Weather Report in Hell: Heavy Snowfall and Below Zero Temperature

Had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1:

"Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has issued an apology to the people of the Windy City for the ongoing corruption investigation surrounding Chicago's city government.

The federal government has been investigating Daley's administration for the past 18 months. The initial investigation centered around alleged bribes that were given in exchange for jobs in the city's trucking program.

In the past few months, the investigation has grown to include allegations of fraud in city hiring practices.

Regardless of whether or not any Chicago city officials will be indicted or not, Daley said he should have been more vigilant about the government's practices.

'I take responsibility for these problems and tonight, I make a commitment to you to do everything within my power to fix them, root out those who engage in misconduct and hold them accountable for their misdeeds,' Daley said Tuesday night during a budget hearing.

'It's become clear to me that I should have done more to maintain higher ethical standards and prevent corruption,' he added.

Daley himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

More than 20 people have plead guilty in the investigation of the Hired Truck Program. Federal authorities say payoffs in the program were widespread and thousands of dollars worth of city property was stolen.

In the hiring fraud scandal, city officials are alleged to have faked scores to help applicants get city jobs after they earned political clout by working in get-out-the-vote organizations.

Chicago historically is known for its 'irregular' machine politics. Daley's father was mayor of the city for years and the slogan in old Chicago was 'vote early, vote often.' Many people even found ways to cast their ballots after they had died.

The question before Mayor Daley now is whether or not this investigation will lead to changes in city politics or whether the city will continue to do 'business as usual."--Brad Kurtzberg

What College Students Believe

From Salon (you have to watch an ad):Salon.com News | Archaeology from the dark side: "45 percent of students surveyed believed in the Lost Continent of Atlantis (an all-time high), while 36 percent believed that a curse on the pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb had actually killed people, and 23 percent believed that aliens had visited earth in prehistoric times. "

Coffee: It's Good for You!

I liken this to the "Sleeper" effect, where Wood Allen awakens in the future and discovers that hot fudge sundae and steaks are considered health foods. From the Independent: "A study has found that coffee contributes more antioxidants - which have been linked with fighting heart disease and cancer - to the diet than cranberries, apples or tomatoes."

Real Vegan Babies Don't Wear Diapers

What are those damn hippies up to now? Un-diapering Your Baby - A Perfect Recipe for Vegans ":

The premise is that babies growing up in deprived, squalid, diseased third world parts of the world don't wear diapers, so it naturally follows that this must be a good idea.

Homeopathy Is Little More Than Placebo Effect: Study

From Forbes: - Forbes.com: "'In homeopathy we don't treat diseases, we treat people.'"
Really gullible ones, that is.

Theodore Dalrymple On Virginia Woolf

I've always had trouble digesting the works of the modernists, and it's heartening to discover a fellow spirit who holds an even deeper loathing. Dalrymple's conclusion : "Had Mrs. Woolf survived to our time, however, she would at least have had the satisfaction of observing that her cast of mind--shallow, dishonest, resentful, envious, snobbish, self-absorbed, trivial, philistine, and ultimately brutal--had triumphed among the elites of the Western world."

Brat Camp Review on Slate

Looks like I missed the best show this summer: a series on teenagers confined to a self awareness camp and under the care of counselors named Glacier, Mother Raven, and Little Bear! Teenage Wasteland - Farewell to the sadistic pleasures of Brat Camp. By Sam�Anderson: "Teenage Wasteland
Farewell to the sadistic pleasures of Brat Camp."

Best quote: "Brat Camp was like porn for people who hate teenagers—which is probably the largest target audience possible, since it includes everyone in the world, even (and especially) teenagers."

Rock Snob Lament

Heartbreak and betrayal through an iPod: The New Republic Online: Remastered: "Even worse was the girlfriend to whom I gave an iPod. She promptly plugged it into my computer and was soon holding in her hand a duplicate version of my 5,000-song library--a library that had taken some 20 years, thousands of dollars, and about as many hours to accumulate. She'd downloaded it all within five minutes. And, a few months later, she was gone, taking my intimate musical DNA with her. "

For Lactose Intolerant Dogs

I bet the cat flavored one is the most popular: Pooches pant for Paws / Frozen dog treats have been a howling success for Dreyer's: "Dog owners like Kathleen Allegro have helped make Frosty Paws Frozen Treats for Dogs among the most profitable products that Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream sells."

65 out of 490 Students are Pregnant at Ohio High School

Officials worry that this might affect school test scores.


NewsNet5.com - News - 65 Girls At Area School Pregnant: "The newspaper also reported that students will face mounting tensions created by unplanned child-rearing responsibilities, causing students to quit school and plan for a GED. This will make it difficult for the Canton City School District to shake its academic watch designation by the state."


The news blurb had an even more disturbing item to report: "...statistics through July show that 104 of the 586 babies born to Canton residents in Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center had mothers between 11 and 19."

