Glencoe Honors Night

The Ecolitan Operation

From "The Ecolitan Operation" by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., page 56:

Celia: "Every Imperial Special Operative falls within certain clearly defined parameters - male, with an optimum muscle, fat, and bone ratio that never varies by more than five percent; never less than one hundred eighty-one centimeters nor more than one hundred ninety-five centimeters; primarily Caucasian genetic background; strong technical education and mechanical skills; generally between twenty-eight and forty-five standard years; and always with surface carriage index of between seven and eight."
Jimjoy: "I understood everything until you got to the last item."

Me too. I take the term "surface carriage" to be the way a person carries themselves. The way people walk is quite distinctive. I have been at cross country meets where I could identify a runner by the way they moved even though they were too far away to be able to see distinctly. "Surface carriage index" I take to be pure science fiction. I have never heard of anyone trying to classify the way people walk, much less trying to correlate that with any personality traits. Last night I got to observe a great deal of "surface carriage", but since I only knew a few of the participants I wasn't able to draw any great conclusions. Besides, I did not hear the term "surface carriage index" until today.

Last night Glencoe High School had their awards ceremony for their graduating seniors. Quite the show/ordeal. Three hours of speakers and presentations. At least the scholarships awards were more substantial.

I went to this same show two years ago when my eldest son graduated. Same sort of deal, but I remember there being lots of feeble old duffers getting up and giving ten minute bumbling speeches in order to award a measly $100 scholarship. This year the speeches were shorter and the awards were more substantial. $200 was the smallest. There were several for $500 and $1000 and at least one for $2500.

Marine Corps Emblem

The military was present in the form of a marine who gave, I believe, two scholarships for $500 each. This is in contrast to the last Science Fair award ceremony I attended, where all four arms of the military each gave several big awards.

Anyway this show was a mix of two parts: scholarship awards and academic achievement awards. I think half the student body was there, at least 200 students. Each one had their name and their honors read as they walked across the entire width of the stage. Of course the person who got picked to read all these names and awards sounded like he was coming down with something. After this event I would not be surprised if he was hoarse for a week.

Watching the way the students carried themselves ("surface carriage"?) as they walked across the stage was interesting. There were marchers, and shufflers, and those who scooted along on tip-toe (girls, mostly). There were those whose nervousness showed, and those who managed to conceal it well. Several of the teachers handing out rewards received hugs from their students. The principal received the most. Some teachers shook hands with the students, some gave them a pat on the arm, some just handed them their award.

Farmers Insurance Logo

OSAA Logo

Farmers Insurance got a lot of publicity. There were two awards from OSAA (Oregon State Athletic Association) that were evidently sponsored by the insurance company, so every time one of these awards was handed out, the announcer dutifully read the name of the insurance company. I think about half of the students got at least one of these awards.

They gave out the awards in order of the number of honors earned. There were probably ten or so different awards. They started with those students who had earned one award, which was the largest group by far, and then went on to those who won two, and then three and so on. MY DAUGHTER WON FIVE. The last group were those students who had qualified for eight awards. There were only four people in this group and they were all girls. Easy to tell, girls gowns were dark red, boys were black.

The student body president got a special mention from Principal Carol Loughner. He is basically a good kid, though he does wear his hair long, down to his shoulders. I think he probably has the longest hair of any of the boys at Glencoe. But he has the respect of his peers. The Principal gave an example. They had an assembly of the entire school the other day in the gymnasium, over one thousand students. Austin asked them to be quiet, quiet enough that they could hear a pin drop, and they did it. I can hardly imagine such a thing, but according to the principal it really happened.

Update November 2016 replaced missing pictures.