I haven’t written a post in a while for a number of reasons: I have been working full-day shifts at the UCSC ensuring that we have a great group of community service-minded first-years to work with, and I have been a little sick.
But none of this stopped me from watching the first presidential debate last night in the dorm’s Rec Room. About 50 new and returning students (a third of the dorm) watched the debate together, and it was clear from the group’s laughter and groans that the University of Chicago is, by and large, turning out in November for Obama.
We thought Obama sounded smart and thoughtful, though he should have remembered Jim Lehrer’s name (“Well, Tom… I mean, John…”); McCain was long-winded about government spending, but didn’t address the financial crisis well; and Lehrer—he needed to give up on orchestrating a presidential debate during which the candidates would actually debate.
It was clear that Lehrer would have preferred the candidates to strip down and mud-wrestle to solve the financial crisis—a topic he kept returning—but I’m willing to settle for the candidates’ re-hashing of talking points for now.
My stances on many of the issues discussed are clear: I believe Obama when he says he will open up talks, on his terms, with non-democratic, “terrorist” governments like Iran and North Korea. I also believe that the U.S. needs to set a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq, though I understand that an immediate withdrawal would only further de-stabilize the region.
And there’s the topic of government over-spending—a problem Republicans traditionally like to pin on Democrats, despite Bush’s steely determination to approve just about every spending bill to go before him during his eight years in office. McCain tried to juxtapose his plans to cut government spending on domestic programs with Obama’s intentions to transform public school programs, alternative energy development and health services, but one comment Obama made stood out: “You are using a hatchet where you need a scalpel,” there are some excellent programs in the U.S. that are under funded, such as early childhood education. This is the kind of discerning, nuanced comment that attracted me to Obama in the first place.
But what I really want to focus on is the way the candidates’ talked about energy policy. It’s good. Four years ago energy independence was not such a catch phrase, and I am happy to here candidates from both parties trying to address this issue.
I think Obama made the clearest case for energy independence last night, when he described his 10-year plan to wean America off foreign oil. He wants to raise the fuel efficiency standards of cars manufactured in the U.S. to compete with Japanese makers.
Obama made this point about Wall street, but I think this kind of thinking applies to the energy crisis as well: “We did not set up a twenty-first century framework to deal with these problems… [Instead, we have] a twentieth-century policy that doesn’t believe in regulation.” Again, there’s nuance to his statement that sounds to me like mature policy-making (as opposed to the kind you write with “a pen that’s very old”).
But I’m also glad that McCain emphasized the creation of nuclear power plants, which would in turn create thousands of new jobs. And like me, McCain does not support ethanol subsidies, which encourages farmers to over produce corn, bringing the prices of corn-based processed food down and good, healthy and cheap vegetables harder and harder to come by.
I’m a college student hesitant to enter the working-world because I see all of these twentieth-century systems breaking down, and a nation unsure how to learn from them. I need a president who resists the dichotomies that the U.S. has consistently relied on post-WWII and is unafraid to take a more complicated point of view in foreign and domestic affairs.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
"In my mind, I'm the biggest sex maniac you ever saw."
That quote was first uttered by boy protagonist Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger's iconic portrait of teen angst, Catcher in the Rye, but it also sounds like something Alexander Portnoy would tell his psychologist. Portnoy is the putz-pulling anti-hero of Portnoy's Complaint, Phillip Roth’s 1969 coming-of-age story. And like Holden, he goes to lengths to free himself from the life plan his parents envision for him.
The friend who recommended Portnoy's Complaint to me described the book as “primarily about masturbation,” and if anything that’s an understatement. But I also think this description misses some of the tragedy in Alex Portnoy’s cheeky, indignant 300-page rant—the rant of a self-hating, New Jersey Jew who grows up dreading his perfection-seeking parents and fetishizing every “shikse goddess” he meets.
Now, Roth is “putting the id back in yid,” again, with his newly released novel Indignation, garnering comparisons to Complaint. This time the indignant Jewish boy is Marcus Messner, a sophomore at a conservative Ohio college, but the last place you would find him is waiting in line with Portnoy’s friends for a blow-job. He describes himself as diligent and responsible, “the nicest boy in the world.” But like Portnoy, who is an effortless straight-A student despite his secret obsessions, Messner’s two goals are to become valedictorian and lose his virginity.
Most interesting about the novel to me is that it’s set during the protagonist’s sophomore year of college, and shares his regrets from beyond the grave. (Not much of a spoiler, but you learn around page 54 that Messner is dead.) It gets me feeling a little fatalistic about my second year of college, because there’s still so much to accomplish.
David Gates gave a meandering review of the book in the NY Times Book Review last Sunday, which can be found here.
Here Roth talks with the Wall Street Journal about naming the book:
WSJ: "Indignation" could be the title of nearly every book you've written. How do you view the indignant?
Mr. Roth: I wouldn't say every book, but I get your meaning. I think people are full of indignation. They walk the streets in indignation, ride the subways with indignation. It's a common, human motive. Do you think I'll get complaints from the indignant?
Predictably it is Marcus's sense of outrage to drive the novel forward, and toward his death.
A fantastic quote by the college's dean of students, after a frat-scene gone awry: "Beyond your dormitories, a world is on fire and you are kindled by underwear."
If anyone reads Indignation, please let me know what you think!
The friend who recommended Portnoy's Complaint to me described the book as “primarily about masturbation,” and if anything that’s an understatement. But I also think this description misses some of the tragedy in Alex Portnoy’s cheeky, indignant 300-page rant—the rant of a self-hating, New Jersey Jew who grows up dreading his perfection-seeking parents and fetishizing every “shikse goddess” he meets.
Now, Roth is “putting the id back in yid,” again, with his newly released novel Indignation, garnering comparisons to Complaint. This time the indignant Jewish boy is Marcus Messner, a sophomore at a conservative Ohio college, but the last place you would find him is waiting in line with Portnoy’s friends for a blow-job. He describes himself as diligent and responsible, “the nicest boy in the world.” But like Portnoy, who is an effortless straight-A student despite his secret obsessions, Messner’s two goals are to become valedictorian and lose his virginity.
