Lives well lived

I was on my way to bed last night when, as usual, I stopped by CNN just to make sure nothing wacky was happening with the world – like the North Koreans shooting south again. I was greeted by their yellow “Breaking News” bar and stayed my finger on the power button to see exactly what was breaking.

Sadly, it was the news we’ve all heard by now that Elizabeth Edwards, 61, had died of breast cancer. Here’s a woman who lived a life we can all aspire to emulate. Successful attorney, mother, the epitome of grace under fire – due to her cad of a husband – warrior against cancer and, I’m sure, a quiet pillar of strength who comforted others more than she asked for herself as her days drew to a close.

You may remember me writing about my mother’s battles (yes, plural) with cancer that ended nine years ago when she was 66, and I think I’ve mentioned how my brother-in-law is a 20-year survivor (he was diagnosed two weeks before he married my sister). To fight back, someone very close to me took a week off in October and raised more than $5,000 for the LiveStrong foundation by riding his bike more than 600 miles from San Francisco to San Diego. And, just before Thanksgiving, a good friend’s mother was diagnosed with what her doctors believe to be a stage IV brain tumor.

So, you ask, why are you bringing us down with all this talk of sickness and death? Well my friends, it’s because I read something yesterday at the Firecracker’s place and I’m shamelessly stealing the idea for myself.

Read this quote:

“Your life is happening right now and this is the only moment you can control. This is the only minute that really matters. If you are constantly dwelling on something that happened in the past or feeling anxious about the future, you are missing out on YOUR LIFE. Do what makes you happy in this moment and your life will be full.” – Jill Costello

I’ve never really had a philosophy on life before, but if I was forced to pick one, Jill’s wouldn’t be a bad choice. To read more about Jill Costello – scholar, champion athlete, varsity 8 cox and cancer fighter – read this Sports Illustrated article. It's a long one, but well worth every minute. While I’m not going to say it brought a tear to my eye (I wrote too many similar stories as a reporter) it came closer to anything I've read in a very long time.

To Jill Costello, Elizabeth Edwards, my mother, my brother-in-law, my brother, my friend’s mother and everyone who is fighting, fought or supporting someone who has cancer, I wish you every happiness as you forge ahead in life.

Shocking News!!! Or, “Thank you Capt. Obvious!”

The world was stunned today by the release of a study’s results in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. In this ground breaking research, scientists have finally answered one of the questions long plaguing mankind:

“Why does the hard eight you left the bar with last night look like a generous four the next morning?”

My friends, science has found the reason for beer goggles and the culprit is, wait for it, beer. Yes, I’m as shocked as you.

“The average guy tends to perceive more women as being sexually interested after a few drinks and be more likely to make mistakes about what a woman feels," says study co-author Teresa Treat, an associate professor at the University of Iowa.

The folks in Hawkeyeland must be so, so very proud today. I hope they kept the receipt for whatever money they paid for this research.

Fergodsakes, Jamie and Adam did this same study on Mythbusters in the not-so-distant past. Instead of reading an APA journal article, just go here to see the team from M7 confirm the “myth” of beer goggles.

And in further news from the world of medicine, doing meth is not a good idea for pregnant women. Really?

According to another the MSNBC article (guess where I spent my lunch?), “[the] team compared health factors such as preterm delivery and uncontrolled high blood pressure, and for almost every factor the researchers measured, the meth users and their babies fared worse.”

I must agree with the snark in the article: Shocking.

Finally, the article titled “Remove what from where? Orifice surgeries expand” wasn’t about what I thought it was going to be about. While I thought it might be stories about surgeons having to remove strange objects from the interesting and embarrassing places lonely people had put them, sadly, it wasn’t.

I feel so cheated.

In fact, the story is about new surgical techniques like, literally, removing a person's stomach through their mouth as part of a weight-loss surgery.

All together now: Ewwwww.

Stupid things written in today’s NYT

Some days I don’t know why I read the NYT. More often than I’d like something America’s paper of record prints just annoys the crap out of me. Today is no exception. But I keep reading mainly because, for the most part, I learn something interesting in each article.

Today’s big news? The federal court injunction against Arizona’s immigration enforcement law. I’m not going to get into the right or wrong of the law except to say that, at the federal level, it needs to be changed and changed soon (like now). While I’m know I’m not in favor of an amnesty/citizenship program, I definitely think a massively expanded guest worker/rigorous enforcement program is needed.

