I'm telling a story a day in May, inspired by the Story-A-Day Challenge.  For that awesome endeavor, people are writing fiction.  I'm doing the same type of mostly-nonfictionish that I usually do here at Word Savvy.  Speaking of, did you notice I have a new URL?  Yes.  After 11 years here, I finally purchased my domain.  Somehow that seems momentous. 

In any case, here's the story of The Panoramic Photo.  For some reason each year, we parade out of the building, line up, and cheese for a panoramic photo that includes every person in the Middle School. Inevitably kids try to make funny and/or inappropriate hand gestures in the photo.  Each year, the photographer gives the same speech, "Hey," he'll say through his bullhorn, "this is a picture.  If you do something inappropriate we'll know it was you.  Not a good choice."  Still, as I look around, I see kids doing all kinds of ridiculous things - dabs, peace signs, random finger patterns - on three.  To combat this, the photographer always takes photos NOT on three.  Like, he'll say, "7, 6, THREE."

Ha ha. Gotcha kids.

You might be picking up on my feeling of ambivalence about the panoramic photo.  On the one hand, okay, it's a long photo and everyone's in it, except for the people who were sick.  But on the other hand, can't we find something better to do than try to make kids line up silently on the soccer field and invite their adolescent behaviors?