4 | JUNE 10 • 2021 

for openers
Drop and Switch 
G

ames with words can 
be fun: Scrabble, Spill 
& Spell, Words With 
Friends.
One that fascinates me 
involves changing/replacing 
one letter at a 
time to lead to a 
new word.
Here is an 
extended exam-
ple (several 
sequences): Try 
your hand with 
your own; even 
challenge someone to play 
with you. There is no need, 
however, to provide narration 

as I do here; it is only to tie 
my attempts together.
Grime often covers many 
things, making one’s outlook 
grim. Do not panic; rather, try 
to get a grip. Doing something 
is better than having to gripe 
about it. When you finish 
cleaning up, have a treat like a 
grape or another snack.
(New sequence) If the 
work gets hard, don’t whine. 
If fate gives you grapes (see 
last chain), make wine. Good 
grapevines need wind and sun 
and rain. Visit a vineyard and 
wend your way through the 
rows. If you’re business mind-

ed, you may decide to vend the 
product or something in that 
vein. Don’t let success go to 
your head (become vain). You 
may then be asked to hit the 
road. (new sequence).
As you travel, you may 
encounter roadkill — a 
smashed toad. Kick it out of 
the way; now it’s been toed. 
Don’t let its presence get you 

teed off. In a roadside ditch, 
you may see a reed.
Do a good deed and cut it 
down, maybe feed it to a deer 
on a dare (new sequence). If 
things get dire, you may let 
housekeeping chores go or hire 
someone to keep your resi-
dence from being covered in 
(skipping ahead) grime. Oops! 
This is where I came in. 

Sy Manello 
Editorial 
Assistant

PURELY COMMENTARY

guest column
It Was a Good Year 
I

t started out not like any 
other year, but this one 
was a school year that 
began with a different type of 
anxiety than the typical first-
day butterflies. 
No moms or 
dads helped 
their children 
cross the thresh-
old from home 
“safety” to this 
new unknown 
world of pan-
demic schooling into the 
physical school building. 
There was no passing off 
our children, unlinking our 
intertwined hands and plac-
ing those tiny fingers in the 
teachers’ hands. There were no 
“good lucks” to the teachers 
as the parents backed away 
from a classroom or chil-
dren embraced their peers in 
reunion after a full six months 
apart. Masks that were there 

for protection also served as 
tear receptacles, collecting the 
drips from the eyes of children 
who were leaving the comfort 
of their homes that had been 
safe havens since March 2020. 
But … it was a good year.
Our teachers were chal-
lenged. Challenged in ways 
that none of us anticipated 
— figuring out spacing in 
hallways as their students 
transitioned from classroom 
lessons to our new, pandemic 
recess situations. Challenged 
in ways beyond teachers’ true 
control — in keeping the 
promise to parents that they 
would keep their children safe 
from harm. Spacing desks, 
limiting partner work and 
collaboration opportunities, 
and changing the whole way 
classrooms had been run with 
stations and interactive lessons 
took on a new character with 
pandemic interactive lessons. 

Elana 
Miodownik 

continued on page 8

Farber students during the 2020-2021 school year.

