The Secret Adult Common Core Test Questions, Revealed!

Walter's Hot Dogs

©twmcdermott2014

Introduction of a national Common Core Math and ELA curriculum in grades 3-8, accompanied by standardized testing to gauge proficiency in it, has met strong resistance from many parents, students, teachers, and politicians. Some criticize the “nationalization” of curriculum, while others claim the states and feds did a poor job of planning, funding, and training which resulted in low test scores. Consequently, New York State decided that it might help parents of students and other adults to better understand the Common Core experience if they were able to take their very own comprehensive standardized test.

Below, is an exclusive look at some of the questions on that test.

1. The foundation of U.S. law and democracy is a document called:

             a) The Bourne Memorandum

             b)  Elvis’ Greatest Hits

             c) The Constitution

             d) Title IX

2. “Hamlet” could best be described as a reference to:

       a)  a village along the north fork of eastern Long Island

             b) a meal made with eggs in a pan, especially popular in France

             c) one of William Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays

             d)  a slice of bacon

3. Property taxes on Family Y’s new home in Village X will be $73,000 and 68% of that total is for school taxes, while the pre-transportation cost per student in Village X’s schools is $19,000. How many bedrooms could the Ys have before their taxes needed to be raised?

       a) 1.7

       b) 17

 c)   3, as long as they didn’t have bunk beds

 d)   Infinity

4. Two parallel lines form in the middle school lunchroom. One line, the organic veggie station is very short; the other line, named  “Pizza,” is very, very long. What is the formula for making those lines equal to one another?

             a) Make chef Thomas Keller the new Principal

             b) Serve only kale, broccoli, cauliflower and tofu mozzarella on pizza

             c)  Have the School Board institute a special “pizza tax”

             d) Move the school closer to “Walter’s Hot Dogs”*

5. Rising senior Dramatics star, Melinda, has already been recruited to Harvard, where she will play varsity Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and Brecht. Since Harvard offers no Dramatics – or even athletic – scholarships, how much can Melinda earn while acting before she is disqualified from playing varsity?

a)    Zippitty Doo – Dah

b)   000000000…klahoma!

c)   Enough to buy 6 monthly Red Line passes

d)  “A Streetcar Named Nada”

6) The name of the first man on the moon was:

             a) Andy Kaufman

             b)  Louis Armstrong

             c) Michael Stipe

             d) The Man on the Moon

             e)  None of the above

7) Why is Albany the capital of New York?

             a) That’s where the money is

             b) That’s where the money was

             c)  The governor said so

             d)  Furs are making a huge comeback in China

             e)   “A” is the first letter of the alphabet

8) A synonym for or meaning of the word “testy: is:

            a) a feeling one gets after scoring lower on a test than their children did

            b) a African fly whose bite causes sleeping disease

            c)  Something to do with cricket or crickets

            d) Mood after finding that what you don’t know fills a bigger bucket than what you do know  

9) Why does February usually have only 28 days?

        a) so there’s one less snow day

        b) something to do with the Man on the Moon

        c) Because the Romans couldn’t count and had to use letters like V, I, and X. So dumb.

        d) How else could it get to 29 days in leap year?

        e) Too hard, we need much more preparation

10) Name Russia’s most important export in world markets:

        a)   Polish vodka

        b) Bank hacking services

        c)   Borscht belts

        d) Maria Sharapova

        e) Educational testing services

*Walter's is strategically located across the street from a public high school in Mamaroneck, NY. It is widely considered to serve the finest hot dogs in the universe.

Golden Days of October

©text and photos/2014twmcdermott

GreyTops VII Invitational/Oct 4

These are the golden days of October when even our biggest mistakes are ringed with sunlight. 

Elsewhere, people suffer from disease, and others rampage in the mistaken belief that the path to heaven is strewn with bodies of the vanquished ones who are not as worthy.

These things must be acknowledged, but they cannot diminish the golden days of October, when a feast shared from the back of an old station wagon, on picnic tables folded on the shining lawns of our alma maters, make Thomas Keller weep with envy.

These are the golden days of October, when grey-topped men compete in the racquet game they love, celebrating, as one more season nears its end and combining to ensure that young players in need receive a chance to play.

On a crisp September day in 1956, my father took me by the hand and we walked up the steep stairway of Forest Hills tennis stadium to take our seats. Hoad and Rosewall, and Seixas and Althea and a former Wimbledon Champion named Dick Savitt danced about the lawn that day; I was instantly and forever smitten, driven to try and recreate the moment over and over again. And so I do.

Miraculously, I partnered with Rosewall nearly 50 years later at the same place. and recently, we received last minute US Open tickets for a box directly behind the stadium court at Flushing, in the second row. The owner of the box? Dick Savitt. There are no coincidences in life. 

Weep Not

Did someone say “Too bad there are no New York teams in the postseason?”

Or “What a shame that Jeter did not get his October ending.”

I protest. Exhibit A, The baseball Giants of San Francisco; née, the New York Giants, who somehow managed to enter into the golden days – called nights in MLB and on Fox – while the Dodgers faltered, and beat the Cards 3-0 last night.

