TiTTS Bits

It's now official. The head of TiTTS has resigned from the Duchy. Supposedly the reason is that the Black Dot Queen was making it impossible for him to do his job. She really is sucking all of the oxygen out of the Duchy.
I'm still pissed off about the vision thing. Duke Phfffr recently issued a proclamation about world music and "intercultural proficiency" It's clear from the proclamation that the Duke feels strongly about this. The proclamation has lots of good verbage, heartfelt verbage, about making the world a better place through intercultural education. The White Queen's Monday Missives also frequently express the same 0bviously heartfelt feelings about education. And if you read any parent comments about what they want their children to learn in life and they will say they want them to "be happy and get along well with others". With both the Duke and the White Queen of the same mind as parents, WHY are we constantly harassing teachers and students about testing, grades and standards? Why doesn't the vision express the obviously core belief of the both leadership and the parents that the job of schools is to create a better world, one student at a time. Or is the whole district being led by the soulless like the Black Queen?

Vision (or not)

Today in professional development, the facilitator presented this nifty graphic which summarized what is required for change in an organization to occur. It looks like
Vision + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Change
With any of the pieces missing you get confusion, anxiety, frustration and other bad outcomes. When the facilitator asked us to relate this piece of information to our personal experience I realized just how bitter I have become. I don't think I'm alone either. The group had been interacting up to that point and then they became very silent. On of the participants asked for a show of hands for how many people know the Duchy's vision. There were no hands raised. I went to the web site and looked it up. Here it is
Tucson Unified School District is a professional learning community that ensures every student learns, exceeds all expected performance standards, graduates, and is able to compete and succeed in a global economy.
Aside from the fact the "professional learning community" is such a meaningless buzzword right now, it's not a bad vision statement, just kind of uninspired. Considering that a vision statement should be inspiring that's not good. A bigger problem is that NONE of the actions taken with respect to the Duchy library community relate to that vision in ANY WAY.
Going back to the effective change, the way it works is:
First you have the vision, then you need to determine the skills needed for that vision, the training needed, the incentives, and the resources that will be available. With that information, you can create an action plan. Is that anything like a strategic plan? Even with no information about resources, no control over skills and incentives, and no articulated vision, Dotland was asked to create a strategic plan. They did. It vanished into that black hole that exists around the Black Queen.
Possibly I would feel less bitter if the Duchy had ever provided ANY of the crucial parts. The closest to the vision anyone can get is "It's all about the kids." Yeah, right, that's helpful. Skills and training, that costs money and requires planning and takes people away from the school site. We can't have that. Incentives. We should be able to at least say if you learn this it will make your day to day job easier. It would be nice if we could say this. However, the Duchy does not have a good track record with making jobs easier. Chances are if you are trained in a procedure that will make your job easier, the Duchy will change the procedure immediately after training everyone. Resources. With a clearly articulated vision and a clear understanding of the skills, incentives and resources that will be available, it is possible to develop an action plan to implement anything over some time frame. Little skills, incentives and resources, looong time frames, lots of skills, incentives, and resources, short time frames. However, it's critical to know what resources will be made available. Have we EVER been told what resources can be used and how?
Bitter? You bet I am!

Destiny (again)

You've probably already heard that our Destiny might not be so destined after all. It seems the Lime Green Knight did such a good job of telling people how wonderful Destiny was that all of the villages want all of its bells and whistles and in order to get all of those bells and whistles there will have to be an RFP (Really Fat Paper). (Actually that means Request for Proposal. A request for proposal says "We want to buy something that does everything on this list (with a really long list attached) How much will you charge us?" And that RFP has to go to every vendor that might be interested. That means competition and choices. That should be interesting.) Silver is a little concerned about the RFP because the only person writing it seems to be the Lime Green Knight. Silver isn't sure that the Lime Green Knight remembers all of the different things a library program needs to be able to do. The Black Queen promised us committees to deal with things like that. What has happened to all of those committees?
In other news the head of TiTS has disappeared from the pigeon address book. What does this mean? Is there some good gossip there? Actually that's what we need to cheer up these winter days - some good gossip. Anyone know any? Maybe we'll have to start making some up!

Snow Day!

Yesterday was a SNOW DAY in Tucson, Arizona! Well, at least a snow half-day. The entire Duchy got the morning off due to an inch of snow on the ground. (Stop snickering, Buffalo!) And today Duke Phffer announced that no one would have to take personal time for that half-day. Whoa! Of course, then those hardy people who went in to work anyway wanted to know if they were going to be paid extra for working on a paid holiday. That question hasn't been ruled on yet. Silver spent the snow morning reading Wintersmith, a new book by Terry Pratchett. Everyone knows that Silver reads Sci-fi and fantasy and when asked what a book by Terry Pratchett is about, she says "Oh, it's fantasy" because Terry Pratchett is really hard to explain. In truth, Terry Pratchett is not fantasy at all. It's straightforward satire, which means that unlike fantasy it's about the REAL Real World. Wintersmith is about Tiffany Aching, a 13 year old apprentice witch who has unfortunately attracted the attention of the Wintersmith, the Winter Elemental responsible for bringing Winter to the world. (Anyone who doubts the existence of the Wintersmith in the Real World just needed to look out the window yesterday morning.) Tiffany has already learned the truth about witchcraft in the Real World. When she is home from her apprenticeship, her mother finds her scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees and says "I thought you could do that by just moving your hands about" Tiffany replied "That works, but only if you move your hands on the floor with a scrub brush in them." The truth about witchcraft is like nuclear weapons it's much too dangerous to use. The Wintersmith was of particular interest to Silver because it talks about the Librarians, a group like gypsies that travel from village to village in wagons full of books which they will lend for a penny. If you bring them a book you get three free loans. It is said that a Librarian can tell just what book you need just by looking at you. When the Wintersmith has dumped 6 feet of snow on them, they are in dire straits. They are running out of fuel to keep the lanterns burning so they can read. Of course, freezing to death is also a problem but that's a secondary consideration to not being able to read. (See, I told you it was about the Real World.) So that you won't worry about the Librarians when the story is really about Tiffany and the Wintersmith, I'll tell you that they are rescued by small blue men, the Nac Mac Feegles, who are the only people ever thrown out of the Underworld for singing on Charon's boat. Of course, there was also the destruction of Cerberus, the three-headed dog. I've looked for a good guide to Terry Pratchett, but there just isn't a definitive guide on the internet, so I guess I'll have to browbeat Silver into writing one to introduce people to the memorable characters like The Luggage which has feet and holds clean laundry when you open it and lots and lots of teeth when anyone else opens it. Never go into Iraq without The Luggage. That was clearly Emporer Shrub's mistake!

Dispatches from Dotland

Things have been quiet and productive in Dotland. The Dots are doing training and fixing and arranging and normal Dotly things that would have been happening all along if the Black Queen hadn't stopped them. The training is happening because IDEA arranged it first and mentioned it to the Black Queen later. The Black Queen did send a pigeon to the Dots congratulating them on the training. One wonders if perhaps there was a blind copy of that pigeon that went to someone else, say the White Queen? Certainly it is not in character for the Black Queen to congratulate someone on doing a job she has previously blocked. The Black Queen is also sometimes called the Technology Queen, sort of a legend in her own mind. However, some of the tech such as the Spectacularly Clever Boards don't seem to work. In other news, your faithful correspondent attended a meeting of the Duchy Board. Duke Phffr delivered the State of the Duchy address to the board using some of the Tech Queen's new tech. The Duke tried to show a video to the board but the Proxima didn't work. However, later, the Diva had a video of her own and that did work. I'm thinking that possibly the Tech Queen treats her electronic servants just like she treats the Dots. I'm thinking that if I were a Proxima I probably wouldn't want to work for her either.
Attending a Duchy Board meeting is always an adventure. Students from one of the villages keep escaping into the neighborhood and upsetting the neighbors. The Duke hopes to solve the problem by building a Parking Palace. The Duchy Board is doubtful. "The students live in the neighborhood and they'll still be walking home through the neighborhood" commented one board member. Of course, the Parking Palace will be built anyway. Maybe they can make the students all camp out in it all year.

