#TN School Reopening

[karuppuezhutthu-blog]

TN School Reopen: சம்மர் லீவ் முடிய போகுது... ஸ்கூல் எப்போ ஓப்பன் தெரியுமா..?

தமிழ்நாட்டில் 1 முதல் 12ஆம் வகுப்பு வரை பயிலும் மாணவர்களுக்குத் தேர்வுகள் முடிந்து, கோடை விடுமுறை விடப்பட்டு உள்ளது. முன்பெல்லாம் மே மாதம் முடிந்து ஜூன் மாதத்தின் முதல் தேதியில் பள்ளிகள் மீண்டும் திறக்கப்படும். ஆனால் இந்த ஆண்டு நிலவிய வரலாறு காணாத வெயிலின் தாக்கத்தால், நடப்பு கல்வியாண்டில் ஜூன் முதல் வாரத்தில் பள்ளிகள் திறக்கப்படுமா அல்லது தள்ளிப்போகுமா என்ற கேள்வி நிலவி வந்தது. தமிழ்நாட்டின் பல…

[lenbryant]

(Long Post Atlantic) Rural Republicans Are Fighting to Save Their Public Schools

Many state legislators see voucher programs as a threat to the anchors of their communities.

By Alec MacGillis

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.

This article is a collaboration between The Atlantic and ProPublica.

Drive an hour south of Nashville into the rolling countryside of Marshall County, Tennessee—past horse farms, mobile homes, and McMansions—and you will arrive in Chapel Hill, population 1,796. It’s the birthplace of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan. And it’s the home of Todd Warner, one of the most unlikely and important defenders of America’s besieged public schools.

Warner is the gregarious 53-year-old owner of PCS of TN, a 30-person company that does site grading for shopping centers and other construction projects. The second-term Republican state representative “absolutely” supports Donald Trump, who won Marshall County by 50 points in 2020. Warner likes to talk of the threats posed by culture-war bogeymen, such as critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and Sharia law.

And yet, one May afternoon in his office, under a TV playing Fox News and a mounted buck that he’d bagged in Alabama, he told me about his effort to halt Republican Governor Bill Lee’s push for private-school vouchers in Tennessee. Warner’s objections are rooted in the reality of his district: It contains not a single private school, so to Warner, taxpayer money for the new vouchers would clearly be flowing elsewhere, mostly to well-off families in metro Nashville, Memphis, and other cities whose kids are already enrolled in private schools. Why should his small-town constituents be subsidizing the private education of metropolitan rich kids? “I’m for less government, but it’s government’s role to provide a good public education,” he said. “If you want to send your kid to private school, then you should pay for it.”

The coronavirus pandemic provided a major boost to supporters of school vouchers, who argued that extended public-school closures—and the on-screen glimpses they afforded parents of what was being taught to their kids—underscored the need to give parents greater choice in where to send their children. Eleven states, led by Florida and Arizona, now have universal or near-universal vouchers, meaning that even affluent families can receive thousands of dollars toward their kids’ private-school tuition.

Read: Salvaging education in rural America

The beneficiaries in these states are mostly families whose kids were already enrolled in private schools, not families using the vouchers to escape struggling public schools. In larger states, the annual taxpayer tab for the vouchers is close to $1 billion, leaving less money for public schools at a time when they already face the loss of federal pandemic aid.

Voucher advocates, backed by a handful of billionaire funders, are on the march to bring more red and purple states into the fold for “school choice,” their preferred terminology for vouchers. And again and again, they are running up against rural Republicans like Warner, who are joining forces with Democratic lawmakers in a rare bipartisan alliance. That is, it’s the reddest regions of these red and purple states that are putting up some of the strongest resistance to the conservative assault on public schools.

Conservative orthodoxy at the national level holds that parents must be given an out from a failing public-education system that force-feeds children progressive fads. But many rural Republican lawmakers have trouble reconciling this with the reality in their districts, where many public schools are not only the sole educational option, but also the largest employer and the hub of the community—where everyone goes for holiday concerts, Friday-night football, and basketball. Unlike schools in blue metro areas, rural schools mostly reopened for in-person instruction in the fall of 2020, and they are far less likely to be courting controversy on issues involving race and gender.

Demonizing public education in the abstract is one thing. But it’s quite another when the target is the school where you went, where your kids went. For Todd Warner, that was Forrest High School, in Chapel Hill. “My three kids graduated from public schools, and they turned out just fine,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of our students, our future business owners, our future leaders, are going to the public schools. They’re not going to private. Why take it away from them?”

