Oh my stumbled into this. First? Going back to retrieve our comrades.

You can't get all the news you need from YouTube. Jon Stewart is a Comedy Central exclusive.

Yo, Joel:

"we get the meia we deserve"

Irony is wonderful.

You can take smug graduate students to YouTube, but you can't make 'em think...

C'mon, you slackers (still stuck back on the previous Boodle): catch up! We haven't got all day to be lollygagging around waiting for CP to round you all up.

Reposting from the previous kit:

Great WaPo headline in a pretty obscure location: atop the "Discussion" list. The hed: "Austin, we have a problem." I'd make it a quiz to name the source, but about eight of you would jump all over it. Still, I admire it's simplicity, and the twist.

BC, Scotty, did you get Richard Greene? (in TLD.)(I'm sure you did.)

---------

OK, back in what passes here for "real time," and being "on topic" (for once):

I mourn for the upcoming generation, and for the future itself. It's probably "an age thing" -- but I don't think so. I think we are about to enter a "Canticle for Liebowitz" millenium. We have created fascinating new technologies that have begun to run amok. I cannot conceive how the death of newspapers, the death of books, the death of magazines, the death of reading, can be anything other than a terrible, a tragic loss.

Anybody else see "60 Minutes" on Sunday, the piece about "the Millenials" -- the generation born between 1980 and 1995? Sobering and pitiful, at once.

'Mudge, Greene was behind the bush on the right in St. Mere-Eglise, wasn't he?

The Magazine Reader was one of my favorite WaPo features. Since I spend a lot of time browsing the periodical racks at BigBoxOfBooks, I often thought that a review of magazines would be a great theme for a blog. The quality of Carlson's articles always scared me off. I see a journalistic niche opening up.

Sorry, Scotty: I wrote Richard Greene but I meant Richard Todd. (Both have played "Robin Hood" at one time or another, hence my confusion.) Todd played Major Howard, the parachute commander who captured the Orne River Bridge, a.k.a. the "Pegasus Bridge" (its code name). In real life, Todd was an infantry officer on D-Day, who linked up with the real Major Howard at the bridge. So he wound up portraying the man he'd actually met that day.

If that doesn't kill the Boodle, nothing will.

Mudge with all due respect, we had newspapers, magazines and less technology in the 20th century and made one big mess of it. I look forward to what the younger generations will accomplish - they would have to go far to f u worse than was done so far.

Partial repost. I left out the lame joke.

We're having a lovely scandal up here in Haute Maine. The Foreign Affairs Minister's, now ex, girlfriend either married , lived with and/or went out with several members af Hells Angels affiliated bike gangs.
After the issue was raised by the opposition in the House the PM said it was a personal matter, called the questioners gossipy old ladies and said he fully supported his Foreign Minister.
The minister resigned yesterday afternoon upon learning that his ex-girlfriend had recorded a TV interview (aired last night) claiming he had left government documents on her coffee table. Ouch!
The Prime Minister 'regretfully' accepted his minister's resignation claiming in was the issue of the documents and not the fact that the lady's past lovers were (or had been until being offed or auto-offing themselves) loan sharks, drug dealers and murderers.
So. Who's Condi been seeing lately?

http://www.thestar.com/article/425990

The dress in the photo was controversial at the time. Little did we know the fun that was in store.
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/431379

Posted by: Boko999 | May 27, 2008 10:28 AM

I had a high school student here on Wednesdays for the past year, and a different student last year under the same terms. They are not all losers. Some of them can make you right proud.

The weekly version of the Post still exists and is helpful for actually taking a look at the bigger stories that can't readily be read online.

Accessibility of the Post, Times, BBC and perhaps the Guardian online (not to mention agglomerators like Yahoo) means that an amazing amount of stuff is now readily available online, everything from Sherman's Lagoon to the parachuting-Phoenix photo at JPL. With all that stuff, how does print stand a chance? I suspect that print's future is as a designer product, elegant and meant to be touched and ogled.

As sad as it sounds, the WaPo buyouts are not the end of the world. Stephen Hunter has gotten increasingly cranky. Laura Sessions Stepps was a frequent target of Wonkette for her sheer clulessness. David Broder is going to end up ahead of the game (how is he not drawing a pension already?). Tony Kornheiser had been marquee talent kept on inactive reserves for a long time.

I will miss Rick Weiss, but I hear the Post has an underutilized science writer/humor columnist/jack of all trades waiting in the wings cooling his heels as a National Enterprise Reporter (a job title on par with Executive Bartender). Tom Rick's Inbox was another great feature that will be missed.

In many ways, WaPo has an embarrassment of riches and could be accused of sitting on talent much like the Yankees often do. I hope all these people find work elsewhere because they are too talented to remain idle.

I think the most amazing part of the old Newseum in Rosslyn was the display of all the front pages from all over the country and the world every day. You could spend a long time poring over what was "news" in different places.

I haven't been to the new Newseum, but in the time since it closed to its reopening after the remodel and relocation, the ability to see the news all over the world has been brought more easily to my lap... well... er.. laptop.

Personally, I think this internet stuff is a fad that will soon lose its attraction. I envision a big rebound favoring beautiful handwriting, the finest acid-free paper, and auto-mailers as a way to distribute recycled stale jokes to all your friends and casual acquaintances. You haven't truly appreciated humor until you have inscribed a hand-copied cartoon with LOL in looping cursive script. Penmanship tutors will be in hot demand.

In other future news: chamber orchestras of trained squirrel monkeys will replace the iPod as the portable music experience of choice. Artificial lighting will be replaced by the new "green" lighting alternative: concentrated firefly juice, extracted from millions of randy lightning bugs raised on specialized farms and exposed to sophisticated insectile porn. Trained crews of 4-7 year olds will be employed to capture fresh breeding stock from the wild. Child labor laws will be modified, in deference to America's strategic need to become a world leader in bug-based lighting.

You may be surprised to learn that "sophisticated insectile porn" is a Googlenope.

Newspapers were some of my earliest reading material. Besides having a politically active mother, when I was (very) young I delivered The Washington Star for shoe money (a creepy man in the neighborhood used to call me the paper doll, and made reference to dressing me...weirdo). Newspapers were what was around to read.

These days, I get the Post when in town, and always pick up a local paper wherever I am, but I had to let go of the New Yorker because it comes too often...I always seemed to have a stack to get through.

Mudge, if we're heading into Leibowitz, can I get in on the poker game? An eyeball would look nice on my shelf, and you can never have too many knick-knacks.

First results from the Phoenix lander are in:

http://francescoexplainsitall.blogspot.com/2008/05/surface-findings-from-phoenix-mars.html

Let's add some more.

.... well, we're all in this boodle together... and all this online stuff is hugely time consuming... you didn't mention Facebook!!! yikes.

I'm allergic to newsprint so I've always had to stay clear of newspapers... get that dusty ink on my fingers and before you know it, my eyes are itching and watery... awful cheap stuff.

Also, I would like to say that the news we hear about is all negative, negative, negative... which is dreary after a while. I prefer the French channel TV5 which features a more global perspective on the news and at the end of their newscast they do a pleasing little documentary on actual people living in France... some topic of interest which is simply awe inspiring... not about murderers and killers and crazy people.

One time they did a great documentary on a young married couple who took their 4 kids plus some of their friends children, all by themselves (she was 4 months pregnant on top of that) and they sailed from France to South America.

It was an awesome story and not false. It just showed how the kids lived on the sailboat and got along... how they taught each other and helped navigate. It was totally fascinating...

I'm sure there are lots of really interesting people in North America doing the same thing... but do we ever hear these good stories???? NEVER. It's mind boggling. I hate the news. I don't listen to that garbage anymore. I put on the internet blues station and listen to great music while I work all day. And I'm a happier person for it.

there you go!

ScienceTim and yello... thanks for my hearty laff of the day.

SciTim... your predictions are spot on. I will save this boodle for my grandchildren to show them how prescient we are here.

yello... the analysis from Mars is priceless.

I want some of what SciTim is drinking!! What a hoot.

I think the world of both of my kids, and their respective brainpower. But what they know of the world makes me feel like Mudge. I'm afraid, very afraid.

Gotta go, the black helicopters are being insistant. Look for one of "my" boys to make a media splash near ... er ... someplace, soon.

Sure wished that Mudge coulda joined me last Thursday. I was in the brand new "Cold War Museum" (not yet open to the public) with hundreds of Mudge-clones, all ancient mariners.

Miss Toronto has exactly the opposite taste in news as Frostdottir. The dott was a new reader when she joined our family and was suddenly immersed in a household with books, magazines, and two daily papers. Her main gripe with the Post was that they didn't put all the crime stories in one section. She didn't want to have to sift through all the non-murder related stories in the metro section.

... well, I think though that lots of people must think the way I do because look how popular American Idol and Dancing with the Stars has become... why? because they are "entertaining" and make people "feel good" at the end of a long hard day.

But, I will say, that I get great pleasure in the winter months from going to the Library on a Saturday afternoon and pouring over all the magazines I would love to have subscriptions to but would never read if I did.

... there are some great magazines out there on all sorts of topics including Money Sense, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Maison Francaise, and Martha Stewart.

We've been down this path before, but let me stress that I, and many of my kind, find something intrinsically calming about reading the newspaper. Perhaps it is the need to actually turn pages, or the soothing feel of newsprint. Maybe the little piles of discarded sections that form on the floor around me as I sit in the bunny bunker feed some primordial drive to form a nest. Or at least give the lagomorphs something to shred. I don't know. But as long as they are offered, I will buy a newspaper.

That said, as my presence here obviously proves, I am no Luddite. There really are things that the internet can do that newsprint cannot. (And not all of these things involve You Tube.) The very first thing I do each morning when I get into work is log onto the internet to make sure the world hasn't ended. ( I guess I really should do this before I leave so as to avoid a potentially needless trip. ) During the day I compulsively check for the latest news. I enjoy reading and occasionally taking part in the "Discussions" at Washingtonpost.com. And the Hillary Deathwatch at "Slate" fills me with morbid fascination.

The trick is to make these things pay. And if I had a solution to that problem I wouldn't be working for the Government.

But I am very confident that there will always be a need for reliable news and intelligent analysis. Indeed, as the world gets more fractured and confusing this need will only increase. So although a young man like Joel might occasionally descend into mindless panic from the fear that he will outlive his main gig and that the book royalties and freelance work just aren't gonna be enough to pay for, what, *12 years* of college (Okay, I'm projecting here.) I think there is reason for optimism. Things will eventually work their way out. And quality journalism will always find a market.

I love reading the newspaper but there is nothing more disappointing than reading the same 3 stories I heard about on the blurb city news, without the piece adding more detail.

If you want a fuller story that the 2 minute blurb you get on tv, papaers and news magazines are still the way to go.

Modern Ferret?

I read that Kurtz column yesterday and when I read that quote from the grad student about getting all he needs from YouTube, I actually said out loud, "well, then you're an idiot". Fortunately I was by myself so I didn't have to explain why I was talking to the...er...computer.

When I moved here from DC I was literally overjoyed that we could get the daily Post in 7-11's and some grocery stores. We can't get it delivered at home and it's gotten kind of pricey, $1 an issue, but I still consider it worth the price. I will check in on the A-blog and the rest of the online version during the day, but when I pick up the dead tree version, I never fail to find an interesting article that I blew by online. Unfortunately, picking up the Post at 7-11 turned me into a Diet Cokeaholic and I had a heckuva time breaking that habit when I added up what a big Gulp a day costs and started to worry about what the 36 oz of daily chemicals was doing to my rapidly aging bod.

The hubby and I are also trying hard to get the kids to read the paper. We both were newspaper readers at a younger age than our kids are now, but we didn't have nearly the onslaught of stimuli that they have what with computers, so many TV channels, video games, etc. It's an uphill battle but we're seeing signs that they're starting to get the message. I actually saw my son walk by the Post on the table and turn around and pick it up when he saw something about Albert Pujols on the sports page, instead of turning on ESPN. Woohoo.

I'm referencing the Carlson article. Which I loved. Yet I am shocked to learn that "Mademoiselle" folded.

I used to love reading the print edition of the Post. I savored the whole act of it, the way stories on a page would catch your eye and lead you somewhere you hadn't anticipated; the way newsprint smells and feels; the heft of the paper on a Sunday. And of course the stories themselves, the sheer terrifying talent some of you have for stringing words together.

When I moved away from the DC area, I tried to subscribe to the print edition -- couldn't really be done. Years ago, the NY Times seemingly had the foresight to contract printing operations all over the country; not so the Post. My only option was to get it airmail, days late at many times the cost. (Now, glancing at your website, I don't even see that offered -- instead, I can get the "digital edition" for only $10 a month! Woohoo!!)

Of course I can subscribe to local papers instead, and I've done so in various places at various times. But I found it galling that the newspaper in say, Boulder (where I lived for a while) cost twice what the Post did, but basically consisted of just a bunch of wire stories mashed together, with pieces of original journalism coming few and far between. When that kind of thing is the only print option available, it's not hard to see why people turn to the (free) online stuff instead.

dmd, you have a good point about the generations who *had* books and magazines effing up. Perhaps it is a "glass is half full/half emoty" argument, I dunno. But my (admittedly pessimistic) view is that if people who *use* books and magazines and newspapers effed up so badly (and you're right; they did), think about how people *without* them are likely to perform.

I think maybe one useful distinction is that in the past, people tended to have control over the technology (generally speaking). However, increasing over the past few decades, it has become (at least IMHO) technology that now has control over the people. You say you have confidence in the next generation. If it was simply a "people" question, I might agree-- but my point is that it really *isn't
* a people question any more. I admit I have a cynical, pessimistic outlook, but I see a spirally out-of-control technology colliding a few years down the road with an increasing crumbling global-warming environment that (in my view) no one is going to "solve" in anything like sufficient time or quantity. In short, in 50 or a hundred years, I see disaster looming and it is unstoppable. (No, not "extinction" or anything close--but a world that combines, say, the worst of "Bladerunner" with "Canticle for L." and maybe touches of "Logan's Run.") As a former newspaper reporter and current working historian, I think it would be fascinating to have a time machine to be able to chronicle the next hundred years. But on a human level, I'm glad I won't be around to see it. I think it's gonna get really ugly. IMHO, anyway. Given my druthers, I hope I'm wrong and you're right.

yello. That's a pretty funny site considering its by the author of the god- awful "Sally Forth."
There's a panel of the terminally vapid "Ziggy" on the page with a Marciuliano signature but his profile on the page doesn't claim authorship. I wouldn't be surprised if he penned "Ziggy" but I'm absolutly astounded that such a person could contribute to "The Onion."
Perhaps Sally and Ziggy are just examples of his slumming.

Pretty sure I've seen MF in the check-out line at the pet store. My favorite in-store magazines (meaning I read but don't buy) are Blender, Bust, and Traveler.

Carlson didn't mention how Outside got the Maxim treatment, but I am pleased that he sees an end of the Maxim-ation of magazines.

Francesco Marciuliano is the replacement writer that King Features Syndicate hired to write Sally Forth when Greg Howard, the original writer, sold back his share of the strip to the syndicate. Howard had earlier turned over the artwork to Craig Macintosh, aka "mac", who still draws the strip to this day.

A side project of Ces (as Francesco Marciuliano goes by) was a website called Drunk At Work which featured his online comic Medium Large. ML often featured parodies of newspaper comics such as Ziggy, Peanuts, and Family Circus. It also had a weekly TV show within the strip called Teenage Girl President.

His ex-wife (Carol Hartsell) got custody of the DAW website in the divorce and most of the Medium Large oeuvre got lost in the shuffle. Ces has started a new blog called Francesco Explains It All (which is a old Nickelodeon show in-joke) and is now dating the very funny and lovely Sara Benincasa who is a stand-up comic and MTV corrspondent.

Some may say that Ces is slumming by doing Sally Forth, but I find the odd pop-cultural references that he sneaks into the strip very subversive and funny. I've done several blog posts based on either Sally Forth or his online work.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/search/label/ces

Ces's Wikipedia page is 256 words long. The comic strip Sally Forth's is 657 words long. Ted Forth's site (which I mostly wrote) is 146 words.

I have some very odd obsessions.

SCC: Too many to count.

Ces once promised me some original artwork as a reward for my Mel from 'Flight of the Conchords' level of devotion. Before his divorce, I knew where in Manhattan he lived and got some restaurant recommendations by e-mail from his ex. She knew of a very good Vietnamese restaurant called Vermicelli.

And to pre-empt bc: stalker is such a harsh word, but there it is.

Thanks jkt.

Anti-SCC: I'm pretty sure I got all the 'who's in the right places. I keep telling my wife that I'm trainable. She says the dog was easier.

"I keep telling my wife that I'm trainable. She says the dog was easier."

I guess the newspapers in your house aren't for reading, eh yellojkt? Now that's staying on kit.

Not so much "staying" on kit, as "going" on kit.

Re: the 12:50 post:

It's the argument between the cornucopians (humans are a bright species and are capable of devising technology to fix just about anything--all the while reproducing in large numbers) vs. the die-offs (humans are a dumb species and will overpopulate and overconsume to the point of extinction) that James Howard Kunstler lays out in his latest book, "The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century." Kunstler positions himself toward the middle of the divide but a few clicks toward the die-off side of the scale. I've sneaked ahead to read some of the scenarios he foresees. Feel free to buy and read the book yourselves. Do people not read anymore?

The invention of the telegraph shortened the sentence, radio shortened the news story, and TV interjected the interrogative mood into journalism. Is it any wonder that the speed-up of information gathering and publishing and delivery methods involving large digital networks and multiple cheap screens would create new forms of arranging vast amounts of information and offering it to readers?

Thank Marshall McLuhan for his observations some decades ago (most of the graf immediately above) about changes in media and mediums. How will "The Long Emergency" affect the press? The Post needs to bury that old ad slogan. Offer, instead, a more populist slogan, "I Get It, and I Get It Online, and I Get It from Around the World--without Dead Trees, Ink, and a Deliveryperson and His/Her Gas-Consuming Vehicle."

And Padouk, there's a Hillary Deathwatch at Slate magazine? For real? The tasteless title of that column or feature certainly makes the RFK remark Hillary at the end of last week *searching for an adjective*? And in December 2004, the Washington Post company bought Slate?

TBG,

Metaphorically (not literally) ROFL.

Seeing as the one big accomplishment that I always tout is that after twenty-plus years of marriage I put the seat down, the paper-training joke is pretty apt.

Don't take it personally, Loomis. There have been others. Here's the one that ran last year for Alberto Gonzales-

http://www.slate.com/id/2162248/year/2007/landing/1/

The "Deathwatch" section at Slate covers events and careers that are on their last legs. The deathwatch is on her campaign not her. (Nor her career as a senator I hope.)
But I bet you knew that.
Phoney outrage for everyone! Get your umbrage here!

The Slate Deathwatch is like, you know, a metaphor. There have been numerous other deathwatches. I think it is best left to the reader to determine how literally to take the title. But I did not seriously consider an actual death to be involved.

My hope is that somewhere in America, in an elementary or middle school, someone is teaching the child who will grow up to solve the problems we face, and will inspire that child to follow the passion that will have the amazing outcome. I hope that there will be many of them.

In my little corner of the world, I see many bright and talented kids and young adults. Just lucky that way, I guess, but I have a feeling the Millenials have some tricks up their sleeves we boomers would never think of.

While the term "Deathwatch" does have a homicidal air to it, denotatively, it has long been used as a metaphor for the time between when a politician contracts, and when a politician succumbs to, a bout of Failing to Win the Support of the People. There is a certain obvious attraction to being so darned perceptive that one spots the illness before anyone else. This dark motivation leads to premature and false diagnoses (viz. Bill Clinton, John McCain, Harry Truman). Railing against the diagnosis, however, is an attempt to treat the symptom of the illness in its early phase (uh-oh, a jumbled metaphor). The politician needs to treat the root illness, and Win the Support of the People. McCain managed to do this in his primary contest. Clinton has not succeeded. Her willingness to engage in petty sniping as a campaign tactic clearly is not helping (treating the symptom again -- the metaphor is further tortured), as her principal political interest should be to repudiate the foolish incompetence of the Bush years. That means that a Democrat must win, whether it is her or Obama or a miraculously healed Teddy Kennedy. Heck, Jimmy Carter. He's eligible, he's a tough old bird, and he knows how to pronounce Ahmedinajad, even though he's ironically a little weak on "nuclear". Hillary Clinton's personal interest in being President ought to be second to that goal. It is a strike against her eligibility that she would rather her party lose, than that the party should win without her at the head.

Nevertheless, I don't think she should drop out of the race, and I understand her getting ticked at all the pundits who want to get out front claiming to be so perceptive as to have seen first and most clearly that she should quit, "for the good of the party." The race has not yet been run to its end. The selection of the candidate is for the people to decide, and I believe that the people have not yet finished speaking. (two more metaphors in one paragraph. I'm on a roll!)

Okay, I think we have pounded the "Deathwatch" bit to, well, you know what I mean.

Another neat thing about actual newspapers is that, because there is an inherent cost associated with inclusion, discretion must be given as to who has a presence within their pages and who does not. This can be nicely contrasted with the internet where any nitwit with a modem can toss his or her dubious views into the void.

Mudge, LiT - good tie-in with Leibowitz and this kit.

LiT, eyeballs really *are* the name of the game, aren't they? Can I get in the poker game? I'll see your eyeball (ahem), and raise you a gladiator helm and my vestments.

Also, if there were Rachels in this world that might be helpful to the newspaper industry; one of her heads could read the online papers and the other old-fashioned hardcopy.

As far as the future goes, Mudge, I'd suggest you read Neal Stephenson's "SnowCrash." It's an interesting take, anyway.

bc

And I count myself, as I hope it was clear, as nitwit numero uno.

Thanks RD, I thought deathwatch talk would lead us to the "Lee Atwater Celebrity Dead Pool" hosted at
http://www.stiffs.com/
andno good can come of that.

Perhaps it is TMI to reveal that I stumbled on the boodle about the time I was getting seriously hooked on obits and the imaginary people who share and critique them online.

SCC: she meant to add this before I hit submit

But the A-blog saved me.

Kinda kitty.
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2008/05/24/

I had a coworker that won some serious coin in a deathpool. I forget which celebrity put him over the top, but he was pretty happy about the news.

I just checked the Celbrity Dead Pool standings and Sydney Pollack was on all the leaders' lists, along with Suzanne Pleshette. Looks like just about everyone picked Chemical Ali, but that's a gimme assuming they quit trying him and get the execution over with.

I like newspapers. I like the possibility of in-depth information, the variety of stories possible, the rustle of leaves, the crisp feel of the air - oh, wait, I'm onto autumn now. Well, aren't we talking about the autumn of newsprint? A deathwatch, so to speak? Okay, I'll stop now.

I do subscribe to one paper (WSJ, very unlikely for me but a useful source of information and Rupertiana) in addition to reading Post & NYT online. cross eyed astronomer, above, hit a sad but true nail on the head: not all local papers are worthy of the name. I have lived in many places where the "newspaper" was suitable for lining a rabbit cage without the bother of opening it first. Also, for taking out the vegetable compost. Our current local paper has the advantage of being one of the few still family-owned and operated for a century, give or take. That was also until recently a disadvantage, because more hidebound and opinionated folks less inclined to present objective news you would be hard pressed to find. A new crowd is slowly edging in and the thing is actually beginning to resemble a real newspaper. It'll never be "real" in the sense of the national dailies, but it is no longer a routine Daily Disappointment. However, I still refuse to subscribe to it. I check the politics, crime and business daily on line and buy the Sunday paper. If I subscribed to the Sunday edition I'd have to give up my regular custom with the nice convenience store guys, and they still wouldn't deliver it to my door.

So when will we get to the point of paying for online versions? I don't mind, though I suspect others would, having been spoiled by free access.

Actually, bc, I was just researching a bit of Neal Stephenson for exactly that reason. (Is this an example of great minds think alike, or perhaps something far more sinister? You and I do indeed read each other's minds from time to time. Sympatico or simply psycho? Call it in the air.)

I admit I am pretty pessimistic, but I think I can (unfortunately) defend that view pretty well. My thinking is about like this: if I read the majority opinion of the climatologists and global warming experts, etc., correctly, something very big and very bad is headed our way, though it will take maybe fifty to a hundred years for it to happen. Icecaps will melt, sea level will rise, and we'll run out of oil, etc.

That seems to me to be a fairly cut-and-dried scenario: either one agrees that's generally about what's going to happen, or one doesn't. The thing is, if you agree with its basic shape and substance, all that is going to happen with or without human intervention. It has already been set in motion, and its is so big and so unstoppable that if we all switch to hybrid vehicles and eating brussels sprouts grown within five miles of our own domains, it won't have so much as half an ounces' effect on the problem.

So it is fruitless to suggest that some bright young Millenial will suddenly think of "the answer," the magic bullet, that will save Western Civilizaion as We Know It. (Let us try to forget that the portrait of Millenials painted by the "60 Minutes" piece was pretty unflattering: they are selfish and self-centered, spoiled rotten, pampered, coddled and misguided because of our "everybody gets a trophy just for participating" culture and everything is both "win-win" and "all about them," and we older foggies don't know squat. Agree or disagree as you will, but that *was* the portrait 60 Minutes painted. Not a very nice bunch of people, nor very sympathetic nor humanitarian, nor idealistic, in my view. Grredy, but not ambitious in anything larger than themselves. To the extent that the stereotype may be true, I'm not counting on them to pull our chestnuts out of the fire, unless they get thanked and appreciated all along the way -- and that ain't gonna happen.)

Likewise, I don't see technology itself providing any kind of answer. The problem isn't amenable to a technological fix-it. How to you keep the icecap from melting? The answer isn't bigger and better refrigeration equipment. (Sorry, yello; if it was up to me, you'd get the HVAC contract, but it ain't up to me.) How are the Millenials going to keep the seawater from rising, say two feet? The answer isn't sandbags.

The other impediment to our understanding, IMHO is our own hubris, our own sense of our American-ness, our ability to "solve problems" and wield technology. Because that's all basically bull----. In point of fact, we HAVEN'T solved any great national problems of any consequence, let alone global ones. We have NOT solved racism. We have NOT solved universal, affordable health care. We have NOT solved poverty. We have NOT solved hunger in Detroit or Boston or Watts or Birmingham, let alone globally. We have NOT solved pollution. We have NOT solved war. We have NOT stopped genocide (don't make me laugh). We have NOT stopped desceration of the environment. We haven't even stamped out effing smallpox and polio, fer crying out loud.

So go ahead and show me one single major international/global problem -- and note every one of the things I've listed above are "people" problems, not technology problems -- that we have solved. And you think we're going to reverse global warming? We're gonna hold back the tide? Not only HERE in America, which at least is theoretically under our own control, but we're gonna get India and China to go along with it (under our sterling leadership, of course)? Sure, in college I use to smoke that stuff, too, until my glaucoma got better.

It seems to me patently obvious that the "solutions" to whatever is coming must be massively, massively transformational, not just across our own local osciety, but all around the world, without exception.

And here's why I'm pessimistic: in my reading of history, never once in all of recorded history has mankind (which bear in mind only has a relatively short four- or five-thousand-year track) EVER faced so large a challenge, must less one that took fifty or a hundred years to arrive *and was seen and predicted in advance* into the bargain. And NEVER in that same history have entire societies *ever* transformed and remade themselves from top to bottom in any significant fashion in such a short period of time. Sweet Jayzus, we still have people who think the world is only 6,000 years old, and that cavemen lived with dinosaurs. And you're telling me these are the people who are going to help save the future and prevent something akin to armageddon? Pardon me, but in a pig's eye. And I'm pretty sure some 20-something IPOD-sucking graduate student who gets all his news from YouTube isn't going to be our messiah.

IMHO. YMMV.

Sometimes I still have the urge late in the afternoon to check and see if the Washington Star has arrived yet. That was a ritual for me ever since I could read.

Speaking of which... my little sister learned to read with the comics (the Post or the Star? Oh.. I remember... the first one she read out loud was Blondie.. so the Post).

I doubt that many kids now are learning to read with the online version. Online, yes.. but likely not with an online newspaper.

FYI, I think Toles' cartoon today is pretty subtle: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_main.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Like Miss Toronto, I'm allergic to newspaper ink. The Washington Post changed to a better brand sometime before I left, but it's just "tolerable" kind of.

The local newspaper here has a 50% soy and 50% petrol blend, which is pretty much guaranteed to sock people in all the ink allergies that exist. USA Today's not much better, either.

I don't think newspaper soy ink blends have been that tested for allergenicity; I used to work with The Washington Post in the mid-80's when the soy ink mixes came out and I started developing my allergies then. It took me longer to start reacting to soy-based food than it did to newspaper ink.

I am at the point I think ALL products that use either petrol or soy ink, or a combo of both should be so labelled.

I would actually love to have the WaPo delivered up here, anything to get USAToday out of the *(^)*&^ house. The local newspaper does have an internet presence, but I rarely check it.

Maybe the Washington Post should launch a monthly magazine with the best in-depth stories to reach the boondock readers.

The only dead tree periodicals we have here in the hinterlands with up to date news are The Charlotte Observer, the State and The (Rock Hill) Herald Our local paper is a Wed/Fri affair and has news that is dated before it hits the doorstep. I get paper envy when visiting the Starbucks, as they have the latest NYT and WaPo in the racks. It makes me long for days gone by and the time to read the copy over a bottomless pot of coffee. Thus, I'm reduced to getting the online version of the news. I found my way to this wonderful place by digging deeper than the headlines.

"Maybe the Washington Post should launch a monthly magazine with the best in-depth stories to reach the boondock readers." I'd join Wilbrod as a charter subscriber.

Mr. F will be traveling through Dulles on Thursday so I will insist he buy the WaPo and bring it with him a week hence. A random day of the post, a week old, is better than what we have here. We don't even get USA Today and the Minneapolis paper arrives with the letter carrier so it's not here until 11:00ish, later on Sunday and holidays, when it comes by mule as far as I can tell since there is no mail.

Another nifty thing about real newspapers and magazines. They motivate you to read them. I mean, given that I have paid money for Scientific American, and it is sitting there staring at me, I really should get around to reading the thing.

RD, I was watching a documentary the other day that said an internet server can suck up enough energy to fuel a small city.

A source says the internet consumes nearly 10% of the electricity consumed in the USA.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/9/prweb555778.htm

Also, reports say that internet may hit it maximum in 10 years or less if not upgraded, which will cost money.

So, I personally suspect that there will be some restructuring of the internet to come in the next few years. An ISP tax, maybe reduction in free blogs and such, and greater demands on making electronics more energy-effective (which started in the 1990's and probably helped the internet boom).

Some say that the internet is possible mostly due to an age of abundant free and cheap energy. Our electricity is mostly powered by coal and petroleum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/05/fossilfuels.energy

In India, people pay money for internet access by the hour as electricity is so expensive there. Few people own their own computers (electronic imports have nearly 100% tariffs).

So, I don't really think this present internet age will continue in such a reckless overgrowth. If the Washington Post can hang on for another 10-15 years while innovating, it'll probably bounce back quite well.

As the parent of a recently minted high school graduate millennial kid, I have to feel a little more optimistic. I can't really dispute the "selfish and self-centered, spoiled rotten, pampered, coddled and misguided" part, but I expect him to snap out of it.

And while you have a few more centuries of perspective than I do, 'mudge, if given a choice between living now or two hundred years ago, I'd pick now. What counts as poverty in the U.S. today would qualify as a rather comfortable existence in the days of Jane Austen.

I'm even optimistic enough to pick two hundred years from now over today. The pace of progress is often too slow to see with the naked eye. At my grandmother's funeral, my dad ticked off a list of innovations that had occurred in her lifetime. That trend isn't going anywhere soon. Too many smart people keep the engines of progress huffing and snorting in drive instead of reverse.

Wilbrod, they have a weekly edition.

Very few problems are solved, but many, many have been ameliorated. Smallpox. Infant mortality. Natural famine (as opposed to inflicted famine, like in Darfur). The wide availability of clean laundry. The wide availability of effective contraception (to make up for low infant mortality), despite the objections of the US government.

Solve global warming? Not a chance. Not now. But we can design our response. Water level is rising, temperatures are increasing. Those of us who are perceptive can respond accordingly. Not all of us, but enough. Buy land in places that presently are cold and undesirable. Sell seashore property (to Republicans) and buy inland. Invest in antibiotics manufacturers. Flooding, followed by cholera and dysentery, can be expected to be a growth problem as water levels rise and back up rivers. Make some money from the problem (to be reinvested elsewhere that can help), and encourage the development of new antibiotics. Make investment decisions based on the problems that we can anticipate. They'll need a solution. Solving problems creates power. Power creates the ability to do something about other problems. Start mapping out a plan that you can hand to your children when they sober up enough to understand the situation. It will happen (the sobering, that is).

Of all the problems that we face, the one likely to bring the most misery and unnecessarily premature death is the failure of antibiotics, as stupid practices cause the evolution of more and more antibiotic-resistant microbes. We need to counter it by ending the practice of incorporating antibiotics into animal feed, and by resisting the prescription of antibiotics except as truly necessary. Paradoxically, the only solution that I can see is to eat more beef -- but be sure that it is organically-raised antibiotic-free beef. If you leave the market entirely, you just leave behind the people who accept the status quo of beef-production. It is not enough to take money away from the current beef producers; you need to direct it towards the better producers. On this point, I am a hypocrite, because I no longer buy beef for cooking and I am too cheap/impoverished to patronize restaurants that favor organically-raised beef.

I hope I get to work with the summer fun program this year. I was thinking that it would be a really neat idea to play pretend with the kids by allowing them to do a news show like the ones on television. You know, the news, sports, the weather, and getting this information from the local paper. The news they could get from the local paper, and the sports. I thought it might be nice to add a little science with the weather. And I would tape all of this and play it back for them. I'm thinking they would really enjoy this kind of thing. Every morning we would read the local paper and pull out news pieces that we would use for the newscast.

I feel like it might prompt them to read a newspaper, and take an interest in television news also. I might be reaching too high here, and getting the equipment is going to be hard. I think all I need is a camcorder(?) and a good background.

Any suggestions here?

LiT, I can't even get that out there. My major options are the internet download/print of the "print edition", and online. I've tried both, and both have serious drawbacks at this point.