Most interesting about the novel to me is that it’s set during the protagonist’s sophomore year of college, and shares his regrets from beyond the grave. (Not much of a spoiler, but you learn around page 54 that Messner is dead.) It gets me feeling a little fatalistic about my second year of college, because there’s still so much to accomplish.
David Gates gave a meandering review of the book in the NY Times Book Review last Sunday, which can be found here.
Here Roth talks with the Wall Street Journal about naming the book:
WSJ: "Indignation" could be the title of nearly every book you've written. How do you view the indignant?
Mr. Roth: I wouldn't say every book, but I get your meaning. I think people are full of indignation. They walk the streets in indignation, ride the subways with indignation. It's a common, human motive. Do you think I'll get complaints from the indignant?
Predictably it is Marcus's sense of outrage to drive the novel forward, and toward his death.
A fantastic quote by the college's dean of students, after a frat-scene gone awry: "Beyond your dormitories, a world is on fire and you are kindled by underwear."
If anyone reads Indignation, please let me know what you think!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
My Last Union-Tribune Article
I've been really busy the last couple of days moving myself and all the first-years back into the dorm. Here's an article I wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune (where I interned last summer), published yesterday:
By Rachel Cromidas
September 20, 2008
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The Clermont Hotel was a celebrated jazz hotspot in the 1930s, frequented by musicians such as Charlie Parker and Nat King Cole. Today it's a halfway house for parolees.
Now supporters of the runner-up proposal by local developer Robert Green, which includes a plan to restore the Clermont, want the CCDC to make good on its promise to incorporate African-American culture into the project.
Green was first solicited to create a proposal for the site by Larry Sidiropoulos, co-owner of the hotel, in 2006. The plan involved restoring the hotel to the way it looked when it was built in 1887, with wooden exterior lining instead of stucco, Green said. They also discussed creating museum space for the Black Historical Society and signed a franchise agreement with a jazz club owned by the Charlie Parker's family.
The CCDC reviewed seven proposals for the space, including Green's, before selecting the 7th & Market project in March 2007. Development was halted in August pending investigations into Graham's ties to Related.
Before Related was selected, Graham said in a statement that “one prominent feature of the project would be a cultural use and/or performance-art space that celebrates the African-American heritage of the block.”
Said Sidiropoulos, who purchased the hotel in 2004 with two friends, Anthony Laureti and Ashley Abano: “We played by the rules, and we were the runner-up in the selection process. To save time, money and effort for us, the city should start talking to us or enter into an exclusive negotiation agreement for the site.”
CCDC spokesman Derek Danziger said the agency's board has not made any decisions about the future of the site, but it hasn't ruled out the Green plan. “There's got to be some time to resolve any of the outstanding issues going on first.”
The Clermont Hotel was almost demolished in 2000, when the city first considered developing the Seventh Avenue property. The original plan was to build a parking garage, Park It on Market, to accommodate the crowds at nearby Petco Park. The Black Historical Society reacted with alarm.
“It was amazing that the redevelopment agency so wanted to demolish the site to put up a gaudy parking lot. The hotel had quite a history of Jim Crow and racial segregation,” said Karen Huff-Willis, president of the society.
In 2001, the society successfully lobbied to designate the hotel as a historical landmark that could not be torn down.
Huff-Willis remembers a hard-fought struggle with the CCDC for the Clermont Hotel, focused around a debate over whether the hotel was actually segregated. The agency “stooped pretty low,” including calling into question whether the term “colored” in the Yellow Pages really meant black.
Huff-Willis said the Clermont once was one of the largest colored hotels in the downtown, providing elegant rooms to well-known entertainers, including Billie Holiday.
The historical society conducts a weekly Harlem of the West Tour of downtown San Diego.
“We like to point out the very front of the hotel, the room on the bottom floor to the right, where Jelly Roll Morton used to stay,” Huff-Willis said of the famous early jazz pianist. “It was quite a social meeting place in the mid-1930s and '40s.”
However, by the 1970s, the Clermont, later renamed the Coast, was run-down and dangerous. “It had become a drug-infested, very violent place,” Huff-Willis said. “It was notorious, thanks to a couple of murders that occurred there.”
Neighbors considered the building an eyesore and disregarded its history, she added. But Huff-Willis is more optimistic today.
“Now that the so-called 7th & Market project is on hold, the hotel's future is very bright,” she said. “This is an opportunity for the CCDC to maybe bring in a developer that will re-think the project.”
Sidiropoulos agreed. “The process didn't seem fair to us over the last couple of years. Absent a developer's help, we really can't improve the building the way it needs to be.”
Once-famous hotel for blacks has new hopes for inclusion in plans by CCDC
By Rachel Cromidas
September 20, 2008
DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The Clermont Hotel was a celebrated jazz hotspot in the 1930s, frequented by musicians such as Charlie Parker and Nat King Cole. Today it's a halfway house for parolees.
Now supporters of the runner-up proposal by local developer Robert Green, which includes a plan to restore the Clermont, want the CCDC to make good on its promise to incorporate African-American culture into the project.
Green was first solicited to create a proposal for the site by Larry Sidiropoulos, co-owner of the hotel, in 2006. The plan involved restoring the hotel to the way it looked when it was built in 1887, with wooden exterior lining instead of stucco, Green said. They also discussed creating museum space for the Black Historical Society and signed a franchise agreement with a jazz club owned by the Charlie Parker's family.
The CCDC reviewed seven proposals for the space, including Green's, before selecting the 7th & Market project in March 2007. Development was halted in August pending investigations into Graham's ties to Related.
Before Related was selected, Graham said in a statement that “one prominent feature of the project would be a cultural use and/or performance-art space that celebrates the African-American heritage of the block.”
Said Sidiropoulos, who purchased the hotel in 2004 with two friends, Anthony Laureti and Ashley Abano: “We played by the rules, and we were the runner-up in the selection process. To save time, money and effort for us, the city should start talking to us or enter into an exclusive negotiation agreement for the site.”
CCDC spokesman Derek Danziger said the agency's board has not made any decisions about the future of the site, but it hasn't ruled out the Green plan. “There's got to be some time to resolve any of the outstanding issues going on first.”
The Clermont Hotel was almost demolished in 2000, when the city first considered developing the Seventh Avenue property. The original plan was to build a parking garage, Park It on Market, to accommodate the crowds at nearby Petco Park. The Black Historical Society reacted with alarm.
“It was amazing that the redevelopment agency so wanted to demolish the site to put up a gaudy parking lot. The hotel had quite a history of Jim Crow and racial segregation,” said Karen Huff-Willis, president of the society.
In 2001, the society successfully lobbied to designate the hotel as a historical landmark that could not be torn down.
Huff-Willis remembers a hard-fought struggle with the CCDC for the Clermont Hotel, focused around a debate over whether the hotel was actually segregated. The agency “stooped pretty low,” including calling into question whether the term “colored” in the Yellow Pages really meant black.
Huff-Willis said the Clermont once was one of the largest colored hotels in the downtown, providing elegant rooms to well-known entertainers, including Billie Holiday.
The historical society conducts a weekly Harlem of the West Tour of downtown San Diego.
“We like to point out the very front of the hotel, the room on the bottom floor to the right, where Jelly Roll Morton used to stay,” Huff-Willis said of the famous early jazz pianist. “It was quite a social meeting place in the mid-1930s and '40s.”
However, by the 1970s, the Clermont, later renamed the Coast, was run-down and dangerous. “It had become a drug-infested, very violent place,” Huff-Willis said. “It was notorious, thanks to a couple of murders that occurred there.”
Neighbors considered the building an eyesore and disregarded its history, she added. But Huff-Willis is more optimistic today.
“Now that the so-called 7th & Market project is on hold, the hotel's future is very bright,” she said. “This is an opportunity for the CCDC to maybe bring in a developer that will re-think the project.”
Sidiropoulos agreed. “The process didn't seem fair to us over the last couple of years. Absent a developer's help, we really can't improve the building the way it needs to be.”
Friday, September 19, 2008
Quick Update. Comment Please!
I've successfully moved back into Snell-Hitchcock (more to come). I also fixed the comments feature so you can now leave comments anonymously, which is sweet if you don't have a blogger profile. Please leave your name or at the very least some identifiable writing style, or else I will not publish your comment.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
What I'm Reading, Plus a Rant
I'm actually not reading anything—I'm finishing my notes on the first-year applicants to the Community Service Leadership Training Corp. (CSLTC) before I interview them next week. Busy, busy.
But if I had the time to read, as you clearly do, here are some NY Times articles on food culture from the week I've been dying to take a bite out of (I know, bad).
Instead of Eating to Diet, They’re Eating to Enjoy: Tara Parker Pope shares an anti-dieting trend that focuses on the quality and variety of food rather than counting calories.
Sorting Through the Claims of the Boastful Egg: Catherine Price demystifies the food that made us ask, "What came first?"
Superfood or Monster From the Deep? Julia Moskin on the sardines in your orange juice and the beets in your peanut butter.
And as promised, the rant. It's not mine; it belongs to our dear old constitutional originalist on the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia. He visited Chicago yesterday and couldn't leave without knocking the U of C's law school for offering "easy" and "exotic" classes.
A gem from his speech: "I took nothing but bread-and-butter classes [in law school], not 'Law and Poverty.'"
Yeah, because who wants to argue twenty-first century poverty when he can agree with eighteenth-century language instead?
But if I had the time to read, as you clearly do, here are some NY Times articles on food culture from the week I've been dying to take a bite out of (I know, bad).
Instead of Eating to Diet, They’re Eating to Enjoy: Tara Parker Pope shares an anti-dieting trend that focuses on the quality and variety of food rather than counting calories.
Sorting Through the Claims of the Boastful Egg: Catherine Price demystifies the food that made us ask, "What came first?"
Superfood or Monster From the Deep? Julia Moskin on the sardines in your orange juice and the beets in your peanut butter.
And as promised, the rant. It's not mine; it belongs to our dear old constitutional originalist on the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia. He visited Chicago yesterday and couldn't leave without knocking the U of C's law school for offering "easy" and "exotic" classes.
A gem from his speech: "I took nothing but bread-and-butter classes [in law school], not 'Law and Poverty.'"
Yeah, because who wants to argue twenty-first century poverty when he can agree with eighteenth-century language instead?
ChicaGoing Back to School
I'm in the San Diego airport waiting for the plane that will take me back to Chicago this afternoon. I brought my October Atlantic Monthly to read during the flight, but I still haven't finished evaluating all the CSLTC first-year applications (10 to go; they're in my carry-on). I'm spending the night at I-House, then moving back into my dorm Friday morning. Needless to say I can't wait to get back.
From whay I've heard, the Masters Assistants are already hard at work, making Snitchcock look lovely and lived-in again in time for Move-in Day.
I checked two large duffle bags full of—you guessed it—clothing, and I have two carry-ons; I almost surpassed the luggage weight limit. I have significantly more faith in the plane's ability to hold it all than in my dormroom closet.
Here are a photos of my closet and the rest of my first-year room, S322. Oddly enough, another girl from San Diego will be living in it next year!
From whay I've heard, the Masters Assistants are already hard at work, making Snitchcock look lovely and lived-in again in time for Move-in Day.
I checked two large duffle bags full of—you guessed it—clothing, and I have two carry-ons; I almost surpassed the luggage weight limit. I have significantly more faith in the plane's ability to hold it all than in my dormroom closet.
