discourse

Last year's Word of the Year was "bailout." The 2007 Word was "subprime."

In keeping with the economic theme, and since the website says phrases are allowed, we vote for "Jobless Recovery." We like how it's both hopeful, and dreadfully pessimistic. When you read it you can feel good, but not accuse politicians of sugar-coating the truth. It's a win-win!

If you'd like to have your students enter their choices, you can send an email from their website here.

Feel free to post your choices in the comments section. We'd love to hear what your kids think should win.

Thank you, veterans

On behalf of the entire Teacher's Discovery family, happy Veteran's Day.

Twain!

Teacher's Discovery is highlighting our Mark Twain items this month in honor of his birthday.

Who doesn't love Mark Twain? Really.


Click the image above to check them out.

A ghoulishly good time

One of the many perks to working around here (along with the fun of making great classroom tools) is the annual Halloween party. Last year, members of the Teacher's Brunch staff actually did all the planning. They were happy this year to let Lauren and Katie from the Foreign Language building throw the shindig, and this year's party planners did a fabulously awesome job.

Among the festivities were a pumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. As you might expect, we have some immensely creative and talented people around here.

See for yourself:


Caryn in FL made this wonderful piece. We're not exactly sure how many pumpkins are in this thing.




Get the joke?





Ginger in Foreign Language made her pumpkin look like one of our popular bobble head turtles.




Dave from Exploration Company made this pumpkin he called "Shish Ka Boo."





And here's the winning pumpkin, from Katie. That's real meat, people.





Karen came dressed to impress deep-fried fanatics everywhere.






Barb's wacky buffet retained the food fancy.





When he's not fixing web and computer problems, Vadim fights crime as one of the X-Men.





Devilish designer Michelle helps Nick search for coins and turtles to stomp.





And finally. here's the Tech Team decked out as the Channel 4 six o'clock news team from "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." We won first place, which, since there were five of us, means we each get four bucks to spend at our local Target.

We didn't do it for the money. We did it for the glory.

Here's hoping your students aren't too wired on jujubees and goobers. And is it just me, or are Bit o' Honeys way too little honey and way too much bit?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from your friends at Teacher's Brunch, Teacher's Discovery, the Exploration Company, and that Italian food warehouse next door.

Check back Monday for pictures of the festivities, including the Tech Team's first place rendition of a certain television anchorman and news crew.

Thanks for the laughs, Soupy

While it's true that Teacher's Discovery is a national (even international) company, regular readers of our blog know that we are proud of our Michigan and Metro-Detroit roots.

So those of us here at Teacher's Brunch HQ in cold and rainy Auburn Hills, MI join with everyone in mourning the passing of a TV icon we in Detroit like to consider one of our own, Soupy Sales.

No, Soupy didn't start in Detroit, and he wasn't even from Detroit, but he was here as he approached the cusp of his success. He always maintained a generous attachment to our fair state, and the people of Michigan reciprocated.

Maybe today in his honor, instead of eating a pie, we should all throw one. That would be good for the waistline, and the funny bone.

Happy Birthday to Ryan

Today, we at Teacher's Brunch HQ in warm but soggy Auburn Hills, MI will raise a slice of pizza and celebrate Ryan's birthday.

Ryan is now head wholesale honcho, but in his time as a Project Manager he got his name on loads of products, including the best-selling teacher favorite Literary Terms and Devices Challenge game.

He also likes motorcycles. And he's getting old.

So we offer this image, combining both themes, as a Teacher's Brunch blog birthday card: