Blizzard to hit us Saturday night!?

Accuweather really loves their headlines.

What kids write

I haven't yet written about scoring the Scholastic writing contest entrants last week. I'm not going to say what the entries were about, because I don't want to violate any confidentiality. I will say that all of my fears of technology making things too easy for today's kids are apparently unfounded. Some of them didn't use Spellcheck, or didn't pay careful attention when they were Spellchecking, as there were words like "studder" for stutter in stories. And this was for a contest for which and teachers and parents both had to sign the entry form. I actually think this is a positive thing, because it means the kids were allowed to prepare their entry on their own, and weren't forced into it or overedited by parents and teachers. But it still amazes me that some of them didn't use Spellcheck. I can't imagine there's a word processing program that doesn't have it. Are kids just told not to use it because then they'll never learn how to spell? Or they are just too lazy? That's pretty darn lazy!!

Interstates in Hawaii?

Sam from Hawaii, as well as another reader named Sam (this one's in Astoria) responded.

Sam from Hawaii:

"Short answer to Carls question- There isn't. While all of the interstate freeways on the mainland are refered with the letter I followed by their name (I-80, or I-5).Hawaii's freeways are designated with H (H-1, H-2). So they don't claim to be interstate freeways. But they are in that category because it's federal dollars that paid for it. Although we are hoping to build a bridge between here and LA to make it a true interstate!"

Sam from Astoria quotes Wikipedia:

"While the name implies that these highways cross state lines, many Interstates do not. Rather, it is the system of interstates that connects states. There are interstate highways in Hawaii, funded in the same way as in the other states, but entirely within the populous island of Oahu. They have the designation of H-X, and connect military bases. Similarly, both Alaska and Puerto Rico have public roads that receive funding from the Interstate program, though these routes are not signed as Interstate Highways."