Here are a photos of my closet and the rest of my first-year room, S322. Oddly enough, another girl from San Diego will be living in it next year!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
What Your G-nomes Say About You
It’s true. You’re lawn sculptures can reveal a lot about of your personality:
Entrepreneurial
Worldly
Industrious
Cheeky
I'm kidding. This post is about how advances in human genetics are helping us better understand the way we behave.
Though genetics research is fairly young, scientists have already isolated the genes that would predispose people to a host of diseases, among them Alzheimer’s and leukemia. And since researchers connected the gene BRCA-1 to breast cancer, some young women who are positive for the gene have chosen to remove their perfectly healthy breasts.
These tests are rightly prompting people to take preventative measures to protect their health, but they also beg the question, how much about ourselves should we know, and how far should we go to prevent the inevitable?
The genetic research is not all health related. Look at geneticist Dean Hamer's research on the so-called "God Gene" that predisposes people to faith. Hamer's conclusions aren't so clean cut, of course. He also tried to isolate a gene determining homosexuality, but the scientific community has widely deemed sexuality too complex to be determined by either hereditary or external factors alone.
Regardless of inconclusive research, as Olivia Judson points out today on a NY Times blog, it won’t be long before we ask scientists to stop being oracles and start playing God.
Several weeks ago the National Academy of Sciences published a new study about a gene that has been linked to monogamous behavior. By asking Swedish men how often they kiss or spend time with their significant other, the researchers found that Men with one particular variant of the gene scored lower on the test and were statistically more likely to have marital troubles and commitment issues.
Well, a gene test for this one certainly could have saved Carrie Bradshaw some trouble. She might at least have spent less time screening her phone calls if she could screen her men for the “Commitment Gene.” Maybe Miranda was right when she announced, “I'm sorry, but if a man is over 30 and single, there's something wrong with him, it's Darwinian.”
At the very least, this study lends a whole new meaning to the phrase, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
But besides weeding men with low-commitment genetics out of the dating pool, Judson shares another admittedly mischievous thought on the gene: “Could such restlessness be cured one day?”
In other words, could a man chose to take—or be coerced into taking—a pill that would alter his brain chemistry and make him less likely to cheat or get cold feet? Now there’s a thought both serendipitous and scary, especially for young singles who might not be looking at marriage as the holy relationship grail it once was.
Actually, I wonder why they didn’t include women in the study—we’re just as prone to serial monogamy and sleeping around.
The idea of being able to predict and even manipulate someone’s behavior based on their genome is compelling, but the ethical implications are significant-—an evolutionary conundrum of “to be or not to be” proportions. It's the Roamin' Gnome in the undiscovered country. Mix in some Frankestein references and you have my 12th grade English curriculum. I’m curious how science and ethics will intersect in the future as more people face the whips and scorns of genetic-dependent decisions.
Entrepreneurial
Worldly
Industrious
Cheeky
I'm kidding. This post is about how advances in human genetics are helping us better understand the way we behave.
Though genetics research is fairly young, scientists have already isolated the genes that would predispose people to a host of diseases, among them Alzheimer’s and leukemia. And since researchers connected the gene BRCA-1 to breast cancer, some young women who are positive for the gene have chosen to remove their perfectly healthy breasts.
These tests are rightly prompting people to take preventative measures to protect their health, but they also beg the question, how much about ourselves should we know, and how far should we go to prevent the inevitable?
The genetic research is not all health related. Look at geneticist Dean Hamer's research on the so-called "God Gene" that predisposes people to faith. Hamer's conclusions aren't so clean cut, of course. He also tried to isolate a gene determining homosexuality, but the scientific community has widely deemed sexuality too complex to be determined by either hereditary or external factors alone.
Regardless of inconclusive research, as Olivia Judson points out today on a NY Times blog, it won’t be long before we ask scientists to stop being oracles and start playing God.
Several weeks ago the National Academy of Sciences published a new study about a gene that has been linked to monogamous behavior. By asking Swedish men how often they kiss or spend time with their significant other, the researchers found that Men with one particular variant of the gene scored lower on the test and were statistically more likely to have marital troubles and commitment issues.
Well, a gene test for this one certainly could have saved Carrie Bradshaw some trouble. She might at least have spent less time screening her phone calls if she could screen her men for the “Commitment Gene.” Maybe Miranda was right when she announced, “I'm sorry, but if a man is over 30 and single, there's something wrong with him, it's Darwinian.”
At the very least, this study lends a whole new meaning to the phrase, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
But besides weeding men with low-commitment genetics out of the dating pool, Judson shares another admittedly mischievous thought on the gene: “Could such restlessness be cured one day?”
In other words, could a man chose to take—or be coerced into taking—a pill that would alter his brain chemistry and make him less likely to cheat or get cold feet? Now there’s a thought both serendipitous and scary, especially for young singles who might not be looking at marriage as the holy relationship grail it once was.
Actually, I wonder why they didn’t include women in the study—we’re just as prone to serial monogamy and sleeping around.
The idea of being able to predict and even manipulate someone’s behavior based on their genome is compelling, but the ethical implications are significant-—an evolutionary conundrum of “to be or not to be” proportions. It's the Roamin' Gnome in the undiscovered country. Mix in some Frankestein references and you have my 12th grade English curriculum. I’m curious how science and ethics will intersect in the future as more people face the whips and scorns of genetic-dependent decisions.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Out of Print
It was 2:30 p.m. Time to get a new profession.
I said goodbye to my editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune and thanked him for having me as a summer intern. I was about to leave after my last day reporting for the paper’s Metro desk. It was an eye-opening 10 weeks; I learned how to make my writing short and clear; I became less sloppy about crucial details like a person’s age or an event’s location and incurred my first correction; I also met some great people both in and out of the newsroom who are working on inspiring projects.
But all that my editor and the other reporters around the newsroom wanted to know was what my new career choice would be. You know, because there’s no way I could ever go back to journalism after this summer.