The response from voucher proponents to the resistance from fellow Republicans has taken several forms, all of which implicitly grant the critics’ case that voucher programs currently offer little benefit to rural areas. In some states, funding for vouchers is being paired with more money for public schools, to offer support for rural districts. In Ohio, voucher advocates are proposing to fund the construction of new private schools in rural areas where none exist, giving families places to use vouchers.

But the overriding Republican response to rural skeptics has been a political threat: Get with the program on vouchers, or else.

That’s what played out this year in Ohio’s Eighty-Third District, in the state’s rural northwest. Last summer, Ohio adopted universal private-school vouchers, with middle- and working-class families eligible for up to $8,407 per high-school student and even the very wealthiest families eligible for almost $1,000 per child. Private-school leaders urged already enrolled families to seek the money, and more than 140,000 families applied for vouchers. The cost has exceeded estimates, approaching $1 billion, with most of it going to the parochial schools that dominate the state’s private-school landscape. Voucher advocates are now pushing to create educational savings accounts to cover tuition at unchartered private schools that are not eligible for the vouchers.

Read: Do private school vouchers promote segregation?

School leaders in Hardin County—with its cornfields, solar-panel installations, and what was once one of the largest dairy farms east of the Mississippi—are deeply worried that vouchers stand to hurt county residents. Only a single small private school is within reach, one county to the south, which means that virtually no local taxpayers would see any of that voucher money themselves—it would be going to private-school families in Columbus, Cincinnati, and other large population centers. (And under Ohio law, the very public schools that are losing students must pay to transport any students who attend private institutions within a half-hour drive of the public school.)

Craig Hurley, the superintendent for Hardin’s Upper Scioto Valley District, is a solidly built 52-year-old who calls himself a staunch conservative. He attended the district’s schools and has worked in them for 30 years. He knows that they provide meals to 400 students, nearly two-thirds of whom qualify for free and reduced lunch. Even though the high school can muster only 20 players for football—basketball fares better—the fans come out to cheer. “Our district is our community,” he told me. “The more you separate that, the less of a community we’re going to be.”

Hurley has calculated that local schools are receiving less state funding per student than what private schools now receive for the maximum possible voucher amount. Yet private schools face almost none of the accountability that public schools do regarding how the money is spent and what outcomes it achieves. “We have fiscal responsibility on all of it, on every dime, every penny we spend,” he said. “There’s no audit for them.” Not to mention, he added, “a private school doesn’t have to accept all students, right? They pick who they want.”

Thirteen miles east, Chad Thrush, the school superintendent in Kenton, the county seat, noted that his school system is the second-largest employer in town, after Graphic Packaging, which makes plastic cups for vending machines. He worries that the rising cost of the voucher program will erode state funding for public schools, and he worries about what would happen to his district if a new private school opened in town. Thrush understands the appeal of vouchers for parents who want a leg up for their kid. But, he told me, “we need to be looking at how we’re preparing all students to be successful, not just my student.”

As it happens, the two superintendents have a crucial ally in Columbus: their state representative, Jon Cross. Like Warner in Tennessee, Cross is an ardent pro-Trump conservative, and deeply opposed to private-school vouchers. At a legislative hearing last year, he cut loose at a lobbyist for Americans for Prosperity—the conservative advocacy group founded by the industrialist Koch brothers—who was testifying for vouchers, one of the organization’s long-standing causes. “Wouldn’t we be better off taking some money in our budget to fix the schools?” Cross said. “I tell you what, I really like my public schools. I’m really proud that Carson and Connor, my sons, go to Kenton City Schools and get an education from there just like I did.”

The schools in Hardin and Marshall Counties are majority white. But some rural Republican legislators in other states have been willing to buck their party leaders on vouchers even in more racially diverse districts. In Georgia, of the 15 Republican state representatives who blocked a voucher proposal last year, more than half came from rural areas with substantial Black populations. One of them was Gerald Greene, who spent more than three decades as a high-school social-studies teacher and has managed to survive as a Republican in his majority-Black district in the state’s southwestern corner after switching parties in 2010.

Greene believes vouchers will harm his district. It has a couple of small private schools in it or just outside it—with student bodies that are starkly more white than the district’s public schools—but the majority of his constituents rely on the public schools, and he worries that vouchers will leave less money for them. “I just felt like we were abandoning our public schools,” he told me. “I’m not against private schools at all, but I just did not see how these vouchers would help southwestern Georgia.”

