On her Slight Detour blog today, Marianne Love (my Huckleberries Gone Wireless subject) answered that question from RSPA that I forgot to ask in the interview: "What did you and/or your fellow teachers do to Larry Spencer when he was your student to turn him into such a rabid, foaming anti-public school attack pomeranian?"

Now, what's a person to say? Larry was, indeed, my student for a time, and Larry's now known as the constituent with deep pockets who has sent out several mass mailings to convince voters to vote "no" on issues he felt would spell doom for taxpayers. Now, I get along with Larry just fine, but I unequivocally and categorically (isn't that nice politician lingo?) inflicted no Pavlovian tactics on him -- ever. Those must've come later in his academic journey. When Larry sat in my English class as a sophomore in high school, we worried more about Word Clues sentences, stabbings of Roman dictators and turning in assignments. Besides, I thought of him as more of a contented Lab back in those days.

You can read her response to extra questions (Brokeback Mountain, the "moldy cheese layer" of Sandpoint here.

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