“Time to find a new job, right?” “Get out while can.” Reporters halfway between sarcasm and sadness, some of whom I had never even met, passed by my desk in the wake of the paper’s most recent buyout announcement to personally warn me. The industry is dying. “I’m going to go down with the Titanic. I even have the sheet music for it.”
During my two months at the paper, San Diego’s largest daily and one of the last privately-owned newspapers in the country, a lot of what I saw disheartened me: I watched the paper go up for sale. I could literally see the investment banker meeting with the editor-in-chief through her office door minutes before the paper announced it would begin to “explore strategic options.”
I also watched dozens of reporters and editors whisper over who would stay and who go shortly after, when the newspaper announced its third round of buyout offers in two years. This time they wanted to cut at least 30 more people from an already dwindling news staff. The man I shared a desk with, who’s been covering legal affairs for the U-T for years, told me he was staying, but, “I don’t even know what’s going to be left of the paper after this.”
The public editor who interviewed me last December and coordinated my internship told me today that she would be accepting the buyout and heading back into the job market. She isn’t optimistic. I tried to sound cheery as I said goodbye. After all, I’m excited to learn about new business models for journalism, like the nonprofit Pro Publica that’s doing investigative reporting.
But I’ve wanted to get into newspapers since the first time I saw my byline in print. I dressed up as Nelly Bly for my 6th grade biography fair! And I think it might be too late for me to get out—Yes, I’ve spent enough time in the asylum to become as crazy as the inmates. I might just break out into a line or two of “My Heart Will Go On.”
Cheap shot at McCain of the day: How can he say the fundamentals of the economy are strong when fewer and fewer Americans can rely on the security of their jobs?
UPDATE: my former editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted me on his blog. Click the link for his take on the buyouts.
I said goodbye to my editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune and thanked him for having me as a summer intern. I was about to leave after my last day reporting for the paper’s Metro desk. It was an eye-opening 10 weeks; I learned how to make my writing short and clear; I became less sloppy about crucial details like a person’s age or an event’s location and incurred my first correction; I also met some great people both in and out of the newsroom who are working on inspiring projects.
But all that my editor and the other reporters around the newsroom wanted to know was what my new career choice would be. You know, because there’s no way I could ever go back to journalism after this summer.
“Time to find a new job, right?” “Get out while can.” Reporters halfway between sarcasm and sadness, some of whom I had never even met, passed by my desk in the wake of the paper’s most recent buyout announcement to personally warn me. The industry is dying. “I’m going to go down with the Titanic. I even have the sheet music for it.”
During my two months at the paper, San Diego’s largest daily and one of the last privately-owned newspapers in the country, a lot of what I saw disheartened me: I watched the paper go up for sale. I could literally see the investment banker meeting with the editor-in-chief through her office door minutes before the paper announced it would begin to “explore strategic options.”
I also watched dozens of reporters and editors whisper over who would stay and who go shortly after, when the newspaper announced its third round of buyout offers in two years. This time they wanted to cut at least 30 more people from an already dwindling news staff. The man I shared a desk with, who’s been covering legal affairs for the U-T for years, told me he was staying, but, “I don’t even know what’s going to be left of the paper after this.”
The public editor who interviewed me last December and coordinated my internship told me today that she would be accepting the buyout and heading back into the job market. She isn’t optimistic. I tried to sound cheery as I said goodbye. After all, I’m excited to learn about new business models for journalism, like the nonprofit Pro Publica that’s doing investigative reporting.
But I’ve wanted to get into newspapers since the first time I saw my byline in print. I dressed up as Nelly Bly for my 6th grade biography fair! And I think it might be too late for me to get out—Yes, I’ve spent enough time in the asylum to become as crazy as the inmates. I might just break out into a line or two of “My Heart Will Go On.”
Cheap shot at McCain of the day: How can he say the fundamentals of the economy are strong when fewer and fewer Americans can rely on the security of their jobs?
UPDATE: my former editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted me on his blog. Click the link for his take on the buyouts.
When Ike Doesn't Like Us Back
Like many Ohio residents living in and around Columbus, my good friend David has lost electricity in his Kenyon College dorm room thanks to Hurricane Ike. The hurricane roared through the Midwest yesterday, leaving 31 people dead in eight states and More than 1M without power in Ohio Valley.
David called me this morning with what little battery life his cell phone has left to tell me he's doing fine, but won't be able to contact anyone. I thought this blog would be a good place to mention it, since we hopefully have some mutual friends reading me, right guys? David is hoping Kenyon will get power back by midnight, but he said it could take up to a week.
Good luck Ohio!
And for those of us either in Chicago or getting ready to head back for another school year, the city was hit with recorded rainfall (up to eight inches in the northern suburbs) and flooding.
David called me this morning with what little battery life his cell phone has left to tell me he's doing fine, but won't be able to contact anyone. I thought this blog would be a good place to mention it, since we hopefully have some mutual friends reading me, right guys? David is hoping Kenyon will get power back by midnight, but he said it could take up to a week.
Good luck Ohio!
And for those of us either in Chicago or getting ready to head back for another school year, the city was hit with recorded rainfall (up to eight inches in the northern suburbs) and flooding.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The First 79 Stories Down
I plan to review Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded for the Midway Review this October, so I’m paying attention to what he has to say about “ET,” Energy Technology, this month in his New York Times columns and television interviews.
Here are some highlights from his interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN this morning:
*On the Georgia-Russia Conflict: “I mean, the worst thing about this story, Fareed, is that you have to kind of defend Putin's Russia, which you really don't want to do. But how would we feel if Russia were striking a deal with Mexico to extend the old Warsaw Pact to the U.S.-Mexico border? I mean, you know, why don't we understand that maybe from Moscow that looks a little unnerving.”
*On America’s Role as a World Superpower: “I think the issue for most Americans, Fareed, is nation- building at home. Americans want nation-building in America -- not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, or not only in Iraq, not only in Afghanistan”
Quoting environmentalist Rob Watson: “If you jump out of an 80-story building, from the 80th floor, for 79 stories you can think you're flying. It's just the sudden stop at the end that gets you."
