Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

Beartown by Fredrik Backman is a very good read. This is a huge generalization, but I've noticed something about serious fiction of late. I've been reading novels for a long time. I was in high school in the seventies; I did my undergrad degree in Literature in the early eighties.  The university I attended was old school, which is to say, we studied old books -- the authors were a lot of dead, white guys. Even in the modern lit courses -- Children's Literature, "Modern" Literature, and American Literature to name a few -- the books we read were old. All this is a prelude to saying that most old classic novels I've read don't end well. Call it a bent toward tragedy as a preferred dramatic disposition; call it, later, a leaning toward existentialism, realism or pessimism; the point is, many old/classic novels don't end  happily-ever-after. Fast forward several decades in my life and I've noticed a new trend in modern serious literature. It t

It's very difficult for me to say goodbye. I'm not sure why. Case in point: I started a blog post when I left teaching in Fort Erie in 2007. The post was about how difficult it is to say goodbye.  I never finished that post. I'm not even sure where it is. I looked for it in my draft section but couldn't find it. I started another post on the difficulty in saying goodbye after leaving a brief stint as a consultant with the school board from 2012-2015. I never finished that post either. My first memory of needing to say goodbye was in 1969. I was born in 1960 in Niagara Falls, Canada. I lived in a small wartime house on Franklin Avenue with my family of four plus my maternal grandparents. The house is still there (minus the pink aluminum siding); I think my parents paid six thousand dollars for it. We moved to Montreal in 1965. I don't remember needing to say goodbye to anyone that we left behind in Niagara because our entire extended family was either moving with

My wife and I have this tradition: we like to watch a movie at the theatre when we're on vacation in the southern states. If memory serves, in the last few years, we've seen Ten Years a Slave, American Sniper and Silver Linings Playbook . On our most recent trip, after having spent several days visiting family in Georgia and Florida, we eventually landed in North Myrtle Beach. We checked out the movie listing and, after consulting the ratings (a lot of 6.somithings), my wife wanted to watch... wait for it... Logan !? You know: X-Men, Wolverine? It was rated at 8.5. Being the excellent husband that I am, I asked, "Are you sure? You know it's a superhero movie, don't you? It's gonna have a bunch of that crazy action you hate. Are you sure you don't want to watch The Shack ?" She said, "No, it got bad ratings." "Yeah, but your friends watched it and they really liked it." "No, let's see Logan ." "Oh well,

Lately I've seen a couple of things on Facebook to which I've had a predictable reaction given my worldview. http://www.refinery29.com/2017/03/144819/sexual-assault-mugging-video-parody-viral The above parody: a man comes into the police station after being mugged at knife point. The female officers intimate that maybe he was asking for it because he was dressed so well and he didn't scream. My thoughts/reaction:  funny but a profoundly true comment of gender discrimination.  And then there was  this  floating around a few days ago: Short version of  the above : a male employee accidentally -- then intentionally -- swaps email signatures with a female employee. Both are shocked at the worse/better treatment they receive based purely on gender. My thoughts/reaction.  Wow. Sexism strikes in 2017. I recall a female co-worker's story of being bullied by a male boss. I remember thinking at the time,  he did what? He said what? He never treats me like that.  R

Last year was one of the most difficult years of my life. I had finished three years of educational consulting with the school board. They didn't want me back for a fourth year. I thought I'd be printing resumes, putting on a suit and doing interviews. The board owed me a job, but I thought I'd have no control over where I landed. I was told this when I started my three years as a consultant. Still, after nearly thirty years of teaching, the prospect of landing in a really hard school and/or driving for forty minutes to and from work in my last year before retirement wasn't a thrill. And I have to say, at the time, the rejection stung. Unbeknownst to me, the last school I taught at had to take me back. The principal called and told me she received an "obligation memo" -- if I wanted back in, they had to take me. I took it. In September of 2015, I was back at the last school in which I had taught prior to my consulting gig. I did a five year stint there

Don't click on the video yet... Thoughts? Predictions? Misgivings? Straight, male, British white guy talking about political correctness... I find it funny/ironic that more often than not when people are making the argument that political correctness has gone too far it comes from white, straight, male, Anglo, dominant culture, "right' side of history... need I go on? Check out a few comments I found attached to some different internet sites where the video appears: " Seems to me that people are very easily offended, they should learn to grow up and ignore it if they don't like it Leave it to one of the greatest comedians of all time to state the truth about BS political correctness and its inevitability to drive us to an Orwellian 1984 society!!! Bravo John, Bravo!!! Very well said Mr John Cleese how could anyone call this great man a racist he was and still is one of the funniest men in the world he is a living LEGEND ...political correctness &qu

Facebook Facebook is getting ugly. I was just talking to a friend who said he's only been on FB for about a year and he just uses it to wish people well on their special days. I like that. I think my friend is onto to something. In the last couple of weeks, we've become grandparents and a good friend has been diagnosed with lymphoma. "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."  I like that I can click one of these for my friends: And then there's all the daily Donald Trump posts... Need I say more? Maybe we should start calling Facebook, Hatebook. Politics and Ken Follett I'm currently reading Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity -- it's historical fiction set mostly during the cold war.   I'm amazed at the similarity between the political hot button topics of the 1960s and today's.  The emotional, strongly held -- sometimes violent -- convictions regarding Civil Rights in the 60s is not much different than how people f

Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow:  a story about Jesuits who go into outer space in a meteor retrofitted as a space ship to meet a new alien race.  It's no wonder the author was told that she'd probably never get it published. She was also told that if it ever did get published, it'd likely win all sorts of awards. Wrong on the first count. Right on the second count. The Sparrow is one of the best novels I've read lately. It's one of those books that makes you think about faith more deeply than overt or didactic theology does. But, hey, I'm pretty sure that's partially because of how I'm wired. Music and literature do for my soul what few other art forms can. Here are some powerful quotes from the novel: