Opinion

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BURRISS)  --  Remember all those cute school assemblies and plays where the children were in adult roles? They pretended to graduate from school, drive cars, have jobs, get married, and sometimes even have children. Almost everyone talked about how cute the kids were.

Now, a movie, titled “Miracles on Honey Bee Hill,” written and directed by M-T-S-U professor Bob Pondillo, using a bunch of cute children pretending to be adults, is stirring up controversy. By way of background, it’s important to know that the parents of each of the child actors read the script for the movie, gave permission for their children to participate, and were on the set when the movie was being shot.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BURRISS)  --  How many of you remember the myriad of stories you heard as children about the self-made millionaire? Or the stories of Horatio Alger, or later, Tom Swift? Today these morality tales generate a lot of “ho-hums” and eye-ball rolling. But here’s one that got my attention, and prompted me to do a little more research to see what the fuss is all about. It’s a free phone app called “Instagram.”

 Instagram allows users to manipulate and share pictures they take with their smart phones. By applying various color and shape filters, users can create a wide-range of images that can then be posted and retrieved.

MURFRESSBORO, Tenn. (BURRISS)  --  I’ve often talked about printed books versus e-books, and still think there is something better about the printed versions. Sure, I have an e-book reader, but I still prefer turning a real page, rather than pushing a button.

But I also remember from high school, when my favorite English teacher wouldn’t let us read from a paperback version of Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar.” She said only hardbacks were the real versions. And I remember thinking, what difference does it matter which version you read? After all, the words are the same.

So I’ll have to admit, although the words are the same, e-books are taking a larger and larger share of the publishing market.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BURRISS)  --  The recent Supreme Court arguments regarding the health care lawsuits have sparked numerous calls for a more open court, specifically real-time, or at a minimum, delayed video coverage. But there is apparently some misunderstanding about what anyone actually can, and can’t do relative to news about the court.

For starters, sessions of the court are open to reporters and individuals. To be sure, you can’t record or broadcast the arguments, but there are numerous places, including newspaper, broadcast and internet, that provide transcripts and analysis.

Now, there are two important things you have to remember about the Court:

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BURRISS)  --  Life used to be so easy. Some 40 years ago comedian George Carlin told us there were only seven dirty words you couldn’t say on radio. Now, thanks to the New York City Department of Education there is a list of more than 50 words we shouldn’t use.

Here are just some of the words school officials are trying to ban: dinosaurs, home computer, hurricane, birthday, dancing, all forms of religious holidays, including Christmas, Yom Kippur and Ramadan, and politics. And why are the words being banned: because the school chancellor says they might upset some of the children taking standardized tests.