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Day11 Thurs, Aug 9 - Waterton, AB to St. Mary, MT
Trip Start Jul 30, 2007
23Trip End Aug 20, 2007
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-Final Morning in Waterton Parks, Canada
-Where the buffalo roam...
-USPS Saves the Day
-We booked into a ..(guilty look)......KOA?!
-Crossing our fingers for the Grinnel Glacier Walk
-Many Glacier Hotel is like something out of the old movies.
-Redrock Falls to Swiftcurrent Trail - lazy afternoon of hiking, lakes, waterfalls and a moose
-Many Glaciers Spotting Team - plenty to see if you just look up
-Ranger talk or Pie? Hmmmm
-A Disappointing Night
Final Morning in Waterton Parks, Canada
Another good night's sleep in our good old dome tent.
Rory finally made his inaugural pot of espresso in the new espresso pot..
We've been lucky enough to find, and lazy enough to use, several good coffee spots so far so the pot bought in Spokane has stayed in the box.
Rory thought this morning a cup at camp would get us moving with no delays.
It was welcomed and delicious.
We figured to get back to the Many Glacier/St. Mary area in time to avoid getting closed out of the popular camp sites at Many Glacier.
We hit the road about 08:00 figuring we'd eat late breakfast or early lunch at the Park Caf� after securing our camp site.
Left over bagels would hold us 'til then.
Our final opinion of the Waterford Park town campsite is 'Only OK'.
It was convenient to activities in the town and the park.
It was fairly quiet.
For the premium price paid, the facilities could be in better shape.
There is plenty to see and do in this park so we will be coming back.
We met a fellow who has a private campground (with WiFi) just outside the park.
We may check that out or the in town hostel on our next visit.
Where the buffalo roam...
While we were in a kinda hurry, we did want to miss the Waterton Bison Paddock on the way out.
This is a drive through fenced area where the small herd of Bison are currently being kept.
We were glad to stay in the car and get a fairly close look at "North America's Largest Land Mammal".
They are dramatically photogenic.
The grey skies were turning blue as we drove the Chief Mountain Scenic Highway back into the US.
No delays at the US port of entry.
USPS Saves the Day
We stopped in Babb at the US Post Office.
This was our first use of PO General Delivery.
Rory needed to be resupplied with a prescription and asked his mom to have it sent to General Delivery seemed to be the only option.
This worked well.
We booked into a ..(guilty look)......KOA?!
Considering our options and realizing we would probably eat every meal at the Park Caf�, we decided to check out the St. Mary KOA.
Hot tubs, laundry, WiFi, hooray!
We paid the premium price and went off to brunch at the Caf�.
This, of course, included pie. :)
After lunch we spent the afternoon in Many Glacier.
Crossing our fingers for the Grinnel Glacier Walk
Rory and Chere were wait listed for the next morning's 08:30 boat ride to the Grinnel Glacier Ranger Walk.
This is a hike to one of the park's largest glaciers on a strenuous all day hike. Climbing 1600ft
Chere didn't feel up to making the entire hike but was considering join the group until the going got rough and then dropping out to sketch and head back down at her own pace.
That is, if the rangers agreed with the plan; so far their attitude is one of "join in and enjoy!" so it should be ok.
Many Glacier Hotel is like something out of the old movies.
Huge tree trunks held up the 3 story open lobby.
Skylights and tall graceful windows everywhere made the room glow with the beautiful blue skies.
Everywhere you looked was a huge mountain that urged you to look for animals climbing its trails.
Not even trying, you were rewarded with sightings again and again.
Luxury and comfort nestled in the wilderness.
It was amazing just to walk through.
Redrock Falls to Swiftcurrent Trail - lazy afternoon of hiking, lakes, waterfalls and a moose
We spent the afternoon walking to Redrock Falls and up the Swiftcurrent trail.
Skies were blue and the several scattered lakes were beautiful.
Other hikers had seen a male, female and two young family combination in the same area but they never materialized for us.
A couple of hikers pointed out their large tracks in a lake bottom, a sign we would have missed.
We saw one large, unconcerned female moose munching in the lake greens.
It was nice to wander on our own schedule so we meandered up the valley until we approached the steep sides of the Swiftwater Pass.
Bear poop on the trail and the start of the incline told us it was time to mosey on back.
We'd gone out thinking to walk four or five miles and ended up doing seven or eight.
Many Glaciers Spotting Team - plenty to see if you just look up
It was early evening and a group was gathered in the trail head/camp store parking lot.
Binoculars and spotting scopes pointing at the surrounding mountains.
This is a daily activity coordinated by the park.
A volunteer was pointing out coyote, sheep and bears right above us.
Ranger talk or Pie? Hmmmm
We decided not to hang around for the 8:00 PM talk on birds of Glacier, as interesting as Rory would have found it.
We had yet to set up our tent and did not want to be too late to get a good meal at the Park Caf�.
There was a 45 minute wait for a table at the caf�, just time enough to buzz over to the KOA and set up the tent before it got dark.
We got back to the caf� in plenty of time for our name to be called.
We had another great meal topped off by sharing a piece of healthful warm pecan pie ala mode.
A Disappointing Night
It was now approaching 9:30 at night.
Back at the KOA we both needed showers and Chere wanted to do some laundry.
Rory found the men's showers unoccupied and managed to get clean with no wait.
Chere was unable to find a free shower for over an hour.
It seemed like there was a late arriving large group that was tag teaming the available showers.
This will piss one off after a while.
All clean and fresh and still slightly damp, Rory went to see how Chere was doing.
As he walked down the camp ground road he heard the KOA utility vehicle, a little ATV sort of thing, roaring up behind him
... surely they will slow down
and a cloud of dust settles on our recently clean and fresh camper.
This will piss you off.
Rory found Chere feeling pretty frustrated.
Not only could she not get a shower but the internet connection did not seem to be working.
KOA management was closing up and claimed to have just 'reset the server'.
Rory's PC managed to receive one e-mail before it hung up.
A few pings to the internet showed that packets were taking one to two seconds to get out and come back instead of the milliseconds that they should have been taking.
Did they say high speed internet or just internet?
Chere never did get her email but eventually got showered.
We went to our late bed feeling disappointed in our campground selection.
Other than that the day had been great.
We looked forward to an early start so we could get onto the Grinnell Glacier Ranger Hike the next morning.
Where I stayed


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This article, entitled Six Things Moms Should Never Feel Guilty About comes from Cathy at bountifulplate.
Don't we as moms, sometimes (okay, a lot of the time), wish there were more than 24 hours in a day to get everything done that we want to???? We are so busy with our kids, our jobs, volunteering – the list goes on and on and on. The very last thing we need to be adding to that list is mom guilt.
Why do moms sometimes feel guilty? Is it because if we don't spend every waking moment with our kids or doing something for our kids it feels wrong??? Motherhood is constant, and at times, challenging. Every child is unique and different and there are many parenting "styles" out there – it's not a one size fits all. Below are six things moms should never feel guilty about:
Give yourself permission to release the mom guilt. You and your family will be much happier!!!
To read more from Cathy, visit bountifulplate.blogspot.com


text: Less than 5 yds per attempt again and a red zone epic fail again. We could ***** about diehl or Bradshaw, but this thread is about Eli. Lately, he has been stinking it up. He gets the most props when we win and deserves the lions share of the blame for these last 4 games of subpar football. From elite qb to 3 and out legend. Eli is my guy and deserves to get ripped a new one right now.