I'd buy a small monthly or weekly magazine-- the WaPo Express weekly-- just to get some of the WaPo stories in non-allergenic print anywhere in the world.

USA today has a nationwide subscription because they economize on size. And it's godawful, it is, but for many people it's their only nonlocal newspaper subscription they can get.

Yes, video cameras are relatively cheap and common now, Cassandra, they do take charging and have limited power. That's a very good summer program idea.

Cassandra-the RCA Small Wonder digital video camera sells for about $100 and is very easy to use. It is not going to give you high definition video, but you could record the kids and edit their newscasts on a computer and post to youtube. They could learn a lot about computers and video as well as the news. This is such a great idea I am going to steal it and add it to our summer program. Good luck, and thanks!

In answer to Joel's title, I don't. The Sunpapers have followed the fast road to mediocrity and lower with their endless buyouts. WaPo seems to be late getting on that treadmill.

Vintage Lady

Thanks for reminding me that today is Tuesday. That early in the morning I'm doing good to get my name right. It did feel like a Monday. Of course, I had not downed the coffee. There is a little improvement after drinking the coffee.

I think I can find the camera, just need to get it together. I'm going to talk to the folks at the newspaper office and see how many papers we can get at a discount. They may not have a discount. I really want them to read the newspaper each morning to find news items for the program, and perhaps in doing that, develop a habit of reading the paper. I love paper. When I was a kid, the adults used to give me old newspapers and papers people did not want, and I kept it all.

Thanks, boodle.

For those following the math wars in Prince William County-the school board has delayed a workshop on the controversial "math investigations" until fall so they'll have SOL scores available. Not sure what they think one year of data is going to give them, but there you are. Not that it tells any more than I've said, but here's what they sent to parents on their e-mail alert list (which I guess I will be on for the rest of my life, too much time already wasted trying to get deleted):
http://pwcs.edu/admin/news/NR.asp?NRnum=352&NRdate=5/27/2008

Die, USA Today, die!

Lots of blank space for ads to the right of this post, at least on my screen.

Having seen several local 'zines expire, I came up with this idea: each writer would "own" his page(s) and sell the ads him/herself. Profit split arguments solved. Granted, for a big city paper, this model needs tweaking majorly.

I also recently came up with the concept "food grade newspaper" that is scientifically guaranteed to be safe to eat french fries off of, strain the grease through for re-use, use as coffee filters, etc. Not to mention safe to freakin' COMPOST which they advise me NOT to do now. Sheesh.

Plus, it wouldn't hurt to have more of the big papers willing to print some stuff they normally shy away from. Such as the story of the rigging of the 2004 Ohio election recount, for which people went to jail. Had to get that off the Net.

yello, keep in mind that it was 60 Minutes characterization of Millenials (and to some extent their own characterization of themselves), not mine. (I actually don't know enough of them to have formed an opinion one way or the other. But the show was fairly convincing.)

If you believe the experts, in 200 years Florida will be underwater. I'm glad you're optimistic about that. Probably be some good bonefishing over the flats at Kissimmee and where Orlando, Epcot Center and Disney World used to be. It would be nice to still have polar bears, though except for zoos, there won't be any. And there will be some fine boating from Northern Canada to the Russian north coast, without any of those nasty ice floes to get in the way. And our friends up in Canuckistan will be growing 'maters in March.

But hey, I always did admire a perky outlook.

I was thinking the Washington Post is both a local and a national newspaper, and it does a great job of dividing up local news by county.

Outside the local metro area, there's not as much need to package the local news, just the national news, and make that selective. Of course it means a lot of editing 2 editions simulateously everyday.

I would like to see food-grade paper, as long as it's not made with frickin' soy ink. That's the ink that comes off on your hands all the time, by the way, I believe.

The weekly Post arrived today with the monumental story on poor treatment of detained immigrants and the battles between the FBI and ATF.

Florida Today, the Brevard County based predecessor to USA Today is really quite nice compared to its counterparts in the counties to the south. To the north, I think the News-Journal (Daytona Beach) is being eviscerated, the Orlando Sentinel and the Sun-Sentinel are sort of albatrossed by being part of the Tribune company, Palm Beach Post is OK, and the Miami Herald, shrunken though it is, retains a healthy interest in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Circa 1990, on my first visit to London, I noticed that the Times had a distinctive and old-fashioned ink odor. Long gone, I guess. Chips anyone?

Now, finally, only until June 1, you can get a special sale price on "Where Men Hide" by James B. Twitchell, photos by Ken Ross.
http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13734-8/where-men-hide

"...Ross documents both traditional and contemporary male haunts, such as bars, barbershops, lodges, pool halls, strip clubs, garages, deer camps, megachurches, the basement Barcalounger, and Twitchell examines their provenance, purpose, and appeal. He finds that for centuries men have met with each other in underground lairs and clubhouses to conduct business or, in the case of strip clubs and the modern rec room, to bond and indulge in shady entertainments. In these secret dens, certain rules are abandoned while others are obeyed. However, Twitchell sees this less as exclusionary behavior and more as the result of social anxiety: when women want to get together, they just do it; when men get together, it's a production..."

So that's why Mudge keeps doing gazillions of chores; he doesn't hide enough.

One thing to keep in mind when talking about the far future is that nobody living then will much care if we like it or not. We will all be pretty much dead. Which isn't an excuse not to take these issues seriously, but rather a recognition that quality of life criteria shift.

Maybe people will all live in cities composed of tiny cubes surrounded by huge tracts of polluted wasteland. But people have a way of adapting, and will, perhaps, find a way to achieve happiness in such a world even if we might not.

Sorry to post an argument earlier in the day and run but got busy at work. I have a child at the end of that so called millenial period. It is interesting to observe a child where normal is recycling, being environmentallhy concious, believes in human rights and has no experience with racism. That generations base starting point is so much higher than mine, even if they don`t read the new (but a great many do), that I have faith that they will not go down without a fight.

Here is a young Canadian now older than my child, but who started to make a difference about her age.

http://www.thestar.com/article/429847

And yes I really am a glass half full kind of person.

Coincidentally, this morning we cancelled our subscription to the Miami Herald, after close to 28 years of picking it up in the front yard every day. The quality has deteriorated and the focus is too much on Cuba and the local sports teams, not enough national/international news. I can find my favorite columnists on line. My husband wanted to try the Sun-Sentinel, which is more our local paper since we live north of Fort Lauderdale. I'm pretty sure he will get tired of it quickly, because it's a much less ambitious enterprise than the Herald.

[He got on the phone this morning, and called the Sun-Sentinel. Here's the conversation:
"How much for a subscription?"
"$16.00 for 23 weeks."
"I don't know, that's kind of high.."
"I can let you have it for $10."
"OK, sign me up."
After he hung up, he wondered if he should have held out until he found what the actual rock-bottom price would be...]

Another possibility is to subscribe to the New York Times, maybe not every day (that's expensive) but at least Sunday. We're looking into our options.

Meanwhile, I read a lot more online than on newsprint. I was checking out this south Florida media blog, "The Daily Pulp"
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2008/05/questions_for_earl_maucker.php#more
and that led me to Carl Hiaasen's site, where I learned that he is appearing in Boca Raton next week, and from his site I linked to Jimmy Buffet's home page, where I found a link to Jimmy singing on The Tonight Show, and this song made me happy:

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2008/05/questions_for_earl_maucker.php#more

I kind of get what the kid meant when he said he gets everything he needs from YouTube--while I was listening to Jimmy sing, I was agreeing with that idea.

Good night, Boodle.

In that Scientific American I finally got around to reading, there is an excellent article about the ethics of climate change that deals a bit with the tradeoffs inherent in attempts to shape the future.

Of course, it is also online.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-ethics-of-climate-change

kbertocci, Carl was at the famous Politics & Prose bookstore on Connecticut Avenue at 7 this evening.

Which is why I wouldn't expect the Boss to be Boodling tonight.

I 'spect a bunch of current and former employees of the Miami Herald (and Tropic Magazine, no less) are somewhere in NW DC tonight, reliving the past and wondering about the future.

bc

There are weeks when I'm sure the neighbors think we're on vacation because the Posts gather at the end of the driveway. I no longer hunger for the paper paper first thing in the morning. I'm happy to jump online and catch up with the news... and the Boodle.

I've thought about canceling the paper Post, but I can't imagine not being a subscriber. Really... I just can't picture it.

I am one of those people who would gladly pay a fee to read the Post online. Not just part of it, a la NY Times Select... but the whole darn paper.

I never imagined I'd one day pay for TV channels or to hook my computer up to the rest of the world, but I do that now. I pay for the paper paper; why not the online version?

Speaking of paper papers, when pj mentioned that he saw someone with a paper from Dec 1942 it made me think about finding old newspapers. It's really the ads that are most interesting, isn't it? The prices and the items that were important back then.

