DragonMyst's Den GreyPage 9

School/Witchcraft

Osiris Statue Resurrected

By Buck Wolf ABCNEWS.com A LIAR'S GHOST How's this for intuition? National Psychic Week begins in August and most professional psychics don't even know about it. "Wow, this was a complete surprise to me," Gail Summer, president of the American Association of Professional Psychics, told ABCNEWS.com. "Just because we're clairvoyant doesn't mean we know everything," she said. "We're psychics, not gods." Hard-driving Hollywood press agent Richard R. Falk dreamed up National Psychic Week in 1965. But Chase's Calendar of Events and similar references don't explain why. It's a mystery Falk apparently took to his grave in 1994, after half a century of outlandish PR. One of Falk's specialties was dreaming up spicy names for aspiring starlets -- such as Suzie Sunshine, Sugar Cane and Hope Diamond. One of his clients modeled an edible bikini made of frankfurters. Needless to say, none of those ventures hit it big. To ballyhoo the arrival of a flea circus, Falk booked a room for the star flea -- "The Great Herman" -- in New York's Waldorf-Astoria. Such antics inspired New York Mayor Robert Wagner to dub Falk "The Mayor of 42nd Street." "You need a press agent when you have something that's 50 percent real," he told the New York Times in 1991. "You make it a little fantastic or humorous, bring in enough pseudo-facts and the papers will buy it. I always say that everything I write is guaranteed to be 50 percent true." With that sort of resume, you'd think Falk instituted National Psychic Week in 1965 as another publicity gimmick. After all, one of his clients claimed to be a "Psychic to the Stars." But a psychic belonging to Summer's association offered ABCNEWS.com a telephone seance to communicate with Falk and ascertain his intentions. "I have a clear picture of him. I see a man with a great smile and intense eyes," said Barbara Gable, a Baltimore medium, who claimed to contact Falk from the Great Beyond as she spoke with this reporter. "This man has a great sense of humor. But he tells me he believes in National Psychic Day. ... He is a believer in the paranormal." Summer said she founded the psychic association in 1992 to certify psychics such as Gable and make sure they are ethically serving the public. The association, incidentally, has trademarked the term "Certified Psychic" and issues "accuracy certificates" to its members. The seance concluded with Gable announcing that Falk happily resides in the afterlife. Falk didn't mention, however, if he had ever finished the autobiography he was working on at the end of his life, which was to be titled Liar for Hire. P.S. Many years before he contracted lymphoma, Falk coined his own epitaph: "Famed Flack Who Exploited and Promoted Stars and Shows Finally Gets His Reward." SHOCK ROCK SYMPHONY Get ready for Mozart in a candy-colored Mohawk. Punk music is getting a classical makeover. A British group called the London Punkharmonic Orchestra has just released Symphony Of Destruction: Punk Goes Classical, the first CD that features classical renditions of punk rock classics. "This album recreates what the Sex Pistols might sound like if they were born in the 1750s instead of the 1950s," says Monty, a middle-aged punker who produced the record and goes only by his first name. Some of the high-velocity punk songs getting symphonic treatment include "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" by the Ramones, "Holiday In Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys and "White Riot" by the Clash. (Insert a safety pin in your ear and click here for a quick listen.) Punkers who hung up their nose rings long ago now give Monty the rebel yell for reinterpreting their music. But members of the Ramones and other hardcore legends appreciate what he's doing. "Punk had a lot to do with shocking the audience," Monty says. "Now a lot of guys from that era are on a golf course -- really mainstream, you know -- and bitch about everything. They're the ones who get shocked. Ironic, yeah?" On the evolutionary ladder of musical styles, punk's three-chord structure might make it some of the least sophisticated. But Monty says great symphonic music doesn't need to be complicated. "Great punk has a pure sound that just works whether if it's with distorted guitar or symphonic strings," he said. "Let's face it, if we covered groups like Foreigner and REO Speedwagon, it would really suck because they sucked." P.S. If you believe punk scribe Jack Rabid, Mozart and Handel were simply the punks of their day. After all, they were mad geniuses at war with the mainstream. Buck Wolf is a producer at ABCNEWS.com. The Wolf Files is a weekly feature of ABCNEWS.com. copyright(c)1998