*On Energy Technology: “Have you ever been to a revolution, Fareed, where no one got hurt? That's the green revolution. In the green revolution, everyone's a winner. Exxon's green. GM's green. They've got a little cap now, a yellow cap on those flex fuel cars that they're making for 10 years -- never told anybody, so they could make more Hummers. Yes, everybody's green now. But when everyone's green, Fareed, that's not a revolution. That's a party.”
FZ: “We can put those nice light bulbs in, drive hybrids. The reality is that China and India's growth is going to consume so much in terms of fossil fuels, that the world is going to get polluted, the price of oil is going to stay high. Is this hopeless in a sense?
TF: No. Young Chinese say to me, "Mr. Friedman, you know, you guys got to grow dirty for 150 years. Now it's our turn." To which I say to them, "Absolutely. You're absolutely right. It's your turn. Grow as dirty as you want, for as long as you want. "Because I think in about five years, by then I'll have invented all the clean power technologies you're going to need as you choke to death. And then we're going to clean your clock in the next great global industry -- ET, energy technology, clean power."
*On the Presidential Election: “Well, if you're interested in whether or not you should have an abortion, this is the campaign for you. But, you know, I've kind of made up my mind on that issue.”
“I thought we were going to have two green candidates, but now we only have one, and his name is Barack Obama. McCain supports lifting the gasoline tax, which would increase pollution and gasoline consumption. He didn’t show up on any of the votes on alternative energy and fuel. He missed all eight votes and the senate bill still hasn’t passed.“
Here are some highlights from his interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN this morning:
*On the Georgia-Russia Conflict: “I mean, the worst thing about this story, Fareed, is that you have to kind of defend Putin's Russia, which you really don't want to do. But how would we feel if Russia were striking a deal with Mexico to extend the old Warsaw Pact to the U.S.-Mexico border? I mean, you know, why don't we understand that maybe from Moscow that looks a little unnerving.”
*On America’s Role as a World Superpower: “I think the issue for most Americans, Fareed, is nation- building at home. Americans want nation-building in America -- not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, or not only in Iraq, not only in Afghanistan”
Quoting environmentalist Rob Watson: “If you jump out of an 80-story building, from the 80th floor, for 79 stories you can think you're flying. It's just the sudden stop at the end that gets you."
*On Energy Technology: “Have you ever been to a revolution, Fareed, where no one got hurt? That's the green revolution. In the green revolution, everyone's a winner. Exxon's green. GM's green. They've got a little cap now, a yellow cap on those flex fuel cars that they're making for 10 years -- never told anybody, so they could make more Hummers. Yes, everybody's green now. But when everyone's green, Fareed, that's not a revolution. That's a party.”
FZ: “We can put those nice light bulbs in, drive hybrids. The reality is that China and India's growth is going to consume so much in terms of fossil fuels, that the world is going to get polluted, the price of oil is going to stay high. Is this hopeless in a sense?
TF: No. Young Chinese say to me, "Mr. Friedman, you know, you guys got to grow dirty for 150 years. Now it's our turn." To which I say to them, "Absolutely. You're absolutely right. It's your turn. Grow as dirty as you want, for as long as you want. "Because I think in about five years, by then I'll have invented all the clean power technologies you're going to need as you choke to death. And then we're going to clean your clock in the next great global industry -- ET, energy technology, clean power."
*On the Presidential Election: “Well, if you're interested in whether or not you should have an abortion, this is the campaign for you. But, you know, I've kind of made up my mind on that issue.”
“I thought we were going to have two green candidates, but now we only have one, and his name is Barack Obama. McCain supports lifting the gasoline tax, which would increase pollution and gasoline consumption. He didn’t show up on any of the votes on alternative energy and fuel. He missed all eight votes and the senate bill still hasn’t passed.“
Why I Can't Support Sarah Palin
"You have to read this, Rachel,” my mom said, showing me the NYTimes Week In Review. “You’re younger than me, you’re smarter than me, and you’re more articulate than me (Note: it’s times like these when I doubt this the most). You have to be able to speak up to the people who support her!” I know whom she’s referring to. Like a god who’s name need not be uttered to instill reverence or fear, Sarah Palin is the “Her,” the “That woman,” who spent time on every television in my house last week. She’s a moose-killing, pregnant-child-rearing, lipsticked pitbull from Nowhere Alaska, and even my 53 year-old mother in Southern California is afraid of her bark.
Of course, my mom is not the kind of voter McCain was after when he chose Palin as his running mate. She’s pro-choice, anti-war, and pretty indifferent when it comes to marriage as an institution for anyone. She’s also a voracious New York Times reader who grew up on the East Coast and has consistently voted Democratic.
I’m the kind of voter Sarah Palin hopes to lure in, along with the Jesus fish and hockey-moms. I’m young and female, a first-time voter who thinks women could run the world if they would just take their heels off. I’m hopeful about the future (if not then I wouldn’t be writing this). And I want change for this country so we can stay ahead. But I’m not necessarily buying the kind that packages itself as the candidate for “Hope” and “Change.”
John McCain is 72. Reverse those digits and you get the age I will be in eight-years, possibly at the end of Sarah Palin’s second-term as president of the United States. Let me tell you why I don’t think anyone my age should risk that eight-year investment:
She speaks in tongues
It doesn’t bother me that Palin supports the U.S. troops in Iraq (her son will soon be joining them), as long as she listens to advisers who tell her it’s time to pull out. It also doesn’t bother me that Palin is against abortion, or that her 17 year-old daughter Bristol chose to keep her pregnancy. Good for her. As long as Palin will let less-fortunate teenage girls get abortions. But like a Pentecostal preacher channeling a higher power, she’s speaking about these issues in tongues. And this time it’s not God’s language, it’s the Republicans’.