And the articles that intrigue me are the mundane ones... zoning hearings and social events. I mean, the important events (the reason the paper was probably saved in the first place) we already know all about. It's the other stuff that was going on in Dec 1942 that I would find most interesting.

bc, I assume you're watching part 2 of Andromeda Strain. You were right: it's somewhere hovering around "mediocre." It's twice as long and half as good as the original movie; that's some sort of mathematical relationship, but I'm too tired to figure out what. And as usual about half the government and half the military are ash-hats of some sort. Yawn.

Aw, man, I messed up the link and then my browser crashed and now there's no way to put the correction next to the mistake. I just hate that. (spelled his name wrong, too--I am definitely going to bed after this.)

Here's the Jimmy Buffett link:

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/live/index/php/956231.phtml?play=1

kbertocci,
I assume Hiaasen will be signing his golf book. He's thriving but seems to have evacuated Riomar, home of the wiring-eating rats.

bc, I hope those guys are having a good time--I know it's quite the mutual admiration society that they have going. Carl was at the Books & Books in Miami recently but I can't get down there during the week. The Boca location is near where I work, though, so it's much more feasible. If anybody wants me to get a signed copy of the golf book for them, I will try to do it (too soon to make a solid promise, it's a busy time of year).

I moved from Florida to higher ground over a decade ago, which puts me about fifty years ahead of the curve. Every Floridian I've known has had a car. Some weren't even on blocks.

Florida was an uninhabitable swamp before the invention of air conditioning and DDT. Perhaps returning it to the sea will relieve some of the karmic debt we incurred by draining the Everglades and growing subsidized sugar on it so we could enrich deposed Cuban land barons while they enslaved AIDS-infected Haitians.

Polar bears I'm gonna kinda miss.

Is it my imagination or does Jimmy Buffett without his mustache look like John McCain's hippie younger brother?

And kb, when Lauderdale-by-the-Sea becomes Lauderdale-in-the-Sea, I'll put you up until the Federal Flood Insurance money lets you buy some waterfront property in Front Royal.

I'm with you, TBG, I'd pay for a subscription to the online edition of WaPo. Would be interesting to see how much I'd be willing to pay, I really don't have any idea. Probably as much as I pay for the Charlotte Observer, which is $87 or thereabouts for six months.

Mr. T and I had a nice dinner and then came down the mountain to hot weather. Fortunately, I didn't think to turn the AC off so the house was cool. It's still on the timer, so it didn't kick on till late afternoon. I'm doing my best to be green.

Night, all.

yj, you are too kind. I only hope the big earthquake hasn't swallowed up the DC area by then. Could be we'll all be converging on the Oklahoma homestead at some point. Those of us who have the immune-to-avian-flu mutation, that is.

Didn't I say I was going to bed already!?

Really. See y'all tomorrow.

kb... thanks for the link to Buffett, which included another link to the band Panic at the Disco.

I was able to watch my teenage daughter's "future husband" sing lead. I was wondering what all the fuss was about.

Not sure we can blame avian flu on climate change. Much.

How do we know we won't like the new tropical New England? I want the Bretton Woods jet ski concession on Isle Washington.

An awful lot of Brahmans save up a lot of money to go to the Caribbean every winter. Sure would be a lot less jet fuel fumes from those planes. There's an economic benefit right there.

Besides, Oklahoma City is in a higher earthquake zone than DC.

http://www.ivi-intl.com/art/IVI_Map_S-W.pdf

We would want to be in St Paul or San Antonio to make sure the ground stays steady.

Just jumping in to say Hello. I delivered my local paper for 3 years till I was old enough to get an hourly job.I could deliver 95 papers in 10-15 minutes on my bike. Granted not all the papers ended up on everyones porch,but it was fun,except in the winter.

I love the fact that I can read the newspaper online and I don't think I ever see any paperboys/girls anymore.

My paper boy has been a middle-aged man in a van for years.

My papergirl gets very mad at me when I call the Post at exactly 7 am for a missing paper. I think she drives the same van as TBG's paperboy.

Hate dropping in so late at night, but have to say I like TBG's reasoning on cable TV, the internet, and the next step, pay-for-the-Post-on-line. It makes sense when they are lined up like that.

I did love getting the paper Post when we lived in FAlls Church --- all the original articles. My daughter moved from LA to the bay area about four years ago and she complained for several years about the quality of the SF paper "All off the wire! So little original!" I liked the LA Times too, and we took it for about six years after we moved here --- but we are on the central coast, and daily reading of the problems in LA began to be too much to process.

RD mentioned earlier the "getting to the office and turning on the computer to see if the world still exists" which is the first thing I do when I get up. I have only done this since 9/11 --- but I can't stop doing it.

The last time I paid my local paper subscription I was shocked at how much it was - $52 for 3 months. I swear it was half that the last time I paid it. I used to get the Sunday paper delivered, then Joel wrote one of these sad newspaper Kits, and I fell for the free for 3 months promotion, and then I got in the habit. But I don't know if the crossword puzzle is worth $200 a year.

I missed the dire Millenial Kids last night, although I may have seen it already. I think they'll be all right.

'Morning, Boodle.

bc, I just couldn't stay awake to see the last 45 minutes of Andromeda Strain. The last thing I watched was they were starting to make the bacillus infernis in those big vats. What happened after that? What was the significance of the number in the ASCII code? With Daniel Dae Kim aboard, I was afraid it had something to do with "Lost."

Anybody in the Boodle know about Italian geography? There's a radio commercial running here in the Mid-Atlantic that's driving me buggy. It's for the Bertocci chain of restaurants, and the narrator talks about cooking inspired by the isle of Capri. All my life I thought that name was pronounced cah-PREE, but in the radio ad, he pronounces it COP-ree. He can't be right, can he?

Scott McClellan's book is out. He says Arbusto misled the public about the war and other stuff. I never realized...

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Good morning, friends. It is the busy day, Wednesday, and I am looking forward to moving and doing. I had some plugs that were not connected on my computer, so I've been trying to straighten that out. I think I have it right.

Morning, Mudge, Slyness, Scotty, Martooni, and all.*waving*.

I was going to try and watch the movie on A&E last night, but just too sleepy. I finished my book yesterday, and it was a sad story. In the end, the father, who did not believe in God, prayed to God for healing for his son. The father and son went through a lot. A good story.

I need to find the shower and the coffee. I glanced at that headline too, Mudge, but I thought, really. My dad was saying that from day one. He never believed our President was giving us good information.

Here in the great county of Richmond, we have black bears. One was killed here a couple of days ago. I do not want to encounter a bear while coming home at night. I know they exist, but I hope they will keep to the woods.

Also, the sheriff here is sending out letters to the churches, that perhaps they should post someone at the exit doors with cell phone and emergency numbers on hand since last Sunday's excitement at the church not far from my dad's house. I hope we don't have to lock the doors.

Well, time to get started. Have a good day, folks. I don't know how the weather is where you are, but here it has been just beautiful, although a tad hot.

Good morning, JA. How's it going? Ready to buy that castle in France, as Brad and Angelina? Those kids are going to have such a good time running that place.

Really, Mudge? (she says ironically.) Good thing McClellan got out, that has to be a soul-destroying gig.

A storm in the night woke me up; Mr. T didn't hear a thing. How typical. But the forecast is for lower temps today, which will be pleasant.

Good morning, everyone. Hey, Cassandra, are you up? I hope the visit to the laundry goes well today. Gotta do that myself.

Scott McClellan. Another Bush admin person who failed to Do the Right Thing.

Can you imagine if he had stood at that podium and told the truth? Maybe he would have become an American hero. Now he just wants to sell books.

It's Wednesday, right?

I'm so confused...

*behind-the-curve-and-struggling-mightily-to-catch-up Grover waves*

:-)

Sigh. Dunkin' Donuts pulled a Rachel Ray ad because she was wearing a scarf that some wingnuts (Michelle Malkin) thought looked like a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress. I'm normally all for anything that keeps Rachel and her annoying DD ads off TV, but this is ridiculous. That the powers that be at DD would actually put any stock in this garbage is very scary.

TBG, I agree with you about McClellan. How many former insiders does that make so far who could have said something and saved many lives? Disgusting.

Agreed and agreed, Sneaks, even though I haven't seen the DD ad (and probably never will now). *SIGH*

Here's a picture of Rachel Ray in her "terrorist" getup...

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2008/05/28/dunkin_donuts_yanks_rachael_ray_ad/

Interesting story this morning about an elementary school in Ocean City, Md, that has attained 100% passing on the Maryland state standardized tests.

One way they did it: the kids are encouraged--actually required--to talk more...

"Kordick, the principal, emigrated from Munich with her grandmother, mother and sister at age 6 and was raised in the slums of Cleveland.

