Gay marriage going national?

Bigwig lawyers Ted Olsen and David Boies are talking about taking gay marriage national, putting together a case that could speed its way to the Supreme Court rather than continuing this state-by-state grind.

Slate ran a column talking about why it's a bad idea, and I'd say I'd have to agree. If you oppose gay marriage, be pleased that they're bidding high on the cart before they've got the horse. And if you agree with gay marriage, brace yourself, because the worst thing you can do is try to get an idea accepted before its time has come; you're only dooming it to never have a chance to happen.

One interesting point in the Slate article was where it talked about civil rights, which is what gay activists often compare their cause to. The Supreme Court didn't make big moves on the civil rights front until the country's attitude had shifted, and there were majorities in certain circles. A lot went on in the states before the federal arm intervened.

(Note to abortion activitists, the pro-lifers who think they can just elect a president and flip Roe v. Wade on its back: this argument applies to your case, too. Any time the government imposes a mandate that the vast majority of people don't agree with, you're going to have serious issues. It may be right, but democracy is about reaching a consensus among the people that the view is right, not imposing ideological views on other people by winning a majority on a powerful court. (With power, comes corruption, too...which means even if you did swing the big Court, it could easily be swung back against you.) Study Prohibition for a minute. People's hearts have to change, otherwise it's oppression.)

Basically, the country's not ready for a federal move on gay marriage right now. Whether it will be, and if it is, when, is not the purpose of this discussion. The point is, when the most liberal pockets of the country (minus the Iowa aberration) are the only ones putting a serious fight up, you've got a lot of work to do. Don't try to blindside the people; they'll just dislike that the whole picture changed because nine cloked lawyers said it was that way.

If gay marriage is going to be a lasting concept, it's going to have to spread through the country and win the consensus. For now, that means state-by-state.

And the flip side: if gay marriage isn't meant to be, the nation will say so. California is an interesting case study on this point; many people say the Mormons swept the vote by pumping tons of money into fear-motivated voting.

But consider this: religious voters often stay at home, yet they have specific opinions about how this country is supposed to be. With such a small gay population in the U.S., and a proportionally small percentage of supporters for them, it's a wonder any state could pull out a vote favoring gay marriage unless it was an overwhelmingly popular decision (which is still yet to be seen if it is). The mobilization of those who voted for Proposition 8 was just getting normal people to get up and vote; the vast majority of America is still not ready to link arms, face dogs, charge tear gas and stage mass rallies for the small percentage of America that is gay. It's just a numbers thing.

Tex? Good. Gardner? Errr....

Mark Teixeira did his job again today, driving in four runs with a double and a homer, but some shoddy play by the Yanks with runners on base (I'm thinking Brett Gardner at the plate) doomed the Bombers to a 5-4 walk-off loss to the Tribe.

Gardner was up in the top of the ninth with a speedy teammate on second, but all he could do was hit a bouncer that set up a double play from the next batter.

Chien-Ming Wang gave another solid relief performance, tossing three perfect innings, and the top three Yankee batters all went 2-for-4 (although there was quite a dispute over one play at first that could have easily been another Derek Jeter hit). But New York never got rolling, and it was more entertaining watching the seagulls fly in and stroll around the field than sit through all nine innings of this game.

New York can grab another W tomorrow before heading back to the Bronx and facing the American League-leading Texas Rangers. I hope Melky's back by then; they need his hot bat.

(Notes: Tex's home run ties him for the home run lead in the American League; the Yankees tied the Major League record for games without an error with 17 straight, which equals the Red Sox's 2006 mark.)

Other Yankees posts

Take it back, Shaq

Sure, the NBA Finals matchup of Lakers-Magic is disappointing to some, but if you're looking for hidden storylines, consider the cactus.

The "Big Cactus," that is, or whatever Shaquille O'Neal is calling himself these days. Shaq has been very vocal about two things: (1) Kobe hasn't won a championship without him and (2) that Dwight Howard isn't as good as people think, and isn't as great for the Magic as he was, and isn't anything but a copycat of his moves, blah blah blah.

One team is going to win, with its star turning around to point a bony finger at Shaq and say, "Told you I could do it." The best Shaq can hope for, besides a Tweeting championship now that his playing days are fading, is that a team wins despite the poor play of its star.

CC gets settled

CC Sabathia seems to be getting settled in his new digs, going 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his last four starts. Tonight he led the Yankees past his former team, the Cleveland Indians, 10-5.

At 29-20, the Yankees have the third-best record in the league, and are on top of the American League East.

Other Yankees posts

People who take animal pain a little too seriously

Slate has an awesome article about whether fish feel pain or not when they're hooked, and the people who get really wound up about people who fish. Note especially the comments from those who formed a mob in Great Britain, and those who asked if carrots feel pain when they're peeled. The whole article is great.