As a student at the University of Chicago, I’m a bit caught up in the growing, libertarian leave-me-alone youth-culture. You know, the idea that people should do whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t harm others. It used to be called conservativism. So I can’t support a candidate who thinks that there is only one way to do things: God’s way. Iraq is not God’s war; it belongs to the Republican Party, whose year 2000 presidential candidate wanted to start it and 2008 presidential candidate wants to continue it. God did not call upon Sarah Palin to run for vice-president, McCain did. And while we’re straightening things out, no, I don’t think Barack Obama is the Democrats’ savior.
The Palin Doctrine
If this My Way or the Highway mentality sounds familiar, that’s because it’s straight from the Bush Doctrine. Sarah Palin didn’t recognize the term when Gibson asked her about it in her first interview, and this supposedly highlights her lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to foreign policy. But she actually knows the doctrine that mired our country in war with a nation that didn’t attack us and spent seven years fear-mongering to unite Americans against “unpatriotic” dissenters very well. She just knows it as the Palin Doctrine, or her instincts.
Palin told Gibson she supports Georgia in its conflict with Russia and wouldn’t mind making Georgia a NATO country (meaning the U.S. would have to go to war with Russia to defend it), Palin and McCain are also still pushing for “victory in Iraq,” and linking the conflict to al Qaeda seven years after 9/11 even though Gen. Petraeus and the Iraqi people are calling for time-tables for troop withdrawal.
She doesn't blink
That’s what Sarah Palin told us of her decision to accept the vice-presidential nomination in her interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson. But that lack of eye-batting has also made her very good at swatting lies right at us.
*She lied about supporting the "bridge to nowhere."
Palin supported the project until it became unpopular and garnered national notoriety, then she spoke out against it.
*She lied about saving Alaskans money by selling the government’s executive plane on eBay. The plane ended up selling at a loss, and now Palin is charging the state for all her trips on commercial airlines, including her trips home.
*She lied about her decisions to fire government workers, including her ex-brother-in-law. Now She’s using her executive power to override the Freedom of Information request made for the emails she exchanged during those firing periods.
Palin v. the Supreme Court
Excuse my ageism (there’s a word that’s taken a backseat to racism and feminism on the Straight Talk Express in the past months), but McCain could die, very soon, and so could several of our venerated but varicose Supreme Court Justices. If this happens, Sarah Palin will likely have the opportunity to influence the courts rulings on reproductive rights, the definition of marriage, and the sanctity of life—all issues that divide the country along religious lines.
I have a lot riding on this election. In the next four years I will graduate college, enter the workforce and face the impending economic recession. I don’t want a pig with lipstick or a woman with egg on her face leading me through the most formative years of my life.
Of course, my mom is not the kind of voter McCain was after when he chose Palin as his running mate. She’s pro-choice, anti-war, and pretty indifferent when it comes to marriage as an institution for anyone. She’s also a voracious New York Times reader who grew up on the East Coast and has consistently voted Democratic.
I’m the kind of voter Sarah Palin hopes to lure in, along with the Jesus fish and hockey-moms. I’m young and female, a first-time voter who thinks women could run the world if they would just take their heels off. I’m hopeful about the future (if not then I wouldn’t be writing this). And I want change for this country so we can stay ahead. But I’m not necessarily buying the kind that packages itself as the candidate for “Hope” and “Change.”
John McCain is 72. Reverse those digits and you get the age I will be in eight-years, possibly at the end of Sarah Palin’s second-term as president of the United States. Let me tell you why I don’t think anyone my age should risk that eight-year investment:
She speaks in tongues
It doesn’t bother me that Palin supports the U.S. troops in Iraq (her son will soon be joining them), as long as she listens to advisers who tell her it’s time to pull out. It also doesn’t bother me that Palin is against abortion, or that her 17 year-old daughter Bristol chose to keep her pregnancy. Good for her. As long as Palin will let less-fortunate teenage girls get abortions. But like a Pentecostal preacher channeling a higher power, she’s speaking about these issues in tongues. And this time it’s not God’s language, it’s the Republicans’.
As a student at the University of Chicago, I’m a bit caught up in the growing, libertarian leave-me-alone youth-culture. You know, the idea that people should do whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t harm others. It used to be called conservativism. So I can’t support a candidate who thinks that there is only one way to do things: God’s way. Iraq is not God’s war; it belongs to the Republican Party, whose year 2000 presidential candidate wanted to start it and 2008 presidential candidate wants to continue it. God did not call upon Sarah Palin to run for vice-president, McCain did. And while we’re straightening things out, no, I don’t think Barack Obama is the Democrats’ savior.
The Palin Doctrine
If this My Way or the Highway mentality sounds familiar, that’s because it’s straight from the Bush Doctrine. Sarah Palin didn’t recognize the term when Gibson asked her about it in her first interview, and this supposedly highlights her lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to foreign policy. But she actually knows the doctrine that mired our country in war with a nation that didn’t attack us and spent seven years fear-mongering to unite Americans against “unpatriotic” dissenters very well. She just knows it as the Palin Doctrine, or her instincts.
Palin told Gibson she supports Georgia in its conflict with Russia and wouldn’t mind making Georgia a NATO country (meaning the U.S. would have to go to war with Russia to defend it), Palin and McCain are also still pushing for “victory in Iraq,” and linking the conflict to al Qaeda seven years after 9/11 even though Gen. Petraeus and the Iraqi people are calling for time-tables for troop withdrawal.
She doesn't blink
That’s what Sarah Palin told us of her decision to accept the vice-presidential nomination in her interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson. But that lack of eye-batting has also made her very good at swatting lies right at us.
*She lied about supporting the "bridge to nowhere."
Palin supported the project until it became unpopular and garnered national notoriety, then she spoke out against it.
*She lied about saving Alaskans money by selling the government’s executive plane on eBay. The plane ended up selling at a loss, and now Palin is charging the state for all her trips on commercial airlines, including her trips home.
