Now it can be revealed: the December mix of the CD Mix of the Month Club.
Here’s my story from today’s front page, on the history of the LSU-Texas football non-rivalry.
Questions you may be asking: Why did Josh, an education reporter by trade, write a sports story? And how did it end up on the front page, considering how very middling its quality is? These questions, alas, have no answers.
An interesting piece on Strom Thurmond’s 1948 run for president, including some interesting context on the “gendering” of Southern politics. (See the “Importance of Virility” section.)
On a completely unrelated note: I suppose one should expect it, what with the holidays and all, but haven’t there been a lot more “woe is me” blog posts of late? You know, the sort of teenage drivel that, before the Internet, was left quite happily in private journals? “My life is sooo bad, so much worse than any other life that’s ever been lived!” “My life is so fraught with drama!” “To an unnamed individual: I hate you, hate you, hate you!” “Should a movie someday be made about this period in my life — as it surely must! — only Meryl Streep would be able to fully embody the dramatic tension that lay within my very soul!” Geez.
Here’s my boring story from today’s front page, on the vagaries of dropout statistical analysis. (Whoo!)
You are reading the blog of the newly annointed champion of the Jello Brains fantasy football league. Thanks to a monster game from Amani Toomer, my squad (the Bobby Heberts) eeked out a win over Quincy Augmon in the championship game, 136-132.
Not to toot my own horn, but I had the first pick in this year’s player draft. That’s normally a big plus — but I picked Marshall Faulk, who ended up laying eggs most weeks and spent the last month sitting on my bench. Despite this major setback, the Heberts rallied for me (or, perhaps, for their namesake).
It is traditional fantasy football etiquette to offer gifts to the champion.
I didn’t know that Daily Candy syndicates its content on the Scripps-Howard wire. (Ironically, the same wire that my CD reviews used to get distributed on, back when I was a Professional Rock Critic.) So the writeup they did a while back about the CD Mix of the Month Club has been published in the Arizona Daily Star, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the Boulder Daily Camera, and who knows where else. Welcome to those of you coming here from out there in cyberspace.
And happy holidays to all y’all.
Here’s my story from today’s front page, on a new edition of Shakespeare’s plays aimed at people who use the word “crunk” in daily conversation. I never thought I’d use the words “Juliet is a hotty” on the front page of The Dallas Morning News. I wonder how my ex-girlfriend Juliet will react to picking up today’s paper.
(Aside: At the start of the year, I set a goal of getting 35 page 1 stories in 2002 — this is No. 35, just in the nick of time. No. 36 is coming Tuesday.)
I’m off to Louisiana through Wednesday.
(Update: Just realized I had another short piece in today’s paper.)
A North Carolina congressman says he developed “segregationist feelings” after spending time with black ex-Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
“I mean, she was such a bitch,” he said.
(For the record, this article is not satire.)
Dallasites, mark your calendars! April 23 to 26 is hereby reserved. Click through to learn, among other things, “what events will take place around the Colossal Colon,” and “how can I get involved with the Colossal Colon.”
Speaking of pure evil… This makes Munchausen by proxy seem almost kind.
It’s about damned time. There will always be people like David Duke who make Trent Lott look like a saint. (Update: Duke pleads guilty to mail and tax fraud. He faces 15 months in jail, but since he’s copped a plea, he might only get a few months, if that. “Duke also was charged with devising ‘a scheme to bilk his supporters of money by issuing a series of solicitations through the United States mail,’ beginning in 1993 and continuing through 1999, [U.S. Attorney Jim] Letten said….A search warrant, based on testimony from confidential informants, alleged that Duke took hundreds of thousands of dollars he solicited from supporters and gambled the money away at casinos.”)
I think I want this. I’m sick of paying $40 a month for a phone line I never use.
Could we please have a ban on profiles in The New York Times all about how a cultural figure wishes to be anonymous and unnoticed by the world around her?
Because, last time I checked, sitting down with a reporter from The New York Times for a profile was not a very effective way of remaining anonymous and unnoticed.
In case any of my Canadian readers start to think only Americans get into trouble for saying, well, insensitive things, along comes David Ahenakew.
Crabwalkophiles may wish to turn their TVs to TXCN between 4:00 and 5:00 this afternoon, where I’ll be pretending to know a lot about school finance.
