The Editors Blog

Oh snap

2008-06-24T22:43:00.002-05:00

George Will lays a not so subtle smack down of U of C professor Cass Sunstein's decision to move from the U of C to Harvard:

Beginning this autumn, Sunstein, while retaining a connection with Chicago, will teach primarily at Harvard, an act of downward mobility that illustrates a central tenet of "Nudge," that even intelligent and analytical people often make foolish choices.

The rest of the column is pretty boring, but still.

Grey City

2008-06-07T12:17:00.003-05:00

The folks at Hyde Park Progress were kind enough to (kind of) link to the newest member of the Chicago Maroon family: our quarterly supplement, Grey City. If you haven't already, pick up a copy RIGHT NOW and let us know what you think.

In the first usse, we take a look at crime in Hyde Park, the Washington Park Olympic proposal, students working for Obama, and the University's endowment. There's also a spread on the alumni and faculty who made the Democratic primary campaign so exhilirating/excruciating. The race may be over, but it's certainly worth your time.

You can read everything online as well at the new and improved Chicagomaroon.com (now with ads!), along with special bonus content. I highly recommend reading the J.Z. Smith interview in full, along with the audio slideshow. There's just something about that voice. And face. And cane...

Closed fist high five? Wa...

2008-06-05T03:50:00.003-05:00

Slate has a great article about the media's recent difficulty in coming up with a term for pounding. For the over 40 crowd that reads this blog (what's up HPP guys? I loved your thing on Evanston) pounding is when two people make a fist and lightly pound their knuckles together. When done by the right person it can be kind of cool (see Obama). For the Office fans out there, they know how lame it can be when done poorly (I'm thinking of Toby's attempt to pound Jim's fist when Jim returned to the Scranton branch which is the video above).

Anyways, I was rather miffed when I was reading this article a few weeks ago about Obama's aide who apparently is a fan of the "closed-fist high fives." It took me a couple seconds to realize what they were talking about, but once it clicked, I couldn't help but enjoy the elegance of the term the Times had chosen to use.

Pounding or fisting can easily be misinterpreted, so they are no good. Dap also doesn't work. A closed-fist high-five captures the nature of the action quite well for a print audience. It also makes it clear that the action is a jovial one.

However, it really fails to capture the distinction of a pound and a high-five. See, a pound is much more versatile then a high five. It can be the equivalent of "cheers," minus the cup. It can also proxy as greeting, similar to a handshake. Some sort of term using the word cheers or inferring an action similar to that is going to be necessary before we can settle this. But, in the meantime, the New York Times wasn't that far off with its choice.

R. Kelly

2008-06-03T18:11:00.005-05:00

If you are looking to waste a couple of hours, I highly recommend reading up on the daily reports from the R. Kelly child pornography trial.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the TMZ-style celebrity coverage. While the Britney Spears's of the world might be media whores that thrive on any sort of media attention, I just don't think that's true with many others.

Still, when it comes to the child pornographers/pedophiles, I can't help but enjoy seeing them get torn down. Kelly has had a history with underage girls. He married Aaliyah when she was just 14 (he was 27) and has privately settled at least two accusations of having sex with underage girls.

The prosecutions strategy in the case is simply to show a sex video that purportedly features R. Kelly and the underage victim. The victim won't testify, so the prosecution has simply called up numerous witnesses that identify Kelly and the victim in the video. The defense's strategy has varied from denying that the man in the video is Kelly (perhaps just a look-a-like) to accusing various witnesses of digitally changing the video a la the Wayan Brother's opus Little Man (because we all believed that Marlon Wayans was actually 2 feet tall in that movie).

Along the way we've learned about R. Kelly's Space Jam mural, his gym bag of sex tapes that never left his side, and his bizarre sexual kinks.

The prosecution rested today, but more drama seems to be coming up.

Where does a pop sensation stay in rural Connecticut?

2008-05-29T18:47:00.003-05:00

Word on the street says Paul McCartney stayed at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany last weekend when he was in town to receive his honorary degree from Yale.

I didn't even know this place existed, but it isn't far from where I used to take my dogs swimming. It seems like everyone is still rather star-struck in B-town. I'd say that's an indication of how lame we all are, but it's Paul McCartney. It really doesn't get much bigger than McCartney--the man co-wrote the most important album in the history of rock.

(Hat-tip: Beans)

British invasion

2008-05-28T15:32:00.002-05:00

My hometown of Bethany, Connecticut's epicenter of all that is bovine, just became vaguely cool. Last week when Paul McCartney was in the New Haven area to receive an honorary degree at Yale, he supposedly spent the night in Bethany.

I mean, it makes sense. If I were the greatest living rock-pop musician I'd hit up Bethany. No one can say no to Connecticut Magazine's (yes, it exists) number 1 small town. Plus, we've got some hot musical talent too!

Toxic Jock Syndrome

2008-05-27T22:49:00.009-05:00

The New York Times ran a piece on the behavioral effects of guzzling energy drinks today, and the findings are somewhat startling - but also full of potential for Hyde Park.

In March, The Journal of American College Health published a report on the link between energy drinks, athletics and risky behavior. The study’s author, Kathleen Miller, an addiction researcher at the University of Buffalo, says it suggests that high consumption of energy drinks is associated with “toxic jock” behavior, a constellation of risky and aggressive behaviors including unprotected sex, substance abuse and violence.
The finding doesn’t mean the drinks cause bad behavior. But the data suggest that regular consumption of energy drinks may be a red flag for parents that their children are more likely to take risks with their health and safety. “It appears the kids who are heavily into drinking energy drinks are more likely to be the ones who are inclined toward taking risks,” Dr. Miller said.

Think of how President Zimmer could use this information! Ignoring all this jibber-jabber about crime, health, and safety, risks are precisely what the bullhorn-equipped, uncompromising activist pea-brains of Hyde Park need to get things moving. This could be the end of the Hyde Park development stalemate: Fifteen Red Bulls from now, goons from Hyde Park Progress and the Hyde Park Historical Society alike could be sipping tea together in a suite in the Doctors Hospital Inn as they contemplate a picnic at the newly restored Point before catching an inaugural flick at Zimmer Cinemas up on 53rd. Or they could, you know, just start having unprotected sex with each other. Either way.

Video of the day

2008-05-23T19:58:00.002-05:00

The dance remix of Bill O'Reilly's meltdown that I posted a week or two ago:

It's actually quite catchy. You also can't find this on YouTube anymore. God damn right wing conspiracy.

David Brooks spurns alma mater...again!

2008-05-23T12:35:00.002-05:00

In today's New York Times, former Maroon columnist David Brooks takes on a particularly relevant issue to this campus: geeks. It's worth reading, I guess, because he reveals that the word "nerd" first appeared in Dr. Seuss, which I did not know, and also because he compares Barack Obama to Prince Caspian, which I've been arguing for years*.

Still, it raises an important question: How can a U of C alum not mention the U of C in an 800-word column about geeks and nerds? Mr. Brooks, in the words of Gob Bluth, "Come on!"

In other news, 90 more hits to 100,000!!! Keep on hitting refresh, folks.

*not true.

wtf

2008-05-23T01:03:00.000-05:00

Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade distinguished service professor in the Divinity School, will deliver the commencement address to this year’s graduating classes at the June 13 and 14 graduate and College convocation ceremonies...

Her speech, entitled “Thinking More Critically About Thinking Too Critically,” will explore critical approaches to classic texts written in cultures and eras whose values diverge from modern sensibilities, Doniger said. Doniger has also delivered the Orientation Week’s traditional Aims of Education address in the past, but said that her commencement speech will approach problems of reading in a different light.

“This will be more about coming to terms with the flaws in great classics. Problems such as racism and sexism are looked at in a different way today,” she said. “It’s about learning to read the classics in a new way that was not possible fifty years ago.”

You are kidding me, right?

100,000

2008-05-21T14:11:00.004-05:00

It looks like this blog will hit the big 100,000 unique visitors mark tomorrow.

It is hard to express how happy, excited, and proud this makes me. Tim and I have some big plans in line to celebrate this. Help us make it happen!

A rock song about unintended consequences

2008-05-21T13:55:00.003-05:00

So I was listening to some music the other day and came upon I'd Love To Change The World by Ten Years After.

The magnificent thing about this song isn't that its catchy or has a particularly unique composition, rather, the thing I love is that it's about unintended consequences.

The singer laments how much he'd like to change the world for the better, but seems overwhelmed by the prospects of actually achieving that change.

You know how many baseball players have a song that plays as they come up to bat or come into pitch? This would probably be my song. Not because I like it, but because I love that someone actually wrote a rock song about how hard it is to craft effective policy in response to serious social, political, and environmental problems.

Of course, maybe I'm reading too much into it. I'm also convinced that Dave Matthews's Proudest Monkey is about Rousseau's Discourse on The Origin and The Foundations of Inequality Among Men, so you can take this all with a grain of salt.

