Author Archives: Jon Lowder

Smithsonian Debate

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One of the more vivid childhood memories I have is of going to weekend classes at the Smithsonian.  One class was nature drawing (I’ll never forget the smell of the stuffed beaver they put in the middle of the table for us to draw) and another was black and white photography using a pinhole camera that I made myself in class (I’ll never forget the smells from the darkroom either).  That was right after my parents split up and we were pretty broke, so I’m not sure how my mom swung it but I’m glad she did.

Anyway I thought about those experiences when I was reading this NY Times article on a joint venture between the Smithsonian and Showtime that should mean some big dollars for the Smithsonian.  It is also raising the ire of many folks and it is worrying others who think that it will closet off some of the Smithsonian’s collection.

But as the Times article points out the Smithsonian is always struggling with cash issues, in no small part because access to all the Smithsonian museums is free.  To be honest I never knew that any museums charged admission until I was asked to pony up to get into MOMA in NY.  I was shocked and then very appreciative of what the Smithsonian is and does for free.

So my question is this: is the Smithsonian justified in entering joint ventures with commercial enterprises if it means that they can keep admission free?  It is quite possible that one issue has nothing to do with the other, I really don’t know, but if they are related and deals like this help keep admission free is it worth it?

Help Thy Neighbor, as Long as It’s Not Those People

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You know it had to happen: NIMBY in the wake of Katrina.  From AC360:

You know the phrase "not in my back yard?" Well, how about "not next door to my mansion!"

Homeowners
in a private, gated subdivision in New Orleans are furious that FEMA is
putting a trailer park for evacuees next door.

The homeowners
argue that there’s plenty of vacant land in the city. The city
councilwoman who represents the subdivision proposed an alternate site.
But FEMA ignored the proposal and started moving in trailers.

That
has made Mayor Ray Nagin so angry that he says he won’t allow any more
group trailer sites in the city — and he wants the FEMA workers
kicked-out.

FEMA says the city has "jeopardized" the housing
effort, and FEMA says it may demand that the city pay back the $1.5
million FEMA has spent on the site so far. The Mayor says no way.

Like I said back in the fall, it’s time we get rid of all the bastards who were in charge at the local, state and federal levels.  If it was me and I had people whining about the placement of some mobile homes near their houses, in the aftermath of a natural disaster mind you, I’d be sorely tempted to use a little eminent domain on their butts.  Or I’d at least put them on national TV and expose their greedy, elitist faces for the whole world to see.

Sport As It Should Be

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Last night I went over to Miller Park in Winston-Salem and watched my wife, Celeste, play in her first-ever tennis match.  She was a nervous wreck for days before the match and was really concerned with how she was going to play, whether or not she would be able to remember the rules, how to score, etc.  Well, she and her partner won 6-2 and 6-4 and I’m damn proud of how she played.

The experience was great for more reasons than her play and her winning.  The league she’s in is a USTA 2.0 women’s league which is a pretty rare species.  The USTA ranks players so that, at least in concept, you can play against a bunch of people of similar ability.  Since 2.0 is for raw beginners you don’t find people playing it for more than one season so it’s hard to get enough people together to play.  The ladies that continue playing out of this league will all be in at least a 2.5 league by next year. 

What made this so much fun for me was seeing how much fun these ladies were having.  They laughed at themselves when they made mistakes, they helped each other out with scoring and in general they all seemed to be having a great time.  That’s a stark difference from many of the 4.0 level leagues I’ve played in.  In fact some of the biggest ass-wipes I’ve ever encountered have been on tennis courts.  So seeing these ladies have so much fun reminded why I liked tennis in the first place.

Line of the night from one of Celeste’s opponents when she was slow to call a ball out: "Well I just feel so BAD when the ball goes out I don’t want to call it."

Oh, and seeing how much Celeste has improved in just a few weeks of practice was a real eye-opener.  I’m going to have to watch my back.  Note to my buddy Ted: She already hits harder than me which means she hits a crap-load harder than you:)

Mixed-doubles anyone?