After failing to pass a voucher program last year, the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and proponents in the legislature tried again this year, and this time they succeeded, albeit with vouchers more constrained than elsewhere: They can be used only by students in school districts that are ranked in the bottom quartile and whose families make less than 400 percent of the poverty level ($120,000 for a family of four), and their total cost can’t exceed 1 percent of the state’s total education budget, which caps them now at $140 million.

Partisan pressures simply became too strong for some skeptical Republicans, including Greene’s counterpart in the Senate, Sam Watson. Seminole County Superintendent Mark Earnest told me about the conversation in which Watson let him know that he was going to have to support the limited vouchers. “They have turned this into a caucus priority. It’s getting very political,” Watson said. “Thanks for letting me know,” Earnest replied, “but all vouchers are bad for public education.” Watson’s response: “I know, but I couldn’t go with the Democrats. Sorry.” (Watson did not respond to a request for comment.)

The highest-profile rural Republican resistance to vouchers has come in Texas, the land of Friday Night Lights and far-flung oil-country settlements where the public schools anchor communities. Late last year, the Texas House voted 84–63 to strip vouchers out of a broad education bill. In response, Governor Greg Abbott launched a purge of anti-voucher Republicans in this year’s primaries, backed by millions of dollars from the Pennsylvania mega-donor Jeff Yass, a finance billionaire.

Among those targeted was Drew Darby, who represents a sprawling 10-county district in West Texas, and who frames the issue in starkly regional terms: The state’s metro areas depend on his constituents to provide “food, fiber, and hide,” to “tend the oil wells and wind turbines to provide electricity to people who want to be just a little cooler in the cities.” But without good public schools, these rural areas will wither. “Robert Lee, Winters, Sterling, Blackwell,” he said, listing some hamlets—“these communities exist because they have strong public schools. They would literally not exist without a good public-school system.”

Darby, a fiscal conservative, is also opposed to a new entitlement for private-school families that is projected to soon cost $2 billion a year. “In rural Texas, there’s not a whole lot of private-school options, and we want our schools to get every dollar they can. This doesn’t add $1, and it’s not good for rural Texas.”

Darby managed to stave off his primary challenge, but 11 of the 15 voucher resisters targeted by Abbott lost, several in races so close that they went to a runoff. Abbott is unapologetic: “Congratulations to all of tonight’s winners,” he said after the runoff. “Together, we will ensure the best future for our children.”

Also succumbing to his primary challenger was Jon Cross, in western Ohio. His opponent, Ty Mathews, managed to make the campaign about more than just vouchers, taking sides in a bitter leadership split within the GOP caucus. And for all the concerns that local school leaders have about the effect of vouchers, the threat remained abstract to many voters. “I’m not worried about it, because we don’t have the revenue here anyways in this town for anything to be taken from us to be given to a bigger town,” one 60-year-old woman told me after casting her vote for Mathews. A younger woman asked simply: “What exactly are the vouchers?”

But in Tennessee, Todd Warner and his allies staved off the threat again this year. To overcome rural resistance, voucher proponents in the Tennessee House felt the need to constrain them and pair them with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding for public schools, but this was at odds with the state Senate’s more straightforward voucher legislation. The two chambers were unable to come to an agreement before the session’s end in April, by which point the House bill had not even made it to the floor for a vote.

For Democratic voucher opponents in the state, the alliance with Warner and other rural Republicans was as helpful as it was unusual. “It was strange,” Representative Sam McKenzie, a Black Democrat from Knoxville, told me. McKenzie compared it to Twins, a movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito played unlikely fraternal twins: “Representative Warner and I were in lockstep opposition to this voucher scam.”

Watch: Why school choice fails

One voucher supporter, Representative Scott Cepicky, told me he was confident that his side would eventually prevail. “We’ll work on this again next year,” he said. “The governor is committed that we’re going to run on school choice again.” And Americans for Prosperity has made clear that it’s coming after voucher opponents. Its Tennessee state director, Tori Venable, told Warnerduring the legislative session that “I can’t protect you if you ain’t on the right side of this.”