Apologies to my friends who love “dem Bums;” I too admit a certain affection due to their 1955 World Series win over the Yanks in seven, which earned me a day off from my Brooklyn Diocese school.

One more thing: a month ago tomorrow, my daughter married a Bay Area Giants fan – with access to tickets! Thank you, baseball gods.

Another summer day in 1956 my father took me by the hand and we rode the subway to the Polo Grounds station where we alighted, then walked past the orange and black tiles on the station walls, still there today, and into the ancient Polo Grounds. I can close my eyes and see the team in the same cream-colored jerseys still worn at home, and see Johnny Antonelli’s autograph clear as an October day on the team ball my father bought for me.

These are the golden days of October when the usual fog or gloom surrounding thoughts of family lift and scatter into warm golden sunlight.

And, about Jeter? Once, in 2001, when the September ashes were still floating above Manhattan, like a Greek god, he stretched October into a 32^nd day. In a Series game that began on All Hallows, tied by Tino in the ninth, past midnight, Jeter took a patented inside-out poke at a ball, sending it into the right field stands to end the game, and tie the Series at 2-2.

After last at bat/still soaring

That homer proved to be only a temporary balm to the local fans, as the gods of November turned triumph into tragedy in the Arizona desert.

But,  that ball that Jeter shot with his ash bow had the glow of October, despite what the calendar said, as it soared into the night. Don’t cry for Jeter; he is still swinging and that ball is still soaring, at least in my eyes. I was there to see it in person, with the DG by my side.

These are the golden days of October in which our good deeds look even better and even our worst mistakes are ringed with sunlight.

Carpe Diem Octobribus.

Take My Password, Please

J.P. Morgan

Does the Secret Service run internet security for the banks? I ask the question since learning about hackers being able to penetrate JP Morgan Chase’s internal systems to get a glimpse at customer contact information. But, not to worry, according to the bank, the cyber-hackers only got information from 76 million households; in other words, they got over the fence and in the back door, but didn’t even make it to the Green Room.

Another big reason not to worry according to the cyber-geniuses at JPM Chase is that only names, email addresses, phone numbers, and street addresses were stolen. What a relief to know that the fine people at this 2B2F bank, the ones who have been paying billions in fines to the government for a variety of nasty goofs, if not outright fraud, didn’t give up my account numbers, password, Social Security number, or date of birth. In a statement to at least some customers on October 2, the bank said their money was “safe.” Phew!

As a customer of this august financial institution, named for one of capitalism’s grand poobahs, and once pretty tight with the Rockefeller gang, I can sleep soundly at night knowing that as of 5:16 a.m this morning my $322.23 was secure, waiting for me to buy half an iPhone 6.

I’m thinking that there must be a $350 minimum in order to have received such an alert, since I did not get one. I got zipski.

This thievery comes on the heels of an arrest by Rye NY Police in the Webster Bank robbery – we’re talking real, analog, Willie Sutton-type human robbery, folks – . It took RPD, the FBI, Westchester County and a few Connecticut police departments less than a week to arrest the perp, who confessed in a recorded interview. Maybe JPMC should give the team who caught that guy a call. Can’t hurt.

Some readers might think that I’d be more than a little upset to read about this breach of my privacy in the newspapers before hearing it from my bank; rest assured that nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, the whole affair has given me an idea.

Hack-ers

After reading about this info-heist, I decided to check my account online. And you know what? I couldn’t remember my password. Has that ever happened to you? Hah! In order to change the password, I needed to give the online genie the street name where I grew up, which I knew, but the genie obviously didn’t agree. So, I named my first school, first pet, gave my mother’s you know what. Finally, down to my last “security question,” which is probably no big deal for hackers, I struck out on the name of the city where I was born. Duh.

This happens all too frequently to me, especially when I haven’t used a particular site in a while, or even when I’ve just changed my password and can only remember the old one. In which case, of course, you have to know your password or user I.D. in order to change your password again. And, the more you change passwords, the less familiar they are and therefore even harder to recall.

Sure, there are apps available to combat this kind of thing, but who’s got the time, we’re too busy trying to access our own accounts to check our balances, foreclosure statuses, and report stolen identities.

W.S.

So, I think that the hackers may be on to a new business. I’d be happy to pay them a small fee, so I can contact them directly to get my passwords. Also, having instant access to my complete Social Security number would be a help as well, since like most people, I only know the last four digits, since that’s what I’m always asked to give when calling a bank (nobody ever seems to worry about security during phone call with somebody you’ve never met before who was vetted by the same bank!).

After all, by now these cyber-pirates, hacking away in Russia or Iran, probably know more of our passwords than we could possibly remember. And, does anyone believe that the ones trying to protect our information are smarter and craftier than these guys, or that they will tell us right away about a more serious breach?

I can only hope that, if the hackers ever do get that $322.23, that they also wipe out my $3,412 credit card balance as well. Spaseeba, boys.