It’s Not My Fault

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As a parent one of the hardest lessons for me to teach is personal accountability,  mainly because I often feel like a hypocrite.  For instance the other night Celeste and I were giving our oldest son grief for his interim grade report which to much of the world would have been fine but to us smacked of underachievement.  Our opinion is supported by the fact that his grades are regularly dragged down by incomplete or missing homework assignments.  Of course his initial reaction is to state that his grades are better than all his friends’ which just throws fuel on our fire and he’s learned to keep his mouth shut.  But I can see in his eyes he still thinks it.

My problem is that I have to come down on him knowing full well that I did the same, if not worse.  Of course if I didn’t get on him and stay on him I’d just be coasting as a parent and I’m not going to do that.  I fully expect my kids to grow up and be better people than I could ever be and I’m going to do my damndest to help show them the way.

Unfortunately I don’t think my kids are getting good object lessons from the leaders of our country when it comes to taking personal responsibility for their actions.  President Bush would be an easy target for this so I won’t take that shot, but I will point to one current example of someone needing to learn to accept responsibility for her actions.  Rep. Cynthia McKinney had a little altercation with a Capitol Police officer when she forgot to wear a lapel pin that identifies her as a member of Congress and then after breezing past the security line at the Capitol (members are allowed to do that) was asked to stop three times by the officer.  When she failed to stop he touched her and she slugged him.  She says that he was overly aggressive and touched her inappropriately and believes that even without the pin he should have recognized her and that his actions were prompted by the fact that she was black.

Rather than acknowledge that she may have contributed to the situation Rep. McKinney played the race card.  How nice.  She could have said, "Well I should have worn my pin and I probably should have stopped to identify myself, but the officer was entirely too aggressive in stopping me and I think it had something to do with the fact that I was black" and this would be easier to swallow.  Instead she accuses an officer she doesn’t even claim to know of racism and assault and can’t even admit that she may have contributed to the situation.  Isn’t it a form of racism to assume another person is racist because they offend you and happen to be of a different race.  Couldn’t it just be that you are an onerous jerk?

I’ve always found the race card an interesting play because it tends to appear and disappear depending on the situation.  For instance I doubt that Rep. McKinney would claim that she is probably elected only because she comes from a heavily black voting district, not because she’s the most qualified for the job.  Of course if she lived in a diverse or heavily white neighborhood and lost an election she would probably claim it’s because she’s black. You see, playing the race card to avoid personal responsibility also precludes you from recognition for personal achievement.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely think there should be laws and regulations against excluding people from business, neighborhoods, organizations, etc. because of their race.  I also believe that preferential treatment specifically because of race is a mistake because it denies those receiving the preferential treatment from their due recognition.

And that’s the lesson I want my kids to learn.  They need to take responsibility for their actions and when they do they’ll be able to pridefully enjoy the achievements that are sure to follow.

A Feast of Information

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A few weeks ago I gave up on reading RSS feeds through MyYahoo and started using Bloglines and I can’t tell you how much it has helped me.  The change coincided with a ramp-up for me in regards to work so I just don’t have any free time to keep up with reading.  If I were still using MyYahoo I’d be stuck because the RSS feeds are transient; the headlines appear until  they are replaced by the newest posts for that particular feed.  With Bloglines I can save feeds that look interesting and read them later.  Sounds simple, but it is an incredibly valuable tool and when I have the time I’m going to start looking into other tools that might have a similar positive impact on my information consumption.

In looking at my Bloglines feed page I’ve noticed a curious pattern; there are certain blogs (feeds) I check every day and others I let go for a while and within the blogs I read every day there are those that I tend to save lots of stories from and others that, while valuable, provide me with nothing I want to reference later.  Here are some of the blogs I read regularly and the number of stories I’ve saved over the last couple of weeks:

When I think about it I guess it makes sense.  BoingBoing and bookofjoe are both interesting compilations that to me are a unique blend of magazine and catalog, while the others I read more like newspapers.  I probably find just as much of interest on Ed Cone, Vie de Malchance, Hogg’s, etc. but it isn’t the kind of information I save for later use.  On the other hand Boing Boing and bookofjoe always have features about really cool trinkets and doodads that I tell myself I’ll use some day.  Probably not, but it’s the digital equivalent of ripping pages out of magazines/catalogs and stuffing them in a drawer.