Another conservative group, the American Federation for Children, sent out a text message in March attacking Warner for his opposition to “parental rights,” without using the term vouchers. And a retired teacher in Marshall County, Gwen Warren, told me she and her husband recently got a visit from an Americans for Prosperity canvasser citing Warner’s opposition to vouchers. “She said, ‘We’re going around the neighborhood trying to talk to people about vouchers. We feel like Tennesseans really want the voucher system.’” To which, Warren said, her husband replied, “You’re very much mistaken, lady. We don’t want vouchers in this county, and you need to go away.”

Warner remains unfazed by all this. He is pretty sure that his voucher opposition in fact helped him win his seat in 2020, after the incumbent Republican voted for a pilot voucher system limited to Nashville and Memphis. And he notes that no one has registered to challenge him in the state’s August 1 primary. “They tried to find a primary opponent but couldn’t,” he said with a chuckle. “I was born and raised here all my life. My family’s been here since the 18th century. I won’t say I can’t be beat, but bring your big-boy pants and come on, let’s go.”

This article is a collaboration between The Atlantic and ProPublica.

[all-about-news24x7]

TN schools reopen for classes 6 to 12 - News Today

Schools for students of Classes 6 to 12 in Tamil Nadu reopened today after summer vacation. It may be recalled that school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had announced that for the classes from 6 to 12 the schools would reopen on 1June 2. He added that for the classes from 1 to 5,  the schools would reopen on 5 June. But due to scorching summer, he later said schools will reopen on…

[jamesagent]

TN COLLEGES ARE RE-OPENED AND NOT SCHOOLS RE-OPENED

The TN government has made the announcement the colleges for the first-year students or who joined in the academic year 2020 – 2021 will open on February 1, 2021. The re-opening of the school date is not announced still. As early announced by the TN Government the colleges are opened on December 7, 2020. The government is also allowed the colleges to open the mess and hostels.

https://www.tnresultsnicin.in/tn-colleges-are-re-opened-and-not-schools-re-opened/

[snvdhaba]

TN school reopen date 2021|2021 school reopen date|

[ewnsnews]

TN schools to reopen for classes 1 to 8 from November 1; Covid restrictions extended till Oct 31

TN schools to reopen for classes 1 to 8 from November 1; Covid restrictions extended till Oct 31

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday announced that it would allow schools to reopen for classes 1 to 8 beginning from November 1. The decision was taken following a meeting by chief minister MK Stalin along with state officials to control the spread of Covid-19 in the state, the state government said in its order. Already, students belonging to classes 9 to 12 have been attending schools…

[hummingzone]

School Reopening News: Latest Updates From Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, WB, Other States

School Reopening News: Latest Updates From Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, WB, Other States

School reopening information: Latest updates from Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, WB, different states (representational) Image credit score: Shutterstock New Delhi: More states have not too long ago made bulletins relating to reopening colleges and different academic establishments for bodily courses. While some are considering the transfer, the others have already fastened dates for resuming offline…

[go-21newstv]

Chennai: Parents want schools to reopen for Classes X, XII - Times of India

Chennai: Parents want schools to reopen for Classes X, XII – Times of India

CHENNAI: A majority of parents of students in city schools now want them reopened for Classes X and XII after the Pongal holidays. Just two months earlier, most of them wanted schools to remain shut. The declining Covid-19 cases, rolling out of a vaccine, and anxiety over the board exams could have led to the change of heart, said principals after meeting with parents on Wednesday and Thursday.…

[jamesagent]

TN School Reopen Nov – 16 Postponed

TN government decided to postpone the decision of reopening the school on November 16, 2020. The reopening date of the school will be announced later and the feedback from the parents.

https://www.tnresultsnicin.in/tn-school-reopen-nov-16-postponed/

[trendsfashion27]

Video | Tamil Nadu Holds Off On Reopening Schools For Classes 9-12 Next Week

Video | Tamil Nadu Holds Off On Reopening Schools For Classes 9-12 Next Week

[ad_1]

The Tamil Nadu government has reversed its decision to reopen schools from November 16 for classes 9 and above, nearly two weeks after it announced the reopening for classes 9 to 12 with coronavirus safety norms. Like in most parts of the country, schools have been closed in Tamil Nadu for over seen months since the beginning of the pandemic.

[thranduilsperkybutt]

Warnings:  Racism

Gif source:  Reid

Imagine taking Reid back to your hometown of Memphis, TN to meet your family and show him around town but you two have to deal with disapproving looks and jeers from people because you’re a black woman dating a white guy which makes you uncomfortable.

