February, 11, 2002 archives

this piece from slate (via msnbc) details the economics of st. valentine's day in public schools. “i choo-choo-choose you!” sometimes i am very grateful that i apparently got through the public school system before it went all sideways with silly self-esteem boosterism and management-by-standardized-testing.

the weekly world news got a surprising amount of press when they went 'offline' and had a ed anger rant about wanting people to buy subscriptions. (mentions at places like luckedcompany.com, the end of free, and the wall street journal). looks like they're back. nice publicity stunt. shame about the site design.

flipping through my voter information booklet for the upcoming state primary and local elections, i'm reminded how much of a joke the election process for superior court judges is. there's seven positions with 19 candidates. only two of the candidates bothered to file a statement to be printed in the booklet (and they're running for different seats). i can only assume that the election results hinge entirely on the endorsement of various organizations like the los angeles police protective league. the metropolitan news-enterprise appears to be the only local media with any coverage of the races. (shame about the design.)

i think the lesson here is:

“if you are tall, don't drop your food.”

i bet shaq has this problem all the time. (this is hilarious—unfortunate release date, “super friends”, “classic” album. learn to shoot free throws, you buffoon.)

sometimes it seems the local media are obsessed with putting a local spin on news. like the coverage from the minneapolis star tribune and the los angeles times (last blurb) about who it was that dubya talked to via cell phone from the olympic opening ceremonies. kudos to the startrib for acknowledging that their local athlete wasn't the only one with a cellphone.