BTW, here’s a not-comprehensive list of the things I found valuable enough to save:

Another info-management tool I’m trying to use more is my "social bookmark" page at del.icio.us.  Basically it lets me bookmark and "tag" any pages I come across with keywords that mean something to me.  There’s a little box on the right hand side of my blog that shows my most recent del.icio.us tags but if you want to browse the whole thing you can do it here.

This whole information-overload-management thing is becoming kind of a pain in the ass but I’m hoping to figure out a way to use these tools to organize it all so it is more a fancy feast and less a gluttonous mess.

Fight, Fight, Fight!

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Although I was sad to see my boys at Mason go down to Florida, I’m still tickled pink that they made it to the Final Four.  It certainly put my alma mater on the map and although Mason isn’t a small school, it is a young school at just 35 years old as a university.  So it came as no surprise to me or any of my fellow alums that I’ve talked to that we didn’t have a fight song.  I thought maybe I had just forgotten the thing, having spent my 4+ years at Mason in a beer-induced fog, but it ends up that there wasn’t one to begin with.  Here’s the story:

Administrators Scramble to Compose Lyrics For GMU Fight Song
Mar 31st – 10:01am

INDIANAPOLIS — When George Mason University Band Director Anthony Maiello
composed the school’s Fight Song a few years ago, he never got down to
writing lyrics. Instead he just used "Fight — Fight — Fight" for each
note.

But after the basketball team advanced to the Final Four of the men’s
championship tournament, the NCAA called asking for the words.

That sent several administrators scrambling this week to come up with real
words to accompany the music.
Associate Athletic Director Sue Collins wound up borrowing the opening
lyrics from the Washington Redskins and also included a phrase from nearby
Fairfax High School’s fight song.

The lyrics are as follows:

Hail to George Mason Patriot green and gold We are George Mason, home of the
brave and bold Hail to George Mason Proud for all to see Catch our spirit
feel our pride Onward to victory

Well, at least we have one now, but I think I’m going to request a re-write.  If we’re going to build tradition then we can at least do it with an un-lame fight song.

Change is Good?

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I caught up with one of my college roommates today.  Tony and I are both pretty bad about picking up a phone and calling so we can go long stretches without talking, but we always pick up right where we left off.  The big news is that he and his wife Amy are expecting their first child which begat his other big news which is they sold their townhouse and are moving into a big house.

Towards the end of our conversation he mentioned that he checks out my blog every once in a while and he can’t believe how conservative I’ve become.  I think he used the term "fascist bastard" in there somewhere (you have to understand that Tony is from Scotland and taught me everything I know about cussing, which is alot) and he also wondered aloud how disappointed my mother must be in me.

I’ll admit I was a pretty liberal punk in college, but once I got out in the real world and started paying attention to things outside of my own little corner of the universe I definitely lost some of my leftist viewpoints.  On the other hand I retain enough liberal ideas that I’d say I’m far from conservative.  Still it was interesting seeing a glimpse of myself from the perspective of someone who knew the then me and the now me.  Sometimes I miss the former but I’m thankful I made it to the latter since if my old self had held sway on my life path I’d probably be living semi-nude on a commune eating tofu and carrots. Yes, the whole world is better off not having to suffer through that.

How to Make a Grown Man Almost Cry

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My daughter asked if she could ride her bike over to her friend’s house today.  I said sure, but I wanted her home at 6:30 so we could have dinner.  She didn’t show until 7:00 and I was more than a little pissed.  This isn’t the first time she’s been late and the last time it happened she got a tongue lashing, so I was surprised it happened again.  On top of that I have to admit that tardiness is probably my biggest pet-peeve, so I’m pre-disposed to getting a mad about it.

