In beauty pageant news: “MADRID, Spain — An undercover journalist bribed a regional beauty pageant judge, revealing alleged corruption in the Miss Spain contest. Gema Garcia Marcos, 31, won the Miss Alicante crown after she offered �27,000 ($23,700) to a judge.”

I dunno, she’s pretty hot. Wonder if I could bribe my way into a Mr. Texas victory.

Met with my Little Brother today, for the first time in a while (because of the Olympics and his spring break). He’s not doing well. Got suspended from school for six days a couple weeks ago. Failing some classes. Probably won’t be promoted from freshman to sophomore next year. And, unfortunately, the silly restrictions on the Big Brother program I’m in means I’m fairly powerless to do anything about it, or to even find out the root causes. Frustrating.

Comments

20 March | 15:48 | Julie

You'd have my vote for Mr. Texas, Josh. Especially if you wore spurs.

21 March | 9:15 | Karen

*shudder*

Oh that was SO not an image I needed this morning.

21 March | 15:28 | christy

What kind of restrictions?

21 March | 15:35 | josh

I'm not allowed to talk to his parents or friends or see him anytime outside of the one hour a week I'm allotted at school. (This is the "school-based" program Big Brothers runs, not the usual full-blown program most people are familiar with.) So other than not get my calls returned by school counselors, there's not much I can do except talk about stuff with him. Which helps, I guess, but it's hard to get much of a relationship sitting at a table in school once a week.

22 March | 16:52 | christy

I'm sure you're making more of a difference in him than what you can see at the moment. Keep up the good work.

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Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)