SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – From the New York Post:   A Texas high school teacher who teaches French could have to bid adieu to his job — because he doesn’t know how to speak the language.
Albert Moyer has been teaching French classes at the Houston Independent School District’s Energy Institute High School for about five months, but the only word he knows how to speak is “bonjour,” students told local TV station KHOU.  “I thought it was a joke, I couldn’t believe this was happening,” said Sharonda White, whose son Nathanial is in one of Moyer’s classes.  Nathanial said his teacher, who only took one year of French in high school, can’t even answer any of the students’ questions.  “We’ve got to search it up on our own,” he said, adding that most of his class is teaching themselves by looking up translations on Google.  Outrageous that anyone would complain about this.  I think "bonjour" is a lovely word, and who needs any others, given the educational standards in our country today.  So, bonjour, readers.

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – From Daily Caller:   The University of New Hampshire (UNH) has issued an apology after spending $17,520 on a single table for a newly-renovated dining hall.  The chef’s table in Holloway Commons, custom-made at a workshop in Chicago and then shipped out to the school, doesn’t just provide elevated support for food and other items. It also provides an illuminated top with no fewer than eight LED lights that change colors throughout the day. According to The New Hampshire, the fancy table was purchased as part of a master plan to “draw members of the UNH and Durham communities into the dining hall to experience what it has to offer.”  I'd rather see the money spent on that table than on the "oppression studies" department.

DISCOVERY? – From AP:     CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronomers searching for life beyond our solar system may need to look no farther than a little, feeble nearby star.  A Belgian-led team reported Monday that it's discovered three Earth-sized planets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star less than 40 light-years away. It's the first time planets have been found around this type of star — and it opens up new, rich territory in the search for extraterrestrial life.  Because this star is so close and so faint, astronomers can study the atmospheres of these three temperate exoplanets and, eventually, hunt for signs of possible life. They're already making atmospheric observations, in fact, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope will join in next week.   The first thing this administration will do if it encounters a new planet is learn what it's doing about climate change.

May 2,  2016