(Fans of the ESPN program Around the Horn will be pleased to know I’ll be sitting in Tim Cowlishaw’s usual chair, mere feet from my desk.)
The fantasy football gods appear to have come through for me — barring a major explosion in production from Derrick Mason and Keith Bullock in tonight’s Monday Night Football game, it appears I’m headed to the finals. Woot!
Here’s my story from today’s front page, a sorta interesting piece on the quickly disappearing disparities between rich and poor school districts in Texas.
This morning, I saw something I never thought I would:
Two grown adults arguing — powerfully! — over who would have the opportunity to buy a Ringo Starr album.
Autobiography’s a funny thing. People made famous for their illicit behavior often want to trade on that fame — but without reminding anyone why, exactly, they came to the public’s attention in the first place.
They aspire to that special class of famous people who are famous for reasons no one quite remembers, like Shadoe Stevens or Richard Simmons.
In other words, they’re like Donna Rice Hughes. Go read that bio and see if anything jumps out at you. “Donna has given over 2500 media interviews, having appeared on virtually every national news program,” it says. Nowhere does it mention the two words that tell why, exactly, Donna Rice is famous: Gary Hart.
That’s selective autobiography at its finest.
By the way, the most annoying line by far in Donna Rice Hughes’ official bio: “Additionally, she is the Founder and Principal of DRH Enterprises, LLC, a vehicle for the honest exploration of major issues facing our culture today.” Gag.
Just to show that newspaper editors are not immune from bouts of insanity, there’s the assistant national editor of The Washington Times, who has a habit of posting his thoughts on Internet message boards. (Why a newspaper person would ever get involved in all this Internet craziness is beyond me.)
Among his thoughts: the evils of interracial relationships, why people should be “persecuted and run out of town” for supporting gay rights, the South was right, and Abe Lincoln was a “war criminal” who should have been tried for treason.
Thanks to a stunning performance last night by ex-Saint Ricky Williams, my fantasy football team (The Bobby Heberts) has eeked into the playoffs, edging out such outstandingly named squads as the Flying Alpacas, Bye Week, and Kwyjibo. This weekend, I’ll be facing the intimidating UrShellackers for a spot in the league finals.
Players you’re all encouraged to root for this weekend: Rich Gannon, Eddie George, Michael Bennett, Eric Moulds, Amani Toomer, Shannon Sharpe, Koren Robinson, Sebastian Janikowski, Simeon Rice, Jason Webster, Eric Barton, Sammy Knight, Roy Williams, and Jason Webster.
Players whose minor, pain-free, but week-long disabling you are encouraged to support: Jeff Garcia, Peerless Price, Corey Dillon, Derrick Mason, Duce Staley, Marcus Pollard, Keenan McCardell, Mike Vanderjagt, Derrick Brooks, Keith Brooking, Zach Thomas, Adam Archuleta, and Rodney Harrison.
Nice takedown in Slate of Chesa Boudin, the radical chic Yalie just named a Rhodes Scholar.
Thomas, master compiler of all things CDMOM, tells me that these acts/songs/albums showed up the most on the October mixes people sent in:
Most popular artist:
1T. Radiohead (14)
1T. U2 (14)
3. Wilco (13)
4. Ryan Adams (12)
5. Beck (11)
Most popular song:
1. The Strokes, “Last Nite” (5)
2. Ryan Adams, “New York, New York” (4)
Most popular album:
1. Ryan Adams, Gold (11)
2. The Strokes, Is This It? (10)
3. Doves, The Last Broadcast (8)
4. Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head (5)
5. Jack Johnson, Brushfire Fairytales (5)
6. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me (5)
7. Jeff Buckley, Grace (5)
8. The Beta Band, Hot Shots II (5)
9. Ani DiFranco, Living in Clip (5)
10. Pete Yorn, Musicforthemorningafter (5)
11. Beck, Sea Change (5)
12. Eels, Souljacker (5)
13. Weezer, Weezer (Green Album) (5)
14. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (5)
Since all the November trading is (finally) over, I can reveal the contents of the November mix.
Anybody else see what Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott said at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash yesterday?
“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn’t of had all these problems over all these years, either.” (The quote’s a ways down the page, and because The Note doesn’t permalink, it’ll disappear into the archives Monday.)
For those whose U.S. history teachers spent too much time on the Civil War and never got to World War II, Strom ran for president in 1948, as a States’ Rights Democrat — the gentler way of saying he ran on a pure segregationist platform. His most famous quote from that race: “I want to tell you that there’s not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.”