Breaking News! Castle evacuated!

Duchy Castle, at XX E. X, stands silent, guarded by grim policemen, after today's threats of violence and terrorism. Authorities have not disclosed any details. According to some reports, men with guns were seen in the halls of the Castle during an important meeting of village headmen. Speculation was rampant. Terrorism, gunman, disgruntled teachers, and bombs were all mentioned. Details are very sketchy at this point but this conversation was overheard before the castle occupants fled for their lives... or an afternoon off.
First woman "My friend saw men with guns so we called 911 and got out of there. I was so scared!"
Friend "I said I saw a man with GUB! What were you calling 911 about? How come we get to go home early?"
First woman "She means GUNS! Of course I called 911."
Friend "I hab a code. I said GUB! He was chewing GUB!! It should be against the law.!"
First woman "Oh. Well, we got to leave early anyway. See you tomorrow!"
Occupants of the SNEAC building were jealous "Nothing ever happens here!" "That's because they can't find us since Homeland Security said that we couldn't have a map or a sign." "When are we going to get to go home early, huh? It's months before it's hot enough to break the air-conditioning so we can leave!"
In other news the SNEAC building is being painted a lovely shade of pink. Reaction of the occupants...."It didn't look pink in the sample."

All Quiet in Dotland

The Duchy is very quiet these days. The Black Dot Queen and her henchman are apparently on vacation. And when the Black Dot Queen is not making mischief and vandalizing library programs, the Dots aren't agitated. Some of the Dots are even Taking Time Off. Others are going about their Dotly duties, making sure thing run smoothly. The only niggling concern is whether the Black Queen is really on vacation or just plotting more mischief. What will the new year bring from Black Dot Castle?
In other news, the Dotland Quilts are now online at http://barbssewing.pbwiki.com/.

Destiny awaits or The Queens new computer system

Lime Green Knight says Destiny conversion will be "transparent".

The Lime Green Knight says that the conversion to Destiny will be "transparent". The Dots are wondering what that means. The Dots thought it meant "free from guile, candid or open", so that all of the "stakeholders", the librarians, the peasants, the village headmen and, yea, even the Dots, would be informed of all discussions. This is obviously not true since a meeting about the conversion was held last Friday and only Sage and Silver were invited...and only for part of the meeting. Then Silver found a different definition of transparent on the the WEB. According to that definition, transparent means you can't see what they are doing. That definition matches very well with the way the Black Queen operates. She definitely doesn't want people seeing what she does. Then there is the definition of transparent that is like window glass...you can see through the window and if it's very clean, you can't see the window glass itself. It's invisible. So maybe Destiny is also invisible, or as we say in the computer biz, "virtual". If Destiny is "virtual" then it would work with virtual servers, virtual networks, and a virtual student download from the Great Desert software. That must be it. That must be why the Black Queen and the Lime Green Knight keep saying we don't need to worry about network speed even though our networks consist primary of geriatric hamsters running on old squeaky wheels. Destiny, the Queen's new computer system, must be virtual. The Lime Green Knight said that the purpose of the meeting Friday was to "answer questions". Silver and Sage did ask a lot of questions however, neither Silver nor Sage can remember any answers being given. Maybe the answers are virtual as well.


If the Black Queen's operations were actually transparent, perhaps there wouldn't be quite as many of these "stakeholders".

Destiny

Are you findin' Destiny fair, Silver, Sage, Black Queen and Lime?
Remember taxpayers will pay for your share, if you think Destiny's fine.

