Idle thought

Why does it seem as if the people who work in airports have never been to any other airport? It’s as if they think their way is the way everyone does it.

SAT

When I took the SAT we didn’t have an essay requirement.

And if we had, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been about pop culture.

But if you took the SAT March 12th, you might have written to this prompt:

Reality television programs, which feature real people engaged in real activities rather than professional actors performing scripted scenes, are increasingly popular.

These shows depict ordinary people competing in everything from singing and dancing to losing weight, or just living their everyday lives. Most people believe that the reality these shows portray is authentic, but they are being misled.

How authentic can these shows be when producers design challenges for the participants and then editors alter filmed scenes?

Do people benefit from forms of entertainment that show so-called reality, or are such forms of entertainment harmful?

But then again, I took the SAT 50 years ago this fall, so what do I know?

Bill Gates or Steve Jobs?

In a talk to the nation’s governors earlier this month, [Bill] Gates emphasized work-related learning, arguing that education investment should be aimed at academic disciplines and departments that are “well-correlated to areas that actually produce jobs.”

If this was not music to the ears of advocates of the humanities, they quickly found a soulmate in Steve Jobs. At an event unveiling new Apple products, Mr. Jobs said: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.”

From Room for Debate, a look at college majors and employment.

Calculus is the reason I was a history major.

Safety line of the day

“The nation’s largest organization of pediatricians is telling its members and parents that children riding in cars should remain in rear-facing child safety seats at least until their second birthday — and preferably even longer.”

As reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Also:

“The pediatricians also recommend that children remain in booster seats until they are 4 feet 9 — a height most children don’t reach until they are between 8 and 12 years old.

“Even when children are tall enough to change to adult seat belts, the academy’s policy is that they should ride in the back seat until age 13.”

Longer reads

A moment-by-moment account of Butler’s win over Pittsburgh. It begins:

On Saturday night, Shelvin Mack became the 12th-leading scorer in Butler history, passing long-ago Bulldogs star Bobby Plump. Though Plump starred for Butler in the 1950s, he was already a legend before he arrived on campus. In 1954, he made the jumper that earned Milan High the Indiana state championship—the shot and the season that inspired Hoosiers.

The erosion of the Civil War consensus. It begins:

As someone who has studied the Civil War for all of my adult life, I never once contemplated that I would ever hear any American raise once more the issue of secession or the doctrine of nullification, or suggest that the 14th Amendment should be rescinded.

The La Posada Hotel

I’ve been through Winslow, Arizona, many times and even stopped to eat there once or twice. Somehow I’ve missed the existence of the La Posada Hotel and The Turquoise Room and Martini Bar, it’s exceptional restaurant. They are a national treasure; a must see — at least a meal, better yet a stay.

Owned by the Santa Fe Railway, managed by Fred Harvey and designed by Mary Jane Colter, the preeminent Southwest architect — then and forever — the La Posada was the last and greatest of the railroad hotels. They estimate that it would take $40 million in today’s dollars to build the hotel and gardens that cost $2 million in 1929.

The hotel was open from 1930-1957 (and vacant for 40 years after that). Among guests were John Wayne, Bob Hope, Albert Einstein, the Crown Prince of Japan. It was that kind of hotel.

And it is beautiful again; so seemingly out of place that it was almost magical. See the photos here and in previous posts. The room rates begin at $99, but I plan to try one of the “Various Fabulous Rooms” for $149-169. Except possibly in winter, reservations are essential.

The food was terrific, the service delightful, with full Harvey Girl regalia.

All photos taken with an iPhone. The last was taken from the table at lunch.

Teaching to the Text Message

An interesting perspective. It begins:

I’ve been teaching college freshmen to write the five-paragraph essay and its bully of a cousin, the research paper, for years. But these forms invite font-size manipulation, plagiarism and clichés. We need to set our sights not lower, but shorter.

I don’t expect all my graduates to go on to Twitter-based careers, but learning how to write concisely, to express one key detail succinctly and eloquently, is an incredibly useful skill, and more in tune with most students’ daily chatter, as well as the world’s conversation. . . .