Tuesday, July 19, 2005
The blogging nanny responds
Sunday’s New York Times had an article — The New Nanny Diaries Are Online — written by the employer. Here — Instructions to the Double: Sorry to Disappoint You — the blogging nanny responds.
Archive for July 19, 2005
Technical difficulties
Everything NewMexiKen did today related to blogging software turned into a crisis. When all was said and done, the site was right back where I began and I was relieved to do that.
If anyone knows how to migrate to Word Press or some other CMS while maintaining the validity of nearly 5,800 Movable Type links, I’d like to hear from them.
1 CommentTiger Woods: Two views
Well, so much for NewMexiKen’s attempt at initiating a discussion about Tiger Woods. One comment. (Thank you, Emily.)
Here are excerpts from contrasting opinions by sportswriters — both columns merit reading in full.
First, John Feinstein:
Woods already holds many records. One of them, which is unofficial, is that he has been fined for using profanity publicly more than any player in history. While using profanity in the crucible of competition is hardly a great crime, it is indicative of Woods’s attitude that, rather than try to curb his use of language, he has complained that he is being treated unfairly since there are always microphones following him when he plays. Last month, during the U.S. Open, Woods missed a putt and childishly dragged his putter across the green, damaging it as he did so. When he was asked about the incident later, he shrugged and said, “I was frustrated,” (no apology) as if he was the only player among 156 dealing with frustration. In recent years he has allowed his caddie, Steve Williams, to frequently treat spectators and members of the media rudely, not only defending him but also appearing to sanction his misbehavior.
Woods is extremely popular with the golfing public, in part because of his extraordinary play and in part because of a carefully crafted image built around a series of commercials that show him to be a funny and friendly guy. Sadly, that’s not the Woods most people encounter. He is the master of the TV sound bite, but he rarely shares any of his real thoughts with the public.
Second, Michael Wilbon:
Feinstein criticizes Woods for not trying to curb his language, which can get pretty foul when he misses a putt or hits a bad shot, just like most of us. And because Feinstein is a golf historian, I know he knows that Nicklaus, whom he justifiably praises to the high heavens, could have cursed up a storm if he wanted in 1962 or thereabouts without it reaching the television because he wasn’t followed everywhere with sound men holding frighteningly high-tech boom microphones so close they can pick up the sound of his stomach churning. So, apparently, to Feinstein and Plaschke (and I know they are joined by a great many) it’s not enough to win major championships, to win so much and with such style it revolutionizes the entire game and elevates the profile of the profession — no, he’s got to smile the way they want him to smile, accept only as much money from Coke and Nike as they want him to accept.
They both say he isn’t beloved, which to me is clearly ignoring mountains of evidence to the contrary. They and lots of others may not find Tiger beloved. But millions of people, perhaps people who don’t register with Plaschke and Feinstein, adore Tiger.
…
Tiger may not strike you (or them) as a typical black man in America because his mother is Thai and he’s rich beyond most people’s wildest dreams. But Tiger, as he explained the day we talked, knows his father Earl played baseball at Kansas State but couldn’t stay with the team when it traveled to Norman, Okla., because the hotel was “whites only.” Tiger was called “nigger” at the Navy golf club when he was a little kid.
On his first day of kindergarten at a school where he was the only child of color, Tiger was confronted by a group of sixth-graders who tied him to a tree and spray painted “Nigger” on him and threw rocks at him. I bring this up because the things that shaped Tiger Woods, that cross his mind, that make him angry when he wakes up, didn’t shape Nicklaus or Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson or Colin Montgomerie, or for that matter, Feinstein or Plaschke.
He doesn’t need to wave like Jack or be like Jack. Tiger Woods is 29, a champion already and an icon. Can you imagine how the game of golf would be reduced without him?
The Bill Plaschke column mentioned by Wilbon: He’s Too Good to Be Truly Loved, and That’s Too Bad.
Potomac-Basin Indigenous Persons trademark back in court
Friday, an appellate court put new life into the legal challenge to the trademark of the Washington professional football team. According to The Washington Post:
The appellate ruling hinged on the question of whether the Native Americans waited too long to file their challenge. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled in October 2003 that the seven plaintiffs had no standing to complain because they did not formally object until 25 years had elapsed since the date of the first trademark.
But the appellate judges found that one plaintiff still could have standing because he was only 1 year old in 1967. They sent the case back to Kollar-Kotelly for review.
NewMexiKen has long thought the Washington football franchise was insensitive about this; even more I think they are being financially short-sighted. If they change their name, alas every item of merchandise with the current logo will sell in an instant to collectors. Then, all the fans will rush to get current with the new name and the new merchandise will have a boom.
Do the right thing and make a fortune. This is a no-brainer. But then the owner of the team is a no-brainer in many ways, too.
Constitution Day
Tucked into a massive appropriations bill approved without fanfare late last year by Congress is the requirement that every one of the estimated 1.8 million federal employees in the executive branch receive “educational and training” materials about the charter on Constitution Day, a holiday celebrating the Sept. 17, 1787, signing that is so obscure that it, unlike Arbor Day, is left off many calendars.
That’s not all: The law requires every school that receives federal funds — including universities — to show students a program on the Constitution, though it does not specify a particular one. The demand has proved unpopular with educators, who say that they don’t like the federal government telling them what to teach and that it doesn’t make the best educational sense to teach something as important as the Constitution out of context.
