Literary Landmarks in England

If one is a true book geek, one regards a literary tour of the British Isles with an earnestness roughly equivalent to the earnestness with which Catholics regard a pilgrimage to Rome.  How could any self-respecting bookgeek not want to visit the places they've come to know and love through the pages of such immortal works as Pride and Prejudice, The Tale of Two Cities, Wuthering Heights, Henry V, Le Morte d'Arthur, Ode to a Nightengale, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, and The Adventures of Robin Hood?  How could any true bibliophile not long for the opportunity to sit in the same pub where Oscar Wilde got his abisinthe on, where Hemingway toasted the RAF over amber inches of whiskey, or where Kit Marlowe met his infamous end, stabbed through the eye in a fight over a bar bill?

It may be years before I am able to actually make this pilgrimage, but as such a tour occupies one of the top ten spots on my bucket list, I am going to attend to this before I die.  And in the meantime, there's no reason I can't console myself by compiling and regularly revising the following list of requisite stops on my ever expanding mental itenerary.

Note that, for the most part, I'm deliberately omitting the houses where authors grew up.  Except in some special circumstances (like the Bronte ___), they're just houses: they have little to do with an author's actual output

NOVEL DESTINATIONS (by author)

1. Jane Austin. How can you read Jane Austen and not long to experience the streets of glamorous, aristocratic Bath, in the footsteps of so many of her most memorable characters?  These days "taking the water" at the Pump Room may not be quite the social ceremony it used to be, but I can dream, can't I?
2. The Bronte Sisters
3. Lord Byron
4. Geoffrey Chaucer
5. Agatha Christie
6. Charles Dickens
7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I understand they've turned 221B Baker Street into a museum featuring Holmes memorabilia.  Okay, so there is no Holmes memorabilia (there being no actual Holmes), but I'm not going to let that spoil the enjoyment I intend to derive from viewing such relics as an original cypher from The Case of the Dancing Men, the plaster bust Holmes used as a decoy in The Empty House, Watson's medical bag, Holmes's violin, or the picture of Irene Adler they retained as a souvenir of the unforgettable Scandal in Bohemia.
8. Daphne du Maurier
9. James Herriott. Like thousands of other readers, I find I've fallen in love with the rolling green hills of Yorkshire - as well as the good, dour folk who inhabit the farms and byways of the Yorkshire countryside - by way of James Herriot's highly entertaining accounts of his life as a veterinarian in that region.
10. Thomas Malory
11. Alexander Pope
12. Sir Walter Scott
13. William Shakespeare.  The Old Globe Theater.  David Garrick's house.
14. Jonathan Swift
15. J.R.R. Tolkein
16. Oscar Wilde. His monument, to the east of Trafalgar Square, is engraved: "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars" (from Lady Windermere's Fan)

SHRINES & MEMORIALS

1. Westminster Cathedral (Poet's Corner).  As well as actual burials, Poets' Corner also commemorates the life of literary greats (and quite a few who have faded into obscurity) with memorials: amongst these are the poets John Milton, William Wordsworth, Thomas Gray, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Burns, William Blake, T.S. Eliot and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Writers such as Samuel Butler, Jane Austen, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Walter Scott, John Ruskin, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, Henry James and Sir John Betjeman have also been given memorials here. Perhaps the greatest English writer, William Shakespeare, also has a memorial here: buried in his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, Shakespeare had to wait until 1740 before his monument (designed by William Kent) was placed in the transept. Another late addition was Lord Byron, whose lifestyle caused a scandal although his poetry was much admired: although he died in 1824, he was finally given a memorial only in 1969.Dr Johnson's House [7], 17 Gough Square, just off Fleet Street - this fine Georgian house marks the residence in which Dr Johnson compiled his great Dictionary of the English Language. (James Boswell's house is also somewhere nearby)
2. Bow Street.  was formed about 1637. It has been the residence of many notable men, among whom were: Henry FIELDING (1707-1754), Novelist; Sir John FIELDING (d.1780), Magistrate; Charles SACKVILLE, Earl of Dorset (1638-1706), Poet; and William WYCHERLEY (1640?-1716), Dramatist
3. "xxx Lived Here."  Other famous folks who resided in London and whose homes may/may not be worth a visit (I haven't yet decided):  Ezra Pound, William Makepeace Thackeray, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sir James Barrie, EF Benson, Enid Blynton, Edmund Burke, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Fanny Burney (aka Madame D'Arblay),  Thomas Carlyle, GK Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wilkie Collins, Joseph Conrad, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, C. Day-Lewis, Walter De La Mare, Thomas DeQuincey, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Cross, née Evans),  TS Eliot, Henry Fielding, Ian Fleming, Ford Madox Ford, CS Forester, EM Forester, John Galsworthy, Mrs. Gaskell,  Kenneth Grahame, Robert Graves, Sir Henry Rider Haggard, Radclyffe Hall, Thomas Hardy, Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, James Hilton, Thomas Hood, WH Hudson, Aldous Huxley, Washington Irving, Henry James, James Joyce

The British Isle 

1. Yorkshire (James Herriot).  
2. Yorkshire/The Moors (Wuthering Heights, Hound of the Baskervilles)
3. Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood)
4. Tintagel (King Arthur)
5. Stratford-on-Avon (Shakespeare)
6. Scotland Yard (innumerable crime novels)
7. Oxford, The Eagle and Child (CS Lewis, Tolkein, Auden, Hogwarts)
8. Dublin (Oscar Wilde, James Joyce)
9. Edinburgh (Burns, Walter Scott)
10. pub where Kit Marlowe died
11. Grasmere/The Lake District
12. Hampstead.  Romantic poets Keats, Shelley, Byron and Coleridge, along with writers Robert Louis Stevenson, D H Lawrence and J B Priestley all lived in Hampstead.
13. 
    

Top 10 Reasons to Visit New Orleans

New Orleans Starry Night Moon Art by Karen Tarlton,
available from Karen's Fine Art on Amazon Marketplace

Forget New York City, forget Hollywood; forget Nashville, San Francisco, or Washington D.C.  In honor of the big Saints victory in the Superbowl, here are the top 10 reasons New Orleans is the absolute coolest city in the United States.

1. The music.  New Orleans isn't just the home of jazz, it's the wellspring of jazz ... not to mention blues, brass and zydeco.  In a fashion almost parasitic, the music feeds off of the lives and experiences of the city's people.  Forget the booze: just stand anywhere on Bourbon Street and let yourself become intoxicated by the music wafting from the open doorways of half a dozen bars.
2. The cuisine.  Make no mistake - New Orleans may have a laid-back attitude about most everything else, but they take their food very seriously.  They've figured out that the chickory in the cafe au late perfectly balances the sugary sweetness of a beignet.  That seafood is meant to be enjoyed every meal of the day. That everything tastes better with a rich, buttery sauce. That, no, you don't have to eat your vegetables. And that there's simply no such thing as "too hot."
3. The architecture. Part sophisticated European city, part sleepy southern town, part gaudy Caribbean port, the  major architectural influences on New Orleans haven't so much fused as figured out how to coexist.  Gorgeous creole townhouses with lacey trimwork and ornate iron balconies exist aside ancient wooden claphouse structures with sagging shutters and doors that stay open year round - not so much because the city never sleeps (though it doesn't), but because their frames have become so warped they simply don't close any more. And yet New Orleans not only makes this cacaphony work, but makes it appear somehow genteel, rather like an aged but still upright and fiercely elegant dowager.
4. The attitude. "The Big Easy" isn't just a nickname; in New Orleans, it's a lifestyle. Maybe it's having successfully withstood centuries of hurricanes, yellow fever, pirates and multiple invasions. Maybe it's the fact that 7 different flags have flown over the city in the course of its long history. Or maybe it's just growing up knowing that you're living below sea level and, therefore, everything you have could be wiped off the earth at any time. ...Whatever the cause, there is a "live for the moment" attitude in New Orleans that you just don't find in any other city.
5. The parties. No city knows how to party like New Orleans. Sure, Mardi Gras gets all the attention, but the Mardi Gras spirit infuses this city year-round. In the French Quarter of New Orleans, the bars never close, the music never stops, dancing in the streets is not only expected but encouraged, and strings of plastic beads never go out of style. 
6. The ghosts.  New Orleans is called the most haunted city in America and even in broad daylight, it's apparent why. The whole city seems to exist in a timeless space between past and present.  And at night ... well, just try walking through a New Orleans neighborhood and tell me which scares you more: being attacked by a mugger, or being accosted by the sallow shade of an old yellow fever vicitim.  (Anne Rice lives in New Orleans ... enough said?)
7. The Mississippi.  It's vast. It's murky.  Much of the time it manages to look like a busy interstate at rush hour.  But it connects the busy, relatively modern seaport of New Orleans to the city's antebellum roots, and its placid surface does little to conceal the enormous and terrifying forces that the river's inadequate levees strain to keep contained.  
8. The bayous.  Sprawling cypress trees, their roots protruding from the water like vestigal limbs. Spanish moss eerily wafting in invisible breezes.  Fish and nutria slicing through the water beneath your boat. That telltale "V" of water indicating the passage of something much larger - something huge and green, with lots of teeth.  Much like the city itself, New Orlean's bayous are ancient, majestic and more than just a little bit unsettling.
9. The Voodoo. Think of New Orleans as the Vatican of voodoo.  The city isn't just home to voodoo - it is saturated by voodoo, from the haunting drumbeats of the local music, to the african god figures sold in most of the local gift stores, to the gris-gris bags hanging around the necks of many of the inhabitants.  Marie Laveau, arguably the most famous voodoo priestess, practiced in New Orleans, and she is buried in one of the city's fabulously creepy cemeteries (see next entry). If any city will make you believe in zombies, New Orleans will.
10. Death. When I die I want to go out the way they do it in New Orleans: with music, singing, dancing, and a parade through the streets. The people of New Orleans seem intuitively to understand that funerals need to be a celebration of life, not a celebration of death.  Maybe that's because no city embraces death quite so nonchalently as New Orleans. The city is riddled with cemeteries in which the dead inhabit beehive-type above-ground crypts, resembling nothing so much as little apartment houses of the dead.  It's as if, even in death, the inhabitants of this astonishing city can't bring themselves entirely to leave, but remain eternally in New Orleans' thrall.

50+ Carnival Games (for school, church, or community festivals)

Every year our local elementary school hosts a fall carnival, the purpose of which is to bring families to the school, have fun, and maybe earn a little money.  I faithfully attended every annual carnival as a little one, volunteered to help run the games as a teen, and later, as an adult, ran the thing on behalf of the PTA.  (It's like a little microcosm of my life!) 

The trick is to make the games accessible for a range of ages, easy to set up and store (few parts), and easy for the adult volunteers to run.  Following is a list of some of some student favorites over the years, all of which (more or less) fit the above criteria.

NOTE: There are actually 2 lists here: one for games/activities in general, and one just for games that involve tossing things.  Otherwise, tossing games would overwhelm the other sort!