The Black Queen invited Sage and Silver to an audience last week with IDEA, the Lime Green Knight, and the Lords of Folly and Destiny. Silver wasn't quite sure what the meeting was about. Silver and Sage discussed cataloging arcana to the dismay of the Black Queen who kept poking her blackberry imp in a effort to find out who this guy MARC is. Most of Silver's questions started out with "When...?" and were answered with "We'll decide that later." "Later, when?" "We'll decide that later as well." Silver suspects the answer is "After you leave the room." but then Silver always was something of a pessimist. The Lords of Folly had a Powerpoint but none of the slides seemed to have the answers to questions either. Then Silver and Sage were dismissed and the next group was admitted to Audience. According to IDEA, the Duchy is reluctant to consider allowing students to look at library catalogs from home citing "Security Issues". Possibly the Black Queen is afraid that this guy MARC is a terrorist? Possibly MARC is a member of dreaded DDC Underground, dedicated to classifying all of the knowledge in the world? Later Purple and Silver discussed the question of Security. Purple thinks the right approach is to equip all workstations with a Matthew Brady Security System, a black hood attached to the monitor, with drawcords like a theatre curtain. When a user is accessing secret information like library records they can throw the hood over their head and shoulders thus protecting the free world from knowledge of the existence of Books... in School Libraries.
Incidentally, if you think the DDC Underground is just another urban myth, you should read about their counterpart organization, Al Gebra.
In this busy holiday season, while celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, don't forget to include Holiday, the Pastafarian winter holiday.
Happy Holiday!

Mysterious appearances in Dotland

Once again the SNEAC building is the site of uncanny occurrences. Bundles of curious metal cages have been appearing in unusual places, then disappearing and reappearing in other places. Some sort of structure is being built across the ceiling, going around the edges of the room, disappearing into holes in the ceiling even though no workers are ever seen. Is this some sort of Close Encounters thing? Are aliens building a mysterious device to trap the inhabitants of the SNEAC building? (Well, probably aliens are building it. Aliens do all of the construction in Arizona.) Silver thinks the new structure looks like a hamster run. Sage is hoping it's a track for an electric train. She thinks a nice train running around below the ceiling, blowing its whistle at crossing, would add a nice homey atmosphere to the place. Bringing the Dots back down to Earth, Black-and-Yellow Dot of Bombs and Engineering, says the new structure is cable runs for wiring. Of course, one of the other Dots heard a rumor that the SNEAC building is going wireless. Let's see. The SNEAC building is currently wired but doesn't have any cable runs. Now it's going to be wireless so they are installing cable runs for the non-wires. Makes perfect sense.

Holidays in Dotland

Dotland, and the rest of the SNEAC building, has been decorated for the holidays, Christmas tree and all. The Dots were invited to a Christmas party by the Black Queen but decided it wouldn't fit into their busy social schedule. (Actually, invitations from the Black Queen always make the Dots nervous and they have to go and lie down in a darkened room.) Blue is on a trip. Sage is immersed in arcane cataloging spells. Silver sits in her cubby all day poking at the Grand Union and muttering "That's not right.." under her breath. Purple and Turquoise are kept busy answering budget questions (But how can I be overdrawn when I still have checks left!) Maybe it's time for a looong vacation. What do you think?

What's happening in Libraryland?