*She lied about her decisions to fire government workers, including her ex-brother-in-law. Now She’s using her executive power to override the Freedom of Information request made for the emails she exchanged during those firing periods.
Palin v. the Supreme Court
Excuse my ageism (there’s a word that’s taken a backseat to racism and feminism on the Straight Talk Express in the past months), but McCain could die, very soon, and so could several of our venerated but varicose Supreme Court Justices. If this happens, Sarah Palin will likely have the opportunity to influence the courts rulings on reproductive rights, the definition of marriage, and the sanctity of life—all issues that divide the country along religious lines.
I have a lot riding on this election. In the next four years I will graduate college, enter the workforce and face the impending economic recession. I don’t want a pig with lipstick or a woman with egg on her face leading me through the most formative years of my life.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
The Reluctant First Post
I woke up this morning and decided to start a blog. Maybe it was because I watched Superbad with my boyfriend last night, or because I leave for my second year of college in less than week, but I was feeling pretty optimistic about teen ingenuity. This is the year of YouTube, Facebook and teen pregnancy, after all, the year twenty-somethings will enter a highly competitive job market, pay too much for gasoline and elect the next president of the United States.
And nine hours later, here I am, typing my first post into Microsoft Word so I can check and re-check my spelling and style. I forgot to add the Chicago Manual of Style to my list of interests. I'll probably write too much, it's intoxicating. I feel like Fogell trying to buy alcohol with a fake Hawaii-issued ID:
Like I absolutely don't belong here.
I do write. All the time. In my sleep, on my horse, at Hyde Park Produce. Why haven’t I written a blog? Because I’m afraid the first post will be my only one. I’m afraid that trying to balance two majors—both of them in the New Collegiate Division—and jobs at the UCSC and the Hyde Park Art Center will make it too hard just to keep myself upright, let alone write well about the things that matter to me. I also am on the staff of the Midway Review and the Chicago Maroon, and will hopefully share those articles here, time willing.
I would never have considered blogging last winter, when Ana Marie Cox (A.B. ’94), founder of the political gossip blog Wonkette, and Washington editor for Time, came to campus to speak to students interested in journalism. She urged everyone in the room to start a blog right away, and when I asked her if she thought that sounded a bit solopsistic, her reply was: "Yes, it is solopsistic. I'm glad you recognize that. Do it anyway." I walked home infuriated.
Most blog writing is boring, careless and self-centered. I don’t know if I can handle writing that way, and I know I will have to if I want to maintain the blog.
Actually, most blogs are barely written at all. Here are links to the first posts of other blogs whose domain names I would have liked to use as my own. A couple of them got past the first post: Encancaranublador, stargirl, but the rest didn't: peregrination, college journalist, pixel-stained wretch.
Okay, I'm not trying to suggest anyone read those blogs, though in the future I will link to lots of websites and news articles that I think would interest almost anyone. But there is a first post I'm actually proud of: Ruminations of a Dinosaur, written by my editor/internship supervisor this summer. We journalists really need to break down that fourth wall, the one that clearly separates author from audience, if we are going to preserve the fourth estate. Even if we secretly think we can't be beat at our own game when it comes to credibility, polished writing and, of course, beat reporting.
I'm happy with my domain name. It requires less explaining than Encancaranublador, which is part of a Spanish trabalenguas (tongue-twister) and a short story by Ana Lydia Vega, which I love. Peregrination would have referred to the hiking trip David and I took a few years ago in Spain, stargirl to my favorite children's book. And pixel-stained? I wish. I'm online to stay, but give me a good ink-stain on my fingers any day, any time...
And nine hours later, here I am, typing my first post into Microsoft Word so I can check and re-check my spelling and style. I forgot to add the Chicago Manual of Style to my list of interests. I'll probably write too much, it's intoxicating. I feel like Fogell trying to buy alcohol with a fake Hawaii-issued ID:
Like I absolutely don't belong here.
I do write. All the time. In my sleep, on my horse, at Hyde Park Produce. Why haven’t I written a blog? Because I’m afraid the first post will be my only one. I’m afraid that trying to balance two majors—both of them in the New Collegiate Division—and jobs at the UCSC and the Hyde Park Art Center will make it too hard just to keep myself upright, let alone write well about the things that matter to me. I also am on the staff of the Midway Review and the Chicago Maroon, and will hopefully share those articles here, time willing.
I would never have considered blogging last winter, when Ana Marie Cox (A.B. ’94), founder of the political gossip blog Wonkette, and Washington editor for Time, came to campus to speak to students interested in journalism. She urged everyone in the room to start a blog right away, and when I asked her if she thought that sounded a bit solopsistic, her reply was: "Yes, it is solopsistic. I'm glad you recognize that. Do it anyway." I walked home infuriated.
Most blog writing is boring, careless and self-centered. I don’t know if I can handle writing that way, and I know I will have to if I want to maintain the blog.
Actually, most blogs are barely written at all. Here are links to the first posts of other blogs whose domain names I would have liked to use as my own. A couple of them got past the first post: Encancaranublador, stargirl, but the rest didn't: peregrination, college journalist, pixel-stained wretch.
Okay, I'm not trying to suggest anyone read those blogs, though in the future I will link to lots of websites and news articles that I think would interest almost anyone. But there is a first post I'm actually proud of: Ruminations of a Dinosaur, written by my editor/internship supervisor this summer. We journalists really need to break down that fourth wall, the one that clearly separates author from audience, if we are going to preserve the fourth estate. Even if we secretly think we can't be beat at our own game when it comes to credibility, polished writing and, of course, beat reporting.
I'm happy with my domain name. It requires less explaining than Encancaranublador, which is part of a Spanish trabalenguas (tongue-twister) and a short story by Ana Lydia Vega, which I love. Peregrination would have referred to the hiking trip David and I took a few years ago in Spain, stargirl to my favorite children's book. And pixel-stained? I wish. I'm online to stay, but give me a good ink-stain on my fingers any day, any time...
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