Video of the day

2008-05-12T17:29:00.003-05:00

Everyone dislikes Bill O'Reilly, but do you fear for those that live and work with him? This makes the Chris Berman videos seem pretty tame.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T21:22:00.003-05:00

As the new kid on the block, I thought I'd take the O-Week approach to things and come not by myself and not with a few choice friends, but rather with a small army of buck-toothed, mulleted companions. 19 3/20*, to be exact.

Meet the Duggars. You may recognize them from the Discovery Channel, where they were featured between specials on Alpine Whistling Tree Frogs and interior design. Michelle, of Little Rock, AR, has utilized her uterus and a couple other organs to produce 17 little Duggars, irreparably damaging the human gene pool forever. She just announced that she is pregnant with baby #18.

Note that her not being pregnant is referred to as "an in-between stage" and that when she announced that she was in fact pregnant again, #1 and #4 (#2 and #6?) seemed vaguely interested, but #2, #3, and #5-17 had no reaction whatsoever.

I personally recommend naming the new one Jesus and just getting it over with. Regardless, you can vote here.

*Joshua, Jana, Jennifer, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jeremiah, Jedidiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, J??? (fetus), Jim Bob, and Michelle.

A new politics of discourse

2008-05-10T22:01:00.002-05:00

The NYTimes reports: "In a sign of what could be an extremely unusual fall campaign, the two sides [McCain and Obama] said Saturday that they would be open to holding joint forums or unmoderated debates across the country in front of voters through the summer."

The two truly best candidates have won their respective nominations and the stage is set for the most substantive debates at the most critical of times that our country has seen in decades. I, for one, believe these United States of America to already be the better for it. Game on.

The new kid

2008-05-10T19:07:00.006-05:00

Our newest contributor to the Editors Blog has overcome debilitating cross-sightedness to write extensively about lost birds and feral cats. She is also the inspiration behind item #198 in this year's scav hunt: "Take down the Maroon [11 points]." Please give a warm welcome to Claire McNear.

Crank that Mike Gravel

2008-05-07T18:14:00.004-05:00

A lot of stuff happened night, some of which was important, but all of which pales in comparison to this:

Discuss.

It's economics, stupid

2008-05-04T11:41:00.010-05:00

Whew. It's been a long weekend over here at the Editors Blog as we all recover from our post-Scurvy Awareness Day hangovers. The problem with a Vitamin C overdose is that you can't get over it just by drinking lots of orange juice.

Anyway, apparently on her Stephanopolous-moderated town hall in Indiana this morning, Hillary Clinton just referred to anyone who knows anything about economics as "elites." As someone who once wikipediad "sunk-cost fallacy," I am indignant. Here's the quote:

"It's really odd to me that arguing to give relief to a vast majority of Americans creates this incredible pushback...Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that don't benefit..."

For the record, she was asked to name one credible economist who supported her gas-tax plan (the one that no one supports). And that was her answer. There are some occupations where I think it is acceptable to make sweeping character judgments of everyone in the field. The first job that comes to mind is bounty hunter, but I'm sure I could think of others. Academia, however, is not one of these. Experts in a field almost never come to universal agreement on matters. 1500 years after the fact, historians still debate whether or not Rome actually fell (let alone what caused such a fall). You will find "elites" on both sides of every major policy issue, from poverty to Pakistan. There's an institutionalized contrarianism as well, where experts will adopt a dismissed policy and see if they can make an argument for it.

And yet the Clinton gas-tax plan has managed to unite the entire field of economics against one policy proposal. It'd be like discussing creationism at a convention of biologists. I had thought for ages that John McCain's admission that he knows nothing about economics would make him the candidate who knows the least about economics, but now I'm starting to second-guess things.

This really shouldn't matter, because politicians pander all the time, especially on economic issues. But there's a difference between speaking to the audience on the trail, and actually introducing legislation that everyone agrees is really bad, just for a few meaningless votes.

Last point on this: Apparently later in the program, this happened:

Stephanopoulos turned the mike over to a woman who said she supported Obama and said she makes less than $25,000 a year.
"I do feel pandered to when you talk about suspending the gas tax," the woman said, adding: "Call me crazy but I actually listen to economists because I think they know what they've studied."

aww shucks.

How to prevent your gums from bleeding

2008-05-02T14:51:00.005-05:00

When it comes to fighting scurvy, 4 out of 5 doctors recommend a healthy intake of Vitamin C. The other doctor recommended watching this video:

So. Sappy.

Take the Editors Blog challenge

2008-05-02T14:28:00.005-05:00

It's Scurvy Awareness Day. By now, the festivities have been going for hours, with no end in sight. To mix things up, we thought we'd hold a contest of our own.