Warning: Rock Climbing May Be Dangerous to Your Health

From L.A. Times, subscription required: Another Peril for Climbers - Los Angeles Times: "A $10-million suit by the grieving parents of a 21-year-old man who died in a Yosemite rock fall could result in severe restrictions on the sport."

"Grizzly Man" Sparks Copycat Fears

Will there be a lawsuit if a viewer of "Gruzzly Man" gets eaten? 6abc.com: "Grizzly Man" Sparks Copycat Fears: "Many of the film's scenes show Treadwell chatting amiably at the camera while sitting just feet from thousand-pound grizzlies, or gingerly touching their noses with his fingers. "

Conversation with the Martians

The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs

Teacher Turnover

From CNN: CNN.com - Survey: Large turnover expected in teaching ranks - Aug 18, 2005: "Younger people remain a big force in public teaching, with one in three teachers 39 or younger. But many of those teachers no longer think of teaching as a 30-year career.
'There is a growing realization that the mind-set is shifting, that they don't consider teaching to be a lifelong profession,' Rhee said.
Maia Sheppard is one of those people. She worked for three years in a New York City public school, where she taught global history, wrote curriculum and helped immigrant students try to learn English and meet state standards in several other subjects.
After three years, she had enough and quit teaching.
'It was just all the time, nonstop,' she said. 'I just didn't have time to do anything else but school.'
Now 32 and living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sheppard is pursuing a doctorate in education."

Family Reunification Program

San Francisco's new homeless strategy:Leaving's now a lot easier for S.F.'s homeless

Mayor Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia tried something similar in the 70s. He had the police quietly round up the homeless (Rizzo called them bums), take them to the bus station, and gave them one way tickets to Pittsburgh. There wasn't much of an outcry in either cities, though people in Pittsburg started wondering why a lot of guys asking for quarters sounded like they were out from Philly.

George and Helen Papashvily

Short biography of Helen Papashvily: George and Helen Papashvily

When I was in school, most American literature textbooks featured an excerpt of "Anything Can Happen Here," a memoir of a Georgian immigrant, George Papashvily, as told to or through his wife Helen.

While Eastern European immigrants were hardly new by the 1940s, his book made the best seller list and was turned into a movie starring Jose Ferrer and Kim Hunter. For two or three decades afterwards, it was the rare junior or high school literature textbook that did not contain one of his funny and touching stories. Usually the common themes were how strange and marvelous it was to be in America, how diverse and kind Americans were, and although one might be occasionally impoverished, things would always sort themselves out for a fellow with a work ethic and his wits about him.

I don't remember ever hearing any of my teachers ever saying they liked his book, in fact I don't remember ever being required to read any of his excerpts. Somehow they never made the assigned reading list, and very few of us actually enjoyed reading all the textbook on our own.

Perhaps it was the whiff of the low middle-browness of Papashvily's stories and his unabashed optimism and patriotism that the teachers found embarrassing. Then again, his mangled and funny syntax could have been the reason: he was hardly a sterling example to young students of English back in the sentence diagram era. Finally, his yarns, while fun, did rely on a healthy amount of incredulity from a reader not well acquainted with Mark Twain's works.

Whatever the reason, I don't think many people would recognize the name today (in fact, I've only known one other person my age who has read him). One thing I'll say about him and his stories: years later when going through the works of another Georgian, G.I. Gurdjieff, I was reminded of George Papashvily, and decided that Georgian memoirs like their national dish of lobio beans was a treat best consumed liesurely and with a great deal of salt.

ATM Deposit Scam?

I was walking through downtown Seattle yesterday. Sunday is normally a busy and crowded day for shops and sights, but the Seafair air show and hydroboat race on Lake Washington had left the sidewalks nearly empty. I was a bit startled when someone called out hey twice to get my attention. I heard the voice to the right behind me and immediately looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone else approaching me from the front or behind on my left: an old instinct left over from my Oakland years.

A couple waved at me and a woman was shouting. The man, in a tropical half sleeve shirt, was looking at me with a sad smile that showed disapointment. It seems the couple needed help making an ATM deposit and could I help them? He was showing me a check deposit slip. She was getting into my face and was insistent that I could show them how to use the ATM. I backed away and told them that I wasn't a Bank of America custoner, said sorry, and quickly walked away. The man had a half smirk on his face while the woman seemed unhappy.

So was this a couple who had never used an ATM to make a deposit. ATMs have been around for the last 25 years. Plus there was the whole business of them looking a little too touristy and helpless. And there was the look he had given me after I had twirled around alert for possible muggers. Was he amused because he thought I was paranoid of strangers? Or did he decide then to look for other another mark?

Minnesota Students Go Online for Gym Class

Wish they had this when I was in junior high: NPR : Minnesota Students Go Online for Gym Class

Is it time to admit the the tradtional PE model, of having a redneck with a crewneck and whistle, failed?