---------  Request for @sacredwarrior88  ---------

The cashier takes one look at Spencer beside you, eyes raking up his form as her lips purse disapprovingly, before she glances back to you as your receipt prints, “Good to see you back in town. How long’s it been? Your mama must have been missin’ you. Run off to a big city, it’s easy to forget about home.” Her smile is cheery, and just as fake as you remember it being in high school.

You return a smile just as fake, as you take your receipt from her outstretched hand, “Thanks, but my mama knows I’ve got my own life away from here. She’s real supportive.”

“Supportive, huh?” her eyes glance back to Spencer, with a raise of her brow that told you all you needed to know of what she was thinking, even before she reopened her mouth to snidely remark, “Must be a real nice lady. My mama wouldn’t be as... understanding about some of your choices, sweetie.”

“Really?” you raise a brow, and can’t keep yourself from snapping back, “Cause she seemed real understanding these past couple years. How is your husband, by the way, Cindy? Which one is it, now--- number four?” She audibly gasps at that, but your smile only grows tighter, as you take Spencer’s hand and make to leave with your groceries. “Let him know I say, ‘hi.’ Your mom, too.”

Tugging Spencer out the door, he trails after you, “What was that all about?”

You roll your eyes, making your way across the lot to your car, “This town, there’s a reason I left it, Spence. Folks here aren’t as understanding about some things.”

“Like what?”

“Like you and me.”

[thedaltonsanctuary]

Welcome NOAH PUCKERMAN to the Dalton Sanctuary as a DOMINANT STAFF. Please send in your blog within the next 48 hours or we will have to reopen your role. You may begin dash activity immediately, no need to wait for anything else once your blog is made.

✎ OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

ALIAS/PRONOUNS: Azi / They/Them AGE: 27 TIMEZONE: PST TRIGGERS: ANYTHING ELSE: Puck’s FC - Grey Damon

✎ IN CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Noah Joseph Puckerman AGE/BIRTHDAY: 31 GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis-Male / He/Him SUB/DOMINANT/SWITCH?: Dominant STAFF/RESIDENT/VISITOR?: Staff - Firefighter SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Often, (pansexual / polyamorous)   KINKS: Bondage, CTB, Orgasm Control/Denial, M/s, Daddy Kink, Public sex, impact play, sensory play, TPE ANTI-KINKS: Vore, Gore, Scat, Feet, ABDL, DDLG, DDLB

✎ BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Noah Puckerman was born in Knoxville, TN, in 1989. Though he technically had a father, he was never really around, and as Puck grew, he stopped considering him his father and just considered him his sperm donor. After his sister Sarah was born, that’s when his Dad really fucked off. For most of his life, it was just him, and his mom, and eventually his sister. To say that Puck had a tendency to ‘act out’ was an understatement: he was always getting into trouble, always getting sent to the principal’s office, or getting detention. He was held back in middle school, for one year, and had to take summer school just to get into high school. He’d always been a troubled kid, most of which was definitely contributed to how infrequent his father was around. Puck grew up being told that he was a loser, who would never leave Knoxville, and was destined to be a loser for the rest of his life. He didn’t have the best grades in school, and though he was good at sports, he never excelled enough to get a scholarship. The only thing he really succeeded at was sleeping around, thus resulting in having the sex shark reputation. This reputation is the reason that, in his junior year, he got someone pregnant. It was a night where, unlike most nights, he forgot protection, wine coolers were consumed, and mistakes were made. The girl this happened with was someone he had been in love with, not that he’d ever said anything, but she was transferred away before the kid was born.

He barely graduated high school and didn’t get into a single college. When he was given the test and marked Dominant, that came as no surprise to people, but they also had little hope that he would ever find a claim, especially not before 25. That wasn’t a concern for him, because he didn’t care.

After working construction jobs, he eventually got fed-up with feeling like a nobody, and wanted to be more than just some Knoxville Loser.

Puck decided to attend a job fair one weekend, to see what options were out there for a high school graduate with no college education. Due to his arrest record, being a cop was out of the question, and paramedic seemed like a lot more school than he wanted. He eventually wound up at the firefighter table, and talked to the guy who was there. Within a week… he was enrolled.

Thanks to his athleticism, the physical aspect of the job was easy for him, and though the written wasn’t as good, he studied his ass off and managed to get a good enough grade that he was accepted. He had never been more proud of himself in his life.