Getting back to the point, the NYT had a fascinating article today about a little known aspect of how the immigration issue impacts the border counties in Arizona (and, I'm guessing, Texas, New Mexico and California).Because enforcement has been stepped up along much of the border – the more easily crossed sections – it turns out illegal immigrants are now forced to traverse the less hospitable (read scorching desert) sections of the U.S.-Mexico border. This has led to many, many more illegal immigrants dropping dead on their journey to America. Their bodies are now filling the morgues in the border counties up to overflowing.

Like I said, an interesting article. The problem I have with it is the following section:

Human rights groups say it is the government’s sustained crackdown on human smuggling that has led to more deaths.

“The more that you militarize the border, the more you push the migrant flows into more isolated and desolate areas, and people hurt or injured are just left behind,” said Kat Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Coalición de Derechos Humanos in Tucson.

Yes, of course. It’s the government’s fault for enforcing the law that these people are dying while they break the law. I can see the logic in that. This is the kind of crap that pisses me off. Why is the United States (and other industrialized nations) not allowed to protect its borders and keep illegal immigrants out?

No one has a right to just come here. And, if you’re not trying to break our laws by illegally entering our country, well, then you don’t have to worry about risking a horrible death from exposure by walking across the Sonoran or Chihuahuan desert.

Truthfully through, I can respect the effort. I am the grandson of immigrants who descendants have, in two generations gone from the desperation of the Irish potato famines and civil war, to masters degrees and upper-middle class living.

That’s why we need to fix our broken immigration system. Anyone willing to walk across a burning desert for a shot at a better life is someone who will put in a hard day’s work to better themselves and their children (unless they're a terrorist trying to sneak in and I hope you die screaming in pain under a scorching sun). And that’s the kind of spirit America was built upon.

That's the spirit that makes and keeps America great.
,

"You like me, right now, you like me!"

While not nearly as momentous as my 300th post, I just noticed my counter rolled over and stopped on 20,000 hits. I know I don't rack up the hits as much as some other bloggers, but it's kinda amazing to me that on 20,000 different occasions people have stopped by this little corner of the e-world.

For the record, the 20,000th visitor came by here all the way from Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Shout OUT! to my brothers and sisters from the north. (Fist bump!) OK, they're both sisters, but the feelings are the same.

Thank you all for your time and patience. I may not be posting as often as I once did, but it's not because I don't love you anymore. I just have a much more involved job now and a lot less time for blogging.

Anyway, to keep this from being a complete navel-gazing post, take a look at this article from today's NYT. That's fine, I'll wait. The gist of the article is this: The kids who got picked on in school 'cause no one had their back, and who're now all grown up and working as school counselors and psychologists now believe it's a bad thing for kids to have “best friends.” And I quote:

“I think it is kids’ preference to pair up and have that one best friend. As adults — teachers and counselors — we try to encourage them not to do that,” said Christine Laycob, director of counseling at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis. “We try to talk to kids and work with them to get them to have big groups of friends and not be so possessive about friends.

“Parents sometimes say Johnny needs that one special friend,” she continued. “We say he doesn’t need a best friend.”

Or this worthless drivel from a psychologist at a NYC private school:

“When two children discover a special bond between them, we honor that bond, provided that neither child overtly or covertly excludes or rejects others,” said Jan Mooney, a psychologist at the Town School, a nursery through eighth grade private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. “However, the bottom line is that if we find a best friend pairing to be destructive to either child, or to others in the classroom, we will not hesitate to separate children and to work with the children and their parents to ensure healthier relationships in the future.”

What garbage. Oh, and this crap from a summer camp is even better:

As the calendar moves into summer, efforts to manage friendships don’t stop with the closing of school. In recent years Timber Lake Camp, a co-ed sleep-away camp in Phoenicia, N.Y., has started employing “friendship coaches” to work with campers to help every child become friends with everyone else. If two children seem to be too focused on each other, the camp will make sure to put them on different sports teams, seat them at different ends of the dining table or, perhaps, have a counselor invite one of them to participate in an activity with another child whom they haven’t yet gotten to know.

“I don’t think it’s particularly healthy for a child to rely on one friend,” said Jay Jacobs, the camp’s director. “If something goes awry, it can be devastating. It also limits a child’s ability to explore other options in the world.”

Seriously, do you think anyone signed Christine or Jan or Jay's yearbooks? OK, maybe that's the kind of situation these morons are trying to avoid for their charges but, seriously? Friendship coaches? WTF is up with that noise?

