A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....10-16-02

Billie and daisyscarlett

[daisyscarlett]

The Free Republic Forum has approximately 14 "Daily Threads". Today, we are happy to SPOTLIGHT one of them, along with its founder, anniegetyourgun, and its current teacher, RikaStrom.

The mission of the Word for the Day Thread is to raise the level of discourse and expand language abilities. The Rules are simple: Everyone who chooses to post must leave a post using the "word of the day" in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day.

Anniegetyourgun started the Word for the Day thread on 2-10-01. Click here to read that first thread .

Anniegetyourgun called the thread "Word For The Day" because she planned to "teach" a daily class. She developed a Freeper school scenerio-establishing the routine, monitoring responses, setting the rules, "grading" the results, etc. She did "lesson planning" the night before and opened the school house door every morning at 7 am PST. Soon the WFTD thread took on the feel of a cyberclassroom. Since AGYG is not a teacher by profession, this was quite an accomplishment!

Being as Freepers have such creative minds, one thing led to another. They soon had things like "recess" bells, lunchroom time (complete with tuna croquettes), JimRob as principal, and Show and Tell days. They even fancifully created teachers of other classes at FR School. (BTW, ultimately, the Spanish teacher ran off with the German teacher!) They also had running jokes about the school nurse, as many of the guys in the class presumed she was beautiful and were always coming down "ill" for some reason!

There have always been special weeks at WFTD, such as "graduate level" word weeks, a week of some of the latest words added to the English language (neologisms), Spring Break vacation week, etc. One weekend, they had an open house on FR so people could find out more about WFTD – complete with student work being "displayed". During the summer of 2001, there was a "WFTD Summer Camp" at Camp Lotsawords -. lotsafun was had at Camp Lotsawords - including pranks!

In the real world, at least two homeschool mothers on FR have used the WFTD thread for their children everyday.

anniegetyourgun
Freeper since 11-24-00

"In Her Own Words"

"I hate to say it, but it seemed to me that there was a need on FR to perhaps 'upgrade' the language, spelling, grammar, word usage, etc. Rather than insult folks by saying so, I thought I might try a forum that would allow people to expand their vocabulary, explore word origins, and generally try things out."

"The thrill for me was to find so many on FR who are truly gifted writers, people with excellent imaginations, those with incredible senses of humor who were always making me laugh out loud at my desk, even a student who wrote the FR school song."

"I had to stop in May (2001) due to schedule changes and RikaStrom took over. I was so relieved because the 'students' had become so close and I hated to see it die out."

"I had a blast with WFTD. I believe it has contributed to the 'persona' of FR. Why, we've even seen BIG name journalists use the WFTD in an article they wrote within a day or two of it coming up on our thread. Coincidence? U decide!"

Just in case you are wondering, that is not really a photo of anniegetyour gun shown above. Anniegetyourgun says she "actually looks like a cross between Marsha (of Brady Bunch) and Joey Heatherton - if you can imagine them in their mid-forties!"

RikaStrom
Freeper since 11-10-00

RikaStrom's Profile Page leads off with the following:

"I am the current 'teacher' for WFTD, the FReeper school of vocabulary and inventive verbiage. This school was the creation of Anniegetyourgun.

If you have a sense of humor, please come on in. If you are part of the 'short bus' group, you can come in too. My students need targets for their verbal veracity. We thank the talented Registered for our school logo!"

Miss Rika took over posting the WFTD thread during the Spring Break thread in 2001. At the time, "that particular thread was keeping me sane." So she decided that she would step right up and continue to post the thread after it became impossible for Miss Annie to continue. She has been posting the WFTD thread for over a year and a half.

RikaStrom, who is also very active FReeping with the Houston Chapter of FR, recently started a new job and does not have the time luxury that she experienced at her previous position. Student Bella_Bru is now sharing teaching duties with Miss Rika. Mistress Bella does one week, Miss Rika does one week. This new arrangement began around September 10, 2002.

Here are two links to memorable threads suggested by Miss Rika.