He got assigned a station, and jumped right into the job. He’s been a firefighter for the last 9 years, and made it to the rank of lieutenant.

Throughout his years, Puck eventually found a submissive, someone that understood he was poly, but that he would also be devoted to his partner in as many ways as he could be. They entered a claim, and Puck was happy. Unfortunately, Puck also knew that both his and her job were dangerous; that’s what you get for being a firefighter in a claim with a cop.

One night, his sub got a call, routine, nothing he should have been worried about. This was the call she never came home from.

Ever since, Puck has not been in a claim with anyone, but needed to leave Knoxville and go somewhere else. He had no worry to find a claim, he honestly didn’t want one, because losing Nat broke his heart, not that he’d ever say it, and couldn’t do it again.

The Dalton Sanctuary intrigued him, and though he knew that the gig wouldn’t be even close to the same as being in a bigger city, with more calls, a fresh start, where no one knew him, seemed like a great idea.

[jamesagent]

TN Classes 9 to 12 And Colleges Reopen Date

The educational institutions are allowed to function with standing rules and instructions from November 16. And also said that the school and colleges reopening date will be informed after the complete discussion with the government higher officials, with the doctors and the school principals, and also with the parents.

https://www.tnresultsnicin.in/tn-classes-9-to-12-and-colleges-reopen-date/

[mikemcdougal-photo]

Cave City, KY - Part One

A trip close to two years in the making and a strange destination for a multitude of reasons, embarking on the four-hour drive to Cave City, KY was almost a bildungsroman of sorts for someone approaching middle age, if that’s even possible. Per my past post I am aware that I have no concept of elapsed time and constantly feel younger than I am so as I pulled out of the driveway, finally leaving for a trip I never thought I’d complete, I felt like a teenager. Almost like I was doing something wrong or leaving home for the first time for my first solo trip. There was excitement, but more than excitement was a sense of scripted freedom. Scripted in the sense that my stops were planned with a loose itinerary of stops to photograph along the way. This wasn’t a vacation by any means. This was an assignment.

In an attempt to capture as many roadside curiosities as I could, I navigated back roads through rural Tennessee into Kentucky. This usually proves to be beneficial as I normally find some good stops along the way, but this route ultimately gave way to 30mph curvy backroads with nowhere to pull over even if I wanted to. It did put me through the city of Carthage before crossing the state line. The highway I was on put me through what I believe to be their “downtown” area which was in complete disrepair. I would have stayed and explored more but I was on a schedule and couldn’t squeeze it in. I did however, come across the town of Red Boiling Springs, TN and that was a quick, easy stop to make.

Some of these towns don’t appear to have a single person living in them and when you do see someone, its automatic horror movie vibes like you’re being poached from behind someone’s screened in porch. I say this only in jest as most people I encounter while out shooting either leave me alone or are just curious as to what I’m doing. It’s not often that I run into anyone going out of their way to be a dick.

I saw exactly one passing car in Red Boiling Springs but had that feeling like I was being watched the entire time. I’d be curious too if some strange person rolled up and just jumped out of their car and started taking pictures of weird shit. You can ask me questions, it’s okay, but I’d honestly just rather we didn’t interact. I’m just here to document your town.

My next stop was my destination, the once booming town of Cave City, KY! The last time I was in Cave City was Thanksgiving weekend of 2001. My then two best friends and two others took off for a weekend at Mammoth Cave. We loaded up in his Chrysler minivan with bottles of blackberry brandy and peach schnapps and next to nothing else. I personally don’t even remember eating while we were gone. We were just dumb high school friends who got ahold of some liquor and wanted to get drunk and have fun. I don’t remember much about the town, just the motel we stayed at and visiting Mammoth Cave National Park the next day. I guess this was the beginning of my memories being muddled by alcohol.

A ghost town by definition, Cave City strives to thrive but the people who live and work there have adapted to some unconventional ways to generate cash flow while other areas which have been closed and reopened throughout the years are once again reopen with new and updated attractions.

My first stop in Cave City was the Mammoth Cave Wildlife Museum. A main point of personal interest as a campy stop that I really wanted to photograph. First opening its doors in 1969, the museum features more than 1,600 preserved animal specimens from all over the world. The tour begins with a massive, preserved butterfly room that includes moths, beetles and other insects and then leads to the Musk Ox, the only feature in the museum that can be viewed for free.  