CARNIVAL GAMES

1. Pet parade and contest.  Start your carnival off with a pet parade and contest.  Our school has categories for real animals and stuffed pets, and a special award for best pet-owner look-alike.  Start with parade (judges can watch animals as they parade by), then rendezvous somewhere (preferably outside) for judging.  3 judges assign 1-10pts in four categories: personality, health, fuzziness, and uniqueness.  Points added, then prizes given to top three pets in each category.  (Some tinkering with scores recommended to recognize maximum number of pets.)
2. Fishing. Find an ocean-themed shower curtain or paint your own.  Suspend it so that it extends from the floor to approx 4ft in the air. (We typically drape ours over a hockey goal frame.)  Create fishing poles by tying lengths of string to poles or sticks.  Instead of hooks, affix wooden clothespins.  Kids drop the fishing poles over the screen, wait for a "yank" on their string (supplied by a handy volunteer sitting behind the screen), and pull in their "catch" - a plastic fish, fish tattoo, or other nautically-themed prize.
3. Frog jump.  Using a kit from any craft store, build a catapult.  Cut lillypads out of construction paper and tape them to the ground. Decorate a beanbag to resemble a frog (or, use a small, light beanie-baby frog).  Students launch the frog, with the object of having him land on one of the lilipads.  (VARIATION: If you can lay your hands on a rubber frog, you can do this game with plates floating in a kiddie pool - just be prepared for a lot of water on the floor!)
4. Cake decorating contest.  A week before the carnival, announce a cake decorating contest.  Collect cakes the day before the carnival.  Announce winners at the beginning of the carnival and display the winning entries on tables.  (Be prepared to do several different awards per grade.)  Cakes will be used as prizes for the cake walk (see below).
5. Cake walk.  Array laminated construction paper squares (each with a number) in a circle on the floor.  A la "musical chairs", music plays and folks walk around the circle until the music stops, whereupon they stand on the nearest floormat.  A number is drawn from a hat.  The person standing on that number is out.  Continue until only one person is left standing. That person gets to pick a cake (or cupcake, or other baked good.)
6. putt-putt golf.  Using lengths of fake patio rug, create three holes.  Purchase an inexpensive kids golf set and use the holes, balls & clubs that come with it.  Note: You WILL need to put up some sort of barrier around each hole so that balls don't go rolling everywhere.  You can be as creative (or as uncreative) as you want: the one we use is actually pretty cool, with one hole that requires turning a corner, one hole that requires bypassing obstacles, and one hole that requires jumping over a water trench!
7. Obstacle Course.  Using PE equipment (mats, tunnels, hula hoops, etc.) create an obstacle course.  Time the kids as they go through.  Post their times on a chart on the wall so they can see how they did.
8. RC car obstacle course.  As above, set up the obstacle course using cones, ramps, stuffed animals, and any other (preferably funny) obstacles you can think up.  Then time the kids as they maneuver through the course and post their times on a chart on the wall so they can see how they did. 
9. Hot Wheels Racing.  This requires a lot of track, but if you have it, also a lot of fun!  First, establish a surface with a fairly steep slope. (Gymnastic mats that fold work well for this.)  Then, set up as many gravity-powered parallel lanes as possible.  Let the kids choose which car they would like to use. (Provide as wide a variety as possible!)  At "go!", everyone releases their cars and the one to cross the finish line first wins.  (NOTE: If one car consistently wins, you may want to surruptitiously withdraw it so the kids don't fight over it.)
10. Hay/Lawn Maze.  You can create a simple maze with bales of hay or one of those lime-liners used to paint the lines on baseball fields.  To make it more fun, post a sign at the entrance with a riddle, then post another sign with the answer to the riddle in the center of the maze.
11. Lucky Duck/Duck Pond.  Buy 20-30 plastic rubber ducks (they are available cheap from online party suppliers like Oriental Trading Co.) and underneath 5-10 of them, mark an "X" in indelible marker.  Float them in a kiddie swimming pool.  Students pick a duck, turn it over, and if it is one of the ducks marked with an "X", they get a prize.  Be sure to have plenty of towels handy to keep the area dry and slip-free.
12. Duck Racing.  You'll need a couple more rubber ducks, two squirt guns, and two narrow trenches filled with water. (Long window boxes or lengths of guttering work well.)  Object is to squirt water at your duck, propelling him forward.  The first duck to cross the finish line wins.  This *will* be messy - definitely an outdoor game!
13. Book Swap.  This works best if you start collecting donations a few weeks in advance.  (This is also a good opportunity for the library to get rid of books that aren't circulating well.)  Then, kids bring in books on the day of the event to swap.  
14. Guess how many ... jellybeans, pennies, m&ms, beanie babies, etc.  People place their guesses in a jar.  Person with the best guess at the end of the event wins.
15. Haunted House.  This takes some set-up, but the kids love it.  "Scary" features can include a black-light tunnel with ghosts painted on the walls, skeletons wearing silly clothes, a table set for a scary feast, lit pumpkins "floating" in the air (actually, suspended by fishing wire), and a spooky soundtrack.  (If you want to get more gruesome, consider setting an age limit.)
16. Bingo.  Almost all party supply stores sell the necessary supplies.  The kids love it when their teachers act as callers.  If you want to be more inclusive, use m&ms as markers and at the end of each game, everyone gets to eat their markers!
17. Face Painting.  A perennial favorite.  To placate parents worried about their lack of artistic ability, consider offering a few (10-12) simple, "pre-approved" designs (ex: flower, butterfly, pirate mustache & scar) for the kids to choose from.
18. Sillhouette Cutting.  You'll need a wall, white construction paper, black construction paper, and a projector.  Have kids sit in profile in front of the wall and have an adult trace the shadow of their sillhouette on a piece of white paper taped to the wall behind them.  Then, allow them to cut out the sillhouette and glue it to a piece of black construction paper. 
19. Dinosaur Dig.  Fill a kiddie swimming pool with packing peanuts or sand.  Underneath, "bury" a variety of plastic dinosaurs.  Kids get to dig until they find a dinosaur.  (NOTE: Sand can be messy, but packing peanuts equally so as they tend to build up static electricity and start sticking to everything!)
20. Lollipop Tree.  You can buy these from party catalogs or make your own by drilling hopes into any standing pole or surface.  You'll also need LOTS of inexpensive lollipops.  Idea is to ink the tips of approx 15% of the lollypops, then insert them into the tree so that only their tops are showing.  Kids draw a lollipop and, if it has a colored tip, they win a prize.  (If it doesn't have a colored tip, they still get to eat the lollipop!)
21. Black Light Booth.  Close off a small room and fill it with black lights.  Kids get to go inside and watch their clothes glow!  You can add to the fun by letting them paint on the walls with flourescent paint.
22. Garden Game (aka cup and pea game).  Create a smooth, flat surface.  Place a "pea" under one of three upside-down flower pots.  (To make our pots more attractive, we afix silk flowers "sprouting" from the holes in the bottom.)  Scramble the flower pots.  The student has to guess which pot the pea is under. 
23. Temporary Tattoos.  Enough said!
24. Horse Racing.  Rustle up a couple of toy horses.  Using masking tape, set up a "racetrack" on a tabletop, dividing each track (as many tracks as you have horses) into 10 squares.  Have kids flip a coin.  If heads, they move their horse one space.  If tails, they move their horse two spaces.  First horse to cross the finish line wins.  (If you want to use dice, you may wish to create more squares.  Advantage of coin is that the race stays close until the end.)
25. Archery Booth.  Purchase/borrow a non-lethal bow and arrow set (ex: nerf).  To make the game more fun, design targets that will be fun to shoot at: cartoon characters, celebrity pictures, funny "fortunes" (ex: "You will be elected President of the United States")
26. Spin the Wheel. Design a spinning wheel by borrowing a bicycle tire and mounting it on a dowel projecting from a hole in a wall or pole.  Cover the tire with paper or fabric, divided into 8 pie slices.  Paint a "pointer" on the pole, just above the tire.  Once you have your spinner, you can create any number of games.  We typically use a version of "Simon Says."  7 slices are labelled with funny activities (ex: "Pat your head while rubbing your stomach), the 8th labelled "WINNER!" 4 contestants play at a time, taking turns spinning and performing the required action until someone finally hits "winner" and gets a prize.  
27. Pin the Tie/Bow on the Principal.  Have someone with artistic ability draw a large sketch of the principal (shoulders up) and hang it over a sheet of metal.  Meanwhile, attach paper in gaudy patterns to cardboard and create cutouts in the shape of ties/bows.  Attach flat magnets to the reverse side.  Allow student to pick their favorite tie/bow. Blindfold them. (NOTE: Knit winter hat pulled down over eyes is quicker/easier than traditional blindfold.) Object is to affix tie/bow at principal's neck.  (NOTE: craft stores have good selection of gaudy paper + flat magnets.) 
28. Grandmom's Closet.  Assemble mix of old clothes, halloween costumes, hats, wigs, sunglasses, etc. and place them in large box/trunk. Kids dress themselves then have their picture taken as souvenir.  (Use Polaroid or digital camera attached to printer.)
29. Bake Sale.  Self-explanatory.
30. Fortune Telling.  Options: crystal ball, playing cards, palm reading.  To assist parent volunteers, provide bullet list of fun/interesting fortunes that they can surreptitiously refer to.
31. Kissing Booth.  Works best if set up in closed-off area so no one can see what's happening.  Kids enter booth: leave with wrapped Hershey kiss and "lipstick mark" (appropriate stamp available at most craft stores) stamped on cheek.  (NOTE: Child protection tip-make sure booth manned by two people at all times.)
32. Craft Booth.  Options: coloring contest, paper dolls, colored sand project, beading project.
33. Beauty Salon.  Options: fingernail painting, hair braiding, hair painting (using spray-on color or sparkle hair spray)
34. White Elephant Sale.  The indoors version of a garage sale.  Have folks bring their old items.  All proceeds profit the school.
35. Karaoke.  Rig up machine and allow kids to perform.  (To speed things up, post list of songs available and require kids to have chosen a song before their turn.)  If you're feeling ambitious, arrange for a camera to feed the performances in real-time over the school's CCTV.
36. Dance Dance Revolution.  Set up the game and allow students to post their best scores on a chart on the wall.
37. Human Bowling. Set up toy pins. Have student sit on flat board on wheels. (Think double-wide skateboard - PE depts usually have them, or you can make your own very easily with a board, four wheels, and some screws.) Have friend push them into pins. Object is to knock down all the pins.
38. Cup Stacking.  Acquire 10 plastic cups: 5 of one color, 5 of another (or, 3 each in 3 colors).  In advance, create 10 charts (eisle format) showing cups stacked in various patterns.  Students have 15 secs to replicate  with cups the exact pattern shown.  (Vary pattern cards so new one used each turn.)
39. Hula-Hoop Idol.  Give kids hula hoops and time them.  Allow them to post their best times on a chart on the wall. 
40. Blackjack.  Just like Vegas; whoever wins each round gets a prize.  (NOTE: So kids don't get confused, hang sign that explains that face cards are worth 10pts and aces worth 1pt.)
41. Line Dance Classes.  If you have a willing parent, kids love learning line dances. Options: Electric Slide, Macarena, Chicken Dance
42. Movie Theater.  Set up a classroom theater-style and show cartoons.  Sell popcorn.