I went to a large public high school. It was uber competitive, uber stratified and pretty much everyone was in one clique or another. I, believe it or not, was not in one of the popular ones. Yes, yes, it's true, I was not always the strapping vision of robust manhood I am today. I'm not saying it was Lord of the Flies in my school, but there was the usual pecking order of athletes/cheerleaders on top, down to the burners. I was probably somewhere in the middle a ROTC/band geek/theater geek. Neither here nor there. Nothing to see, all copies of year books have been destroyed. Move along.

You know what though? Two of the guys I met back then, one the last week of eighth grade and the other when we started ninth grade, they are still my absolute best friends today. When the shit hits the fan, I know they'll be there for me and I'll be there for them. I've been in both their weddings and they'll both be in mine.

When you aren't strong enough to stand up for yourself, or have been knocked down so many times you can't count, you're friends are there to hold you up if necessary.

People say family is the most important thing. Well, that may be true for most people (I'm also lucky enough to have a great family, but that's a topic for another time), you don't get to pick your family. What happens if, and I know people for whom this is true, you don't like your family? What happens if they're assholes? Who do you turn to when the skies are cloudy and the storm's a coming?

Your best friend, that's who. The person you've chosen and who's chosen you.

Yeah, sure, it's nice for these kids to have a big group of people who like them - or who don't particularly hate them reason. But can they count on any one of these "friends" when they need to sneak out of the house? Or sneak back in? Or call for a ride home because they're too wasted to drive? Or who'll physically kick their ass to the ground, take their keys and keep them from driving drunk? Who'll take the ugly one? Or who'll say, "I know you love her man/girl, but are you absolutely sure you want to marry her/him?"

The bonds of best friendship aren't loosely woven through play dates and coaching. They're forged in the fires of shared experience of joy and sorrow.

In the comments tell me about your best friend, or tell me I'm totally wrong and all the kiddies should learn to get along with everyone so no one's feelings get hurt.

Head slap

Yet another in the long, long, long list of things all of us should have thought of but didn't. The WaPo article about the this iPhone app for that very special time of the month is hilarious.


[Hand to forehead!]

[Slapping sound!]

That little woman symbol with the horns is especially cute.a

Intentional advertising?

Has anyone heard about the spat up in Baltimore about Under Armour* painting its "UA" logo on Federal Hill? Yeah, neither did I until I glanced at a local headlines link. Anyways, here a link to the story so you can read it yourself.

The funny thing I found was how the article was laid out on the B-more Sun's Web Page. Here's a screen shot of the page (when I read it, don't know if it's still there):

Soooo...does anyone think it's strange an article about Under Armour (a huge local Baltimore company, btw) getting spanked by uptight locals has not one, but two Under Armour ads surrounding it on the page. I wonder what side the Sun's advertising bread is buttered on?

*Full disclosure: I love Under Armour. If they made suits for work, I think I'd buy them.

** Oh, and GO TO HELL DOOK!! I hope and pray you get your collective, self-centered, privileged, Jersey Shore asses kicked tonight in Indy. Alas, on this I fear my prayers will fall on deaf ears. But hope springs eternal. As Khan Noonien Singh stated so well: "From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hates' sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

Go Ahead!

Kick me in the Jimmy!

This is what Coach Bradley Buzzcut used to tell Beavis and Butt-head to try to prove to them how tough he was. Yeah, he was a tough guy.

Or not. Perhaps “stupid” is a better word. Seriously, getting kicked in the sack is the one thing all guys fear. There’s no pain like ball pain. Yeah, you know it, this look:

I don’t know if there’s an equivalent for you girls – those ovaries are pretty well protected – and you know? I really don’t want to know. I don’t know if I want that kind of power.

That’s why stories like this, about the Serial Groin Kicker in Vancouver are just so disturbing. Even from 3,000 miles away, reading about gives me an ache in my pants, and I’m not talking about the good kind. I was going to hotlink it, but that’s not enough, read for yourself from the National Post:

LANGLEY, B.C. – Police in Langley are investigating after a woman kicked a man in the groin so hard he lost a testicle – the latest in a series of similar assaults.
.....“I just want to know what her problem is,” victim Anthony Clark, 22, said this week. “People like her shouldn’t be on the streets.”
.....Mr. Clark was walking in the Brookswood area of Langley in early September when he passed his assailant on the sidewalk.
.....“I was looking down and then I took a passing glance and saw her walk up to me,” he said.
.....That’s when the young woman inexplicably kicked him in the groin hard enough to send one of his testicles into his abdomen. Mr. Clark said he wasn’t aware of the severity of his injury until later that night when he “noticed something was missing.” [ed. “He noticed something was missing? It took him that long to figure out he was missing a ball? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty conscious of where mine are at all times.]
.....He consulted his doctor and a specialist, both of whom believed his testicle could be brought down again with surgery. It wasn’t until he woke up afterwards that he discovered the doctors were wrong – the force of the assault had caused his testicle to rupture. It had to be removed and will be replaced by a prosthetic before Christmas.
.....“My doctors say I will still be able to have children,” Mr. Clark said. “But at 22 that’s
not something I want a stranger, this woman, to decide.”
.....Embarrassed by the situation, Mr. Clark didn’t go to the police until nearly four weeks after the attack. Constables have told him there have been three or four similar assaults on other men, Mr. Clark said.
.....Langley RCMP said they would like to speak to other victims, although there have been no official reported incidents, spokeswoman Const. Holly Marks said.
.....The suspect is described as a Caucasian woman, in her late teens or early 20s. She was between five-foot-five and five-foot-seven and 130 pounds with a slim build and brown hair.

I’m wondering: Did this chick get dumped while “You Oughta Know” was playing on the stereo? You know, just a little something extra to twist the knife of rejection?

Seriously, Canada, what the fuck’s up with this shit? Is the RCMP going to catch this woman before the world comes for a visit during the Olympics next February? Or will her reign of testicular terror continue?

And, because it’s her birthday, this post is in honor of Shannon, who kicked off (so to speak) her blog way, way, way back when with stories of genital trauma.

Here’s looking at you kid, Happy Birthday Shannon!

A nice piece of writing

This is a pretty funny and interesting article on MSNBC about yet another lawsuit against Facebook. Now you all know my feelings about Facebook, so I won’t go into them again. But this article illustrates pretty well why I’ve never updated my status, and never will.

Here’s the best quote from Helen A.S. Popkin’s article:

“Frankly kids, suing Facebook for violating your privacy is like going to a kegger at the Devil’s house, then waking up on the front lawn the next day hung over, naked, missing your soul ...and surprised.”

I miss being able to turn a phrase like that.

The passing of a titan

I just caught a headline, "Walter Cronkite, Dead at 92" and had to pause for a moment to remember the man most, if not all, journalists looked up to as a guiding light in their career. Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, was a lion of the profession and worked in print, radio and, most recognizably, at CBS News.

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. 

1916-2009

Newsman

When the man said, "And that's the way it is," we knew it was true. Cronkite was from the old school. He treated reporting as a sacred trust between himself and the public. I think America and the world would be a better place if more newsmen acted this way. Governments and corporations and the man on the street might be a little less apt to take advantage of their fellow citizens if they knew there were more like Cronkite watching.

I once had the chance to hear him speak at the memorial service of another legendary newsman, Charles Kuralt, who died July 4, 1997. But, unfortunately, there was bad weather on Martha's Vineyard and Cronkite wasn't able to make it to his friend's service. And, while I can't regret it because I had no control over the event, I consider this a missed opportunity.

Here are the words he used to close his last broadcast as anchor of the CBS Evening News and, I think, they are just as fitting now as we say a final farewell.

"This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News; for me, it's a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings, and I'll miss that. But those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid have made too much. This is but a transition, a passing of the baton. A great broadcaster and gentleman, Doug Edwards, preceded me in this job, and another, Dan Rather, will follow. And anyway, the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers, and none of that will change. 

"Furthermore, I'm not even going away! I'll be back from time to time with special news reports and documentaries, and, beginning in June, every week, with our science program, Universe. Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night."

You will be missed Walter.

Step away from the pillow and put your hands up!

This past weekend after a lovely brunch of waffles and home fries (for me) and Eggs Neptune (for my wonderful friend Shannon) I dropped her off at the Metro. (Yes, I know I’m a bit behind the times, I plead the combination of a new, and still unfamiliar job, and the Heels’ national championship on Monday.) Her destination was a Bed, Bath and Beyond where she planned to purchase a pillow.

For a pillow fight.

In Dupont Circle.


The event in Dupont was, apparently, part of a planned, spontaneous international pillow fight taking place in cities around the world. Along with the feathery antics being a bit of performance art, it also seemed like a great way for folks everywhere to have some fun and blow off some steam in what talking heads have been calling “trying times.”