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Leisure. What do you do in your spare time? Should you have any, and if you're like most Portlanders, you're doing something creative and productive — making art, acting in local theater, volunteering for a non-profit organization, maybe just taking your kids to the playground.
Okay. Maybe you're just watching DVDs and smoking dope. But then you talk about things very seriously.
The guys who now find themselves in the Maine Correctional Center over in Windham? Let's just say they've tended in their lives to be less than productive with their downtime. They've spent their time getting hammered, doing drugs, or "getting the idea it would be fun to go knock over a bunch of gravestones somewhere," says Norene Hopkins, community program coordinator at the MCC.
Not all of them, of course. There are hard-luck cases of all kinds among the more than 650 inmates in Windham (generally spending between nine-month and five-year sentences). But, says Hopkins, of the nine characteristics inmates are screened for when they enter, including economic background, education, employment history, and past offenses, nothing correlates quite so well for the Maine Correctional Center prisoner as a failing grade in the leisure category.
"They need ways to occupy their time," says Hopkins.
Hopkins estimates the overall recidivism percentage is somewhere in the mid-30s.
Three years ago, she took over her role from a woman who'd been doing it for 35 years, focusing on furlough programs and prisoner work-release, things Hopkins still oversees. But she also decided to head up a new leisure-focused program.
There is a prison newsletter, where men have learned to use Microsoft Publisher (a little anachronistic, yes, but still better than nothing) and to write stories about prison news and prison sporting events. Hopkins will soon start up a crocheting program (yes, for real), in which men will crochet blankets for the puppies they socialize for the Animal Refuge League.
And then there is Jim Svendsen, whom Hopkins calls "one of the most committed volunteers I've ever seen."
Svendsen runs Guitar Doors, a non-profit group that's going into Maine prisons to teach inmates to play music and, along the way, putting bands together. His 12-Bar Blues Project records these prison bands and helps them create albums, including all the artwork and duplication. November 4, they release at the Empire the first three CDs produced by incarcerated bands.
Yes, they're real full-length albums. Produced by bands with jokey names: Dirty Ink & Mutton Chops, Politically in Corrections, and P6 and the Windham Philharmonic. Politically in Corrections was created up at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. The other two were made in Windham. Early next year Svendsen will start a session at the Long Creek Youth Development Center. He just got back from working in a prison outside of London, England.
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John Hardy:
My green school dream
Join John Hardy on a tour of the Green School, his off-the-grid school in Bali that teaches kids how to build, garden, create (and get into college). The centerpiece of campus is the spiraling Heart of School, perhaps the world's largest freestanding bamboo building.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
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Kiwis would rather curl up with a juicy crime novel than a kinky love story.
Kiwi bookworms prefer homicide to hanky panky, figures from libraries reveal.
The Herald on Sunday surveyed libraries at five North Island centres to lift the lid on our reading habits.
The results - from Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga, Hamilton and Whangarei - show an increasing appetite for fictional crime thrillers over steamy popular novels such as E L James' controversial best-seller, Fifty Shades of Grey.
More than 27 million items were issued at libraries across the five regions last year.
British crime writer Lee Child topped most charts. His gritty novels such as The Affair, Worth Dying For and 61 Hours featured in most of the top 10s. Child is the most requested author across Auckland libraries, which issued more than 17.2 million items at 55 branches and four mobile facilities.
Sweden's Stieg Larsson and American duo Michael Connelly and James Patterson also feature heavily in Auckland's top 10 adult fiction list.
"A notable trend over the past few years is major blockbusters," said Louise LaHatte, manager of Auckland regional resources libraries and information.
"Starting with Harry Potter then Twilight, it continued with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Grey, and now J K Rowling is back with her adult novel, A Casual Vacancy, which has 1061 requests."
She added: "The popularity of blockbusters and books linked to movies are often short-lived though, meaning old favourites by Lee Child still come out on top across the year."
Borrowers in Whangarei appeared more adventurous than Auckland when it came to sneaking a peek at Fifty Shades.
In Whangarei, it topped the charts with 109 issues. The saucy novel also fared well with library-goers in Tauranga (319 requests) and Wellington (285 requests) but it failed to scrape into the top 100 in Auckland.
Homegrown books fared well in the non-fiction charts.
The Free Range Cook by Annabel Langbein and What Was I Thinking by Paul Henry with Herald on Sunday columnist Paul Little were hugely popular, as was The Official New Zealand Road Code and New Zealand New Home Trends.
In children's fiction, Jeff Kinney and the Geronimo Stilton series pretty much ruled the roost.
Kiwi and author Gordon McLauchlan said borrowing habits typically mirrored best-seller lists. However, he was surprised at Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series doing well in Wellington and Auckland but hardly registering elsewhere. "It reflects the huge influence of word of mouth and fashion among kids," he said.
"One author might get more fashionable in one town than another."
McLauchlan believed a love of crime potboilers was no reflection on intellect.
Once bitten ...
Librarian Diane Taggart put the bite on a cheeky borrower who returned steamy novel Fifty Shades of Grey - complete with teeth marks in the cover.
The damaged book was recently handed back to the Tauranga city library, and the unnamed borrower will have to replace it.
"The bite marks caused a lot of hilarity among library staff as it is a pretty infamous and sexually graphic novel," Taggart said.
"There was no explanation given by the person who borrowed it as to how it got into that condition but we hope it was done by a dog or another family pet," she said. "Otherwise, I shudder to think how the teeth marks might have got there."
No Shades here, thanks
Avid reader Philip Barnes admits he is "old school" when choosing books to borrow.
The retired businessman drops into Auckland's Central City Library at least once a week to pick up two or three items and he admits he has read the No1 and No2 books on the most popular non-fiction Top 10.
However, Barnes, 64, is dismayed foreign crime fiction is the most popular reading material among Kiwis. He insists he has never even heard of best-selling thriller writers such as Lee Child and Stieg Larsson ... and Fifty Shades of Grey is a no-no.
"I prefer something informative or inspiring," he adds.


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Stay connected with us to get the latest health and fitness news, innovative workouts, healthy recipes and wellness tips.
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ACE Fit Share
This silky-smooth butternut soup gets a hit of spice from chipotle, cloves and cumin. Adapted from Chef Jesús González, Chef of La Cocina Que Canta at Rancho La Puerta.
Nutrition Profile:
Diabetes Appropriate
Healthy Weight
Heart Healthy
High Fiber
Low Calorie
Low Carb
Low Cholesterol
Low Sat Fat
Serves 10
Prep Time 45 min
Total Time 80 min.
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Step 2
Cut squash in half and seed. Place the halves on a baking sheet, cut-side down. Bake until tender when pierced with a knife, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Scoop out flesh when cool enough to handle.
Step 3
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery, onion and carrot and stir to coat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the squash flesh, cumin, chipotle to taste and cloves. Add broth and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are very tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
Step 4
Puree the soup with an immersion blender or a regular blender (in batches) until smooth. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids.) Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with a drizzle of yogurt and sprinkle of chives (or parsley).
Featured Workouts
Check out our 12-week fitness plan designed to boost your strength, endurance, muscle definition, energy level and overall health.
Flatten your stomach and build strength in the muscles that provide stability and mobility for the spine, pelvis, ribs and hips.
Focus on pulling, rotating and building strength with workouts created alongside Olympic Gold Medalist Dominique Dawes.
This workout provides a challenging total-body workout that can be done from the comfort of home with no equipment other than bodyweight and space.


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I knew that I had Created a monster after C4 but this is almost to much. I thought I was a pain in the rear about detials and craftsmanship. Though she has been putting in alot of time and elbow grease she is very picky
Special thanks to Rotten for his femme chest piece. I modified it from his original design. But it could not have pulled it off without it.
The other pieces were all made by me using the WOF templates. More to come! as she is buying up parts right and left.


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This may be a dumb question but here we go.
Exactly how do I make 1:1 suger syrup? Do u add sugar to 1 part of water till it reaches 2 parts, or add water to 1 part of sugar till it reaches 2 parts ? what I have been doing is filling a jar half way with sugar then fill with water. If I filled it half way with water first then fill to top with suger it wood be stronger sugar syrup.


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Temporary access to Blackboard, e-mail and the intranet has been established while college staff address technical difficulties with the MyPTC portal.
Online course access through Blackboard is available at https://rasmus.pulaskitech.edu/portal/bblogin.php Students should use their same username and password as they do for PTC portal.
Student e-mail access is available at https://rasmus.pulaskitech.edu/samltool/gmaillogin.php
Faculty and staff can access the Intranet at https://intranet.pulaskitech.edu
Pulaski Technical College


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Regulators reject using corroded pipeline
A major oil company's request to continue using a corroded undersea pipeline at an offshore platform in Cook Inlet has been roundly rejected by federal regulators.
As a result, the company, Chevron Corp., said it shut down oil production at its Anna Platform last week. Before the shutdown, the platform on the west side of Cook Inlet had been producing roughly 900 barrels of oil per day.
Before the shutdown, Chevron sought a waiver from federal rules that require pipelines in sensitive locations to be repaired when corrosion has eaten away more than 50 percent of their wall thickness.
In one section of pipe near the seafloor, the line had lost more than 60 percent of its wall thickness. Instead of fixing it, Chevron asked for permission a year ago to keep using the corroded pipeline indefinitely.
Chevron proposed to inspect the pipeline periodically and inspect the area weekly by air to look for an oil sheen.
Federal regulators asked for public comment on the oil company's proposal this year and got just one: from the state's Petroleum Systems Integrity Office.
In the comment letter, state officials raised several concerns about Chevron's proposal. For example, weekly air patrols to look for oil sheen were "both impractical and dangerous," the letter said.
"Aside from the regulatory matters, the political and environmental ramifications of a spill in Cook Inlet are grave and if oil is released the consequences will impact our entire oil and gas industry," the state's letter said.
On April 27, while the nation was roiling from news of a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration rejected Chevron's request for a special permit.
The federal agency didn't order Chevron to shut down the Anna Platform but it said that if Chevron continued to operate the corroded line it would be "potentially subject to enforcement action."
Chevron said it shut down Anna as soon as it received the letter.
The loss of Anna's oil production is another blow for Chevron business in the Inlet, which has been producing less oil since the Redoubt volcano eruption prompted the shutdown last spring of one of its Cook Inlet oil storage terminals.
The corrosion attacked a 134-foot pipeline called a riser.
Chevron filings show the riser was installed in 1967, as Anna, the nearby Bruce Platform and other oil platforms were installed amid Cook Inlet's oil boom.
Offshore oil and gas operators use risers to link a platform to a subsea pipeline. The riser that became corroded carries oil from Anna up through one of Bruce's steel platform legs, where it connects to another pipeline that sends oil from both platforms to production facilities at nearby Granite Point.
Chevron spokeswoman Margaret Cooper said the company's Unocal subsidiary is working with federal regulators on how to repair the corroded pipeline so that oil production at Anna can resume.
Anna produced less than 1 percent of Cook Inlet's oil -- 846 out of 6,771 barrels per day -- in the first three months of this year, state records show.
Last spring, Chevron told federal regulators that it could not meet a 180-day repair requirement for the riser because it was in "an inaccessible location" inside the bottom of a platform leg. In asking for the waiver, the company argued that the fluid pressure in the pipeline was low enough that it wouldn't put sufficient stress on the line to cause a leak.
Dennis Hinnah, the federal pipeline administration's western regional deputy director, said he didn't believe a leak was imminent but he believed the data collected by Chevron showed corrosion in the line was getting worse.
"Part of it is their interpretation versus our interpretation of the data," he said.
He said his agency has not determined if Chevron is liable for penalties.
Federal rules require operators to schedule evaluation and repair of pipelines that have lost more than 50 percent of their wall thickness within 180 days of detection. According to Chevron's filings with the pipeline administration, the company detected the corrosion in October 2008 and requested the waiver in March 2009.
Cooper, the Chevron spokeswoman, said she had no details on how the company plans to fix the corroded line.
No regulators interviewed for this story said they have a handle on exactly how much corrosion exists in Cook Inlet oil and gas infrastructure and how it compares to the corrosion that has been causing leaks in the North Slope pipelines in recent years.
For one thing, a variety of state and federal agencies regulate corrosion in Alaska pipelines and they don't keep corrosion statistics all in one place.
State regulators have no authority over corrosion in equipment on offshore platforms -- even though the Bruce Platform is located in state waters -- but they said this week they are monitoring the situation. They regulate any spills that happen in the Inlet.
"This is an area where the state is learning more and more," said Allison Iverson, who runs the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office.
"I personally couldn't tell you wall-loss statistics for Cook Inlet versus the North Slope," she said.
One thing is clear: There have been fewer major oil spills from Cook Inlet pipelines than there have been on the North Slope in recent years, even though the Cook Inlet lines are older.
Hinnah, of the federal pipeline administration, said corrosion problems like the one inside the Bruce leg are "a rare event" in Cook Inlet.
Lois Epstein, a petroleum engineer who advises environmental groups, compiled a report based on state records in 2002 showing that corrosion was the most commonly listed cause for Cook Inlet onshore and offshore pipeline spills between 1997 and 2001.
"When she did this report, it was unbelievable -- we were having a spill a month," said Bob Shavelson of Cook Inletkeeper, a conservation group.
But in the ensuing years, "we had a dramatic decrease in spills," he said.
Epstein's report says that pipeline regulators wrote a letter of concern to Union Oil in 1998 about corrosion involving a line or lines between the Bruce and Anna platforms in 1998. But the report did note any corrosion-related spills at either platforms.