TOSSING GAMES.  To accomodate students of various ages/abilities, consider using 3 different "start" lines - closest for grades K-1, further away for grades 2-5, furthest for grades 6 and up.

1. Baseball Throwing Games.  OPTION #1: Throw baseball at target. OPTION #2: Throw baseball through a hole in a board (painted to resemble a baseball diamond).  OPTION #3 (if you have a pitch velocity meter): throw for speed.
2. Football Throwing Games.  OPTION #1: Throw football at target. OPTION #2: Throw football through a hole in a board (painted to resemble a football field).  OPTION #3: Throw for distance. 
3. Basketball Throwing Games.  OPTION #1: Throw basketballs through a hoop.  OPTION #2: Make as many baskets as possible in 30 secs. 
4. Tennis Ball Throwing Games.  The bounciness of the balls makes these games challening/fun.  OPTION #1: Throw baseballs into apple baskets/boxes/beach buckets.  OPTION #2: Bounce baseballs off a solid surface and try to get them to land in a basket/box/bucket.
5. Ring Throwing Games.  OPTION #1: Throw rings over poles. OPTION #2: Throw rings over the tops of glass soda bottles.
6. Hula-Hoop Throwing Games.  Throw hula hoop over target (ex: cones, decorated boxes, large stuffed animals)
7. Toilet Paper Throwing Game.  Tape rolls of toilet paper with invisible packing tape (to keep them from unravelling) and throw them into box topped with toilet set/lid. 
8. Rubber Chicken Throwing Game. Throw rubber chickens into cooking pots.
9. Beanie Baby Throwing Game.  Create boxes decorated to resemble ocean, woods, prairie, treetops, pond, etc.  Object is to throw each animal into the box that matches their natural environment.
10. Beanbag Throwing Games.  OPTION #1: Using masking tape, create large tic-tac-toe board on floor.  Each players gets different colored beanbags.  OPTION #2: Use round beanbags dubbed "cannonballs."  Toss them at cutouts of ships and seamonsters.
11. Ping Pong Ball Throwing Game.  Throw ping pong balls into cups.
12. Coin Throwing Game.  Toss coins onto platters/plates.
13. Paper Airplane Throwing Games.  Kids create their own airplanes or pick one from basket full of planes created by other students.  Object is to throw them through a hula hoop suspended from the ceiling.  (To add difficulty, spin the hula hoop!)

Great Fundraising Ideas - SEASONAL/HOLIDAY

Can't count the number of fundraisers I've been in charge of since becoming a mom. I've raised funds for schools, scouts, sports, communities, and folks in need. Over time I've compiled a pretty comprehensive list of fundraising ideas, some culled from other sources, some original.

I've organized my ideas into categories (Events; Services; Things You Can Sell; Merchant Teaming; Seasonal/Holiday), each of which is addressed in a separate blog entry.

Seasonal/Holiday Fundraisers

New Years Day

1. Sell calendars. (Pictures can be general or specific to your organization/cause. Funny calendars sell especially well!)
2. Sell souvenir “The Year that Was” booklets. (Information can be general or specific to your organization/cause. People love keepsakes!) 

 Valentines Day/Mothers Day/Fathers Day

1. Sponsor a dance (Valentines Dance, Father/Daughter Dance, Mother’s Day Dance)
2. Sell carnations or flowers
3. Sell candy (especially candies with a "love" theme, like kisses or conversation hearts)
4. Sell singing telegrams
5. Create and sell gift baskets. (For best results, offer a selection: romance basket, mom basket, dad basket, teen basket, kid basket, baby basket, friend basket)

Easter

1. Sell Easter baskets (empty or pre-stuffed)
2. Sponsor an egg hunt or egg roll
3. Sell hams, pies

Graduation

1. Sell anything that can be signed. (Ideas: picture mattes, autograph albums, stuffed animals with signable surfaces, photo albums with signable covers)
2. Create & sell memories booklets or CDs. (Include pictures, interviews, lists, etc.)

4th of July

1. Sell flags, pin-on ribbons, other patriotic merchandise
2. Compile and sell CD of patriotic music (collected from public sources or performed by a musical group affiliated with your organization)
3. Create and sell booklet about history of your organization/community/county/state

Autumn/Thanksgiving

1. Sell wreaths
2. Create and sell cornucopias stuffed with seasonal goodies
3. Sell seasonal foodstuffs: apples, pies, breads, turkeys/hams
4. Offer raking/leaf blowing services

Halloween

1. Host a haunted house/maze/classroom/woods/garden
2. Create a pumpkin patch (sell pumpkins; provide seasonal diversions like hay mazes, pony rides, pumpkin bowling, etc.)
3. Host a pumpkin carving/decorating contest
4. Offer hayrides

Christmas

1. Sell trees, wreathes, or poinsettia
2. Sell ornaments (White House, other organization, homemade)
3. Sponsor a holiday bake sale
4. Offer giftwrapping services (you can work inside a store or station yourself in the middle of a shopping mall)
5. Carol for donations; or, "sell" songs in advance
6. Sell hot chocolate at tree lots, outdoor shopping malls, winter parades or other locations where people are likely to be cold
7. Host holiday craft workshops for kids or adults.  (For an admission fee, attendees get to create one or more crafts to take home with them.  Great for kids who need to make presents for relatives!)