After leaving the museum I haphazardly rushed over to Mammoth Cave National Park to try to jump on a tour, knowing that I can view tour departure times online but choosing to ignore this fact until cell service was nonexistent. I made a stop as I entered the park so I could take what would end up being one of my only “tourist” photos with the MCNP sign. A couple was struggling to setup their phone, so I asked them if they wanted to trade, I’ll take theirs and they take mine. From there it was straight to the visitor center to see what tours were available. The best tour for your time and money appears to be the Historic Tour, and from the standpoint that I set out to photograph it, was the perfect tour for me. It set off in 45 minutes which gave me time to check out the gift shop because I must buy stickers to show everyone the cool things I’ve done but then have a mild panic attack whenever I use that sticker and realize its permanent. It also gave me time to go to the car and use my vape pen to get nice and elevated before my tour began.

The Historic Tour comes in right at two hours and covers two miles. For $20 and being able to support the National Park Service, it’s an amazing deal and opportunity. The tour begins at the historic entrance, descending 160 stairs into the massive entrance. Once you’re inside you walk to the Rotunda, the sixth largest room discovered in the cave and begin and end your tour here. From here the tour weaves through passageways and landmarks while park rangers tell stories at stops.

The weather outside was in the high 90’s with the humidity not far behind and the cave consistently remains in the mid 50’s. As we made our way closer to the entrance the air become freezing at the hot air was pulling cold air out of the cave creating wind strong enough at some points to blow your hair.

Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world and goddamn fascinating to walk through something so intricate that took millions of years to create. Places so cut off from the outside world that even for a national park, few have ventured to see. Places where early settlers used the cave for refuge; to survive. Evidence of humans in the cave dates back 5,000 years however most visible evidence now are names and dates candled and carved into the limestone and saltpeter vats from mining for the war of 1812. The lighting that’s been installed creates ethereal shadows that stretch along the walls and ceiling and the reddish hue is reminiscent of a Martian landscape.

After finishing the tour and taking time to watch and photograph a deer that was eating near the entrance, I made my way toward the city of Horse Cave where my motel was located. A lot of what drew me to Cave City was how bustling the town once was, hitting its prime in the 60’s and 70’s, the motel signage that litters the main highway every few miles is a true testament of the traffic that once came through here. A lot of motel signs that I wanted to photograph were located along the same 5 mile stretch between the turn to get to the park and my motel, so I was able to knock quite a few things from my list on my way to check in. One of my most looked forward to places to photograph was the Wigwam Village #2. The vision of Frank A. Redford and built in 1937 it was one of 7 Wigwam Villages spread across the country and one of only three remaining today, each wigwam features a bed and full bathroom. The main Wigwam is 52 feet tall and consists of 38 tons of concrete and 13 tons of steel. The structure used to contain a restaurant and gift shop but with the completion of Interstate 65 diverting traffic away from the town the restaurant closed in the mid 60’s. The gift shop remained open however when I visited it showed no signs of being open anytime recent. I tried to book a wigwam for my trip up, but they were booked out pretty far in advance. Regardless, I was able to stop and photograph the main wigwam and neon sign out front. This was a main stop, so I photographed this sign in the evening, morning and night to capture all different light.

[newswriteronline]

தமிழகத்தில் எப்போது பள்ளிகள் திறக்கப்படும்? அதிகாரப்பூர்வ அறிவிப்பு உள்ளே! | TN Schools Reopening Date, only when conditions are safe

தமிழகத்தில் எப்போது பள்ளிகள் திறக்கப்படும்? அதிகாரப்பூர்வ அறிவிப்பு உள்ளே! | TN Schools Reopening Date, only when conditions are safe

கொரோனா ஊரடங்கின் காரணமாக பள்ளிகள் மூடப்பட்டுள்ள நிலையில், எப்போது பள்ளி, கல்லூரிகள் திறக்கப்படும் என்று தமிழ்நாடு அரசு சென்னை உயர் நீதிமன்றத்தில் தெரிவித்துள்ளது. தமிழகத்தில் எப்போது பள்ளிகள் திறக்கப்படும்? அதிகாரப்பூர்வ அறிவிப்பு உள்ளே! கொரோனா ஊரடங்கின் காரணமாக நாடு முழுவதும் கடந்த மார்ச் மாத இறுதி முதல் ஊரடங்கு அறிவிக்கப்பட்டு பள்ளி, கல்லூரிகள் மூடப்பட்டுள்ளன. குறிப்பாக, அன்லாக் முறையில்…