Everyone knows it's impossible to drink one gallon of milk in an hour. But what about a gallon of orange juice? We have no idea, but we'd like to find out. Here's what you can do:

Step 1.) Run down to your corner store and grab yourself a gallon of the finest OJ you can find. It doesn't matter if it's pulp-free or homestyle, although for accuracy's sake you should make a note of which kind and which brand you choose. (For the purposes of this challenge, Sunny D is off limits).

Step 2.) Consume. Remember to set your timer with initial swig of juice.

Step 3.) Report back to us after an hour. Ideally there would be video evidence, but we'll accept compelling anecdotes as well.

The winner will be receive immortality, and possibly an IgNoble prize. All in the name of science. Good luck!

Bloomberg on the gas tax vacation

2008-05-02T11:37:00.002-05:00

I've given Bloomberg a hard time lately, but after this, he seems kinda bad ass to me. In response to questions about the McCain-Clinton gas tax moritorium Bloomberg said this:

It’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view.

Oh snap.

When life gives you lemons...

2008-05-02T01:46:00.004-05:00

Today, as most of you are surely aware, is the most wonderful day of the year: International Scurvy Awareness Day. It's a day to drink orange juice and reflect on how great it is to have gums that don't bleed. We'll be commemorating the event with a full day of blogging. It should be fun.

PC >> academic freedom at Yale

2008-04-30T22:55:00.004-05:00

I don't know what art is, but at least I know this. This sort of self awareness seems to be lost on Yale College Dean Peter Salovey (a psychologist by training) who has thoroughly bungled the handling of a controversial senior art project that I discussed here.

It just seems like Yale is more concerned with political correctness or not offending anyone than protecting any sort of conception of academic freedom. Interestingly we've seen no insurrection from the faculty on this. If something like this went down at the U of C there would be protests from students and faculty alike calling for the admin to respect academic freedom.

The best part, though, has been the silence from conservatives. Every time an elite university silences the work of conservatives they scream out in agony about the importance of academic freedom. They also tend to throw in a reference to Allan Bloom.

Where is the outrage this time around? This will undoubtedly be the topic of my next column.

Why won't you die?

2008-04-30T16:03:00.003-05:00

It's Kentucky Derby season so you know what that means: More remembrances of Barbaro.

The New York Times's has an interview with Barbaro's jockey on the top of its website right now.

The jockey also has a book out called, My Guy Barbaro.

All of this is basically an excuse for me to link to Tim's legendary remembrance of Barbaro titled, "A Million Little Pieces: The legend of Barbaro":

Now is a time to remember and celebrate what this steed stood for: hope. Barbaro may have been euthanized, but his ideals still roam free.

You know why Shadowfax could gallop so fast with Gandalf on his back? Because he was trying to catch up with Barbaro. The Ford Mustang GT500 has a 500-horsepower engine. But if you read the fine print, you’ll see that 500 horsepower is equal to roughly one Barbaro. You couldn’t feed Barbaro oats like every other horse. He would take a mouthful and spit it right back out. Barbaro ate only chocolate cake. People claim that Barbaro is Spanish for “badass.” The truth is the other way around: “badass” is English for Barbaro.

Had he survived the treacherous care of his caretakers, Barbaro would be looking forward to a lifetime of studding with the choicest mares in all the land. He could have fathered more offspring than Brigham Young and Shawn Kemp combined, all without any of the entangling legal responsibilities. Let’s see Jack Bauer do that.

Publishing this column was, without a doubt, the single greatest accomplishment of my tenure as Viewpoints Editor.

The Blanche Lincoln—Buster Douglas debates

2008-04-30T10:35:00.003-05:00

Wonkette has the find of the week today with this screengrab from Fox and Friends. Look, even the Chicago Maroon makes mistakes every once in a while, but there's a difference between, say, misspelling "public" as "pubic," and thinking that Frederick Douglass debated Abraham Lincoln. (Not that I wouldn't have paid to watch that debate).

On an unrelated note, I've been meaning to clarify my earlier post on Jeremiah Wright. My point is not that Jeremiah Wright is an entirely rational, sane individual—I think he's got crazy streak, as his press conference Monday displayed. It's just that in order for that to actually be exploited politically it needs to be distorted to an extent that's unfair to the Pastor, Trinity, Obama, and just about everyone else within six degrees of seperation. If you take issue with his sermons, by all means, take issue with his sermons. But just don't assume that it's at all relevant to Barack Obama.