When she got home I told her we’d have to figure out a punishment, which sent her into major-league pout mode.  She didn’t eat dinner (we went out for pizza) and sulked the whole time.  When we got home I went back into my office to do some work and she came in to ask me what her punishment would be.  I said it would probably cost her points (we have an incentive program that allows the kids to start each week with $10 in the bank, but throughout the week we give them points for things that are either done wrong or not done when they are supposed to be…each point is worth 50 cents), and she started to stomp out of my office.  I told her to come back and then we had this conversation (I’m paraphrasing):

Me: "You don’t think you deserve to be punished?"
Daughter: "I punished myself by not eating dinner!"
Me: "No, you told me you didn’t want pizza so I’d say you were pouting."
Daughter: "NO!"
Me: "Well, I didn’t ask you not to eat.  And this isn’t the first time you’ve been late, so I think maybe you need something to remind you to be on time."
Daughter: "The last time I was only five minutes late and you yelled at me…alot!"  "It was only five minutes!"
Me: "It was more than five minutes, and it doesn’t matter.  When we tell you to be home at a certain time you need to make sure you’re here on time."
Daughter, glaring at me says nothing.
Me, feeling the heat rise: "So you think it’s okay for you to be late even though you inconvenienced four other people?  We were ready to go to dinner at 6:30 and we waited 1/2 hour for you.  You think that’s fair?"
Daughter continues glaring and mutters something under her breath.
Me, heat REALLY rising: "You don’t want to be punished!? Fine, I won’t punish you.  But remember this moment the next time you ask me to give you a ride somewhere or even better, remember this moment when I decide that it isn’t important to be at one of your soccer games on time and I feel like getting there 1/2 hour late.  Just remember it."
Daughter, shooting death daggers at me with her eyes: "I HATE YOU!"
She turns and leaves.  On her way out I say, "I’m sorry you hate me because I love you very much."
Daughter: "I don’t care."

I don’t care who you are, those last two hurt.  Of course I couldn’t let it show (I’m a guy), but it stung like hell.  Thankfully Celeste saw what was going on and came in and talked me down.  She also coached me on how to patch it up…I’d tell you how, but I’m thinking I could rent Celeste’s advisory services to other fathers of teenage girls.  If my household is indicative I’ll be able to quit my day job.

My daughter is only 12 and I’m worried I may not make it to 13.  I don’t even want to think about 14-20.  God help me.

BovineExcrement! Drug War Coming to Your Toilet

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Two recent news stories involving the US Government and excrement:

According to a Washington Post article that bookofjoe highlighted, the US Government ran a test on a wastewater treatment plant in Fairfax County, VA to determine how many people in the area have used cocaine in the recent past. From the Post article:

County workers collected five days’ worth of water samples between
March 13 and March 17 at the pollution control plant in Lorton,
according to a March 20 memo from County Executive Anthony H. Griffin
to the Board of Supervisors.

The plant, which processes about 67 million gallons of sewage a day,
takes in commercial and residential waste from about half the county,
including Fairfax City, Vienna and Fort Belvoir.

The samples, which totaled about 500 milliliters, were shipped to
the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, where they will
be analyzed for traces of benzoylecgonine, the main urinary metabolite
byproduct of cocaine.

Nice work if you can get it, huh?  My question is, "Why bother?"  What discernible difference will knowing how many people are doing coke make?  Does it matter whether 25,000 or 2,500 people are doing coke?  How?  Why?  Why not spend the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology’s time on something useful, like how many toxins or traces of bio-agents are in the water?  Maybe they already are, but I don’t like the idea that they might miss something because their trying to figure out how many people are pissing cocaine.  Absurd.

The other story that ties our government to excrement, or at least the concept of excrement, is the story about the FCC deciding that the word "shit" and all its derivatives are not merely "indecent" but "profane."  That means they can fine any broadcaster that airs the "shit" words for each incidence and they can also fine those who utter the words on-air.  (If I’m ever interviewed on TV I’ll probably be broke at the end of 30 seconds).  Jeff Jarvis takes great exception to this new FCC "nannyism" as he calls it and thinks that since bullshit is the single best term to describe much of our politicians’ actions that it is infringing on our free political speech to term it "profane."  Read Jeff’s "In Defense of Bullshit" here.

To tie all this together I’ll say just this: we need to call ‘bullshit’ on much of what our government is selling us these days. Of course we can’t call "bullshit" so we’ll have to do what my kids do: come up with a suitable substitute.  How about "Bush!"?