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Town Square
PAUSD needs grade inflation
Original post made by Mom, Palo Alto High School, on May 3, 2012
Yes, I am asking for more grade inflation! Why can't they distribute higher grades, yet still teach difficult material?
My older son had some teachers in other subjects who made it easy to earn "A"s or "B"s if they worked hard yet did not torture the students. And he learned a lot from those teachers.
With Mr. Toma as head of the math department, however, grade inflation in math will never occur. "They get what they deserve" would be his response.
I'll bet there is grade inflation at Castilleja and Menlo, which the reason parents send their children to those schools. A student told my daughter that Castilleja was easier than Paly. I heard there are counselors at those schools who contact colleges with names of students they recommend.
Comments (52)
a resident of Barron Park
on May 3, 2012 at 9:47 pm
you are asking for grade inflation? shame on you.
a resident of Downtown North
on May 3, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Don't panic Mom. My daughter was in the same boat when at Paly (although she never had tutors)... I worried too. Obviously she did not go to a "top" university. Long story short. 3 years after graduating from college she does better professionally than many classmates/colleagues who went to more prestigious universities than she did. Additionally, she is grateful for the education she received at Paly. It all works out in the end for those who truly deserve it.
And I agree... asking for grade inflation is not a good idea.
a resident of Midtown
on May 3, 2012 at 10:09 pm
My daughter also did not get a good grade in Math while in Paly. That was NOT the teacher's fault. She did better in other subjects and finally went to a good college. She graduated and now she has a very good job in high tech. Her math still is not very good but she is making up for that with her other skills. I would not recommend blaming the teacher for giving bad grade. Instead, I will keep working with the student and encourage her to try harder next time.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on May 3, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Oh, I think there's a lot of trying to weed out perfectly capable students from ever trying to go into high tech. Math hasn't changed in a very long time and yet there's a certain pride in making it as difficult as possible for new members to join the guild.
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on May 4, 2012 at 3:25 am
Handing out low grades on tests is a good tactic for students who have never gotten one before - it gets their attention and adjusts their attitude in a helpful way. It doesn't make sense, though, to turn hard working A and B students into B and C students, unless you are trying to weed them out of the subject. High school seems kind of early for that. I read an article in the NYT about the drop in college engineering majors that pointed this out - the professors thought early weeding out was part of their job, but realized they could teach and grade differently and retain many of the middle students who formerly switched out.
a resident of another community
on May 4, 2012 at 8:02 am
I agree with the original poster. My son went to a top private middle school, worked extremely hard, scored in the top percentile on standardized tests, and never got straight A's--nor did any other kid we knew. Parents in the upper school reported that the teachers were grading too strictly and their kids weren't getting into top-tier colleges. (To be fair, despite those reports, quite a few kids there did get into those colleges, but many who should have didn't.) The parents lobbied (unsuccessfully) for a change in the grading system, particularly since other top private high schools were grading more leniently and had better college admissions results. Although we decided not to continue at this school for other reasons and instead to enroll our son in a top public high school, the grading difference has been dramatic: he still works just as hard but now easily gets straight A's. This has had a very positive effect on how he views himself--his confidence has increased dramatically. In addition, he has a more realistic view of his "competition." Instead of being completely surrounded by privileged high achievers, he sees the whole range--from motivated, hard-working students like himself, who are rewarded with top grades, to complete slackers, who end up with C's and below. He knows that when he goes off to a top college, he'll be around other high-achieving, motivated students and may not always get A's, but that will be fine then. For now, he's enjoying working hard and being appropriately rewarded for it.
a resident of Downtown North
on May 4, 2012 at 11:09 am
Are you kidding? You are actually asking for fake grades?!?
Shame, shame, shame.
If you want a better grade, drop down a lane. Otherwise, take the reality of the situation, & deal with it.
And PLEASE do not pass on that lack of ethics to your children.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 4, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Well, there is inconsistent grading and this injures some in Math, make no mistake.
I disagree that private schools grade "easier" than Paly and other public schools. I have quite a bit of knowledger of both private and public schools and in various regions.
I DO believe Casty may have much smaller courses; this may constitute a learning environment whereby it is easier to earn an A even with the same challenging material.
At Paly, the top Math courses were filled to the brim in our day, which meant no personal help. Add in that many peers were carefully tutored, this meant stress for ours (who did their own work).
a resident of Greenmeadow
on May 4, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Are you kidding me? Entitled, entitled, entitled!! We are ENTITLED to high grades. We are ENTITLED to get into the "best" schools. No wonder these kids have the issues they do in the Palo Alto school system . . . their parents have outrageous entitlement issues that they pass on to their kids.
a resident of Midtown
on May 4, 2012 at 4:33 pm
It's not grade inflation that's needed, it's math teachers that actually teach. Because so many kids are tutored, and a number are just amazingly bright, many of the HS and even middle school math teachers don't teach. They expect the kids to figure it out on their own. This is great for those that can, but the others really suffer. And no one seems to care.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 4, 2012 at 4:55 pm
We don't need grade inflation, but in the Math Department we need teachers who actually teach. Teachers who cover the material that they test on (kind-of a duh, but many Paly math teachers are VERY comfortable testing kids on brand new material). And we need teachers that grade fairly.
As mentioned above, high school is not the time to weed out kids that are not math whizzes. It is time to challenge them and to encourage them to take challenging math and science classes.
a resident of Fairmeadow
on May 4, 2012 at 8:10 pm
I'm not sure what tune I'll be singing when my elementary school child is in High School, but I do remember when I taught Algebra in college. It was hard to build tests that covered the material appropriately, could be completed during a single class session, and adequately separated the students' skill level with the material.
It seems that the concern of the original poster was she thought the gap of her high-lane child was lower than that of lower-lane children, even though she felt that her child was likely at a higher level of math proficiency.
I don't know if colleges do a good job of assigning relative weights to different-laned classes. I can understand that it might be frustrating to come up with a strategy for getting into college when a family values learning but is trying to be practical and makes choices that will maximize their chances of being accepted into a good school.
My strategy was to try to maximize learning, and assume that the rest would work itself out, whatever my grades were. I can understand that other people might make different choices, particularly in an era when it's hard to get into school.
a resident of Leland Manor/Garland Drive
on May 4, 2012 at 8:46 pm
It seems to me that all the classes in this lane had trouble with this unit test. That seems to imply that there is something lacking in the teaching. I'm not for grade inflation. I'd just like my child to be taught and the emphasis be on learning! We are not talking about a couple of kids not doing well, we are talking about only a couple doing well. Clearly, the material being covered is not being mastered, which is what I am concerned about. This discussion should be about educating our children - not about what grade is being given. I do not think there is a lot of teaching going on. PAUSD scores well because of the caliber of the student, not the quality of the teaching! Should I start a thread on the US Govt./Contemp. World classes being taught by a Resource Specialist - this class is an embarrassment, at my kids expense (fyi this course is the advanced course for 10th grade).
a resident of Palo Verde
on May 4, 2012 at 9:18 pm
@Education 1st "at my kids expense (fyi this course is the advanced course for 10th grade)."
There is no advanced course at the 10th grade level at Palo Alto High School for social studies. All sophomores take the same social studies class - US Govt/ContWorld.
Question(s) - Has there been a need for a similar "make up" for any other test in this course? As for learning, it seems to me that the teacher is concerned about learning or why would he or she give a retest, instead of just moving forward with the curriculum. Obviously the teacher wants to make sure the students are learning the material. Might it just be that this was a difficult topic? Might it be that the little bit of good weather we recently had (coupled with the Prom) caused a number of students to be less focused than usual?
a resident of Leland Manor/Garland Drive
on May 4, 2012 at 9:32 pm
@Palo Verde you NOT entirely correct - there is a distinction between the Social Studies /Hist courses offered in 10th grade (not being taught by a "teacher" look up "Resource Specialist" is that a teacher? . Your points I really don't see?? The make up is not a make up and does not ensure that the kids have been TAUGHT the material. The teacher DID move on with the curriculum - you clearly are not invested - there was no review or re-teaching of the materials. It was just a chance given for a majority of the kids to slightly improve - this happens every year - it is not education!
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 5, 2012 at 7:06 am
This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read. As someone who was in the AB lane myself, I recognize that there are some courses, for example AB Calc, that could use better teachers. Often, many students are forced to teach themselves math from the textbook instead. But to ask for grade inflation across the board? Who do you think you are?
People tend to have a misconception at Paly that it's the most challenging education they could be receiving, and that once they get to college everything will be easier. I loved Paly, and I would never say it didn't prepare me for college. But to pretend that Paly is the hardest education anyone will ever receive is just not the case. If your daughter can't keep up in math now, there's honestly a high chance that she won't do much better in college.
Furthermore, the fact that you feel the need to hire a tutor and then ask for grade inflation seems counterintuitive. One of the biggest problems with Paly's math department is the fact that almost every student in the higher lanes has a tutor, so people tend to act as if that is a normal thing. I completely understand the need for tutors if one is struggling, but your daughter is in the AB lane, so she clearly does not have too many difficulties with math.
The AB lane at Paly is difficult at times. But don't pretend like there are only two people in every class who get As. There are always tests that people do badly on, that holds true for every school besides Paly as well. The reality is that a good portion of the class that works hard to understand the material succeeds, whether or not they have a tutor. Many Palo Alto families seem to see the need to use tutors in the higher lanes so that their children don't have to put in the time and do the work themselves.
I don't doubt that your daughter is a very smart and capable student. But you seem delusional in your quest for her perfect GPA. Sure, AB is hard. Sure, it's advanced. But come on. Look at all the people in BC and Stanford math. It's not as if your daughter has reached the peak of difficulty in her math career and should be acing everything.
And as for your comment about Castilleja, don't be naive. Of course private schools across the nation have contacts at certain universities. What you need to realize is that the college application is not fair, it never has been, and it probably never will be. The important thing to remember is that as long as people try to put in the work themselves and do their best to succeed, they will almost always end up at a college they can be happy at. So try not to focus on ranking and entitlement for a second and just focus on ensuring that your daughter is actually learning.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on May 5, 2012 at 8:46 am
If the curve in this math class is truly 3 As and "plenty of Ds and Fs", then the problem is with that teacher and that class. Meet with the head of the math department and complain.
The real problem for your daughter is that the grades in a few classes are distributed unevenly, but for the school as whole, there is massive grade inflation already.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 5, 2012 at 8:51 am
Education 1st - there is only one lane of history in 10th grade.
a resident of Midtown
on May 5, 2012 at 10:08 am
As a student of that class, one who took the test, I put forth that the teacher involved are doing a fine job teaching the material. The test was fairly written, with nothing we were unfamiliar with. Grade inflation is not the problem, end-based education is. Teachers will be offering two extra-credit assignments, as well as the final to replace the lowest grade. If a child works hard to learn and understand the material, they will earn points towards a grade that reflects it.
a resident of another community
on May 5, 2012 at 10:49 am
I understand that grade inflation is a big problem, but I don't think that it is fair to compare Castilleja and Paly. They are extremely different schools, but neither is better than the other. I go to Castilleja, because I prefer smaller classes. I have a learning disability and because of Castilleja they have helped me to be successful. At a large class at Paly, it would have been very hard for me. Castilleja Students may get into to good colleges, but so do Paly Students. The difference is that Castilleja is a smaller school only containing students with very high aspirations. I'm sure everyone in your high lane class has high hopes for college, but Paly is so big that not everyone has the same dreams. To address the issue of grade inflation, I'd like to say that I know very few students who have all A's, and I am in all the highest lanes as well. I have plenty of friends whose report cards have never had an A on it. We have an English Class where the teacher told us that a B meant you did a very good job. Castilleja has the same issues and grade inflation isn't something limited to Paly. All the colleges have the same issues. The ivy leagues have some of the worst grade inflation ever. I understand you are worried about your child and probably did not mean to be rude, but I personally found your comment very offensive. I work really hard at Castilleja, just as I am sure your child does. Please be careful about making judgements about other schools.
a resident of Midtown
on May 5, 2012 at 11:08 am
I am also a Castilleja student and have been going to the school for six years. I can tell you that I even the best of students at our school don't have all A's. One of the reasons this girl might have told your child Castilleja was "easier" is because Castilleja prepares us with study skills, peer tutors and other accessible resources for academic help. It's also very possible that this student said Castilleja is "easier" without thinking. Kids tend to do stuff like that, as I'm sure you know seeing as you are a parent yourself.
It is very hard to get good grades at Castilleja. I can assure you that people study at all times of the day (lunch, break, before school, in the car etc.) and still do not get A's. In my math class, we often have quizzes that the entire class gets below a C on and we do not get a retake. This low grade is just part of our calculated semester grade.
Clearly Paly and Castilleja are different schools. The lowest junior math lane at Castilleja is the highest junior math lane at Paly. It's just different. Colleges understand that Castilleja has a certain rigor that other schools do not and this is why a Castilleja student with a 3.0 can get into a school that a student from school X with a 3.8 cannot get into, although this is certainly not always the case.
One of the benefits of going to Castilleja is there are two college counselors to cover 60 girls. That means that the counselor is going to know the student well. We meet with our college counselors multiple times each month to ensure that we are on the same page regarding the college process. This is one of the perks of going to a school with 60 students per grade. So yes, a college counselor can probably put a good word in for a student but that doesn't mean this cannot happen at Paly either. That said, college admissions officers do not accept students just based on what the student's college counselor has said.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 5, 2012 at 5:16 pm
@Mom of Old Palo Alto: There is NOT massive grade inflation at Paly. My child works hard and has no extracurriulars. To keep an A grade, he has to keep 90s/100s. One hiccup, and he is in B territory.
The head of the math department prides himself on the rigorous program and parents have complained but get nowhere with him. I agree that Ds and Fs should be reserved for students who don't study. My son has earned As but it has not been easy. He has a math tutor because there is almost no other way to gain an A in math at Paly.
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on May 5, 2012 at 5:36 pm
@Cindy - while I don't know anything about what goes on in your daughter's math class or how the grades should be set, I do have thoughts about the college admissions process. While good grades are important, perfect grades are not a pre-requisite for getting into to even the best schools. My senior had B's in AP Chem and AP Physics (along with A's in many other things of course), but had college admission results that anyone would be satisfied with - even you ;-).
So try not to stress too much over the occasional B - the colleges know how to read a transcript and they have seen plenty from Paly over the years, so they know how to size it up.
a resident of Crescent Park
on May 5, 2012 at 10:28 pm
As someone who went to both Castilleja and Paly, I can tell you that both schools are roughly equivalent when it comes to academics. I have also had Mr. Toma as a teacher for two years of Paly math and, in my experience, he is PERFECTLY reasonable when it comes to curving tests on which students performed poorly. Your daughter will not suffer academically too much for this test if she works hard and does well on the final. Relax.