See my other fundraiser blog entries for yet more ideas ...!

Great Fundraising Ideas - MERCHANT TEAMING

Can't count the number of fundraisers I've been in charge of since becoming a mom. I've raised funds for schools, scouts, sports, communities, and folks in need. Over time I've compiled a pretty comprehensive list of fundraising ideas, some culled from other sources, some original.

I've organized my ideas into categories (Events; Services; Things You Can Sell; Merchant Teaming; Seasonal/Holiday), each of which I discuss in a separate blog entry.

Without further ado, here's a list of fundraisers that involve  teaming with merchants or corporate scholarships.

Merchant Teaming

1. Scrip/gift cards
2. Rebate programs
3. Coupon books & discount cards
4. Entertainment books
5. Discount cards
6. Preferred shopping events
7. Preferred dining events
8. Restaurant-catered dinner
9. Outright donation

Corporate sponsorships

1. Sell advertising in one of your organization’s products. 
2. Place company ad in program, yearbook, or directory. 
3. Place company name/logo on event-related teeshirts, posters, flyers, websites, tickets, etc. 
4. Place company sign/banner in local venue (gym, hall, cafeteria)
5. Company employees get to participate in event (ex: judges at science fair)

Matching grants/challenges. Some big companies (especially those with headquarters in your community) will match funds that non-profit organizations raise in other ways.

Check out my other fundraising blog entries for more ideas!

Great Fundraising Ideas - SELLING

Can't count the number of fundraisers I've been in charge of since becoming a mom. I've raised funds for schools, scouts, sports, communities, and folks in need. Over time I've compiled a pretty comprehensive list of fundraising ideas, some culled from other sources, some original.

I've organized my ideas into categories (Events; Services; Things You Can Sell; Merchant Teaming; Seasonal/Holiday), each of which I'll address in a separate blog entry. 

Today's blog entry is devoted to THINGS YOU CAN SELL. In most cases, you will use companies to provide the merchandise, catalogs, etc. for these sales. There are 100s of sites on the internet that will refer you to companies that handle these products: just go googling for them.

FOOD

1. Baked goods (pies, cakes, cookies, doughnuts)
2. Candy/lollipops
3. Cheese
4. Cheesecake
5. Chocolate
6. Coffee
7. Cookie dough
8. Fruit/citrus
9. Gourmet food
10. Pasta
11. Pizza kit
12. pretzels
13. Popcorn
14. Snacks

Books/subscriptions

1.  Personalized books
2. Cookbooks (from catalog or create your own)
3. Magazine subscriptions
4. Newsletter subscriptions

Plants

1. Flowers
2. Pre-planted flower pots
3. bulbs
4. indigenous plants
5. Mulch
6. Christmas wreaths/trees/poinsettia

Customized/Personalized

1.  Bumperstickers/bumper magnets
2. License plate holders
3. Teeshirts
4. Lanyards
5. Book bags/sports bags
6. Stuffed animals
7. Mousepads 
8. Calendars
9. Yearbooks
10. Music or image CDs. Think yearbook in digital format
11. Programs
12. Stationary/greeting cards.

Misc. Merchandise

1.  Candles
2. First aid kits
3. Gift baskets (romance baskets for Valentines Day; Thanks, Teacher! baskets before the winter holidays; Superbowl Survival baskets; "finals" survival baskets ...)
4. Gift wrap
5. phone cards
6. jewelry
7. Software
8. Stationary/greeting cards
9. Pet food

Vending machine sales

1. Beverages
2. Snacks
3. pencils

Donor recognition

1. Bricks. Sell bricks engraved with the donor’s name or message, then embed them in a brick walkway or patio in front of the structure
2. Painted tiles for wall. Sell ceramic tiles that folks can paint themselves, then embed them in the walls of the new structure/wing
3. Handprints in concrete. Sell squares of concrete to create a sort of Groman’s Chinese Theater effect.

Collectible items. Items that comprise a set. Emphasis on sets that people will value & hand down in their families.

1. All 50 state quarters
2. Patches from all NASA launches
3. Items that change every year (White House holiday ornament, create your own ornament)
4. Commemorative items

Novelty items

1. Letters from Santa, Easter Bunny, etc.
2. Funny photos (Your picture with life-sized celebrity; photoshopped photo)
3. Pony rides

Check out my other fundraiser blog entries for yet more ideas ...!

Great Fundraising Ideas - SERVICES

Can't count the number of fundraisers I've been in charge of since becoming a mom. I've raised funds for schools, scouts, sports, communities, and folks in need. Over time I've compiled a pretty comprehensive list of fundraising ideas, some culled from other sources, some original.

I've organized my ideas into categories (Events; Services; Things You Can Sell; Merchant Teaming; Seasonal/Holiday), each of which I'll address in a separate blog entry.  

Today's blog entry is devoted to SERVICES.  Selling services can be a great fundraiser because primary expense is human capital, so you get to keep ~100% of what you make. To maximize profit, pick something that you can charge a lot for (yardwork), or that you can repeat throughout the year (babysitting/parents night out), or that folks will pay not to have to do themselves (gift wrapping).

1. Babysitting/ parents night out
2. Event support. Theaters, festivals/fairs, stadiums, parks, conference centers, seasonal events like Festival of Lights, Egg Roll or Pumpkin Patch, etc. -- OR some major venues have established programs where they recruit local non-profit organizations to staff various functions in return for sizable donation.
3. Car wash
4. Shoeshines
5. Gift wrapping
6. Singing telegrams
7. Yardwork. Spreading mulch, raking, mowing.
8.  Delivery service. Deliver pizzas during the Superbowl, or flowers on Valentines Day, or special gift mugs on Administrative Assistant Day.
9. Concession sales.  Sell concessions at sporting events, community events, shows, etc.  Sell popcorn, cotton candy at fairs and parades.  Sell warm things at cold events/cold things at warm events
10. Customized artwork - caricatures, customized pictures (homes, children, pets)

Check out my other fundraising blog entries for yet more ideas ...!

Great Fundraising Ideas- EVENTS

Can't count the number of fundraisers I've been in charge of since becoming a mom.  I've raised funds for schools, scouts, sports, communities, and folks in need.  Over time I've compiled a pretty comprehensive list of fundraising ideas, some culled from other sources, some original. 

I've organized my ideas into categories (Events; Services; Things You Can Sell; Merchant Teaming; Seasonal/Holiday) each of which are addressed in a separate blog entry.

Today's blog entry is devoted to EVENTS.  You make money from events by charging admission or selling tickets.
 