IDEA would very much like all of the Duchy or at least the LibraryLand part of it to reside in the Province of Perfect, where all books and other things are perfectly cataloged , all libraries spend all of their budget but not a penny more, and all libraries have enough computers. Unfortunately, the Duchy is not being cooperative about being perfect. So IDEA and the Dots spent the day pondering some eternal questions.
Why are some libraries over budget and it's not even Christmas?
Why does the librarian who cares the most about perfect records get all of the really bad ones? Some librarians don't really care how it looks and the Grand Union never dumps really bad records on them.
Why have some library computers mysteriously (or maybe not so mysteriously) disappeared?
Why doesn't the Duchy have an official definition of a Teacher-Librarian, even though GoG insists that she created one? Is it possible that GoG's creations just melt away over time like snowflakes in the sun? Is the Black Queen hoping that GoG can make DotLand melt away over time?
Why can't even the Diva get Professional Learning credit approved by the Preventer of Professional Learning? (IDEA has been assured that the Preventer of Professional Learning will approve HER paperwork. Silver has heard THAT before.)
Well, that's enough deep thoughts for a Friday afternoon. It's time to go out and play!

News from Dotland

News! What News? Since nothing much new has been happening in Dotland, we'll talk about what hasn't happened.

• The call for a replacement of IDEA has not been made. (Actually, since the new one is supposed to be permanent and full time, it wouldn't really be IDEA. Maybe just DEA?) The original announcement that there would be a new Director attracted a lot of attention. However, those eager applicants holding their breath waiting for the promised announcement have long since succumbed to lack of oxygen. Librarians are assuring IDEA that she is not interim at all but permanent. This is not welcome news to IDEA who has been thinking deep green thoughts of spring and topsoil and petunias and seedling tomatoes.
• Silver's promised new robes have not yet appeared. Labor problems? A strike at the factory perhaps? The designer broke his favorite pencil and was unable to continue? Silver has given up and is making her own robes.
• Destiny (or Fate or Doom or Dynasty or whatever you want to call it) has still not appeared either. Maybe this is a good time to explain the meaning of strophe and antistrophe. Picture a Greek chorus consisting of Gog and the Lime Green Knight, in appropriate Greek robes, dancing off stage left singing "Des-tiny is coming to town...by Christmas" (to the tune of "Santa Claus is coming to town"). That's strophe. Now picture the Black Dot Queen (I don't think we want to picture her in Greek robes, though. Let's just stick to her normal black robes with the ermine trim.) dancing off stage right singing "I never ever said that at all!" That's antistrophe.

Well, that's the non-news for today. We'll see what doesn't happen tomorrow. (Space is always an issue in publishing. With so much not happening, some non-events are bound to be omitted. We apologize if your favority non-event was overlooked.)

Dispatches from Dotland

To quote from Non Sequitur, Arizona Daily Star, November 29, 2006
"I don't get it. After all the budget cuts to streamline the workforce, why aren't we moving faster?" (picture of a large boat with committee on the upper deck and 1 lone rower in the galley)

Due to completely forseen circumstances, your faithful correspondent has been completely unfaithful and has been spending lots of time playing and eating instead of paying attention to business and Dotland. And your faithful correspondent had better shape up and quit eating before she has to be rolled out the door!

Correction:
In our last dispatch, we discussed the presentation to the peasants by a CLAPTRAP (Curriculum, Learning And Professional Teaching Refused And Postposed) representative. That was their old name. That department is now known as PL, Preventing Learning. The full name is Preventing Learning At All Costs or PLAAC, pronounced with a hawking sound in the back of the throat and followed by spitting and making the sign to ward off the evil eye. In either incarnation, PLAAC is feared by all. Even the normally poised Diva is known to look harassed and mutter when the name is spoken. Indigo Dot and some artists from Studioland hatched a plot to teach teachers how to use art to teach mathematics and science and history. Indigo tried to get this approved by PLAAC. Indigo has been unwilling to discuss the experience and will probably need long term counseling to recover. Currently the Diva has put on extra armor and is planning to storm PLAAC soon.

