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

[CounterCounterCulture]

Whatever happened to that Üter kid?
You know, that foreign exchange student who wore the lederhosen and all the other kids made fun of him...
I think he finally got deported or somethin'.

;-)

[daisyscarlett]

Good morning, Miss 'Rika...Thanks to you and Miss Annie for your help in putting this thread together....

We here on the Finest Thread certainly appreciate how much work and team effort it entails to keep a daily thread going and we applaud you for that...

[daisyscarlett]

Good to see you and shaggy this fine Autumn morning...

[daisyscarlett]

Goodness, you are up early...missed breakfast, so how about brunch (in deference to our Eastern time zone FRiends)....

[LadyX]

Dear Captain, The Crew has gathered daily for Group Prayer for you and Mrs. oMmi.

Your report is greatly appreciated, knowing the Captain of All has given you fair winds and brought you safely home.

Thanks to Him accompany this to you both,
with {{{hugs}}} and these - by The Book:

[daisyscarlett]

Congratulations and good luck in your new responsibility as one of the WFTD teachers....

[daisyscarlett]

Good morning to you, too, you handsome devil you....Missed you and happy to see you back with us...

[lodwick]

Thanks for the update and the information. Continuing thoughts and prayers up.

[daisyscarlett]

We have often commented on how appropriate the calendar page for the day is...Well, gang, the one for today ranks right at the top of the list.

This was so me this a.m. when I looked in on the thread and realized that when I posted it last night, I had left off a very important part-the opening!! The beautiful Part I post group of veterans that heads our thread every M-W-F. (Part II is posted on T-Th-SAT).

I was so very distressed and the calendar page could have been me earlier...lol...

Seriously, I will try to come up with a way to get that opening posted later in the thread (any suggestions Billie?). Till then, all I can say is:

[daisyscarlett]

Good morning...Yep, the WFTD crew are certainly "refined" Freepers...

Congratulations again for being yesterday's Finest Freeper....So fun to learn more about you...

[Bella_Bru]

You know, it isn't easy, but it is fun! :-)

[Aeronaut]

Good morning to you Billie.

[daisyscarlett]

Good morning...aren't you up rather early today since you were up kinda late last night? Thanks for your "words" for the WFTD gang...

[RJayneJ]

Essay Of The Week

Quote of the Day by sparkydragon

[daisyscarlett]

Hi there....Nice to see you again...Hope all is well, have missed you....

[MeekOneGOP]

heh heh ! Thanks.....

[Pippin]

They are SSA, Do I need to say more?(They are also a bunch of flaming liberals!)

[LadyX]

I did go to bed close to 2 a.m. and was up at 8 - my 'norm.'
You will notice, though, I manage an occasional afternoon nap of one or two hours...:))

It is wonderful to be retired and have NO Defined Schedule !!

[Pippin]

You and I have THAT in commom, freepers who , in thier opinion think I'm the worst person on earth ( Well, a certian group) I'll freepmail you the group I'm talking about.

[ladyinred]

SSA? I am trying to figure out what that means. I don't need an interp on flaming liberals though! LOL
Try to have a nice day anyway Pip, bless your heart! They must know how fortunate they are to have you as an employee!