ATHLETIC EVENTS 

1. runs (fun runs, races, marathons)
2. bike rides (fun rides, races, scenic)
3. golf tournament
4. basketball game (dunk contest; donkey basketball)
5. baseball/softball game
6. football (punt/pass/kick competition; powderpuff; flag)
7. soccer kickoff
8. fishing tournament
9. boat race (canoe race, cardboard boat race)

XX-A-THONS

1. Bowl-a-thon
2. Dance-a-thon
3. Read-a-thon
4. bat-a-thon (baseball)
5. Goal-a-thon (soccer)

FUN & GAMES

1. Bingo Night
2. Las Vegas night.
3. Fun fair/carnival
4. Cook-off (chili cookoff, BBQ cookoff, dessert cookoff)  
5. Game show tournament (Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants to be a Millionaire)
6. Reality show tournament (Survivor, Fear Factor, Great Race)
7. Board game-inspired tournament (chess, checkers, Monopoly)
8. Movie night (family movie night, fright night, movies for lovers night)
9. “Special” Olympics (broom toss, egg relay, human pyramid building, etc.)

ACADEMIC/SCIENTIFIC

1. Science Fair
2. Spelling Bee
3. Geography Bee
4. Quiz show tournament (Jeopardy, It's Academic, Are You Smarter than an xxth Grader, "Brain Bowl")  
5. Egg drop
6. Pumpkin hurling

SHOWS. Charge admission or pair with food and bill as "Dinner and a Show"

1. Mystery dinner theater
2. Talent show
3. Battle of the Bands
4. American Idol-type event
5. Step-off (step teams)
6. Concert – choral, band, orchestra, individual performances, etc.
7. Theatrical performance – single show, one act play festival, broadway review, vaudeville show, Shakespeare festival
8. Comedy/improv
9. Hired entertainer (magician, comedian, hypnotist)
10. Art show
11. Poetry reading

DINING

1. Banquet/theme banquet (sports banquet, recognition banquet, luau banquet, Night Under the Stars banquet)
2. Pancake breakfast. Especially effective if scheduled in conjunction with a proceeding event
3. Spaghetti dinner
4. Multicultural potluck dinner
5. Restaurant-catered dinner
6. Ice cream social
7. Box social

SALES

1. Bake sale
2. Craft sale
3. Yard sale/white elephant sale
4. Auction/silent auction
5. Raffle
6. Used book trade/sale

COMMUNITY SERVICE

1. Parent’s night out/babysitting
2. Tutoring
3. Dance
4. Child safety day (bike inspection, child ID cards, stop/drop/roll games, child seat inspections, etc.)
5. Group trip to sporting event

FACILITY RENTAL. Rent a facility & then sell tickets at a markup. To make the event more memorable, consider adding games, contests, food, etc.

1. Bowling party
2. Ice/roller skating party
3. Pool party
4. Paintball/lazer tag party

Check out my other fundraiser blog entries for yet more ideas ...!

Best West Wing Episodes Ever

The whole show was extraordinary, but a few episodes stand out.  Here are the ones that I find myself revisiting on DVD time after time ....

1. Season 2, episodes 1/2 - In The Shadow of Two Gunmen.  Dare you to identify more riveting television than the first  30 minutes of this two-part episode, which portray the minutes/hours directly proceeding an assassination attempt on President Bartlett.  Not only is this episode a rush of pure adrenalin, but it's also a fascinating lesson on the procedures that kick into place during such a crisis. See the staff at GWU Hospital jolt into action as they realize the call they just received on the red "emergency use only" phone isn't a drill.  See Secret Service agents enclose the Vice President in a rugby-like scrum as they hasten him away from an honorary appearance back to the White House.  See the highest-ranking members of the military and intelligence communities sitting tensely around the table in the Situation Room, wrestling over whether the assassination attempt is the work of a random madman or the beginning of World War 3.  Riveting. And then ... and then Sorkin et. al. changes gears, giving us 90 minutes on how the members of Bartlett's inner circle came to be recruited, a chance for viewers to regain their breath while the writers showcase everything they do so well: a little slapstick (CJ falling into a swimming pool), a little human interest (Josh's father dying), a little liberal commentary on current events (Sam trying to talk an oil company into buying oil tankers that won't leak), and a big, whopping dose of idealism (Josh becoming a convert after hearing Candidate Bartlett admit that if it comes down to a choice between helping constituents or making milk a little cheaper for children in poverty, he'll screw his constituents every time).  This episode could be a primer on how to create good television.
2. Season 2, Episode 22: Two Cathedrals.  The whole episode is amazing, but it's the scene where Bartlett stands in the middle of National Cathedral railing at God in Latin that takes my breath away.  Before that, you get the sudden, senseless death of Mrs. Landingham (Bartlett's long-time personal secretary and friend) followed by a series of vignettes which show her, as a young employee at Bartlett's prep school, pushing young Jed to merge his academic precociousness with a social conscience, ultimately shaping him into the man he is to become.  Her ghost, figuratively and literally, haunts Bartlett throughout the episode as he faces a momentous decision: whether to brave the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (namely, announce his run for reelection, literally moments after confessing to the country that he has MS and has been hiding the fact for the past 4 years), or continue to fight for the principles he believes in. As Democratic leaders scramble to anticipate the enormous political chaos about to descend upon their party, as the members of Bartlett's inner circle struggle to cope with feelings of betrayal, and as a freakish, out-of-season tropical storm heads towards Washington D.C. to wreak havoc, Bartlett wrestles with his inner demons - questioning himself, questioning his purpose in life, even questioning God - standing right there in His face in the nave of the National Cathedral, demanding to know why duty, faith, and trying to do one's best aren't enough to satisfy Him.  A question most of us have asked at one time or another, but - believe me - it's a whole lot more impressive in Latin.
3. Season 1, Episode 10 - In Excelsis Deo.  It's Christmas at the White House, which means it's time for another amazing West Wing holiday episode.  In this outing, Toby comes to be notified of the death of a homeless Korean War vet and, upon learning the man has no family (other than a brother who is also homeless), arranges for him to be buried at National Cemetery.  The President, upon learning that Toby has invoked his name in order to arrange for the funeral, confronts Toby in the Oval Office, asking him impatiently: "You don't think, if we do this, every homeless veteran is going to come out of the woodwork demanding to be buried at Arlington?"  To which Toby gravely replies: "I certainly hope so, sir."  Meanwhile, we learn that Mrs. Landingham's sons died during the Christmas season while serving in the Vietnam War,  which explains how she and Toby end up as the only mourners at the graveside on Christmas Eve as the haunting strains of The Little Drummer Boy (performed by the Harlem Boys Choir, in a brilliant juxtapositioning of the graveside service with a special command performance in the pine- and holly-draped White House foyer) blend with the retorts of the rifles fired by the military honor guard as the veteran's coffin is lowered into the earth.  I dare you not to tear up.
4. Season 2, Episode 8 - Shibboleth.  The plot about whether or not to give asylum to a group of persecuted Chinese Christians is the perfect pick for a Thanksgiving episode, but it's the subplot involving CJ and the turkeys that elevates this episode into my top 5.  No matter how many times I see the episode, the scene in which CJ asks President Bartlett to pardon an extra turkey still makes me howl. 
5. Season 3, episode 66 - Posse Comitatus.  Bartlett faces one of those ethical dilemmas that only world leaders understand: whether or not to order the assassination of a foreign leader (ostensibly a US ally) who, intelligence reveals, has been actively sponsoring terrorist attacks against the US.  Agonizing over his decision, Bartlett grumbles, rhetorically, why this decision has fallen to him: "Because you won," his chief of staff Leo McGarry shatteringly replies.  Meanwhile, the stalker who has been threatening CJ's life is finally captured, freeing CJ and her secret service bodyguard  to finally admit that they have feelings for each other ... only to have the secret service agent gunned down in the course of a convenience store robbery moments later.  But what sets the episode apart is how the two plots are entwined via a "spectacle" musical a la Andrew Lloyd Webber called "The War of the Roses," the finale of which is a song featuring the words: "And glorious in war shall be made glorious in peace," which swells in the background as CJ's beau falls dead onto the ground among a spray of crushed roses, and as U.S. rangers coolly, professionally carry out the assassination of the world leader at a small Caribbean airport.  Not for nothing, the episode also contains one of the best Bartlett put-down of all times, delivered by the Pres as he's copping a smoke in the back of the theater across from the Republican candidate for president, Texas Sen. Bob Ritchie, who has just drawled (in response to the death of CJ's agent), "Crime ... boy, I sure don't know about that." To which Barlett devastatingly replies: "And, by the way, 'Crime, boy, I don't know about that,' is when I decided to beat your ass."
6. Season 5, episode 17 - The Supremes. A seat on the Supreme Court opens and the Bartlett administration strains against the suffocating political reality that prevents anyone other than (yet another) moderate being confirmed by a Congress controlled by the opposite party. And then Josh Lyman comes up with an extraordinary idea: why not free up two seats and nominate both a brilliant liberal (played by Glenn Close) and a brilliant conservative? It's the speech at the end that takes my breath away, delivered by William Fitchner as conservative justice Judge Chris Mulready in the course of a conversation with President Jed Bartlett (paraphrased here): "Where's the brilliant dissenting opinion? The one that some law clerk digs up from a file late one night and that - 20 years later, 50 years later - emerges to fundamentally alter our perception of law? " As happens so often when watching this show, the episode makes me dream about how great a true democratic society - one in which people discuss ideas, rather than just yelling them at each other - could be.
7. Season 6, Episode 22 - 2162 Votes.  It's party time at the Democratic National Convention, where all delegates are required to do is wear funny hats, cheer a lot, rubber-stamp the party's nominee, and then play with the balloons.  Or not.  Though it's hard to imagine it happening in real life, this episode posits a dead heat between three candidates (Santos, Russell and Hoynes) going into the convention. But wait ... just when you think things can't get any more dramatic, a fourth candidate emerges from the floor to challenge the front-runners, and then all hell really breaks loose.  Though unlikely, there's nothing here that isn't technically/legally valid, and the resulting chaos and makes for utterly riveting drama as each campaign scrambles to salvage their political lives.  Plus you won't want to miss the galvanizing speech Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) delivers to the convention towards the end of the episode: I sure wish our politicians could whip up that kind of rhetorical dazzle!  I, for one, wanted to hop in my car and dash off to the nearest polling place to vote for the man.
   
