History, English and math

Published 10:48 pm Sunday, March 2, 2008

Blast from the past: Ten years ago today, Bill Gates told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Microsoft wasn’t a monopoly trying to flatten its competitors. Everyone in the room then checked their calendars to make sure it was March 3 and not April Fool’s Day.

Oh, fudge: The Supreme Court may hitch up its robes and wade back into the muddy discussion about indecent language in broadcasts. If it does, the story says, it will have to consider the myriad meanings of the F-word and the S-word. Most of those meanings are probably in Webster’s. But if the justices want to hear some really creative profanity, they should observe someone trying to assemble a shelving unit from Ikea.

What’s $22 million plus $25 million? The potential cost of administering the WASL in 2009, according to the state superintendent’s office. State leaders are considering ways to alter the test that would cut down on the time and expense without compromising its accuracy. Students should prepare for a question on that problem when they take the 2008 exam.