I usually refrain from making personal comments on here, but I, too, find your comment about Castilleja and grade inflation inappropriate. Grade inflation is certainly not the reason that my parents sent me to Castilleja, and I certainly didn't benefit from it while I was there. By making such an assertion you are disrespecting the students at private schools as well as students at Paly. I graduated from Paly recently and now attend a top-tier Ivy League school. I was admitted with no outside recommendations, no legacy, and no athletic recruitment, and a 3.93 GPA. I can assure you that there are Paly students who get to great colleges without gaming the system and without being perfect. Please give them the benefit of the doubt.
a resident of Crescent Park
on May 5, 2012 at 10:38 pm
Another thought - despite what a lot of people think, the calc teachers actually do know their stuff and are happy to talk with students outside of class if they are struggling (I went to mine many times throughout my Paly career). Have your daughter ask her math teacher to walk her through the test and talk to her about what she missed. I guarantee that that strategy will be much more effective than ranting about grade inflation on here.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 6, 2012 at 1:19 am
To mom original poster: I think by asking for "grade inflation" you invite misunderstanding of the core problem here. What is happening is that our students are getting too low of grades. Critics think you are suffering from "entitlement" but that is not the case. The problem is that many hard working students do not get a comparable grade that would be attainablre in surrounding high schools that offer equally rigorous math courses. It is like taking the freshman class of Stanford and deciding only a few could make As or Bs and the majority receive a lower grade no matter what.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on May 6, 2012 at 5:46 am
It is no wonder that Paly students are stressed...why is there a giant wall of college rejection letters posted on the main quad? If students have to see that every day as they walk to class or into the library, how does that make them feel?
a resident of Meadow Park
on May 6, 2012 at 9:28 am
@Mom - that rejection wall is put up by the students and for the students as an outlet, enabling them to show each other that they weren't alone in being rejected. They have the same at Gunn (as we did in college for job recruiting rejections). Most kids enjoy it - for my senior, the second priority after cheering her successes on Apr 30 was printing out her rejection letters to take to school the next day for posting. It seems healthy to me.
a resident of Palo Verde
on May 6, 2012 at 11:10 am
There seems to be some deviation from the original post - complaining about the grades on ONE test to a leap that there are low OVERALL grades in the class. I would be willing to bet that a low grade on one test does not translate to low grade in the class. What is the distribution of overall grades in the class? If more than 50% of the people have below a B in a higher level lane class then I think you can talk about a too rigorous a grading policy. Also, I wouldn't trust your students to "know" the grades of the other students. If you really want to find out the distribution of overall grades in the class, then you should ask the teacher directly. I also think that the original posted should have first checked with the teacher to get a little more information.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on May 6, 2012 at 2:19 pm
I don't understand celebrating college rejection letters. Most students applying to selective colleges will get some rejection letters.
What are we telling our children when we make a bigger deal out of the rejections than the acceptances?
a resident of Meadow Park
on May 6, 2012 at 2:44 pm
@Mom - I don't think the kids make a bigger deal out of rejections than acceptances. Gunn and Paly both had "wear your college swag to school day" on May 2 - there is plenty of celebration of acceptances. The rejection wall is just a way of showing that rejection is a normal part of the process, as you pointed out, and not something to be ashamed or embarrassed about.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 6, 2012 at 7:14 pm
FYI- a good reminder film in case you haven't seen in Palo Alto yet:
Web Link
The director will be on hand at the May 7th screening over at St. Marys-
Web Link
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 6, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Thank you @ Trentz. This should be mandatory viewing for all PA parents.
a resident of Community Center
on May 7, 2012 at 7:38 am
I am appalled by the "deal with it" attitude in some of these comments. Thank you to the mom for this post!! Isn't the grade an Indicator of what was learned. We send our kids to school to learn and if the majority of a higher level class are getting d's or f's, YES you blame the teacher!!!! It has nothing to do with grade inflation, more to do with TEACHING!!!!!! if the material was taught then the scores would reflect learning.
Come on... STOP protecting the school system and teachers when something is wrong. Deal with the teachers and stop placing blame on the students and families,,, Notice that this student and many supplement with tutors.
a resident of Community Center
on May 7, 2012 at 7:49 am
Dear "Relax". Thank you for your post ... It is wonderfully written and reflects the maturity of our students. The respect and honest feedback from someone at two schools both private and public is important to those outside the situation.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 7, 2012 at 5:48 pm
The test wasn't that hard. It's just a lot of people made mistakes and the test had a lot of room for errors. Students had plenty of opportunities to get help (if needed) and to study hard for this test. This test also taught many students to not take tests lightly, to work harder, and to double check their work.
Although high grades would be nice, that is the price of attending PALY. PALY's standards are higher and that shows when colleges are looking at its students. Students and parents have to accept the realities of a high standard public high school.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 7, 2012 at 10:49 pm
The people posting as Student and a_student are clearly adults! Get real, students don't speak in such a manner.
My child re-took the test and both days available, the classrooms were packed. We don't need grade inflation, which implies students are working less for high grades. We need teachers who adjust the tests to their teaching. A parent spoke with one of the teachers and the teacher said there were only three As in her class, when usually there are 6 As.
Those who have children in the higher math lanes understand this thread, while the others who think parents are whining for "free As" have no basis for calling parents entitled. "Just go down to the regular lane" statements are those of uninformed people without experience in the high lanes of math. "It's only one grade, they can make it up" are also uniformed posts because they had a couple of other tests where students performed poorly also.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 7, 2012 at 11:46 pm
First off, I will admit: I was not eligible for the redemption test, so I did not score so terribly myself. Perhaps this biases my judgement of the matter, perhaps not.
I'm going to assume you are discussing the Trigonometry test. It was, by all accounts, the worst test of this year for this lane. That doesn't call for grade inflation. And you don't even need grade inflation, because at the end of the school year the lowest test grade (whether it be a 84 or a 54) can be replaced with the grade of the final. If a grade on the final is lower than any other test score, they won't replace. This can only help, and exists so that the super "hard" tests of the year don't completely destroy grades.
Also to note: This particular test was out of significantly fewer points than the traditional test. Normally, tests are out of 72-ish points while this was scored out of 60. Scores are entered into the gradebook as percentages out of 100 to weigh all tests equally, and for this particular test this means that just by missing a few problems your grade could slip to a B.
Also, to those saying "blame the teachers," although I do sometimes agree with this sentiment in this case it is just flat out wrong. I am in this lane, without a tutor or any outside help, and did well enough on the test. True, my score was worse than my average test score, but I still pulled a B. I also didn't spend outrageous amounts of time studying.
And about grade inflation: It's nice to have good grades, but be realistic. In college if everyone does well they will curve the test downward. Can you imagine the uproar if, here in PA, any department curved a test downward because everyone did well? In college, a 1-2% score difference can be curved to a 10% one. Here, they just give free points away instead of making a bell curve. It's already different enough from the college process -- why differ more?
Also to note is that though there were significantly fewer A's, there were plenty of B's and C's, both of which are fair grades.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on May 8, 2012 at 6:42 am
To C: you state that you are in this class without a tutor or outside help. Do you think that is typical, or do you think most students in the class have some form of outside help to learn the material?
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 8, 2012 at 7:20 am
I don't really know the ratio of students without to students with. I know that the Juniors (from a lower lane, but who's junior class is the same as our sophomore one) don't have tutors or any outside help. But the sophomores? I can think of two or three people with outside help quite easily, but I can think of more who do fine without it. Outside help isn't needed as much because the teachers (in this lane, at least) put notes online and actually do problems. There are people with tutors, however, not as many in the high lane.
But in all fairness: the reason people have tutors is also because of class size.... If a class size is 32 in the highest lane and there is no one on one time while in a lane one or two lower there are 25 students or fewer, it's not all that surprising that the higher-lane student gets a tutor to make up for the disparity in one-on-one time.
Oh, and I know at least two people who got A's on the test. Neither have outside help. And B's? Well, that would be myself and quite a few other people who don't get outside help.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on May 8, 2012 at 10:40 am
C's posts are the most helpful and so well-written. I see success in his future.
a resident of Crescent Park
on May 8, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Our Paly senior is in the AB lane, now taking Calc AB (AP). No tutors, no outside help. Doing just fine. If anything, the kids use Facebook and texting to help each other. And now and then they do it the old fashion way, study together at each other's houses.
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on May 8, 2012 at 7:00 pm
My senior in the Gunn BC lane has not had tutors and gets good grades in math. She believes that while some do have outside help, most did not. Like CP Dad says, she studies with her friend.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 9, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Plain and simple... this parent is 100% correct. Everyone who disagrees is ignoring a HUGE issue that is currently taking place at Paly. As an alumnus, I couldn't stand Paly math (I actually earned my math credits at a community college instead-- which I highly recommend) and landed at a very prestigious university.
Here's why:
They are taking the positive reinforcement out of education. I remember studying hours and hours for a Geometry test my freshman year. I knew the material backwards and forwards and was confident that I'd get an A. I remember walking into that classroom assured I'd do well, then seeing the test and not knowing how to solve many of the problems. I felt hopeless. Not only did this destroy my day, but it also made me stop trying. Why was I going to put in 3-4 hours of my precious time just to earn a D on the test because the teachers was incapable of producing a reasonable test. I wasn't the only one struggling either... like the parent stated, 3-4 kids earned A's and the rest D's and F's. I think cheating was certainly a possibility. By making the tests extensibly difficult, one had to cheat in order to receive a good grade. The teachers couldn't care less about the kids doing well. The only one who did was Mrs. Bowers (best teacher at Paly as far as I'm concerned.)
The bottom line:
Change NEEDS to be implemented. Paly Math needs to be restructured from the top. Toma needs to be replaced by someone who genuinely cares about educating kids.
a resident of Gunn High School
on May 10, 2012 at 12:29 am
I actually think there is a valid argument to be made for grade inflation. The fact is that both Gunn and Paly courses are significantly more difficult than they need to be.
I spoke to two Gunn alumni who recently graduated from UC Berkeley, which is notorious for having grade deflation and a workload that is even tougher than Harvard and Stanford (this comes from my brother, a Stanford grad). They told me that taking a workload consistent with being at the top 10% at Gunn is MORE difficult than intro courses at Berkeley (freshman-sophomore years).
You might say to yourself that this means Gunn and Paly are excellent preparation for college. I would say that this means classes are really overkill, and that more grade inflation (i.e. slightly easier tests, etc), could be implemented with no loss of college preparation at Gunn/Paly. Gunn and Paly high-lane classes should be slightly easier, or, if you want to be masochistic, "on par" with college courses at Berkeley, NOT *more* difficult.
a resident of Gunn High School
on May 10, 2012 at 12:31 am
I would like to add that the Berkeley grads I spoke to were pre-med and are in the process of applying to medical school. So they definitely took tough science classes at Berkeley.
a resident of Mountain View
on May 14, 2012 at 12:24 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with those who complained that a lot of teachers don't teach well (or don't teach at all). A Los Altos/Mountain View middle school math teach is notorious for not teaching. Most of the class time is spent on chatting about non-academic stuff, and a day or two before the STAR test, would hastily "teach" some topics and tell students to memorize formulas. A lot of students in the most advanced class do well because parents put in a ton of time teaching at home or send their kids to tutors or math schools. And some truly math-inclined ones can figure things out on their own. The teacher is well aware of all this and feels even more comfortable with not having to teach. (Ironically this teacher often complains to the class that elementary schools don't prepare kids well for middle school!)
a resident of Barron Park
on May 24, 2012 at 9:09 am
For everyone who agrees with the original poster, could you please consider moving your kids to a private school? Maybe you could pay someone for higher grades for your children. But please don't sacrifice quality education for grades in our public schools. You have obviously never been a teacher yourself or you wouldn't write such a thing.
a resident of Midtown
on May 24, 2012 at 2:20 pm
The person who posted about Berkeley being harder on grades than Stanford is, from what I know, correct. I graduated from a UC school where one of my professors also taught the same class at Stanford. He told us that people in our UC class getting a B would have received an A at Stanford, C at UC = B at Stanford. He told us that such grade inflation at Stanford was the norm. While Palo Alto schools may be tougher than most other schools, we cannot expect all the students to receive A's. That said, grading on a curve may not be appropriate if almost all the kids are putting in more work and at a higher level than their counterparts elsewhere. The grade should reflect the level of the work done/knowledge/understanding.
a resident of Gunn High School
on May 31, 2012 at 10:57 pm
To Bye,
Grade inflation is entirely consistent with a quality education.
Here's how: teachers teach exactly the same material as they did before, give the same difficulty of tests, etc...
The only change is that they shift how tests are curved (lower the cutoff for an A, for example). This would be easy to implement in math/science classes, which have tests that are usually scaled (curved).
I also spoke to an MIT student who I got to know at Gunn two years ago. He told me that it was actually quite disappointing that, despite MIT's reputation for being "hardcore," he found that the caliber of many MIT students was not on-par with many Gunn students he knew had gotten rejected.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on May 31, 2012 at 11:27 pm
The question of grade distribution is this: are they relative or are they absolute? In an relative grading system, the goal is of a test is to compare the students amongst themselves.
In a relative system, if you have a class of 22 geniuses, you have to pick the smartest genius and give him/her an A, then you have to pick the worst genius and give him/her an F. A thoughtful teacher can easily tune a test to produce this result.
In an absolute system, if you have a class of 22 geniuses, all of them will get As on tests. A thoughtful teacher can design this too.
Is the goal of Paly Math tests to identify, the smartest of the smart? Or is the goal to train them well and send each off to the best colleges possible?
In other words, I don't think the original poster should be asking for grade inflation, I think the orignal poster should be asking for the math department to be explicitly focused on absolute grading. If you have a class of bright kids, it would be morale-killing to design tests to seek out the "weakest" of the bunch, not to mention unnecessarily punishing them on their college prospects.
a resident of Barron Park
on May 31, 2012 at 11:42 pm
Gunn Grad: MIT has Affirmative Action admission Policies.
UC grad: But you can't argue that Stanford receives more donation $$$ than UC .. and you know why.
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Scott Cohen is one of the driving forces behind the Double Club. In an exclusive interview he discusses:
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Research training program helps undergrads excel
By Christi Fish
Public Affairs Specialist
(April 28, 2009)--Every year, the UTSACenter for Research and Training in the Sciences offers minority UTSA juniors and seniors the opportunity to conduct biomedical and related research through the MARC-U*STAR (Minority Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training for Academic Research) program. Those selected to participate in the 2009 MARC-U*STAR program will begin their research June 1. The application deadline is May 11.
Today's headlines
- La Prensa Foundation is newest member of UTSA Lone Star Society
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Funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the program helps outstanding UTSA juniors and seniors majoring in biology, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, computer science and engineering to fine-tune their research skills to prepare for success in doctoral programs of study.
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For eligibility criteria and more information, visit the MARC U*STAR Web site or contact Gail Taylor at (210) 458-5761.