School/Witchcraft

School is teaching Witchcraft

School is teaching witchcraft, critics say By Edgar Sanchez Bee Staff Writer (Published May 16, 1997) An experiment with the Waldorf teaching method at Oak Ridge Elementary School in Sacramento has come under fire from critics who claim the public school's program is emphasizing witchcraft instead of basic skills. About 20 angry parents and concerned citizens picketed the Oak Park school Thursday, demanding that it revert to a traditional learning system. Of the school's 26 teachers, 11 are expected to transfer to other campuses next fall. Some of them have been asked to leave because they don't want to take the Waldorf training and some because they don't agree with the Waldorf philosophy, officials in the Sacramento City Unified School District said. The pickets petitioned the district to end Waldorf at Oak Ridge, and to fire principal Irma Jue and the school's Waldorf resource teacher. Jue was unavailable for comment Thursday. But district officials defended the Waldorf system and said no one will be dismissed. Myths, fables and the study of ancient civilizations such as the Aztecs are part of the curriculum, which is why some parents may have reached erroneous conclusions, one district official said. "Civilizations such as the Aztecs worshiped the sun," but no one is being taught to idolize the bright star, said Sue Norwood, district spokeswoman. The new teaching method formally was launched at Oak Ridge Elementary in September and all 630 students are getting some aspects of the Waldorf learning system. The innovative concept in education was developed by philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1919 in Germany. His creative approach to learning emphasizes movement, craft, song and storytelling. On the Oak Ridge picket line, however, parents bearing the U.S. flag and various anti-Waldorf signs blasted the program's results. Under Waldorf, "the teaching methods are very slow," said Tina Means, a parent protester. "My son, a third-grader, is going into the fourth grade barely able to read." Means, 24, said her son has an attention-deficit disorder, "but he was always able to learn" when Oak Ridge had a traditional curriculum. Picket Terri Jennings said her two older children graduated from Oak Ridge several years ago with a good grasp of basic skills. But current students, including her first-grade daughter, are not absorbing "the basic skills needed for life," Jennings said. "Instead, they are being taught that the sun is God," she said. Marjie Espinoza said she walked the picket line to stand up for five nieces and nephews who attend the school. They and their classmates are being taught satanic beliefs and witchcraft, she said. "One of the teachers who is against Waldorf showed me some lesson plans," Espinoza said. "To me, they were like satanic, witchcraft." Katherine Lehman, the resource teacher who helped implement the school's Waldorf program, denied that witchcraft or other "pagan" beliefs are being taught. "I think it's ridiculous," she said. "Anyone can come in and watch what we're doing in our school. . . . It's a very rigorous program, academically structured." Although Oak Ridge is the city's only public school with a Waldorf curriculum, "this program has been going on worldwide for 75 years," she said. At Oak Ridge, the program is being bankrolled this year by a $253,000 federal grant. Funding in the 1995-96 school year totaled $238,000, much of it used to begin training the school's faculty in the Waldorf approach. Several pickets said they were "in the dark" as to what was happening at Oak Ridge until PLANS -- People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Groups -- began distributing leaflets outside the school. PLANS, based in the Bay Area, claims the Waldorf program is part of a "cult." District officials said PLANS has used rumors and other tactics in an unsuccessful effort to end Waldorf programs across the state. PLANS officials could not be reached for comment. The Waldorf program, initiated by a previous school board, has enjoyed some good successes at Oak Ridge, said Jay Schenirer, the board's new president. "Before we judge the outcome of this, we must make sure that everyone has visited the classrooms and seen what's going on. Then we can talk about it some more," he said. "But I'm convinced there is a problem if you have some parents who are upset," Schenirer said. "We need to work with them toward a solution."

Osiris Statue Resurrected

Osiris Statue Resurrected Friday, July 31, 1998 at 11:34:48 (EDT) STATUE OF ANCIENT GOD UNEARTHED-By The Associated Press, NY Times CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed a bronze statue of the ancient god Osiris in what was once a huge cemetery in the Nile Delta, according to a top antiquities official. The relic was found in San el-Hagar, about 100 miles northeast of Cairo, in a cemetery dating to Egypt's Roman period, Gaballah Ali Gaballah, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Thursday. The foot-high, 4.5-pound statue had been buried with other ancient artifacts, Gaballah said in a statement. Osiris, the god of the underworld, his wife, Isis, the goddess of fertility, and their son, Horus, were worshiped by ancient Egyptians.