Silver overheard the following exchange in the PLAAC office:
Teacher "I taught a course this summer and I'm here to collect the PL credit. "
PLAAC "Did you file forms A and B."
Teacher "Yes, I filed forms A, B, C, D, and E."
PLAAC "All you have to do now is bring me form C."
Teacher "I already filed form C." (Denial)
PLAAC " You have to bring me form C."
Teacher "I gave you form C already."
PLAAC "You have to bring me form C."
Teacher with gritted teeth "I filed form C with forms A and B already." (Anger)
PLAAC "You have to bring me form C."
Teacher "Do you mean you want me to fill out a new form C."
PLAAC "No, you have to turn in the form C that goes with your form A and B."
Teacher "I don't have that form C. I gave it to you."
PLAAC "You have to bring me form C."
Teacher "Can you make a copy of the form C I already turned in so that I can give it to you?" (Bargaining)
PLAAC "No, you have to bring me form C."
Teacher "Can I see the form C I turned in?" (More bargaining)
PLAAC " No, you have to bring me form C."
Teacher "What am I going to do? I don't have form C because I gave it to you. I promised my wife I would get this credit so I would get a step increase so we can afford the surgery for my mother. Now everyone will be mad at me." (Depression)
PLAAC "You have to bring me form C."
After several more equally hopeless rounds the teacher gave up and walked away. (Acceptance)
Silver looked to see if she could tell where the PLAAC robot was plugged in but was unable to locate the wires. Maybe it's a wireless robot like a Roomba. At least the Roomba vacs the floor!

New IDEAS

The peasants gathered today with the new IDEA to meet all of the new peasants. There is now a peasant for every village. (We hope that works out better than a chicken for every pot.) Blue, Sage, turquoise, and Silver were all present and learned a lot of new things. The Duchy will no longer have a fixed number of peasants. If there are more students, the Duchy will find more peasants. (Silver rolled her eyes.) They found out why the the high school libraries got no deseg funds this year. "We didn't know who to ask about the deseg funds." (Silver ground her teeth and muttered "That's because the Black Dot Queen fired everyone who knew anything.") They found out about extra money for next year's magazine order. The White Queen has money for next year's magazine order that will be dispensed either (Option A) according to the size of the schools, which will be unfair to tiny schools or (Option B) some other way that won't be unfair to tiny schools but will probably be unfair to large schools. The IDEA will ask the Black Dot Queen to choose Option A or Option B. This correspondent predicts that her Blackness will pick Option C, invest the money in an account while she makes the decision. The account will of course have a service charge so that by the time the Queen picks either A the B, the money will all be gone (or the magazines gone out of business.) The meeting also had a representative from Curriculum, Learning, And Professional Teaching Refused And Postponed (CLAPTRAP) who talked about training. The CLAPTRAP representative said that the Duchy considered customer services VERY IMPORTANT. (Silver ground her teeth VERY LOUDLY and her neighbor swatted her.) The new IDEA and the Dots prefer the "drive-by" training they have always done. CLAPTRAP prefers that we have long engagements with their professional torturers to drive-by encounters with the Dots. The Dots, they say, don't do sufficient followup. (Silver muttered, "You mean they don't want to throw themselves out the window after we're done with them.")
Silver and Sage also got to talk about their friend Marc. Some of the peasants already hang out with Marc but some of the other are not sure Marc is friendly. The new IDEA and Sage and Silver believe that Marc can help us eliminate funkiness. The new IDEA said "There will be no more of that old funkiness. From now on, we will have new and improved funky." Silver and Sage both agreed strongly.

All quiet on the Dotland Front

Things are very, very quiet in Dotland. Purple is on the sea. Pink is out in a village. Navy is with the buses. Gold is gone (sigh). Without Navy there just isn't as much music although Sage boosts our spirits by dancing. Is the quiet because everyone is waiting for the Black Queen to drop the next shoe? How many shoes does the Black Queen have? Probably fewer pairs of shoes than Silver. But the real question is how many shoes can the Black Queen wear at one time? Is it 2... or is it 8? (Now you're just being catty. It's back in the box for you!)

Hawaii (for Purple)

For Purple (with apologies to Arlo Guthrie)
Coming into Hilo from over the sea
Sailing in a big sea liner
Flowers flyin' everywhere around the ship
Could you ever feel much finer?

