[GeronL]

It’s called a mailing list.

They are not affiliated with the schools. They charge huge prices for a bargain basement travel-tour package where the kids will learn nada.

Trips they could have done for a third of the price or less and without being treated like sardines.

[aruanan]

It’s called a mailing list.

They are not affiliated with the schools. They charge huge prices for a bargain basement travel-tour package where the kids will learn nada.

I'm sure it was a mailing list, but the way that particular son got on it would only have been through something particular to him; and the only thing at that time would have been the instrument rental.

There was another time a year ago or so she called me saying that someone claiming to be from the payroll department of the Chicago Public Schools was coming to her house to check over her information and that of her family. I said that people in the bureaucracy are not going to waste their time making house calls out of the blue and than if someone does show up, don't let the person into the house or show him any sort of personal information: if the caller was really from the payroll department, he would already have all the relevant information such as SS numbers, etc., as required by the department for purposes of paying her.

As an aside, after the Newsweek mag came out naming Obama the first gay president, this woman's husband told me that if that had happened in Iraq during the time of Saddam, the person writing the article, the one publishing it, their families, relatives, and friends would all have been killed by Saddam. I guess after a life like that it could be hard to distinguish between actual authority and someone claiming authority and to say "screw you" to the latter.