History of the credit card

Slate has a nice little slideshow presenting different credit cards throughout the years. For someone who is always interested to see things from the past, I thought it was fun to look through.

First Place

The Yankees are in sole possession of first place in the American League East for the first time since the end of 2006. They beat the Indians 3-1 today on the arms of Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, who combined for their 58th start-save combination, the most since saves became an official statistic.

Another Yankee veteran, stalwart Jorge Posada, came back from the disabled list and had two hits. He's batting .325 this season, a team-high.

Other Yankees posts

The Yankees aren't just great at home

The Yankees took a strong step toward being a top MLB team by going into Texas and taking a series from an American League contender this week. Any cries about the Yankees simply benefiting because of their home run-friendly park, or beating up on creampuffs such as the Orioles, fell silent as the Yankee bats roared to life yet again Wednesday night in their 9-2 stomping of the American League West-leading Rangers.

And as the story has gone, when the bats show up, the pitchers start throwing well, too. Pundits will say the Yankees' pitching has turned them around, but you only need to see who stepped into the lineup to start this tear to know that the bats have led the way. Since A-Rod has come back, New York has gone 14-5, with a nine-game winning streak. Mark Teixeira has arrived (14 home runs in May), and Derek Jeter's batting average has creeped up to .297 after he danced on the Mendoza line at the beginning of the season. Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera have been having career months.

My theory is this: when the hitting starts to happen, the pitchers settle down. They know someone has their back, and they don't have to take as many chances or pitch as perfectly to keep the game in hand.

Tonight was no exception. A.J. Burnett hadn't won a game since April 14, yet he came out and threw six innings, striking out seven and letting nary a run score. His previous starts have been walk-infested debacles, but tonight he entered the game with a two-run lead already under his belt and pitched well. Teixeira thumped a homer in the first to get the lead, and the rest of the Yankees just piled it on. Hideki Matsui emerged from his slump with two over-the-fence blasts.

New York's fielding has also improved; this was the team's 14th game in a row without an error.

Behind the scenes, the Yankees have also been doing some unnoticed things better. Jeter has nabbed 10 stolen bases, and part of that is because he's been walked 19 times even as his hitting lagged. Teixeira has collected 27 walks, and Nick Swisher has been given the free pass to first 31 times this season (and he rides the pine these days).

The Yankees are now 27-20, tied for the American League East lead with the Boston Red Sox. The only American League team with a better record? The Texas Rangers, at 27-19. Huh.

More Yankees posts

Tex flying high in Texas

Mark Teixeira just smashed an inside fastball for a home run, putting the Yankees up 2-0 over the Texas Rangers three batters into the game.

Tex has had a slow start this year, but with Alex Rodriguez back in the lineup, he's gotten a boost (both from having protection in the lineup, and perhaps from not being the highest-paid underperformer in the Bronx).

Our favorite Sesame Street character's 15 home runs puts him second in American League homers. Tex leads the Yankees in both home runs and RBIs (37), and his batting average has rocketed up to .275, almost double his April average.

What's in the Hudson: It's not as gross as you think

The May 18, 2009 issue of New York magazine had one of the most interesting features I've ever read: a piece on the many things below the surface in the Hudson River.

Yes, some of the things are gross, such as the four-foot long worms and the bits of toilet paper they find after rainstorms (when the sewer gets flooded), but the Hudson also holds an artificial reef of old ice cream trucks teeming with lobster, millions of dollars' worth of silver and a shipwreck on top of another shipwreck.

It's a fascinating collection of information, interspersed with quotes from guys who spend their workday down there. Read it here.

11-1; 5-for-5

A-Rod raised his batting average 70 points today, pulling it up to .259 after batting .189 so far this season. He did it on 5-for-5 hitting, showing he's no 44-year-old Barry Bonds just yet, only hitting for the fences. (His previous 10 hits were comprised of seven homers.)

His powerful hitting, which included four RBI, led New York to an 11-1 victory over the Texas Rangers. [Intentional avoidance of the steroid subplot HERE.]

The real story, though, was the continued success of Phil Hughes, who has shown this season why he was the Yankees' hope a few years ago before nosediving with injuries and control problems. He tossed a gem (8 full innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 6 Ks) to give the Yanks a win even without the bats (which were also in good form today).

Other notables: Robinson Cano (2-for-5 with two RBI) and Mark Teixera (2-for-4 with two RBI) also continued their good hitting.

I'm calling for another streak.

Enjoyable Snippets

Some of my favorite and thought-provoking bits from recent reading. (These fall halfway between the status "extremely interesting," which sparks essays and full-length books in my head, and the label of "blah," which I will never write about.)