Everywhere, that is, except Detroit.

In Detroit, it seems, you now need permission from the government to carry a pillow in public. I direct you to this story by The Associated Press.

For those not motivated enough to click over, here’s the highlights:

“Police in Detroit have ruffled some feathers after they cracked down on an organized pillow fight at a downtown park. The Detroit News reports that police at Campus Martius Park prevented the feathery fight Saturday by disarming pillow-toting participants.

“Michael Davis of Hamtramck, Mich., said police confiscated the 32-year-old man's pillows but returned their cases. He said he was told that he needed a permit. Detroit police spokesman James Tate said the issue wasn't about the bout but the mess it would have created.”

There are so many elements of humor in this story I hardly know where to begin. But, for argument’s sake, let’s start with the police actually taking the time to root out the perpetrators so as to short-stop any pillow-related antics.

We’re talking about Detroit here, not only was the Final Four going on there (Go Tar Heels! Number 1 Baby!), which I think might tend to incite some problems more worthy of police attention, but we are TALKING ABOUT DETROIT! According to numbers I was able to find, 344 people were murdered in Detroit in 2008 (a 13 percent decrease from the 396 in 2007 – woohoo!).

That's about a murder a day for those keeping score at home. You never know if one of the pillow fighters might have gotten carried away and beat someone to death with a feather/poly-filled sack.

Next, we’ll move on to the police confiscating the pillows, but taking the time to return the pillow cases. Isn’t that kind of like confiscating the bullets, but giving the guns back? People, those pillow cases can be reloaded virtually anywhere!! Bed, Bath and Beyond, Sears, JC Penny, Target (Target, for god’s sake) and the Saturday Night Special dealer of pillow outlets, Wal-Mart.

This country is awash in cheap and easily available pillows. Hell, I need to show my license just to buy some allergy meds, but just anyone can walk into Wal-Mart and walk out with a dozen pillows with no questions asked.

And, finally, I know for a fact my friend carried her newly purchased pillow to Dupont in her back pack. My question to Detroit’s law enforcement community is this: Were there any attempts made to curtail the activities of those scofflaws carrying concealed pillows without a permit? This, my friends, these concealed pillow carriers, are a grave and growing problem plaguing our cities.

Imagine the innocent people - office workers enjoying their lunch breaks, families with young children patronizing their city’s public areas, lovers rendezvousing for a nooner - strolling peacefully through our parks when BAM! Suddenly, and from out of no where, someone reaches into a backpack, snatches out a 300-thread count pillow case stuffed with a big, fluffy white pillow and begins whacking away at you or, worse, your loved ones.

Perhaps, someday, when our country has grown beyond this level of frivolity and become more civilized, we’ll look back on this weekend as the start of a new age.

Personally, I hope that day never comes.

Vive la revolution!!

Day 2: Headed to the Hill

Hey! How ya doing? Long time no see.

The good news is I made it through my first day on the new job without any major difficulties. There really is no bad news, although I do have a lot to learn especially when it comes to my new co-workers and how things are done.

My first major task is kinda-sorta covering a briefing by an assistant SecDef. Should be interesting. Also got assigned to do an interview with our new incoming deputy director when she gets here in a month or so.

All in all, not too bad.

On to some other random things I’ve been meaning to write about, but haven’t gotten around to during the recent unrest.

I read this article last week about the troubles the U.S. Postal Service finds itself in these days. The Post Office lost almost $3 billion last year and is facing even bigger losses in the future.

One idea Post Office leaders have floated is cutting mail delivery from six-days-a-week to five, but congressional leaders have reportedly been cool to this plan.

To Hell with that, I say. Five-day-a-week mail delivery? Who the Hell needs or wants that?

There is nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, arriving in my mailbox today (and yours as well, I’m guessing) I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to get. In fact, most of the crap in my mailbox today, tomorrow, yesterday, last week and last year need not have been there at all. Do your or I really need another unsolicited flyer from the local supermarket telling us about the weekly specials? I think not.

I actually feel bad sometimes picking up my mail while the carrier is still there (my building gets its mail at the end of the day) and I end up throwing most of it away right in front of him. He took the time to haul it from the Post Office to his truck, his truck used fuel to bring it to my building, he then schlepped it from the truck to my mailbox and then took the time to slot it along with everyone else’s.

