Robert - Today - Needless Hugging

There’s the shake and lean; the hug from behind; and, the newest addition, the triple — any combination of three girls and boys hugging at once.

“We’re not afraid, we just get in and hug,” said Danny Schneider, a junior at the school, where hallway hugging began shortly after 7 a.m. on a recent morning as students arrived. “The guy friends, we don’t care. You just get right in there and jump in.”

“If somebody were to not hug someone, to never hug anybody, people might be just a little wary of them and think they are weird or peculiar,” said Gabrielle Brown, a freshman at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan.

Comforting as the hug may be, principals across the country have clamped down. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal of George G. White School, a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., who banned hugging two years ago. “It was needless hugging — they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn’t a greeting. It was happening all day.”
For this and much, much more, see the paper of record.

Margo - December 1983

I am in class right now but this man is a dreadful bore and his speech is imprecise and sloppy. I pass. This is one of those irritating, time-consuming, trivial education courses. I only came to hand something in. And you know what bugs me? He is using the overhead projector but the transparencies are permanent and he doesn't need to write anything but the asshole has his pen uncapped. That just bugs the heck out of me.

I'm not going to Istanbul. I'm too tired. I'm just gonna stay here in Akron. That way I won't have to pack or discard anything. I can just sit here.

I read Valley of the Dolls again Sunday but I got to the part where Anne decides to use her money to get Lyon to stay in New York and I just couldn't go on. It's too sad and I've already been through it once. I want to see the movie.

I read Homer's Odyssey last night before I went to sleep and all night I had dreams about gods in the modern world. It was really fun.

WHY DOESN'T HE STOP TALKING, ROBERT? HE KEEPS BRINGING UP NEW THINGS AND THEY'RE ALL IMPRACTICAL IDEAS THAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. THAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. HE KEEPS TALKING. I WISH HE WOULD STOP TALKING. HE'S TALKING ABOUT WHAT HE'S GOING TO TALK ABOUT NEXT WEEK. GOD.