Luckily, the rest of the country didn’t follow Mississippi’s “lead.” I’m curious which of America’s “problems” would have been prevented by electing a man who would have been the most virulently racist president of the 20th century.
Underdog fan fiction. “Disclaimer: I wrote a lot of this stuff while I was on some very heavy medication for my bowel disease. Some of it is very heavy. Please be warned.”
The author of these heavy tales even gives Underdog a real name. (He was just known as Shoeshine Boy on the old cartoon.) The name: Jonathan Weissman. Who knew Underdog was Jewish?
Among the tales: “One: A snapshot of the darkest period of Jonathan’s life. Contains extreme profanity.” And “Dark Shadows of the Future: Years after ending his superhero ‘career,’ Jonathan Weissman isn’t doing that well — mentally. But a government project forces him to face his fears of the past and present.”
Of course, this Underdog renaming business has the capacity to freak out other Jonathan Weissmans.
It’s been a while since I’ve covered a house fire. If it’s another long while before my next one, I won’t mind.
Another thing I wouldn’t mind: not being at work at 5:45 a.m. in the future.
Music geeks like myself will likely enjoy Sound Opinions, a weekly Chicago radio talk show hosted by Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis, rock critics of that city’s Tribune and Sun-Times, respectively. It’s meant to be the rock equivalent of what Siskel & Ebert used to be. Good stuff. Streaming audio’s at the web site.
Growing up in south Louisiana, I always had an inkling the local newspaper in Lafayette, The Daily Advertiser, was a little bit corrupt.
Maybe it was the fact that, through decades of publishing, it had never once exposed a single iota of government malfeasance. (“Government corruption? In Louisiana? Never!”) But, then again, that could just be a sign that it’s an awful newspaper, not necessarily one on the take.
Maybe it was the 1980s case of Gilbert Gauthe, the first nationally prominent child-molesting priest, who did his dirty work about eight miles from my house. The Advertiser, enthralled to the powerful local Catholic Church, buried the story on inside pages, even when it was making the national evening news shows. It was left to the area alt-weekly to do all the good journalism on Gauthe. (Sadly, The Advertiser has since bought out and neutered the alt-weekly.)
But the final confirmation of my anti-Advertiser feelings came last week, when I read about a lawsuit, D’Aquin v. Wright. Richard D’Aquin was the publisher of The Advertiser; Bob Wright is a lawyer in town who, in the mid-1990s, wanted to attract a minor-league hockey team to Lafayette.
According to the suit, Wright came to D’Aquin with a deal:
Skew the newspaper’s coverage of Wright and the hockey team in a positive direction. Write lots of articles saying how great having the team’s going to be. Use your sports reporters as cheerleaders. Ignore the negatives of the city shelling out tax money to attract the team.
In exchange, Wright promised D’Aquin an ownership share of the team, worth about $400,000.
To recap, the publisher accepted a secret bribe to alter his newspaper’s coverage.
Wright never gave D’Aquin the money or the ownership. So now, D’Aquin is suing Wright to be reimbursed.
To recap, the publisher accepted a secret bribe to alter his newspaper’s coverage — and is now suing the briber for breach of contract!
It’s a wonderful world we live in. (By the way, this D’Aquin fool also doubles as vice chairman of the Louisiana Board of Regents, the agency that runs the state’s universities. It’s a plum gig. He was appointed by Gov. Edwin Edwards, last seen in Fort Worth, reporting for his 10-year federal prison term. Wonder how D’Aquin got that job.)
Anyone looking for good Internet radio grooves will be happy to learn that, as of Monday, Soma FM is back on the virtual air.
I just got interviewed by The New York Times.
Not for a job. For a story on the CD Mix of the Month Club. Things are getting a little out of hand.
In other news, if you’re like me — a young Texas male with decent credit and a clean driving record — hunting for cheap car insurance, call Allstate. I had been paying $800 per six months with Progressive. I called Geico, and they wanted $1180! Allstate came through with a much more reasonable $450.
Interesting idea: Cityblogs.
Here’s my story from today’s front page. It’s the latest in the Schools That Work series, a great high school in El Paso, a mile from the Mexican border. (This is why I was in El Paso a couple weeks ago.)
Expect posting to return to a more user-friendly level shortly.
Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)
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