NOTICE TO PARENTS
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Visit your neighborhood school – and more!
Learn about Eugene School District 4J schools. Start by visiting
your neighborhood school. With the district’s school choice policy,
parents may send their children to any school within the district,
provided there is space available. All 4J schools focus on nurturing
the success of each child.
You can enroll in your neighborhood school at any time. To
enroll in another district school, the school choice period is from
NOW until March 21 for the 2008–09 school year. The 4J Schools
Guide — available at any school, at the 4J Education Center, or
at www.4j.lane.edu — offers an overview of each school.
Schools throughout the district will be open for visits:
Monday, Jan. 28 - Thursday, Jan. 31
Monday, Feb. 25 - Friday, Feb. 29
Please phone ahead or visit www.4j.lane.edu as each school offers
different activities and times when parents can visit.
The Application Process
District-wide
Information Meetings
Meetings at the 4J Education Center,
200 N. Monroe, will provide general
information about the school
application and enrollment process.
Spanish translation will be provided.
Sat.
Feb. 23: 9 – 10 am
To enroll your child in a school
other than your neighborhood
school, parents should:
school, at the 4J Education
Center, 200 N. Monroe, or at
www.4j.lane.edu.
later than March 21 to the
4J Education Center.
letters
200 N. Monroe Street, Eugene, OR 97402
687-3481 www.4j.lane.edu
School’s open –
and you’re
welcome to visit.
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2305 West 11th Ave
4 FEBRUARY 21, 2008
EUGENE WEEKLY
BLOWING IT
ROAST SLUGS
More information is available at:
Eugene School District 4J
TO THE EDITOR
485-6308
Although I have the highest regard for
your outdoor columnist James Johnston’s
work, I have fi nally found myself at odds
with his advice and thus feel compelled to
respond to his “Wilderness 101” piece in the
Jan. 31 EW.
Johnston states that in a survival
situation it is inadvisable to eat bugs. “Do
you know how much energy you’ll burn
rustling up enough bugs to make a meal?”
he asks. He suggests that it is much more
practical to gobble down the headless
versions of Ariolimax columbianus, i.e. the
Pacifi c banana slug.
Whereas I have no particular aversion
to the consumption of one or several “slug
nuggets,” it would certainly be advisable to
throw them into your fi re and cook them into
a burnt marshmallow consistency (black
on the outside, mushy in the middle). This
will purge them of the glue-like slime that
is their natural defense against predators,
which takes a long and unpleasant time to
rinse from your tongue and the inside of
your mouth — don’t ask how I know this.
A better source of survival protein is this:
Scavenge the decaying snags nearby you as
well as logs on the forest fl oor and tear of
the bark and decaying humous until you
fi nd a nice colony of termites or carpenter
ants. Once you fi nd the brood chamber of
the colony where the juicy white grubs are,
then help yourself.
They both have a rich, nutty fl avor, and
even a large man with a hearty appetite could
get a suffi cient meal. The adult termites are
also quite palatable and a little bit crunchy.
The ants have a bit of an acrid taste though.
C’est la vie.
Once you are done, cover up the colony
you have exposed and return when you are
hungry again — it’ll take them awhile to
catch on.
P.S. I sure liked the pretty girls on the
cover.
Matt Watkins
Eugene
The massive landslide east of Oakridge
that cut Union Pacifi c Railroad’s main
north-south line has turned out to be a
blessing for many of us. What a pleasure
it has been these past weeks to be able to
sleep at night, conduct business or just have
a simple conversation outside without the
disruption caused by more than 1,000 (!)
horn blasts per day — that’s a daily average
of 26 trains blowing their horns four times
at each of 10 downtown crossings.
The Federal Railroad Administration
requires trains to blow their horns as they
approach street/rail crossings. But the
FRA also understands the effect that trains
horns can have on community livability
and allows the establishment of quiet zones
where supplemental safety measures are
implemented and train horns are silenced
except for emergencies. Over 200 quiet
zones already exist across the U.S. Now it’s
Eugene’s turn.
At a work session Feb. 25, Eugene
city councilors will be considering the
establishment of a quiet zone. If you have
appreciated the relative peace and quiet of
these past weeks, you might wish to contact
your councilor to express your support for
a quiet zone.
Ultimately, of course, the solution for
the noise and other problems associated
with a railroad corridor that slices right
through our downtown is to place the tracks
underground as other cities have done. But
that project is still a decade or more away.
In the meantime, a designated quiet zone
could improve livability signifi cantly, at
little or no cost.
Whitey Lueck
Eugene
WACKY PRIORITIES
Let us defi ne insanity. The biosphere
and civilization are facing collapse because
of toxics and greenhouse gases released as
result of our current lifestyles and industrial
processes.
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