And then I throw it away, right in front of him. Seems kinda rude.

But, seriously, why should I haul the junk up to my apartment to toss it when it’s so much easier to just chuck it in the can five feet from my mailbox?

I say cutting back from six to five days isn’t nearly enough. Residential delivery should be cut to three days a week (businesses can keep getting their mail on all the week days, though). If you need something to get somewhere tomorrow or Saturday, you can pay the extra cost for express delivery from either the USPS or FedEx or UPS.

When a business stops making money or, in the case of the USPS, stops breaking even, it needs to reexamine how it does business.

The Post Office, like many businesses of the previous century, has been killed of late by the Internet. People don’t send letters and cards and such any more. They send emails, IMs, txts and such. (Note: I'm a bit old fashion, I still like to write the occasional letter. Despite checking our email 53 times a day, we all still get excited by a letter in the mailbox.)

According to its annual report, the Post Office delivered 201 billion (give or take) pieces of mail in 2008. This was off from 210.6 billion in 2007 and 211.5 billion in 2006. The article I mentioned above said the USPS expects a further drop of 10 billion to 15 billion this year.

If my business lost 10 or so percent of its work in a three-year period, I'd say it's time for some serious changes.

Like Lawrence Garfield explained to the workers in the factory he was trying to buy in “Other People’s Money” (a good early 1990s film, I recommend), there was a time when there were many companies making buggy whips. Eventually, there was only one company left making them and they were probably really good buggy whips, but who really cared now that everyone was driving cars?

I don’t know exactly what the Post Office needs to do to keep doing business, but I do know one thing: Like many other companies providing a vital 20th century service that became bloated by the end of that era, it needs to quickly figure out how to operate in a new millennia or it’ll die like the buggy whip manufacturers of the 19th century. (If you care, it's called "Creative Destruction".)

Who’s Your Boss?
Has anyone else seen that ESPN ad ending with the woman wearing a “Who’s Your Boss?” t-shirt and saying “Sweeeet” after she apparently completes a fantasy baseball trade? I must have seen that ad a hundred times in the past couple of weeks, but it wasn’t until this morning it hit me: Is that Alyssa Milano?

I know she’s a serious baseball fan, so this ad would make sense, but I just need another voice to tell me it’s true. Or I will go mad.

Mojitos Anyone?
This just in from the Senate: Some one of these days soon, you and I my fellow Americans, may just have a right our brothers and sisters to the north are lucky enough to enjoy. For a view of what could await us, visit this lovely lady pirate’s place and read about her recent adventures in the land of rum and cigars 90 miles from Florida.

Wending its way through our lovely legislative process is the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act. Should this bill pass the Senate and the House and be signed by the president, we too will be allowed to visit and enjoy the sunny beaches of our Commie southern neighbor. Supposedly, we can’t go there now because of the repressive nature of the ruling regime and the political clout of a couple of aging Cuban ex-pats in South Florida.

Can someone explain to me why it’s wrong to go to Cuba, but it’s OK to do HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in business with China, Vietnam and Russia? If those same ex-pats in South Florida really hated the Castros, they should have been trying to get as many Americans and American businesses to Cuba as possible over the years.

Nothing, and I mean nothing in the world, will bring a vicious dictator to his knees faster (they're usually men) than a green wave of tourist and business dollars.

That’s all for today, gotta get up to the Hill.

Requiscat in Pace

(Just a quick post today on a topic near and dear to my heart)

Rest In Peace Seattle P-I.


The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last Dead Tree Edition today. From here on out, the P-I will be an online-only newspaper.

I talked about this topic last month, but the death of a big-city newspaper is still a bit of a shocking turn of events. The P-I is owned by Hearst, the company I once worked for, and if it's getting rid of the P-I, which one of its other major dailies is now facing the headsman? My guess, either the San Francisco Chronicle or the Beaumont Enterprise, respectively one of the bigger and the smallest metro dailies the company owns.

The newspaper business is indeed living in interesting times.

Liquid Crystals by the Barrelful*

I did something last week I don’t normally do: I watched Charlie Rose.

I don’t know what compelled me to stop my clicking thumb but, for some reason known only to my thumb, it paused just long enough for me to hear a snippet of what Charlie and his guest were talking about.

The guest was Mark Andreessen, one of the founders of Netscape along with Jim Clark (he provided the coin). What Andreessen said was something along the lines of “The New York Times needs to kill its print edition.”

