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February 15, 2008

Notes from Ferdy - Another School Shooting

by Ferdinand T Cat

It is always upsetting to hear of a school shooting, but it is especially frightening if you have a personal connection to the school. Bruce got his MS degree at Northern Illinois University. It's also where he met his wife. This was why the headline caught his eye. Then he remembered that his friend Gordon teaches there on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Gordon is one of the top people in the world when it comes to analyzing patterns in DNA, and Bruce is the closest thing he has to an over-protective, nagging parent. Thankfully, the shooting was well away from the Computer Science building and Gordon was unharmed.

Gordon is a true scientist in every sense of the word, and when Bruce called in a frantic panic, Gordon immediately launched into a lecture on the follies of gun control. He explained that if teachers were all armed, school shootings would cease to exist. On the other hand, Bruce taught for one semester at NIU, and if he had carried a gun, he would almost certainly have shot himself by accident. Everything's a trade-off.

For the time being, NIU has decided to keep the shooter's identity a secret. The theory is that people who see a shooting spree as a ticket to fame will be discouraged by the news blackout. I hope it works out that way. On the other hand, all of us will want to know why this happened so that we can prevent it from happening again. That's a trade-off, too.

We will return to our regular programming tomorrow.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


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Well Ferdy, I seriously doubt that Bruce would have shot himself...IMHO him shooting himself is about as likely as the dynamite in him mouth actually going off.

Respects
dean0


Posted by: dean0 at February 18, 2008 11:17 AM

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