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His post on his website sounds like it was written by his agent, to get some interest in him. In any event, he deserves a chance in camp
I actually am excited for the guy. Hixon recovered twice and played injury free at a high level. So I have confidence in T2. He quietly makes the roster for a decent price and we are in ok shape here I believe.
Realistically, we'll probably be seeing his retirement annoucement at some point. OTAs are right around the corner and he'll certainly miss those. Training camp isn't that far away either really, and if he's just now working the knee out at "zero gravity, no impact" in the pool, I'd say it's very unlikely he'll be ready for training camp. They'll PUP him for a while. Sometime around the start of the regular season they'll do an evaluation, and see where he is. I'd be surprised if he passes his physical at that point. I'd love to see him back healthy for the next 5 or 6 years; but I'm not holding my breath. He's going to have to be extremely lucky to make a recovery that will enable him to play. He's a good player with a really bad knee, and the doctors probably won't be able to change that.


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You know it's important when the New York Times runs a story that's a couple of thousand words long. When it's a story about gardening, though, you start to wonder whether the editor may have lost her marbles - or found them.
Just before Christmas, a story appeared about Jason Helvenston from Orlando, a self-employed sustainability consultant for the building trade, who planted an organic vegetable garden where his front lawn had been. It went unnoticed for several months, but then the man who owned the rental property next door complained to the city authorities, who cited the Helvenstons for "failure to maintain ground cover on a property" and gave them a deadline to sort it.
Obviously the Orlando authorities have never seen my cucumber patch, which covers not only quite a lot of my ground, but is on its way to the neighbours' at the speed of Michael Schumacher. And, I have to say, it's a damned sight prettier that the lawn is at the moment. The cucumber has big, lush green leaves and gorgeous yellow flowers, while the lawn is sad, dry, patchy and half dead. No contest then.
Helvenston planted his food garden at the front of his house because it was sunnier than the back, and he's not the only American who's had a run-in with authorities for making that decision.
In the past couple of years several have run afoul of local officials for growing vegetables out front. The New York Times' list includes:
In Ferguson, Missouri, a stay-at-home father was ordered to dig up his 55 varieties of edible plants.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, city authorities cleared a gardener's herbs and vegetables.
In Oak Park, Michigan, a mother of six faced up to 93 days in jail for refusing to take out the raised beds in front of her home. That one even made it to New Zealand television.
Gardeners aren't usually given to civil disobedience, but in the US many are calling it a war. "This isn't about a single garden; this is about the right to garden," one said.
The issue has seen the sprouting of an environmental group, Food Not Lawns, which advocates abolishing lawns in favour of edible gardens.
And here in New Zealand we have our own champion of the edible front garden, John Stanisfield, who has taken the concept not just a step further, but several steps right out on to the street, where he's growing vegetables on the grass verge outside his property. He's encouraging other people to do the same, saying it'll help feed the neighbourhood and solve Auckland Council's problem of not being able to afford to mow the berms.
Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan says they don't encourage people to use the berm for growing things, which would certainly be the most peculiar comment I've heard this year. I mean, why on earth would you not?
If they really wanted to maintain an illusion of control, councils could supply a variety of designs for such verges, each with different vegetables, and encourage groups of home owners to each choose a different plan with different foods, and then exchange the produce.
I can only think it would hugely enhance the appearance of many, if not most, of the country's streets, foster a sense of community and neighbourliness, and, of course, give people good, fresh, healthy, inexpensive produce to eat.
Imagine, for example, a patchy, weedy, dry grass verge transformed with one or two dwarf fruit trees surrounded by herbal ley, some raised beds or bins full of tomatoes, lettuces, beans and strawberries, and, of course, cucumbers. Or on second thoughts, perhaps just one cucumber to every four verges.


