How have you helped humanity today?

This is the annoying question I posed to my kids--too frequently. And, of course, I feel (perhaps mistakenly) that as a teacher I am AUTOMATICALLY a helper of humanity. At the ends of semesters, though, I wonder: facing mountains of student work, a surprising percentage of which is plagiarized, I wonder if I should even bother preparing for class! Often the student will copy and paste something and then laboriously alter many of the words (number and tense) to evade searches. I just got a slew of plagiarized work on this wonderful play. But I also got an email a few weeks ago, which I did not respond to. I was sick, I had just gotten back from a conference; I had tons of work. Blah. Blah. Blah. For a long time I wanted to write you to thank you for two specific things I learned from you. First long ago you wrote about hand blenders. It triggered me to remember I had one I never used. I enjoy espresso and make my own mochas as I think mine are great and much cheaper than espresso stands. I started using my hand blender to froth my milk. I use it every day! I also read about the click it reading glasses on your blog. Right afterwards I was on jury duty and the judge had them. I ordered a pair and LOVE them. I just put them on in the morning like a piece of my equipment and I always have them. Honestly I couldn't live without them. So I just wanted to tell you personally that someone way up in Washington state enjoys your blog and got two great ideas from you! So perhaps I'll have to content myself with helping humanity with stick blenders and Clic glasses. I do love both of those things myself. Thanks, READER, for the compliment.