Word for the Day Review 4-24-01

Word for the Day Review 6-04-01

THANK YOU, ANNIEGETYOURGUN
THANK YOU, RIKASTROM

YOU ARE TWO OF FR'S FINEST

THIS WEEK'S THREADS

10-14-02 Molly Pitcher

10-15-02 Dutchess

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

     1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
     2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
     3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
     4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
     5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me an FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

[LadyX]

Texas girl - please see # 80 from our good Sea Captain concerning your recent inquiry on behalf of your friend's mother.

[larryjohnson]

Sorry about your health problems.Ididn't know untill today that you had to cut short your wonderful trip. You see,since you,Lady X and Pippen threw me overboard backin September and gave my forecasting tools,chickenbones and all, to Lodwick, I've been moping,soaking but floating. I took with me my private stock of weather balloons. The one that got the attention of The Aussie navy ship that picked me up was my Jimsphere. You may know it has dimples like a golf ball to remove spin. But it looks to the uninitiated like a giant floating french condom. Enjoy winter and as I said before, Mack Cove is always here for your mooring.

[Pippin]

Why do Feds feel compelled to spoil our fun?

[Pippin]

Hi, Billie and Meekie!

The soup was delisious and Meekie's coffee was good.

[Pippin]

Hi, Cap! I was worried about you, Welcome back. I'm glad Mrs. ofMagog is feeling better. May God bless you both!

[Pippin]

SSA = Social Security Administration

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks. Nice to be on the early-bird schedule again....

[LadyX]

Oh, right, larry j - - "LadyX and Pippin threw you overboard" will not pass muster, Bucko!

I have preserved the note you secured to your hammock with duct tape saying:

"Going on walkabout - see you in October - mebbe ~ ~ ~"

Here we've been floundering, phishing around for suitable substitutes for your balloons, at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather.
Sheesh - whatta phriend you are.

Humblegunner did spot the giant dimpled French condom afloat, but never suspected you were - um - 'connected' with it - haha!

[Pippin]

You have mail

And I have togo as my lunch hour is over. Y'all have a great day!

[lodwick]

Good to see ya again...are you moping or mopping?

Hoping it's just mopping. ;-)

[Militiaman7]

Saluting: anniegetyourgun and RikaStrom

[daisyscarlett]

Yes great choices and they are now joined by Bella_Bru...What a great threesome....

[daisyscarlett]

I am sure this is an even sadder day than usual for the parents and families of those 4 heroes lost on this date.....May God comfort them in a special way today...

[lodwick]

Be A Friend!

Don't worry about knowing people - just make yourself worth knowing.

When you ask how someone's doing - wait to listen to the answer.

Pick your friends, but never pick them to pieces!

A good friend is one who keeps up with you - but never looks down on you.

Deal with the faults of your friends as gently as if they were your own.

The reason a dog is everyone's friend is that he wags his tail and not his tongue.

Anyone can give advice, but a real friend will lend a helping hand.

The best possession you can have is a true friend.

[RikaStrom]

Thanks HG!

[RikaStrom]

LOL, Thanks ladyinred.

Anytime you want to join in, please feel free... I recommend you stay away from the croqs until the coquettes give you a run down on who's who and who will just copy off of your paper. :-)

[daisyscarlett]

Thanks...hope you come back again. We have a new thread and new profilee(s) every day, M-F (except on Thursday we run a JohnHuang "My 2 Cents" column) and on weekends we do a recap...

[daisyscarlett]

Good morning Miss Bella...Thank you for watching the classroom while those two are "over here"...

[JustAmy]

As part of their "ranch" holiday, a guy takes his wife hunting. When they reach their deer blinds, the guy says, "If you shoot a deer, be sure you don't let anybody else say he's the one who shot it. Otherwise, he'll take the deer from you. The deer belongs to whoever shoots it." The guy goes to his own blind. Ten minutes later, he hears his wife shooting from her blind nearby. He rushes over and finds her pointing her rifle at a cowboy who's shouting,

"OK, lady, OK! You can have the deer! Just lemme get my saddle off it!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[daisyscarlett]

Good morning...absolutely stunning patriotic sunrise...Thank you so very much...