We’re not quite ready for a full week, but best of luck focusing as we return for four days of education. Given that yesterday was labor day, today’s post focuses on work, even though most of us spent it in vacation.

Poem of the Day

Mother Washing Dishes by Susan Meyers

She rarely made us do it—
we’d clear the table instead—so my sister and I teased
that some day we’d train our children right
and not end up like her, after every meal stuck
with red knuckles, a bleached rag to wipe and wring.
The one chore she spared us: gummy plates
in water greasy and swirling with sloughed peas,
globs of egg and gravy.

Or did she guard her place
at the window? Not wanting to give up the gloss
of the magnolia, the school traffic humming.
Sunset, finches at the feeder. First sightings
of the mail truck at the curb, just after noon,
delivering a note, a card, the least bit of news.

[pextestim name=”Sentence of the Day: Martin Luther King, Jr.” img=”https://quixoticpedagogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mlk.jpg”]“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”[/pextestim]

Fascinating Factoid

If you are thinking about a career in bank robbery, you may want to think again. Economists studying bank robberies in England found that it just isn’t worth the risk, as John Timmer notes:

The basic problem is the average haul from a bank job: for the three-year period, it was only £20,330.50 (~$31,613). And it gets worse, as the average robbery involved 1.6 thieves. So the authors conclude, “The return on an average bank robbery is, frankly, rubbish. It is not unimaginable wealth. It is a very modest £12,706.60 per person per raid.”

“Given that the average UK wage for those in full-time employment is around £26,000, it will give him a modest life-style for no more than 6 months,” the authors note. If a robber keeps hitting banks at a rate sufficient to maintain that modest lifestyle, by a year and a half into their career, odds are better than not they’ll have been caught. “As a profitable occupation, bank robbery leaves a lot to be desired.”

Worse still, the success of a robbery was a bit like winning the lottery, as the standard deviation on the £20,330.50 was £53,510.20. That means some robbers did far better than average, but it also means that fully a third of robberies failed entirely.

Word Power

OLIGARCHY (ol-i-gahr-kee): rule by the few.
Example: “Back in my country I have many family members, but only my grandparents can make decisions. It’s kind of an oligarchy, but my grandma makes the best pies so it is worth it,” stated Francesco.

Events of September 04

• In 476, the last Western Roman Emperor was deposed.
• In 1908, the American author Richard Wright was born.