   Honorable mention
8. Season 2, Episode 10 - Noel.  This is the episode in which Josh Lyman struggles to cope with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (resulting from the wound he received during the assassination attempt noted above).  Adam Arkin does a fabulous job as the traumatologist who is called in to talk Josh down from an impending crisis, but the teary moment is when John Spencer as Leo McGarry, speaking to Josh as he prepares to leave the White House, shares with him an anecdote, the moral of which is: "No one understands despair like someone whose been there before, and lived to tell about it." Say what you will, the West Wing writers sure knew their way around a holiday episode.
9. Season 2, Episode 17 - The Stackhouse Filibuster.  As Congress attempts to recess for the Thanksgiving holiday, a cranky senator launches a filibuster that holds up passage of a health care bill.  Feel free to appreciate the episode as an informative primer on miriad ways that Roberts' Rules of Order can be used to stall Congress, but what I love about the episode is the marvelous twist at the end when Donna discovers that the Senator is on the side of angels and the White House sets aside political considerations to do the right thing for the Senator, his grandson who is afflicted with autism, and their consciences.
10. Season 1, Episode 5 - Crackpots and These Woman. It's "Big Block of Cheese Day" at the White House, a chance for organizations that aren't usually given a hearing (i.e., crackpots) to present their issues to members of the senior staff.  Toby is at his sarcastic best mocking the group of World Bank protesters he is assigned to, while Sam finds himself rethinking his ideas on UFOs and CJ struggles to cope with a briefing from "Cartographers for Social Justice," an organization that advocates the adoption of a more spatially accurate world map that shows all the continents upside-down.  Very funny!
11.  Season 2, Episode 5 -And It's Surely to Their Credit.  Ainsley Hayes's first day in the White House is a disaster.  And then, just when her idealism is about to crack, Sam Seaborne steps up and saves the day, delivering a blistering retort to two obnoxious Congressional staffers, superbly backed up by John Larroquette ripping the paint off the scenery as White House Chief Counsel Lionel Tribbey. Plus, the episode is full of geeky Gilbert & Sullivan humor, which there just isn't enough of in the world.
12. Season 2, Episode 9 -Galileo.  This is the one where Jed Bartlett, space geek, spends the whole episode looking forward to doing a live address to America's schoolchildren about landing the Galileo space probe on Mars - only to have the mission fail the night before the broadcast.  Instead of a train wreck, we get one of those marvelous morality lessons that West Wing does so well, delivered by CJ (and paraphrased here): "So maybe this is what we tell a million school children out there: You think you get it wrong sometimes?  Why don't you come down here and see how the big boys do it!  It's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand and not being afraid to fail."  Here, here.
13. Season 2, Episode 3 - The Midterms.  Not that I'm exactly outing myself as a liberal here (think that ship sailed a long time ago), but adore watching Martin Sheen as President Bartlett take on conservative radio talk show host Jenna Jacobs, delivering an increasingly blistering series of biblical quotes designed to demonstrate the hypocracy of those who are okay with a metaphorical reading of the Bible most of the time but who insist on a literal interpretation when it comes to any passage regarding homosexuality.

12 Favorite Television Shows

As a kid growing up in the 60s/70s/80s, I've witnessed the transition of television from 3 fuzzy channels (sometimes a 4th local channel if the weather was good) to 1000+ channels so crisp you could sharpen a Ginsu knife with the resolution.  (If you know what a Ginsu knife is, you likely grew up in the same era!)  Though subscription channels became available in the 80s/90s, I was at first too poor to afford them and then, later, too preoccupied with other things to seek them out.  As a result, I grew up on a diet of network television - awful pabulum for the most part (cheesy sitcoms, soap operas, talk shows & variety shows), but there are a few shows I still remember with great fondness.  