"She was seldom called on in class and almost never spoke, yet she managed to reach the fifth grade as an A student without having learned to read or write English.

"'I never wanted what happened to me to happen to anyone,' Kordick said. 'I think kids don't talk enough in school. In fact, I think they're told not to talk.'

"When she became principal of Ocean City Elementary 11 years ago, Kordick initiated a policy called Ask and Answer. The school abolished the practice of teachers asking questions, students raising hands and the teacher picking one to provide the answer. Instead, students pair off and answer the question between themselves."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052703151.html

Ai-chi-FREAKIN-huahua over that DD ad...

*RMESMH*

I can't wait for global warning, some parts of the area had a light frost this morning. That is about as late as it gets around here.
I missed the Frontline report on the troubles at the US-Mexico border (last night 21:00 on PBS). Darn soccer. Is it worth hunting for a re-run schedule?

So Rachael Ray is a Catholic terrorist? I so knew it.

From Mr. T, a bit of interesting news: Somebody tried to break into a fire station in the middle of the night, cutting himself badly on the glass shards of the window he broke. The firefighters called the police, treated the suspect, and had him transported to the hospital. Today's Darwin award goes to this person!

Bad Sneakers, there are wingnuts everywhere. My boss receives a magazine from his bank every month. This magazine comes from the local bank's associate bank in Singapore. In this month's issue, there is a picture of a rare early 20th century sideboard. The sideboard has a picture of what looks like Joseph, Mary and little Jesus. The censor board here blacked out the 3 faces with black marker pen. Usually they black out all cleavages of women and nekkid figures in magazines, but in this month issue, they left a model's half exposed breast alone.

Don't know if this post will go through. I have been having problems with WaPo website since yesterday. We'll see ...

I hope DD faces backlash over their decision - wrong just wrong.

TBG I like that program, I very rarely spoke in class, being forced to speak would have helped me enormously.

Had an interesting experience last night, took older daughter to a parents meeting for an upcoming school event. Although the meeting was about an important event in the kids lives - they were excluded. I thought that nuts and brought my child. She sat at a table of adults, I was so impressed with her ability to converse with the adults and to speak her mind independant of what she thought I might want her to say. I believe I am in the mintority in that group in admiring her independance and maturity - from the discussions there seemed to be a reluctance to admit the kids are capable of far more intelligent thought than given credit for.

Rising sea level already affects the Florida Keys. Miami-Dade County and others are getting concerned. Maybe Joel could come to the Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Conference. There's supposed to be a sea level session.
http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/GEER2008/

Sad news about DD and RR. I hope my buddy Dave doesn't get too upset.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35877650@N00/552392942/

Roto-Rooter is gonna need an EXTRA-long snake for this one...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/05/27/space.toilet.ap/index.html

:-)

Good morning, all.

I see that there's news over Scotty McLellan's memoir this AM. Apparrently (but not surprisingly) he says several unpleasant things about the GWB and the Arbusto Administration he worked for/with (as TBG points out...):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052703679.html

Mudge, you bailed at the right time - it just got dumber from there. I'll summarize what I believe the end of the A&E Andromeda Strain to be (I half-watched it with the sound off and the subtitles on while I worked on a project - I gave it the half-a$$ed attention it deserved). The Andromeda Strain was actually a message sent from our future (via wormhole) telling us to not mine the thermal vents per POTUS' plan. Andromeda is loose and heading towards LA, but the bacterium in the vats is used successfully to stop the spread within sight of the city. The nuke self destruct at the lab is triggered, but the panel to shut the sequence is wrecked when one of the doctors has an epileptic seisure. They have to go into a big thermal vent shaft to shut the nuke off, but the backup guy (Schroder) dies in the process (falls down the shaft into the nuke powerplant cooling system water, of all things). The doctors, thinking quickly, cut off Schroder's thumb and toss it up the shaft (*there's* a metaphor, eh?) where it's used to shut the system down. Boy doc gets girl doc. Prez abandons thermal vent mining. Domestic tranquility ensues.

As much as the producers tried to get me to give it a hackneyed "thumbs up," there are too many dumb questions left unanswered for me to recommend it (Like, why use something so dangerous to us idiots of the past as a medium for communciation? Would we send a 100 megaton nuclear weapon 100 years into the past to suggest they don't develop bombs? Sheesh.).

Ah, must get back to work now...

bc

Good morning! I'm not sure I have all my upcoming generations straight, but I think some teenagers and young adults I know fall into the "Millenial" classification. The Boy is a little young, but his generation appears to be imbibing many of the same cultural influences. As someone up there said, it is interesting to watch these young people because they automatically recycle, don't show any racial bias, and take community service for granted, thanks to school requirements. While many of them (pre-Obama) did not connect with national politics, they do volunteer on the local level. I think the Boy's generation may be a little less self-centered just because they are being bombarded by the global warming issue. Sometimes this bombardment is very simplistic, but the consequence is that they're thinking about The Planet and The Future in ways that I, who figured we'd all be blown up by a nuclear bomb, didn't contemplate as a child. Also, these kids are experiencing either personally or vicariously a serious economic downturn with rising prices, falling income and real consequences at home. It will be interesting to watch them mature.

Cassandra, the summer project sounds great. Maybe I'll suggest the Boy check newspapers etc. and make me a weekly news report this summer while he's off (he says he's saving up for a video camera, but I'd be happy with a live report). Let us know if there's a way we can help.

Also, I'll be glad to go in with kbertocci and host a Global Warming Boodle colony here in America's heartland. The rising sea levels probably will mean lovely beaches within driving distance, and the threat of earthquakes is greatly exaggerated. Really. I fear tornadoes and ice storms will be ever greater problems as global warming encourages extreme weather events, but we can wait out ice storms and they pretty much can tell you where the tornadoes will hit. Y'all make plans to move in, say, 50 years.

On a quick side note, Stephen Baxter's had Global Warming and the rising of the Earth's oceans in his SF novels for some time. I remember that the near-future Destiny's Children series and in particular "Transcendent" standing out in that regard. His new novel, "Flood," is supposed to take that issue on front and center.

bc

From last year's Oct. 17 Editor and Publisher:

The Hearst-owned paper [in San Antonio] is asking 40 to 50 of its staffers to accept a voluntary buyout package that includes two weeks pay per year of service (up to a maximum of one year's pay), plus six months of medical coverage. President and publisher Tom Stephenson says the paper will have to resort to layoffs if not enough people accept the buyout offer. As Stephenson said in a memo to his staff,
"Increasingly, we find ourselves to be a company in transition: one that is growing robustly on some fronts, while experiencing retrenchment on other fronts. We are, in effect, transforming ourselves from a newspaper company to a publishing company, with substantial expansion beyond our core product."

Here's are the last grafs, from today's paper, from an op-ed titled "Many of today's Obama comparisons to Kennedy fall far off the mark" by a writer who soldiers on, on staff:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA052808.OPED_2B_gurwitz.269124d.html

Kennedy didn't salvage the Cuban Missile Crisis by negotiating with Fidel Castro -- something Kennedy never did and which is the closest approximation to the diplomatic glad-handing Obama has endorsed for Hugo Chávez, Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Instead, he did so by exercising American military might and taking the nation to the brink of nuclear war with Russia while discretely negotiating Khrushchev back from the nuclear precipice with a secret American offer to remove American missiles from Turkey. [what I said here--regarding Turkey--several days ago]

Kennedy, despite all his preparation, nearly stumbled into nuclear Armageddon with Khrushchev. Yet Obama, who in 20 years couldn't muster the fortitude to speak a critical word to the leader of the Church of God D@mn America, is going to bowl over the likes of Chávez, Kim and Ahmadinejad?

Don't count on it.

LL: I'm gonna miss Ricks, Weiss, and Wright at washingtonpost.com., just like I miss the strong women editorial writers who have fled the Express-News en masse during the last handful of years.

Thanks for that summary, bc. (What did that five-digit number stand for?) I'm glad I went to bed. I was starting to grind my teeth about every other minute as it was; I'd have been snarling at the tube if I'd watched much longer. I'd pretty much had it when the eco-terrorists took over the oil rig in protest.

So they cut off Ricky's thumb, huh? Too bad he wasn't alive at the time. I kept seeing the girl doctor as she was on the Drew Carey show, and going, "no, no, no, no...."

OK, now I have to psych myself up for the big two-hour "Lost" season finale tomorrow night. I'm mentally prepared to dislike at least half of it.

I wonder if it's possible to find a singularity/worm hole, and send a message back to the year 2000 and warn them not to vote for Bush. How about some of you pointy-headed types get cracking on that, wouldja? And maybe while you're at it get that FBI woman in the field office who was suspicious of the flying school thing some backup.

