Patti Smith, Hillary Clinton, and American Idol…

1. Teacher Training - Sorry for not posting yesterday, but for the last two days I’ve been helping out with a workshop in my provincial town and have barely touched the computer. Workshop is going great though and if I can just make it through two more hours of sessions on “How to Test Your Students Effectively” I’ll be done for the week.  (David Kiersky in the photo)

2. Teaching about Teaching – I love teaching. I love being in the classroom. I love working with students. But educational theory (talking about “how to teach”) has got to be one of the most tedious and boring topics in the world.

3. Care Packages – Over the last two years I’ve had the honor of being the top mail receiver in the Peace Corps. Hopefully I can also become the top mail receiver at Michigan Law. That’s right Mom… no pressure.

4. Brothel Food - Only in Cambodia would people refer to restaurants as: “the brothel”, “the not brothel”, and the “fake brothel”. So grimey.

5. What I’m Reading This Week – Just Kids by Patti Smith.

I didn’t even know who Patti Smith was until my friend gave me this book, but I sat down yesterday and practically read the entire thing in a single sitting. What an amazing writer she is.

6. Hillary – Montclair, New Jersey’s own Johnathan Alter writes about America’s most popular lady, Hillary Clinton, in the most recent edition of Vanity Fair. Definitely worth a read…

For most of her thousands of hours in the air, Hillary changes out of her trademark pantsuit (yellow is her favorite color for clothes and in the décor of her homes) into a fleece top and sweats. Meals consist largely of fruit and vegetables (she has a special taste for hot peppers) and maybe a scotch or Bloody Mary. “Don’t bring me the dessert!” she loudly tells the flight attendants only moments before sauntering into the staff cabin, brownie already in hand: “I know—I’ve been bad.” Occasional cupcakes with candles are also exempt because Hillary is religious about observing staff birthdays. She resists movies (despite a weakness for anything with Meryl Streep, especially Out of Africa), reads yet more briefing papers than she’s already consumed in Washington, scans news on an iPad, and sometimes manages a few pages of a mystery, but mostly she sleeps, without any pills, often right through landing. “If she couldn’t sleep most of the way,” says Philippe Reines, her longtime press secretary, “she wouldn’t be able to function….Some of her best road stories involve Holbrooke, her close friend, a maestro of diplomacy for more than four decades. (Holbrooke was meeting with Hillary in her office last December when he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, where he later died from a ruptured aorta.) At his Kennedy Center memorial service, which played more like a roast, she recalled that Holbrooke was once, in Pakistan, so insistent on making a point that he followed her all the way into the ladies’ room. On boarding her plane, he would test every seat to see which was the most comfortable, then hound whichever official was assigned to it to trade with him. Hillary especially enjoyed when he would disappear into the airplane restroom and emerge like an oversize Easter bunny in his bright-yellow sleeping suit. “On hearing Winston Churchill’s motto, ‘Never, never, never, never give up,’ [Richard] called Churchill halfhearted,” she said. Hillary thinks this also perfectly captures her own theory of persistence.

7. I Feel Old - Last week when I was in Phnom Penh I was flipping through the channels and caught the tail end of an episode of American Idol. It must have been about three years since I had seen an episode, and while it was a little strange to see the new judges, what really threw me off was how young all the contestants looked.

I remember turning on the Little League World Series when I was about 15 and having the exact same reaction. Damn they look young. Damn I’m getting old…

8. The First Debate – It’s great to finally have the Republicans up on stage hashing it out and SNL and John Stewart to break down all the action. Few things give me more pleasure.

9. The Best Night of the Week - Last Sunday night Osama Bin Laden was killed. This Sunday night the Lakers got swept. At this rate we’ll have world peace by the end of May.

10. Pictures - A few more random shots from Kep and Siem Reap…