Note that this list is NOT a list of critical favorites.  There are plenty of those lists out there if you're interested. Mine represents a much more pedestrian taste, omitting - for instance, shows like All in the Family, Seinfeld, and the Mary Tyler Moore show. I get that they were groundbreaking, but for me all three of them share a fatal flaw: too whiny. 

Feel free to suggest shows that I've omitted but that would have made your list.

1. West Wing. The show had everything: brilliant writing, superb acting, and often-gorgeous cinematography, overlaid over the inherent tension generated by setting the show in a milieu in which people are forced to make decisions that impact millions.  Though the show had a definite liberal bias, it never shied away from moral, ethical, or political complexity.  And somehow it managed to do all this without losing its sense of humor.  Once Aaron Sorkin left the writing staff the quality of the scripts somewhat declined, but a bad episode of West Wing is still far superior to a great season of most other shows.
2. 60 Minutes.   While I watched Meet the Press when I could, 60 Minutes was my preferred news show in my younger years.  Loved that the show's long-story format which gave the anchors time to explore issues in more depth and from different perspectives.  This is the show that taught me to mistrust headlines, to be alert for bias, and to appreciate that news stories are inevitably more complex than the media has time to represent. Though 60 Minutes and Meet the Press both persevere (at least as of this writing), the best cutting news coverage these days seems to have been ceded to cable channels and shows such as The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. 
3. M*A*S*H.  For once, the critics and I probably agree.  In retrospect, it seems extraordinary just how much biting social commentary this show got away with by adding gags, brilliant acting, and a laugh track. At its heart, though, M*A*S*H was a ruthless anti-war screed delivered with a side of wicked cynicism for all "establishment" - especially the political and military hierarchy. It's not improbable to imagine that shows like these indelibly shaped the attitude of my generation towards war, politics, and humanity.
4. Star  Trek.  It was cheesy.  It was melodramatic.  It was poorly acted.  And yet, it still managed to explore universal themes that no other TV program was addressing.  Star Trek made me ask myself questions I otherwise wouldn't have considered, such as 'Is it ethical to interfere with another race, even if  your motives are noble?', 'Is there any way to safely travel back through time without jeopardizing the future?' and 'Will life on other planets look like humans with prosthetic ears - or does the universe have a bigger budget for special effects?'  I still think of the show every time someone opens a flip-phone, makes a note on their ipad, or doors whooosh open at my approach.  Still waiting for someone to invent the transporter: it can't be long now, can it?
5. Mission Impossible. You knew that every show would have the following: a basic caper/heist plot, things that weren't what they seemed to be, a moment when you thought everything was going to blow up in the team's face, and a happy ending that featured the members of the MI team converging on a car/boat/plane for their successful escape.  And yet you still watched it, because what the writers/actors did, they did well: kept you thinking and entertained for an entire hour. Also, the show had the best television theme song ever.
6. Law & Order.  So many cop shows to choose from!  From Dragnet and Adam-12 to more recent additions to the canon like Cold Case and New Amsterdam.  What set Law & Order apart was the "order" part: the way the show forced its audience to understand the interrelationship between crime solving and prosecution, and the compromises that both sides are all too often forced to make in order to keep the system notionally functional.  Though the cast has changed over the years, the acting has generally been quite good, and the writers of the show continue to produce scripts "ripped from the headlines" that defy pat, sitcomly solutions. (Before I move on, however, I feel compelled to give a shout-out to Perry Mason, another show that focused on the "order" part of "law & order": the episodes were sexist as all get out, but the theme song rocked!)
7. Hill Street Blues. If I did have to pick a single favorite cop show, though, this is the one I'd pick.  Sure, I enjoyed Magnum and Miami Vice, The Rockford Files and Starsky & Hutch, Hawaii 5-0, Dragnet, and NYPD Blue - but in my mind Hill Street Blues stands apart as the first show that slapped me in the face with the reality and complexity of what it really means to be a law enforcement agent: the violence, the damaged lives, the moral ambiguity, the ethical compromises.  The show was raw and riveting, and spawned a host of followers (Homicide, In the Heat of the Night, NYPD Blues, The Shield, The Wire) that probably show up on other lists - but I'm giving the nod to the one that initially inspired them.
8. The Simpsons.  And now for something completely different ...!  Simply put, no show produces laughs as consistently as this animated series, and what makes it better is that the laughs are usually at our expense.  The show has an equal-opportunity approach to satire, sparing neither easy marks (sci-fi fans, fast food, disco) nor issues of political/social sensitivity (immigration, racism, global warming).  My personal favorites are the episodes featuring Sideshow Bob, but asking someone to name their favorite episode of The Simpsons is like asking them to name their favorite flavor of ice cream - they're all good.
9. The Wonder Years.  Of all the family-based sitcoms (The Cosby Show, The Brady Bunch, The Andy Griffith Show, Roseanne, Full House, etc.), this was my favorite because it was the only one that actually resembled real life as I knew it.  The plots were seldom exceptionally memorable - but then, it's not exceptional moments that make childhood memorable: it's the sum total of all the summer days, first loves, dogs, bicycles, snowstorms, favorite teachers, broken bones, best friends and life lessons that one accumulates during those first 12 years that forms the memory you carry with you for the rest of your life, a concept that this show seemed to get. 
10. The Wonderful World of Disney.  This was event TV in our house - meals, homework, and long distance phone calls were all scheduled to ensure that there would be no interruptions during The Wonderful World of Disney. The fun of this program was that you never knew more than a week ahead of time what you'd be getting: an episode of Davy Crockett? a "behind the scenes" look at the making of a Disneyland ride? A cartoon? A documentary? An actual full-length live action movie? One thing network television did not offer back then was the element of surprise, except for this one hour every Sunday evening. 
11. The Twilight Zone.  Before X-Files, Twin Peaks, Pickett Fences, or Lost, Twilight Zone challenged viewers to disbelieve the obvious, consider the improbable, and accept the impossible.  Some episodes were chilling, some were thought-provoking, some moralizing, some just plain weird - but they all made you think.
12. The Carol Burnett Show.  I understand those critics who automatically pivot to Saturday Night Live or Laugh In when talking about "important" television comedy.  But SNL back in those days came with a side of edgy, and Laugh In with a side of sarcasm, both of which often left a sour taste in the mouth, something that you never had to worry about when tuning into The Carol Burnett Show. Carol Burnett skits weren't "laugh because otherwise you'd have to cry" funny, or "laugh if you get it" funny.  They were just plain funny funny, and her movie parodies in particular still stand the test of time.  Doesn't everyone remember where they were the first time the saw Carol Burnett flounce down the stairs of Tara as Scarlett O'Hara, with that curtain rod balanced atop her shoulders? You know you do. 

Other shows that I've enjoyed but that didn't quite make the list: Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, ER, Frasier, Scrubs, Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Malcolm in the Middle, Spin City, Modern Family, 30 Rock, Wild Kingdom, Scooby Doo, and Pinky and the Brain.