I delivered the Washington Post for a decade, porch delivery, starting when I was 13. One of my routes contained 3 complete streets, about 100 customers, and on Sunday there were only 3 houses in the neighborhood that didn't get a copy.

It was the toughest job I ever had. For years, I never slept in, not once, Not on Christmas, not on Thanksgiving, not the day after HS graduation. Back then, the Sunday paper had to be assembled from4 different sections and during the fall promotional season would weigh about 5 to 6 pounds apiece. I had a double bag that could carry from 16 to 20 copies and when one of those suckers landed squarely on the porch stoop from a bicycle drive by, BAM!!! Sometimes I could get the whole house to shake, or at least it sounded like it. Sure woke up the dogs.

Then there was the worst part - collecting money. Not only was delivering papers hard work, to get paid, I had to squeeze my customers for money. The worst one was an old lady who took it upon herself to give her poodle an obedience lesson (don't bark at the paperboy) all while taking 20 minutes to write out a check as she tried to dock me for things like a torn front page or missing Folger's advertisement.

Hard times. Good times. Plenty of bedtime stories to tell the kids.

Perhaps there was a reason Kennedy negotiated with Khrushchev instead of Castro. Lemme scratch my head.

Two points that the San Antonio writer left out of his analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis- the entire episode was precipitated by the U.S. backed attempts to depose Castro, most notably the Bay of Pigs invasion, and in addition to the secret withdrawal of missiles from Turkey Kennedy also publicly promised never to invade Cuba. Publicly Kennedy looked good, but in fact he probably gave up a little more than he got.

Yeah, Boko, I'm scrathing my head, too. In my view, this entire "who to negotiate with" argument is a load of crap from one end to the other. I seem to recollect a guy by the name of Ronald Reagan using some back channels to deliver arms to the terrorists holding 52 Americans captive in Iran...

Probably just my over-active imagination.

What Kennedy "got" out of the Cuban Missile Crisis, crc, was withdrawl of nuclear missiles in or being sent to Cuba, AND prevention of a nuclear holocaust with the USSR, and never mind who "started" it. I'm curious to know what you think he "gave up" that was more important than that.

I guess if "never mind who started it" is your point of view, then my points have no validity and I bow to your impenetrable logic.

The argument that since Obama has been compared to Kennedy and Kennedy was flawed therefore Obama must be similarly flawed is silly. It's like arguing that since Kennedy was Irish Obama must be too.

I'm glad we reached that understanding, crc. (I guess it was either that or answer my question.)

Joel, I have a complaint I'd like you to pass on to the WaPo.com folks. It is this: whatever happened to photographs with captions? On the home page right now, there's a photo of a bunch of people in some sort of white suits standing in a long line between some earthquake rubble. The headline is about the quake zone, and the text under it says something about Workers promising 20,000 homes for earthquake victims. But who are those people in the white suits? Why are they in line? Where in China are they? Joel, you and I both know a photo's gotta have a caption. (Or did I miss yet another memo?)

What incentive did Castro have to talk to Kennedy? "Let's see, the guy tried to kill me on several ocasions and I'm going to sit down and have a make-nice chat with him?" Don't get me started or soon I'll be talking about Ngo Dinh Diem and his borther Ngo Dinh Nhu.

I don't know why anyone--Bill Clinton, as he did, or Barack Obama, as he is doing--would want to wrap themselves in the Camelot mantle, *especially* as concerns foreign policy. How many foreign leaders does Obama plan to assassinate?

And how did the Camelot myth get started? I have a source that explains it, but perhaps some Boodlers have other answers or theories?

From the "Well, Duh" File in the WaPo/McClellan article.

"Bush is depicted as an out-of-touch leader, operating in a political bubble, who has stubbornly refused to admit mistakes."

Now we know. How many more days?

Loomis, don't strain so hard. "Camelot" got started because it was JFK's favorite musical. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The discussion was never about Castro talking to anybody, or anybody talking to Castro. Castro had nothing to do with it the negotiations. He was a puppet and middleman, as both Khruschev and Kennedy understood.

Scottynuke, I know that ISS toilet mess is a touchy subject for you at the moment, but at least the male astronauts can do the same thing you are: Going off of the front porch at night, right?

Thank goodness the problems with the ISS are with the liquid waste processing and not the solid.

You can blame the condition of your front sidewalk on people walking their dogs at night; but there's got to be bad karma in people wishing upon shooting stars sourced from the ISS astronauts. I'll be keeping my eyes to the skies for a sudden increase in shooting star activity, and trying to remember to keep my mouth closed.

Also, are they sending a plunger up with the next shuttle flight (this weekend, IIRC)?

bc

Did they try jiggling the handle?

David Brin's 'Earth' (1990) has global warming related flooding AND a micro-black hole destroying the Earth's core. Top that for topical disaster convergence. Plus it had millions of people wasting their days in internet chats.

There's a checklist of 'predictions' that have come to pass:

http://earthbydavidbrin.pbwiki.com/Predictions

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe: Islamofascists demanded Dunkin Donuts pull the Rachel Ray commercial because of the disrespect shown by using a piece of male garb with religious connotations as mere fashion frippery. The right wing goes crazy demanding that DD continue to run the ad as planned.

dmd-your 9:24 struck close to home. I sit on several committees where the questions "shouldn't we have some young people here?" comes up and is always answered by a. "we can't find any" (I did not get the memo about the cloaking devices installed at our schools) or b. "but they'd have to miss school" (our 8:00AM meeting time is etched in stone and there isn't a kid on the planet who could afford to be late to school once a month) Good for you for standing up for the youth voice!

As a country we need to get over this idea that talking to some leaders lends "legitimacy" or some kind of imprimatur of moral equivalency. Sure we don't like how some regimes come to power, against the popular will and all that, but hey what was good enough for us should be good enough for them, right? I can see why some on the right would be worried about talking to long time foes. Wouldn't want someone with no foreign policy experience to be taken in by seeing into a leader's soul.

As always, please don't feed the trolls. I think we had that Kennedy dress-down before. Let's just say I feel no great need for a repeat.

On a different tack, if it were expressed in $/usg the gas prices would have reached the historic level of $5.08 yesterday in the other federal capital. It's much less spectacular yet it's still painful at $1.34/L. Dollars are at par, no need for conversion anymore.
Just for the heck of it I searched the price in the UK. Average price is US$8.59/usg at the current exchange rate. The truckers (lorryiers?) are getting a little restless with the diesel fuel at around US$9.50/usg. That would be about a grand to fill a standard class 8 tractor saddle tank. And yet the UK economy is rolling along.

I just want the price of gas to stabilize. If it would just find a price and stick with it, the economy would adapt. It's this bouncing about that disturbs me.

The UK isn't spending fifteen billion dollars a month in Iraq. May have something to do with it, but I'm not an economist.

Nor are you a fool yello.

I understand that the problem with the spaceloo is that the electric aspiration fan for liquids doesn't work anymore. Have they condidered buccal aspiration?

New Kit!

One, two, buccal my aspiration...

No no no, that's not right.

:-)

The gas prices here aren't quite as high as in the rest of the country - about $3.89 - but they're not bouncing about at all. They're just climbing steadily. Until recently they would sink every few weeks, then climb again, but the gas price signs seem to have forgotten how to show smaller numbers.

Lunch time. Here's a story on an Australian crocodile's lunch:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2014505/Crocodile-and-shark-clash-in-battle-Down-Under.html

I doubt that it was much of a "battle".

Obama isn't Irish? There goes my vote.

Ivansmom - you are right. Gas has been increasing monotonically. What worries me is that historically it has gone up and down. Right now I just want it to stop going up, and I would rather it stays high than rapidly goes back down just to repeat the cycle in a few months.

As far as Camelot, I am not talking or inquiring about the musical but the myth. The Kennedy Camelot myth has a lot less to do with Alan Jay Lerner and a whole lot more to do with Theodore White.

It's not that America has stopped reading in favor of YouTube, TV or movies. It's that we've stopped reading MSM's skewed interpretation of current events. We're tired of being manipulated and taken for fools. So we've gone elsewhere, almost anywhere but here [MSM] to find the "unvarnished truth."

MSM has to face the cold hard facts, once you've lost the public's trust--it's gone. The tables have turned, now it's the sheeple laying awake nights counting those entities worth keeping.

Corporate owned and operated media, no matter what form it has taken, has cluttered the public airwaves and print medium with the same old "junk" lacking mutual respect for their consumers.

In essence, they'd driven us away. We're no longer buying their commercial junk. I've reached the point I can't stand TV. Every 12 minutes another set of 3-5 minutes is consumed by advertising and my mind goes totally numb. I'm so numb, by the time the actual show returns, I've lost the plot.

I've begun to associate "interruption rage" with road rage. My central nervous system can't take anymore mental assault--so it simply shuts off the inta