Awesome articles (a rarity) from Sports Illustrated:
The May 4, 2009 Kelly Slater profile — one of the best profiles I've ever read.

The May 18, 2009 explanation of why Rafa is surging past Fed. A taste: "The answer lies in the regal language always used to describe Federer. Born to rule, he has never been interested in fighting for power; that's why in his current exile he looks less like Napoleon plotting on Elba than like the puzzled Czar Nicholas II waiting for the world to right itself and restore his throne."
The May 18, 2009 brief on Twittering . I am still anti-Twitter for many reasons, but I do like that it lets athletes hop over their polo-shirted PR representatives and just talk to the people.

Some things I enjoyed from the Boston Globe recently:
Film reviewer Wesley Morris, reviewing "Angels and Demons" and describing characters in Dan Brown's books: "information kiosks masquerading as characters."

Peter Funt opines about what big name commencement speakers are telling graduates. A sample: Vice President Joe Biden: "You all have the potential for greatness. But let's be honest, you might fail. In fact, you might fail miserably. I'm not saying you will fail, I'm just saying
that you will all be tested, and many of you will fail that test. But don't give up, and, whatever you do, try to avoid airplanes and subways."

And from Time magazine (these may be less fun):
On an article about tension in Pakistan, with much of the problem being that the majority of people support moderate Islam, yet the radical Taliban stirs up trouble: "Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University, pulls up on his laptop the pages of a first-grade primer distributed in private religious schools. 'A is for Allah,' he reads. 'B is for bandook, or gun.' T, for thakrau, collision, is illustrated with a drawing of the World Trade Center in flames, while Z, for zenoub, the plural of sin, is depicted with alcohol bottles, kites, guitars, drums, a television and a chess set."

On autism: "In the late 1960s and early '70s, autism was considered a rarity in the U.S., so uncommon that many pediatricians believed they had never seen a case."

(Also interesting in this article is the story of the many different living facilities the parents took their autistic son to. He's now 42 years old and still needs help, but they're too old to take care of him. They finally found this place, which sounds like an innovative option and a hopeful sign for the growing community of people with mental illnesses who need care: "Noah lives in a two-bedroom house with a roommate, a 'normal' person, whose rent is partly subsidized in exchange for the attention she must pay to Noah when she is home. A rotating series of caregivers take Noah to the park or for walks or to fast-food restaurants during the day.")

The Time 100 *If not chosen as an honoree, please write shamelessly about yourself in the paragraph about the honoree

I read the Time 100 issue this year especially fast, because I realized how this issue of the usually wonderful periodical has become much like the Who's Who recognition for teachers and students: a moneymaker for the host company only somewhat attached to the accomplishments of the honorees within.

This year, however, I noticed another feature of the Time 100 issue: the tendency of the people writing the blurbs about the honorees to be extremely self-serving in their comments.

Every recognition followed this basic form:
"When I was feeding hungry children in _______ (choose one: Africa, Romania, India, etc.), or saving the world through my technological/economical/business (circle one) accomplishments with ______ (any past device or theory can be filled in here, as long as it is still obsolete and the person writing the blurb has been sequestered to writing blurbs about people more successful than them), ________ (honoree's name) said hi to me once. So, I am qualified to write this piece, and I have to say that the world is a better place not only because of all the work people like me have done in the past, but also because ________ (honoree's name) has done some nice stuff this year. (And since this is a popularity contest, the editors list some accomplishments of the honorees here, usually including a "breakout performance on ______" or some Twitter feed, since Twitter is the barometer of millions of sane people making informed choices on who their role models should be.)"

They weren't really written like that, but after reading quite a few of them, I was surprised by how many times I was trying to read about the featured person and instead found myself looking for the author's name, so I would know who this ignanimous "I" was that kept protruding into the tribute about the real honoree.

Some snippets are quoted below.

One of my favorites: Ted Turner on T. Boone Pickens: "Boone and I have a lot in common. We've both made a lot of money, and we've also given a lot of it away."

On Lauren Zalaznick, by Martha Stewart: "Here was a businesswoman with a keen sense of how to build a brand, a woman with a sharp sense of humor, who's as tall as I am and as strong as I am and very, very cool." (Then she talks more about herself, which was moderately interesting, but I feel bad for this Lauren lady, because (no joke) only 50 percent of the column was talking about her.)

And from Ted Sorensen, a guy I don't recall, on Obama's speechwriter Jon Favreau: "True, Favreau is only 27. But when I entered the White House at 32, I was thankful that I had the energy and idealism necessary to withstand the repeated crises, criticisms and lengthy late-night hours of emergency meetings." What?

