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

[RikaStrom]

Mercy, and it's only my first glass of wine too! I was side-tracked setting up class for tomorrow. I think y'all get a chuckle out of it.

And on that note, I am taking myself away from the keyboard before I further damage what is left of my reputation! :-)

Thanks Miss Slippy.

[daisyscarlett]

Billie has it - I am sure..It will be in the next bunch and I will get the new URL for you so you can repost on your Profile Page...

[dutchess]

"I Love Rainbow Bridge"

Isn't that the most wonderful poem...site...We have a couple little critters over there waiting for us...it is so comforting. Sorry about your September loss...even though he/she was pretty old and obviously lived a GREAT life...it's still a loss.

You can obviously see my passion is for animals and I love the folks who love them....one mention of Rainbow Bridge is a dead givaway...

Congrats. on your site being spotlighted!

[daisyscarlett]

Go and enjoy your wine. Will you be back later tonight? If not, thanks so much for spending time with us today. I think we have introduced even more folks to your site, at least to lurk and perhaps some of us lurkers will come out of the closet and attend class. You have a great group....Congratulations...hope you enjoyed your very busy day.....

[RikaStrom]

Thank you for spotlighting WFTD today. It was so much fun to come in and visit with everyone.

I'm going to make a tremendous effort to come in every day, y'all have so much fun and share marvelous stories.

If I don't see you later this evening, I will see you tomorrow.

RS

[Mama_Bear]

Hi daisy! Another great tribute you have done for our Finest teachers. They are very deserving of this day in the spotlight. I skimmed over the thread, looks like it was another fine day on the Finest thread, sorry I missed most of it. :-(

[lodwick]

Some wonderful Texas Llano wines for our guests

[lodwick]

Tell me about it...

[WVNan]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha....I love that picture.

[WVNan]

Thanks daisy. If she doesn't have it I will send it again when I get back. Everyone say a prayer for me in the morning, that I have smooth driving and little traffic. I'm going to be in withdrawal the next few days, unless I can find a computer somewhere. My hostess does not have one.

[Libertina]

Dear Anniegetyourgun, I'm delighted to see you here on FR's Finest! You are such a wonderful, deserving FReeper! I never got to meet you in person when you were in our Washington State Puget Sound Chapter, and now you have moved! (sniff sniff!) You will always be an honorary member and please visit sometime when you are back in WA! (Perhaps we'll have cleaned away the Red Tide by then LOL

Rikastrom, congratulations to you also, and thanks for helping our Annie!Congratulations!

[CounterCounterCulture]

I'm doin' OK. Keeping busy with work so I don't have as much time to chat on the daily threads.

Üter, the foreign exchange student with the lederhosen is OK too. I keep him locked up in the basement away from all the trouble out there in the cold cruel world.

;-)

[Mixer]

Thanks I feel good knowing I will always be on the ping list. I will say hi to Mickey for you. I hope he is nice in person....lol :-)

[CounterCounterCulture]

lol....you should come by the Finest more often...you're on my list of those who make me smile...

Aw shucks [blushing] ... My pleasure. :-)

Also see my little note to Slippy (post 312)

[Slip18]

CCC and we were on a cruise together. I'll tell you something, he's one hunk of a guy!

[Slip18]

Are all cats the same?

Our Simba takes over our whole bed so the dogs can't get anywhere near it. All Simba has to do is one fffffsssssttttt, and the dogs are running.

[CounterCounterCulture]

CCC and we were on a cruise together.

Just for the record, CyberLiberty was there too. ;-)

I'll tell you something, he's one hunk of a guy!

Whoaaaaaa, me thinks you gots me confeeeuuuused with somebody else. Hunk? Moi? Tee-hee.

Well, I guess my pic on my Freeper profile page sometimes confuses people ;-)

[LadyX]

Well, Nan - I can't very well tell you to 'knock 'em dead!!"
LOL

Give it all you've got, gal ~ ~ ~

Rah Rah - Sis Boom Bah !!!

[CounterCounterCulture]

Whoops, it did say "we" and not "me"

My bad.

NOTE TO SELF: Fire proofreader.

[lodwick]

Two men were sentenced to die in the electric chair on the same day. They were led down the hall to the room in which they would meet their final fate.

The legal formalities and announcements were all done, a priest gave them the last rites, and a final prayer had been said.


The warden turning to the first man and asked him, "Son, do you have a last request?"

The man replied, "Yes, I do. I so love dance music. Could you please play the Macarena for me one last time?"

"I think that can be arranged," nodded the warden.

He turned to the other man and asked, "Well, what about you? What is your final request?"




"Please," said the condemned man, "Kill me first!"