You all have friends who did the "crunchy" thing, so don't judge.
Crunchy Dads
Leave a reply
Blind Tennis
Tennis, like golf, is one of those sports that's hard for non-players to appreciate how difficult it is to master. On the other hand, it would be hard for anyone to underestitmate the difficulty of mastering blind tennis:
Like tennis for sighted people, the game requires speedy court coverage and precise shot-making. Blind players rely on their ears to follow a foam ball filled with ball bearings that rattles when it bounces or is struck…
Other adaptations include a smaller court with a badminton net lowered to the ground, string taped along the lines and junior rackets with oversize heads. Players with some sight get two bounces, the completely blind three. Only one set is played, and an umpire calls the lines.
The first sound-adapted tennis ball was designed in 1984 by Miyoshi Takei, a blind high school student in Japan. Now, about 300 players compete in tournaments there; blind tennis is also played in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Britain and Russia…
And for a local angle, here's a quote from a dean at UNCG:
An expert on orientation and mobility for the blind, William R. Wiener, dean of graduate studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, said that sound localization “is so important when blind people navigate the world,” and added, “Listening to the ball, locating where it is and swinging at it probably helps you with the sport and also with your mobility.”
Be sure to check out the video that accompanies the article.
How to Open a Beer
When I Say Everything I Mean Everything
I just love this two-sentence letter written by Mrs. Sinclair Lewis in response to an enthusiastic female fan of her husband who had offered ALL of her services to him as a secretary.
My dear Miss:
My husband already has a stenographer who handles his work for him. And, as for "everything," I take care of that myself—and when I say everything I mean everything.
Dorothy Thompson
(Mrs. Sinclair Lewis to you.)
The Importance of Copy Editors
Copy editors are important. Don't believe it? The folks at Groupon and Mitt Romney's campaign would probably disagree with you right about now.
Groupon's daily email today featured the subject line, "Father's Day deals for the man who gave birth to you" and linked to a page with the header, "Celebrate the Man Who Gave Birth to You." Your mother would likely be shocked to learn that your father gave birth to you. She'd also likely wonder what caused her so much pain those many years ago. Sure these headlines are better than "Celebrate your sperm donor" but they're still woefully inaccurate.
Then there's the Romney campaign's photo application that lets you take pictures of various things and then overlay a pro-Romney message on them. One problem: the message that was supposed to read "A Better America" instead reads "A Better Amercia." Granted it's not really a scandalous development for the campaign, but when you're fronting the party that's become known for being led by anti-intellectuals (Sarah Palin anyone) it's not the kind of message you want to send.
There are plenty of good copy editors out there, and given what's happened to the publishing industry of late they probably come pretty cheap. Maybe Groupon and Romney's communication team should look them up.
Side note: If you read more than one sentence of the thousands written for this blog it will become painfully obvious that this is a highly ironic post. A copy editor's "red pen" has never graced these pages and it shows.
Perfect Timing in the News
Today the Winston-Salem Journal published the last article in a three-part series on the two major nonprofit health care systems in the Winston-Salem area, Novant and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and this particular installment focused on executive compensation. Here's an excerpt from the article:
Dr. Roy Poses, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Brown University and former physician at three academic medical centers, writes a blog called "Health Care Renewal" in which he frequently tackles the issue of executive compensation…
"The same rationales are cited to justify their treatment — executives are said to have very difficult jobs, and competitive pay is necessary to hire the brilliant people required.
"Left unsaid, however, is how difficult these managerial positions are in comparison to the demanding work and sometimes life-or-death responsibilities of health professionals, how brilliant executives are in comparison to such well-trained professionals, and why the executives deserve competitive pay when other employees may be laid off." (Emphasis mine).
Later in the morning Novant made the following announcement:
Carl Armato, president and chief executive of Novant, said in a memo to employees that the system is eliminating 82 management positions and 207 staff positions, effective immediately. The majority of the eliminated positions are in Novant's Winston-Salem and Charlotte markets…
Armato said there are four main reasons behind the decision.
"We all know there's a national mandate to lower what our nation spends on health care and to make care more affordable," Armato said…
"The poor economy has clearly changed people's behaviors and they are using fewer health-care services, including elective surgeries and outpatient testing, such as diagnostic imaging."
Armato said Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for services "is dramatically declining. Put simply, we are being paid less for our services and this trend will unfortunately not improve.
"The amount of charity care we provide has increased 200 percent over the past five years.
Pretty nice juxtaposition huh?
Question: If you had to guess, what would you say the odds are that Mr. Amato showed some leadership by taking a voluntary reduction in pay, or even a pay freeze, before deciding to seriously screw with 289 people's lives by laying them off?
Throw Granny from the Plane
Wow. Just wow.
A Guy and a Gal Walk Into Town Hall
Gay columnist Dan Savage gets a marriage license for himself and a lesbian coworker and in the process he exposes the idiocy of laws against gay marriage:
Like I said, Amy and Sonia and I didn't show up at the county building last Friday because we were planning to sue. We came to make a point about the absurdity of our marriage laws. Amy can't marry Sonia, I can't marry Terry–why? Because the sanctity of marriage must be protected from the queers! But Amy and I can get a marriage license-and into a sham marriage, if we care to, a joke marriage, one that I promise you won't produce children. And we can do this with the state's blessing–why? Because one of us is a man and one of us is a woman. Who cares that one of us is a gay man and one of us is a lesbian? So marriage is to be protected from the homos–unless the homos marry each other.
With the exception of health related concerns, and protecting underage children from being victimized by adults trying to marry them off for whatever reason, I'm stumped as to why the state has a compelling reason to try and control who marries whom.
Four Minutes of Infamy
In 1968 Andy Warhol said, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." In 2012 a North Carolina preacher gave a Mother's Day sermon that was recorded and posted on YouTube and pretty much guaranteed that he'll be famous for more than 15 minutes. In that sermon the pastor said some pretty outrageous things as related by the Los Angeles Times:
In the video, Worley says to the sounds of laughter from the congregation that he's figured "a way out." He suggests building a large fence — 150 or 100 miles long — and putting all the gays and lesbians inside it.
"And have that fence electrified 'til they can't get out," he says. "Feed 'em. And you know what, in a few years, they'll die out. Do you know why? They can't reproduce."
Later, he bellows, referring to President Obama's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage: "I'll tell you right now. Somebody says, 'Who you gonna vote for?' I ain't gonna vote for a baby killer and a homosexual lover!" He added that he understood the shocking nature of his language, and would stand by it. "You said, 'Did you mean to say that?' You'd better believe I did!"
Also during the sermon, Worley says he was "disappointed, bad" by Obama's recent announcement that he supports same-sex marriage, and he went on to suggest that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would get his vote in November.
As bad as that was, it kind of got worse when one of the members of his congregation agreed to appear on Anderson Cooper's show and engaged in an exchange that caused the website DangerousMinds to label her the Dumbest American (Ever?) Found. She may not get 15 minutes of fame, but it's certainly four minutes of infamy:
I'm not sure Warhol could have ever envisioned this.
Bobcat Goldthwait’s Commencement Address
Bobcat Goldthwait's 2009 commencement address for Hampshire College is off-beat and definitely worth the listen. Be patient – the last five minutes are worth it.
Befuddled 