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We Are A People Joyfully Fulfilling
Our God-Ordained Purpose
Bishop Shelton Bady - Senior PastorWelcome to Harvest Time Church (HTC), "where the temperature is always hot"! A familiar rallying call recited by HTC members, captures the trademark of our church-service experience. From the intense presence of the Lord in an atmosphere where miracles manifest, our lives are changed for God's glory. We invite you join us any Sunday at 8:30 AM and/or 11:00 AM for morning worship. Mid-week service opportunities include Tuesday 12 Noon as well as Wednesday 7:00 PM. Anytime is an excellent time to come join the Harvest!
Worship Times
8:30 a.m. - Worship Service (Spanish Translation Available)
11:00 a.m. - Worship Service (Spanish Translation Available)
11:00 a.m. - SuperChurch (Pre-k4 - Sixth)
12:00 p.m. - Noonday Worship Service
7:00 p.m. - Bible Study (Held in the Chapel)
7:00 p.m. - SuperChurch (Pre-k4 - Sixth)
7:00 p.m. - Youth Worship Service (Held in the Fireplace)
* KidZone (Infants - Preschool) is available during all services


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How to find us:
The clinic is located at:
351 Clovelly Rd
Clovelly, New South Wales
(Near the corner of Beach St & Clovelly Rd)
Plenty of unmetered parking available on Beach St.Public Transport
Bus numbers 339 and 360 stop directly out the front.
Appointments are available during the following hours:Clovelly Clinic
Monday to Saturday: By Appointment
No referrals required for any of the professional services at Bulb. You may however have been referred by your general practitioner, obstetrician, podiatrist, midwife or your child's paediatrician if you see any of the practitioners we often work with.
For Osteopaths:
Osteopaths are primary health care practitioners, therefore no referral is necessary unless you have a chronic condition that your medical practitioner deems eligible for the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program.
If you believe you may be eligible for EPC, please speak to your medical practitioner as a referral is required for this program.
Pre and postnatal yoga
Professional associations:
Other recommendations:


