Looking at the news is always a learning experience

Finding an inspiration to get this column written weekly without resorting to strong drink is always a challenge.

Then, something turns up.

Remember when you were a kid and the teacher required that you memorize a portion of, say, this poem:

The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed -

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. - William Shakespeare

Pretty heady stuff for any ninth grader, who's trying to remember the last time he had a zit that big on the tip of his nose.

Being a high school English teacher...