“We already cover the Constitution up, down and around,” said August Frattali, principal of Rachel Carson Middle School in Fairfax County. But, he chuckled, “I’m going to follow the mandates. I don’t want to get fired.”
Daylight-saving Time
Congress appears poised to extend U.S. daylight-saving time for two months, starting it earlier, on the first Sunday in March, and ending it later, on the last Sunday of November. …
Assuming the president signs the bill, the measure would take effect immediately, extending the current daylight-saving time by one month this fall.
Daylight-saving time, by requiring everyone to shift their clocks forward one hour, extends the hours of available daylight deeper into the evenings. Polls show that daylight-saving time is popular. And it has been a hallmark of summer nights, allowing families and businesses to extend their activities later — with less need for artificial light. Currently, daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.
Wall Street Journal via Pittsbugh Post-Gazette
Here’s Jay
• Thank you for coming out on the hottest day of the year so far. It was 107 today. People are sweating like Michael Jackson looking at pictures of Harry Potter.
• President Bush did not name a Supreme Court nominee over the weekend. Well sure between “Harry Potter” and “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory,” where do we find the time?
• President Bush welcomed the Prime Minister of India to the White House today. Bush said, “While you’re here can you look at my computer for a second?”
Science scholars found to have entered the U.S. illegally as children now face deportation
The federal officer standing over Yuliana Huicochea fired off a question that no one had asked the high school honor student before: What was her immigration status?
Huicochea knew that her parents had brought her to the United States when she was 4 years old. She experienced an all-American childhood in Phoenix, excelling in public schools, eating at IHOP, watching “Law and Order” and dreaming of becoming an attorney.
But in June 2002, when Huicochea was 17, she and some classmates had gone to a national science competition in Buffalo, N.Y. As a treat, their teachers took them to Niagara Falls on the Canadian border — where immigration officials caught up with them.
After nine hours of detention, Huicochea found out the answer to the agent’s question. She and three of her classmates, who had come to the U.S. between ages 2 and 7, were illegal immigrants. The federal government sent them back to Phoenix for deportation hearings, which have dragged on for three years.
…
The four students and their classmates met after school to build a solar-powered boat and gave up their Saturdays to test it on lakes in the Phoenix suburbs. It won a regional contest, and the group flew to Buffalo for the national finals that June.
Two teachers who were escorting the students had planned a side trip to Niagara Falls during their down time. At the visitors’ center, one teacher asked if student IDs would be enough to allow them to cross to the Canadian side to get a better view of the cascades.
But immigration officials at the center spotted the students waiting outside and detained them. They told the youths during interrogation that they stood out because they were Latino.
“It was the same questions over and over again,” recalled Luis Nava. “Where did I cross? I said, ‘Man, I was like 2. I have no idea.’ ”
Millions of people illegally in this country; why hassle these four?
In smarts, she’s a perfect 10
Sitting down for a personal meeting with Bill Gates this week, 10-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa asked the Microsoft founder why the company doesn’t hire people her age.
Under the circumstances, the question wasn’t so unreasonable.
Arfa, a promising software programmer from Faisalabad, Pakistan, is believed to be the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world.
Gee, I hope The Sweeties aren’t being slackers.
Pad Thai, motherhood and Chevrolet
The United States produces the most trucks. Which nation is second?
Canada. Nope.
Mexico. Nope.
Japan. Nope.
If you guessed Thailand, you’re right.
A free trade agreement being negotiated between the United States and Thailand could place the Asian nation alongside Japan, Korea and China as a major threat to U.S. automakers and American manufacturing jobs, officials say.
Thailand is the second-largest producer of pickup trucks in the world. The United States currently has a 25 percent tariff on all imported light trucks.
If the tariff were removed on vehicles exported to the United States from Thailand, Japanese and other automakers with assembly plants there could compete much more effectively for American truck buyers.
Source: The Detroit News
General Motors and Ford both build trucks in Thailand, though most produced there are by Japanese companies.
“I don’t have a problem drinking, but when I do drink, I get caught.”
Santa Fe resident Moises Gonzales — who in 1985 pleaded guilty to driving drunk in a crash that killed three teenage girls — again has been charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.
The latest charge was the eighth time Moises Gonzales of Santa Fe has been accused of driving while intoxicated. He was arrested on July 1 after he swerved on a road and almost hit a police car.
“I don’t have a problem drinking, but when I do drink, I get caught,” Gonzales told the Albuquerque Journal.
It’s not necessarily the drinking Moises; it’s the driving and drinking!
Best line of the day, so far
“I am not a good Washington pedestrian. The avenues are too wide, and I always miscalculate the time it will take me to beat the light. Plus I have an unfortunate tendency to rubberneck — ‘Look! The Lincoln Memorial! The Archives! Joe Lieberman, bending over backward!’”
Tuskaloosa
Chinese elephants are evolving into an increasingly tuskless breed because poaching is changing the gene pool, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Five to 10 percent of Asian elephants in China now had a gene that prevented the development of tusks, up from the usual 2 to 5 percent, the China Daily said, quoting research from Beijing Normal University.
“The larger tusks the male elephant has, the more likely it will be shot by poachers,” said researcher Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology. “Therefore, the ones without tusks survive, preserving the tuskless gene in the species.”