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Current exhibition
Public Sins/Private Desires, celebrates the 20th anniversary of Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman's 1992 documentary, Forbidden Love: Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Livesand examines the contradictions, tensions and victories in the daily lives of lesbians during the period from 1950 to 1980. The culmination of several activities seeking the participation of older lesbians in Toronto, the exhibition includes the presentation of the film Forbidden Love and display of related artifacts. Lesbian pulp fiction of the period is used to provoke conversation about the apparently simple dichotomies of femme/butch identities. The installation seeks to document and trouble the records of public and private lives of lesbians in the 1950s, 60s and 70s – and their forbidden loves. Thematic enquiries about love – play – work surface in interviews and prompt questions about degrees of visibility in daily lives. Often the last place to be 'out', the work environment rarely supported anything other than a strict heterosexuality. In querying the complexity of lived experience that could shift from hidden to out within minutes, the exhibition seeks to draw attention to the women's voices that linger in the archives. Audio recordings allow the anonymous and unknown to acquire a certain presence – stories of trauma, relief and laughter inhabit the exhibition, bringing life to the bits and pieces of ephemera that serve to document these lives.
Curated by Karen Stanworth, with the assistance of curatorial intern, Talia Linz, the exhibition is produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and supporting partner, Special Collections, York University. Karen also receive a Minor Research grant from the Faculty of Fine Arts, York University.
See also: The lesbian pulp fiction virtual exhibition drawn from the Dworin Collection at Special Collections, York University.https://webmail.edu.yorku.ca/owa/redir.aspx?C=0ad72cb12e2c4144abf8861e4cec13f1&URL=http%3a%2f%2farchives.library.yorku.ca%2fexhibits%2fshow%2fspeccoll_rdc
Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman are interdisciplinary artists and award-winning filmmakers, who co-directed the Genie and internationally award-winning documentaries Forbidden Love: Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1992) and Fiction and Other Truths: a Film about Jane Rule (1995).
Karen Stanworth, the curator, is an historian of visual culture at York University and has published on visual culture and feminist cultural history.
Talia Linz, co-curator,and curatorial intern has just completed a collaborative Masters in Curating and Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto.
The exhibition is produced with the support of the Toronto Arts Council, and with supporting partners, Special Collections, York University.
Three takes on living as couples, here, there, and there.
Artist/curators: Steven Beckly & Dylan MacNeil (Toronto), Zachary Ayotte & Ted Kerr (Brooklyn, NY), Colin Quinn & Oisín Share (Manchester, UK)
The National Portrait Collection (NPC) is a central part of our archival holdings at the Canadian Lesbian + Gay Archives (CLGA). We commission portraits to honour individuals who have made significant contributions to the growth of diverse, out and proud lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities in Canada.
The collection was established in 1998 with 25 original portraits, and coincided with our 25th anniversary. Since then, the collection has grown to 70 portraits of various mediums that include photography, oil and watercolour. The collection is regularly exhibited in our home in Toronto as well as at other venues across Canada, in celebration of all LGBT communities. We are committed to continuous expansion of the collection, thereby actively engaging in the creation of our own historical record.
For more about the history of the NPC see The CLGA National Portrait Collection: A History.
The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives Gallery is proud to present Sexy SmART: Women of Beauty and Substance, an exhibition of the photography series behind the Heterosexuals for Same Sex Equality's (HSSE) 2011 Calendar.
Sexy Smart 2011 is an empowering fundraising calendar that promotes the strength and beauty of Toronto women. Sixty-four models from different walks of life have been captured by local photographers demonstrating their support for same-sex rights and reminding us that beauty can be found everywhere.
HSSE strives to promote understanding by correcting the misinformation and cultural myths that have hampered the struggle for same-sex civil rights. The organization enables all people to develop and demonstrate their support for same-sex equality through a variety of means. For more information about HSSE or to purchase a calendar, visit www.straightnotnarrow.ca. Calendars will also be available for purchase at the Archives Gallery during the Opening Reception.
Sexy SmART will run from December 9th, 2010 to January 7th, 2011. Opening Reception December 9th, 7:30pm- 10pm, 34 Isabella Street, Toronto.
The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives Gallery is proud to present Sexy SmART: Women of Beauty and Substance, an exhibition of the photography series behind the Heterosexuals for Same Sex Equality's (HSSE) 2011 Calendar.
The night has always been a time for those outside the mainstream to communicate themselves more freely. After all, it was by the cover of night that provided many queers the opportunity to mingle, explore their sexuality and reveal their truest selves. For Nuit Blanche, the Archives has dug into its vintage collection of moving pictures to create an exhibition that examines what happens behind closed doors through a historical context. As you engage with the work you becomes the voyeur into the CLGA's house, taking pleasure in the desires and fantasies of others. Consider the range of representations and effects of erotic imagery, its power as a representational form and how it has influenced our sexual desires, identities and behaviours.
Come to "Vintage Bleu for Nuit Blanche" Saturday, October 2 from 7:00pm to midnight. Come see an outdoor projection at the Archives in celebration of Nuit Blanche! We'll be sharing works from our extensive moving image collection transforming our beautiful home.
This exhibition opens Wednesday, June 30 and runs until September 1st on the 3rd floor, community space of 34 Isabella Street.
This will be the first archival exhibition to be installed in the CLGA's new home, and it focuses on the moments of tension between what has been defined as obscene and the right to offend or the right to free speech. Inspired by recent controversy, this show is meant to provide the context for the larger debate about censorship and free speech in the queer community.
The show features a film installation by filmmaker William Craddock.
A few pictures from the show, the contents are materials that have been censored or relating to the efforts of the LGBTQ communities to reverse censorship
A Solo Exhibition by JJ Levine
Switch is a series of large-scale photo diptychs that present pairs of seemingly different "heterosexual couples" in a portrait studio setting. Upon close inspection, the viewer will recognize that these couples are comprised not of four models, but of two, each portraying a man in one image and a woman in the next. This clever parody of prom-style photographs is intended to challenge the foundations of gender through masquerade and drag. The identified gender of each model is never disclosed.
Opening Reception for Switch
Thank you to all those who attended the Opening Reception for Switch last Thurday.
We had an overwhelming turn out for the launch of our first exhibition to come out of the Call for Exhibitions which is a very good start to our year of exhibitions!
Pushing Buttons reimagines the space of The Pin Button Project, (
Artist/curator, Wil Craddock, presents an archive of virtual chat about pin buttons
'Libraries' is built from three installation artworks: 'Library of Depth and Gender', 'Library of a Traveling Dandy', and 'Delineate'. Each of these works is concerned with classification and normalization of the body, and of beauty in unexpected places. The work functions as an axis where knowledge, nature, and gender intersect to investigate how we classify and order the world around us, what the process of selection reveals, and questions who makes those decisions.
In 'Library of Depth and Gender', McPhee creates a library containing natural history books, Foucault and queer theory, as well as monster movies, Darwin-jellyfish footstools and miscellany of her drag persona Cosimo. 'Library of a Traveling Dandy' posits an early 1900s science writer dandy who travels across North America with nothing but books and a wardrobe. The 65 drawings of cephalopods (squid, octopus, nautilus) of 'Delineation' function as an illustration of an Other body, existing in a realm beyond our access.
Admission to the Archives Gallery is free.
Fully accessible.
Nancy Anne McPhee is a textile installation artist originally from Alberta and now based in Montréal, Québec. McPhee works with themes of knowledge, gender and biological bodies, in large-scale drawings, silk trapunto quilt installations and theatrical performances as a collective member of the Drag King troupe Dukes of Drag. She has shown across Canada in commercial galleries, artist run centres and public theatres, recently including a solo exhibition at Galerie FOFA, Montréal, and as a performer in Dukes Up! at the historic Café Cleopatra Drag Bar in Montréal.
Press Release: http://embracedisruption.com/2012/10/15/client-news-libraries-exhibit-merges-monster-movies-with-a-drag-persona/
Words, Wit, Wisdom and Wool is a series of textile pieces that take words of wit and words of wisdom – all from a gay male perspective – and translates them into visual documents. Gould states, "I have been rather catholic in my choice of sources, from the internet - Squirt.Org (enough said!) to poetry and prose - Walt Whitman and Thomas Glave – song lyrics and personal musings from my 90 year old mother. Some of the texts are bawdy, some loving and some perhaps slightly out there, but they all represent a grab bag of sentences and paragraphs that I have found inspiring and interesting and funny enough to lose blood over!"
Matt Gould was born and raised on the prairies, lived in Toronto, France, Vancouver and on-board cruise ships plying the seas of Alaska, the Caribbean and New York to Bermuda. His work is found in public, corporate and private collections in Canada, the US and Europe. Gould has worked as an industrial, residential and commercial designer, a playwright, a singer and a theatre director, all of which feed his rapacious appetite for self-expression. He currently lives in Red Deer Alberta with his partner, where he walks the fine line between the solitary pursuit of a visual artist and the wildly communal existence of an Artistic Director for a theatre company.


text: Studio Living offers design studios in the heart of the city, complete with private garden, free parking and complementary Wi-Fi access. Cozy, charming, yet cosmopolitan, Studio Living features boutique hotel service and amenities in a quiet neighbourhood just minutes away from shops, restaurants, and major city attractions. Prices may vary by season and duration of stay, but the gracious hospitality of the innkeeper and his staff remains constant all year long.