Coming into port for the day,
wearing a lokilani lei,
Don't touch that bag till I say,
Mister Purser Man

Annals of interior decorating

This was Dotland before the Black Dot Queen redecorated. The pleasing paint colors, the functional and welcoming front door, the comfortable interior were all left from the Diva's previous redecoration. Of course, the Black Dot Queen wanted to put her own STAMP (spoken firmly with a sharp stomping movement of the right foot) on Dotland.
The Black Dot Queen has a unique decorating style, sometimes described with words such as "broken", "disfunctional" and "catastophic". She calls the style "rightsizing". Dotland after the Black Dot Queen's attentions is shown below. This is a variant of rightsizing normally referred to as "capsizing" or sometimes "dumbsizing". The caution tape adds a nice touch. While the Queen was able to "redecorate" Dotland, she had only limited success in redecorating the Dots. She was able to eliminate Pink and Navy from the color palatte but Silver broke out in Fuschia and the Dots bring in Indigo and Cornflower to round out their original color palatte. Note the lack of an entrance. The Black Dot Queen hoped that eliminating an entrance into Dotland will make it easier for her to close it completely. However, with typical dotgenuity, the Dots and their friends manage to carry on.

Mysterious explosion rocks SNEAC

The normally quiet SNEAC building was jarred today by a series of explosions coming from Dotland. Despite initial reports of casualties and massive damage, Dotland and the rest of the SNEAC building appear to be intact. Survivors were initially dazed and confused. "I just ducked and ran for cover" reported one Dot. Investigators tracing the source of the explosions were able to determine that the new IDEA had exploded all over the Diva. The Dots were initially puzzled by the eruption. However, after discussion, the Dots concluded that the Black Queen has been stuffing the new IDEA with radioactive toxic waste about the Diva, turning the new IDEA into a ticking time bomb. After the Black Queen's preparation, it took only a simple word from the Diva to trigger the detonation. The Dots are trying to determine whether it will be necessary to call the Hazardous Waste Department to decontaminate the area. The Diva was seen leaving the building shortly after the outburst, looking shaken but unhurt. The IDEA was seen at the daily potluck looking somewhat deflated but otherwise normal. Since there is no discernible debris field, the Dots are hoping that tomorrow will bring a return to normalcy for Dotland.

Fate or Doom and do we care?

Silver was back today looking somewhat tired and bedraggled. "Bad night?" asked Purple. "I caught Fuschia trying to turn my cat into a needlepoint wallhanging. Said she was practicing to turn the Black Queen into a footstool.. Or may it was a toadstool..* Anyway I had to throw her out. And she left such a mess, glitter and pink feathers all over everything!"
Later Silver and Sage went to a meeting with the new IDEA, the Lime Green Knight, and some librarians. GoG was also there which precluded festivities like burning GoG in effigy. The purpose was to discuss Destiny, which Fuschia calls Fate, but Silver sometimes thinks should be called Doom. Silver was dubious about whether the Duchy was really prepared to deal with Doom. She was worried about the ability of the Duchy's many older pigeons to carry all the messages Doom would require. The Lime Green Knight assured everyone that the Duchy's pigeons were in fine form, ready to triumph in the Senior Pigeon Olympics, and more than adequate to the task of dealing with Doom. Fuschia, who had crept back and was hiding in a corner, eavesdropping, muttered "I think the Lime Green Knight has been drinking too much Lime Green Limacol**." The meeting concluded with a lively discussion of censorship and sex among vampires, werewolves, and wererats. (Bet you wish you'd signed up for THAT committee now!!)
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* Pink sign seen in the Blue Willow parking lot.
Princess Parking
All others will be Toad.
Silver thinks it's her personal parking spot.
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**Limacol is a lime green refreshing hair tonic, mouthwash, deodorant and beverage once very popular in Jamaica, mon.