Fruit for Thought: the Intersection of Education, Culture, and Performance

It is 3:34 am on Black Friday and the Christmas season has officially started. Some stores have been open for three and a half hours, some will be opening in less than a half hour and there are others who are going that 5:00 am route. All this to accommodate those early birds who want to get those Christmas gift worms before anyone else does. I would be out there right now taking part in the madness, but I am heading to bed. There is no need for me to go shopping. I got myself an early Christmas gift: DJ Hero . I will say this: I was not all that excited about the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero fad. I get what all the fuss was about. I love DDR (America) and Beatmania IIDX (Japan) – watching them being played, not playing them – as much as the next person. So bringing those rhythmic, hand-eye coordination games to the home console is pure video game innovation. With that being said, I am not a big rock person. I have always wanted to play the drums or the guitar, but my parents picked t...

Since early November, people have been disrespecting my favorite holiday by decorating their houses, advertising their sales and getting in the Christmas spirit. I only thought it fitting that I bring it back to focus. Friends and family flock for a fabulous feast of food while following the festivities of football. This is my Thanksgiving alliteration because the only preparing done in the 11th month should be for the last Thursday in November revolving around the 4Fs – friends, family, food and football. The friends, the family and the food are great, but for me, Thanksgiving means nothing without football. The retirement of John Madden also meant the retiring of a timeless Thanksgiving Day tradition: the turducken . An eight-legged chicken, stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey made NFL Thanksgiving Thursday special . I sure miss that turducken. Maybe the Madden turducken should be revived at the Superdome for the festivities at the Bayou Classic . As a Historically Black ...