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Crosslake will soon have new tennis courts
The Crosslake Community Center will soon be home to four new tennis courts, which will be constructed this summer. Jon Henke, director of parks, recreation and library, said the project of constructing new tennis courts began in 2005.
The two original tennis courts were built in 1974, Henke said, and a third court was added in 1987. The average lifespan of tennis courts is 20 years, and these courts lasted as long as 38 years.
"So they were long overdue to be replaced," Henke said.
More than 30 percent of the tennis court funding was done through fundraising. The city was awarded two grants for the project from branches of the U.S. Tennis Association — one for $10,000 and another for $28,122.
Fundraising from two local groups, the Raise the Nets Committee and the Tennis Angels Campaign, brought in $15,185.44. Those funds, along with yearly contributions from the city since 2005, bring the total tennis fund to $154,611.
Henke said the U.S. Tennis Association puts the average cost of constructing a tennis court at $50,000 each. Since the community center is putting in four courts for only around $150,000, city staff has found ways to cut costs. The city did the demolition of the old courts itself, and has some of the area prepped and ready to go for new courts.
Construction is still waiting on road restrictions to lift. Heavy machinery can't be hauled out until spring restrictions are lifted, Henke said, so the late spring has held things up a bit.
Nonetheless, the goal is to have the courts constructed and ready by July 15. The four courts will be in banks of two, with a 6-foot by 12-foot shade structure in the middle.
The fence around the courts will be a little different from most courts. Most courts have a 10-foot fence surrounding the entire court, but the Crosslake courts will have a 10-foot fence at the ends of each court and will slope down to 42 inches on the sides.
Henke said this not only saves money but also makes it easier for sideline viewing because spectators won't have to look through a fence. It will also get rid of the feeling of playing inside a cage.
Some funding from the U.S. Tennis Association will go to quick-start tennis, Henke said. This program for youth is designed to teach kids tennis on a smaller court, with smaller equipment.
Learners begin on a court only a quarter the size of a regular tennis court, and with balls that have reduced bounce and smaller rackets. Students then build their way up to full-size equipment and court. Quick-start court lines will be painted on the new Crosslake courts, but in a different color than the standard court lines.
Henke believes the courts will get a lot of use.
"I know people see courts sitting empty a lot. These courts are never empty," Henke said. "They're probably some of the most-used courts in the county."
Historically, the courts are used for three weeks out of the summer for youth tennis camp, and league tennis also uses the courts one to two days a week. Other groups play during the week as well.
Henke said the courts are also well-used by vacationers who ride their bikes up from the campground. When there's no scheduled lessons or league play, the courts are open to anyone.
The community center rents rackets and sells tennis balls to the community. The cost is $4 for a can of balls and $2 an hour for rackets.
With the new courts in this summer, Henke said, the community center hopes to get more participation than ever.


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Color Inspirations – Violet Ruin
Sometimes, decay is beautiful. This week, be edgy and elegant with this grungy Violet Ruin color scheme. Saturated purples and soft, rusty greens show age with grace. Put it on a slightly mottled fabric with wonderful worn tones for an elegant look that feels beautifully aged. See how it compares to the original.
Which do you prefer?


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Room with Wi-Fi by The Vatican
Size18 m²
Floor No.(with elevator)
- Internet/WiFi
- Balcony/terrace
- Lockable room
- Towels
- Elevator in building
- Kitchen
- Smoking allowed
Accommodation summary
|Via Giorgio Scalia, 00136 Rome, Italy
|Property type
|Private room
|Property ID
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
This cosy room has been decorated with crisp white walls and deep red finishings. After preparing a meal in the shared kitchen, guests can relax on the double bed in front of the TV. Towels are provided and the shared areas feature a washer / dryer.
One of the 7 hills of Rome, Palatine Hill has picturesque views across the city and is just a 20-minute drive from the apartment. There's even more Roman artefacts at the Colosseum, which is 15 minutes away by car. The world famous Pantheon is a 30-minute bus trip.
The apartment is just a couple of minutes' walk from the closest bus stop. There is a great choice of traditional Italian eateries and fashion boutiques in the neighbourhood.
House rulesSmoking is only allowed on the balcony.
No pets allowed.
|Weekly rate for up to 2 guests
|Monthly rate for up to 2 guests
|Price for > 2 guests
|33 NZ$ per guest/night extra
|Check-in after
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out before
|Cancellation Policy
Reviews of this property
Marco is a very friendly person, willing to answer questions. The first day he made available to us a city map. I thank especially that at last day we could stay longer in the room.
The Metro station is very close and takes minutes to reach the centre. The apartment is 10 minutes walk from San Pietro, nice and clean. Highly recommended.
The property was indeed cozy and nice. The room was neat and the bathroom very nice and clean.The bed was fine. Marco was a great host, we could always ask our terecht.Het him balcony was fine and the apartment was close to the subway and many shops and cozy cafes in the buurt.We would go there again if we go to Rome.
De accommodatie was inderdaad cozy en nice. De kamer was netjes en de badkamer erg fijn en schoon.Het bed was fijn. Marco was een prima gastheer, we konden met onze vragen altijd bij hem terecht.Het balkonnetje was fijn en het appartement was vlakbij de metro en veel winkeltjes en gezellige cafeetjes in de buurt.We zouden er zeker weer naartoe gaan als we naar Rome gaan.
A stay in Rome very nice. The room was perfect, bed very comfortable, large closet with wardrobe, balcony and private bathroom. A welcoming accommodation very good value for money. A good concept to immerse advantage in Roman life and flee away. We were like at home but on vacation. I definately recommend this accommodation!
Un séjour très très agréable à Rome. La chambre était parfaite, couchage très confortable, grande armoire avec penderie, balcon et salle de bain privée. Un logement accueillant d'un très bon rapport qualité prix. Un bon concept pour s'immerger d'avantage dans la vie Romaine et fuir l'hôtel. Nous étions comme à la maison mais en vacances. Je recommande sans hésitation ce logement!
Marco is very friendly, helpful and always ready to answer all your questions. The apartment is located in a very convenient location, just steps from the Vatican. The room is lovely and spacious, with private bathroom and a balcony tender. Me and my mom we found really good.
Marco è molto cordiale, disponibile ed è sempre pronto a rispondere ad ogni tua domanda. L'appartamento si trova in una posizione molto comoda, a due passi dal Vaticano. La stanza è molto carina e spaziosa, con bagno proprio ed un tenero balconcino. Io e la mia mamma ci siamo trovate davvero bene.
Marco is welcoming and is happy to answer any questions about Rome. Cozy space with en suite and balcony was perfect. The Metro station is very close and takes minutes to reach the centre. Also the apartment is right by San Pietro and an amazing local restaurant.
The stay was great! The apartment is very nice, well located (5 minutes walk from the Vatican Museums / 30 minutes walk from the center). We are at home and Marco did everything to be comfortable. The little balconies are nice, the bathroom is large and maintained ... I recommend the place: the rooms are closed as a key to the hotel, while having the comfort of an apartment (kitchen, living room. ..).
Marco is available, pleasant, gives you a map of Rome on arrival ... And it may even advise you of places in Rome! An excellent host! The next time I return to Rome, I go back!
Feel free anyway!
Le séjour fut génial ! L'appartement est très sympa, bien placé (5 minutes a pieds des musées du Vatican / 30 minutes a pieds du centre). On y est comme chez soi et Marco fait tout pour qu'on s'y sente bien. Les petits balcons sont agréables, la salle de bain est grande et entretenue... Je vous conseille l'endroit : les chambres se ferment a clés comme a l'hôtel, tout en ayant le confort d'un appartement (cuisine, salon...).
Marco est disponible, agréable, vous donne un plan de Rome des votre arrivée... Et il peut même vous conseiller des endroits a Rome ! Un excellent hôte ! La prochaine fois que je reviens a Rome, j'y retourne !
N'hésitez pas en tout cas !
Excellent value for money especially considering that the room is spacious (bathroom inside) and the price includes use of the kitchen. The owner is very helpful and approachable. The location is exceptional, two steps from the subway and in a central district of Rome (San Pietro). So for us it is highly recommended !!!
Ottimo rapporto qualità prezzo soprattutto considerando che la camera è spaziosa (bagno all'interno) e nel prezzo è incluso l'uso della cucina. Il proprietario è molto disponibile e alla mano. La posizione è eccezionale, a due passi dalla metropolitana e in un quartiere centrale di Roma (zona san pietro). Insomma per noi è consigliatissimo!!!
Premetto che il proprietario non ha assolutamente precisato che lui abita direttamente dentro l'appartamento stesso. è nel diritto del viaggiatore sapere tale circostanza ancor prima di aver prenotato. Il letto presentava lenzuola di colore lilla sporche con visibili macchie gialle sparse. Il bagno presentava sulla sinistra la sua normale finestra verso l'esterno, mentre sul lati destro era presente un'altra finestrella comunicante con il suo bagno personale, con conseguenti rumori e odori sgradevoli. Pertanto non lo consiglierei, e sicuramente non ci tornerei.
- Quality assured accommodation
- Every host is verified by telephone
- Secure payment via SSL encryption


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The Maltby Pure-Track PT S2 Putter is heel mounted mallet putter that offers multiple weight options to fit almost any golfers needs. Additional stainless steel weights to create a long, near belly, belly or over length putter are also available that allow you to customize your putter head to custom fit your desired head weight. The additional weights (MA0255W) attach using the included hex wrench.
The Pure-Track PT S2 putter is 100% CNC milled from air craft grade aluminum for an ultra solid feel and feature 3 bold alignment lines on the top of the putter for easy alignment.