“Huh? What? You bastard! You shut the hell up! What do you mean ‘kill the print edition’ ”?

Yeah, that was the former reporter in me taking offense at any unbeliever (i.e., non journalist) who’d dare suggest newspapers are dead/dying and that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. So I decided to watch a little more of his heresy so I could be properly superior and mock him more effectively in this space.

You know what happened during the next 30 minutes? I was converted. Three years after leaving journalism proper I’ve now forsaken my chosen craft like Judas discovering he’s short on pocket change and Jonesing for hooker in the temple.

How did this happen? Within the last few months I know I’ve commented to someone something to the effect, “Newspapers will never die, people like reading an actual newspaper too much for them to go away.”

But do we really? After years and years of free newspapers on my desk every morning, and a subscription to the WaPo after I moved to Arlington, I haven’t gotten a paper at my door in more than a year. A big part of this is I just didn’t have time to read through the whole paper, and because some asshole neighbor of mine used to steal my WaPo at least once a week, but even that reinforces my recent conversion.

My asshole neighbor can’t steal my online paper. Well, he could steal my internet service, but he can’t keep me from reading my papers online. Yep, papers. I don’t just read the WaPo, along with it and the NYT my list of online papers also includes the Raleigh News and Observer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Houston Chronicle, Beaumont Enterprise, San Francisco Chronicle, the Guardian as well as CNN, ESPN, MSNBC and the BBC.

So as much as I used to enjoy taking the Sports section with me during my Sunday constitutional, the truth is that’s really not a very comfortable place to read the paper. Your ass generally falls asleep within a couple of articles.

Then, right after Andreessen finished talking, I was buying a tour book for my niece who’s going to Spain this summer, and I started clicking around Amazon’s Kindle store.

Holy. Fucking! Crap!@!@!@! That thing is cool!!!

Now I don’t know if I’m ready to drop $350 on one of the new Kindles, but I’m damn tempted to do my part for the economy. Those things are sweet.

They are also the keen (a lamentation for the dead uttered in a loud wailing voice, or sometimes in a wordless cry – according to Webster’s, what a great word) of the newspaper industry. Instead of getting your online paper for free, you can get your WaPo and NYT delivered directly and wirelessly to your Kindle every morning ($9.99/month for the WaPo and $13.99 for the NYT). It’s still cheaper than what you’re paying for the print edition and I’m guessing more convenient since you can carry it with you everywhere.

Seriously, as soon as these things have half or even a quarter of the market penetration like the iPod, the physical manifestation of your favorite newspapers and magazines are done. Never to be seen again.

If you were a newspaper owner and could get rid of your entire production operation (printing) and distribution network (delivery drivers) and focus on putting that money in your pocket, why the hell wouldn’t you? It’s not like you’re going to pay your reporters or editors more (trust me on this), so why not just get rid of the paper version of your paper and send it off through the ether every morning at 4:45 a.m.?

The news business is a glorious one. A business filled with excitement, pride, sadness, public service and everlasting glory (for some). But, like all businesses, they have to change with the times. Why are newspapers still putting out words on paper – the same product they’ve been delivering for 400 years?

Computer and technology companies (and any company that wants to be really successful) reinvent themselves every 18 to 24 months or they’re history. As sad as it makes me to say this, I think it’s time for us to bury our Dead Tree Editions.

* There’s an old saying to describe the power of a newspaper: “Never pick a fight with people who buy their ink by the barrel.”

A change for the better I say

Just saw this as I was cruising through the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This is from a city news release: 

(PITTSBURGH) January 14, 2008 - Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced today that he will be ceremonially changing his last name from RAVENStahl to "STEELERStahl" until the Steelers' game/victory on Sunday.

"On behalf of the Steelers Nation, I've decided to remove the word 'Ravens' from my name just like the Steelers will remove them from the AFC Championship," Steelerstahl said. "From now until Sunday, all references to my name will reflect Pittsburgh's love and support for our Steelers - and suggest a victory."

The last half of the Mayor's name – in a strange coincidence – references Pittsburgh's blue-collar heritage and the Steelers' Steel Curtain defense.

"The Mayor's surname 'stahl,' is of German origin and translates to 'steel' in English, making the name change even more appropriate," said John Lyon, associate professor for the Department of German Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Mayor officially adopted the name "Steelerstahl" today at 11 a.m. at the Department of Court Records, located on the first floor of the City-County building.

The things we do for our sports teams. 

Go Steelers!!