And finally: Bono's piece on George Clooney: "Well, it starts with his strategic sensibility, and his almost peculiar ability to sublimate his ego to win a point — something completely out of character and perhaps against the law for a performer. (I should know...)." No joke; he wrote that.

My point is that if you're so good at whatever, you shouldn't have to tell us. And if you're upset at not getting chosen, you have two options: (A) bribe the Time editors or (B) work harder and make the list next year; it's just a popularity contest.

Another good one was Arthur Sulzberger Jr. as he so obviously fought for the life of the New York Times by puffing up Carlos Slim, who just bought into the Times and needs to keep his cash involved or the Gray Lady will go under.

Regardless, the graphics and presentation in this year's issue were fantastic.

And there were two blurbs I thought were written well: Tina Fey's (by Alec Baldwin) and Tom Hanks' (by Meg Ryan). Although I oppose the posterization of these people in such a dog race, I did enjoy reading about them.

(And please tell me Tina Fey is on the list because of "30 Rock" and other accomplishments, not just because she made faces and dressed up like that lady that lives a couple states over.)

More Time 100 junk pieces

I witnessed it. LeBron, I believe.

You had to be watching the last two minutes of the Cavs-Magic game to know how psychotic LeBron James' game-winning three at the buzzer was. No description over the phone, no cutline under a photo, no SportsCenter recap can explain what just happened there.

Game-winning shot at the buzzer? That doesn't begin to describe it. Go find a basketball statistician/mathematics professor and have them explain to you how hard it is to get a shot off with 1.0 seconds left. You catch it and heave. Occasionally jokers make those heaves, and are never heard of again in sports. It's one moment of glory for Rudy, but not a regular occurrence for the big guys — not with one second, not with that kind of defense hanging all over the court.

It was over. It was finished. The dark forces of Magic had triumphed. And LeBron, who had faltered only minutes before in the worst of ways, caught for traveling, rose. He rose and drilled a three, his only three of the night, with just the right catch, just the right shot, in just the right amount of time.

It was other-wordly. I have never seen another shot in a basketball game like that in my life...ever. It shook in me, bringing back emotions I haven't had since the fourth grade.

This is why we watch basketball. This is why we've played so many times, ourselves. This is why we tune into the end of the playoff games. This is why, with all the marketing and coaches and players and overgrown everythings, it's still worth watching.

Skip across the court, LeBron, and jump into somebody's arms. Go for it.

I witnessed it. LeBron, I believe.

Home Run Derby

There was another home run derby at Yankee Stadium tonight, but it didn't go the Yankees' way this time. New York dropped its opening contest to the defending champs, falling to Philly 7-3.

New York management: Next time they ask you which Blue Jays pitcher you want, the answer is Roy Halladay, not A.J. Burnett.

More New York Yankees posts

Liberty censors again

Liberty University just shut down its latest form of free speech, closing the college Democrat club. As a school that says it is training Christians to be successful in all areas of life, the place is pretty restrictive on what it tries to keep students from talking about.

Students are going to vote for Barack Obama, and they're going to have different ideas than the administration; they're people, not robots. Funny how a school that adheres to a religion celebrating the dichotomy of a sovereign God and man's free will feels the need to suppress anything that's not totally in line with its moral checklists.

Liberty wants to be the premier Christian university, but there are plenty of universities out there that allow, and even thrive with, views other than their preferred ones springing up on campus. The faith is better defended when challenged, and God is bigger than man-made laws and restrictions.

Liberty has the chance to become THE PLACE for young Christians, and their education, and the future of the religious right, for that matter. But censorship like this (and the stuff that's been going on in leadership down there, not to mention the heavy censorship of the joke of a newspaper) will only keep the school from taking off. Instead, you're going to get a student body that either goes with the flow and never challenges man's renditions of God's Word, or you'll get a wildly rebellious campus. Funny, but Liberty's basically made up of those two groups right now.

Side question: How many Liberty students live in "secular" cities such as Boston and New York and survive/thrive with the Liberty perspective? Has anyone done it? Is this lifestyle of censorship and single-mindedness feasible in the real world? Liberty's leadership has seen great things done for God on its campus, but it's always been under the wing of religious organization. How good is this system in reaching the rest of the world for Christ?

That's enough from you, Cheney

Anyone else tired of hearing Dick Cheney constantly criticize the Obama administration and act like the country is seconds away from disaster? I'll leave aside who is right and who is wrong on this one and instead say, Cool it, Cheney. There are many reasons you shouldn't be blabbing, but the one that really irks me is that your time in the sun is over. Let the Repubicans deal with Obama, and at least give them some time before you act like you can know whether their policies are right or not (it's been four months).

Bush is the wise one here.

That makes 9

The Yankees won their ninth game today, topping the Baltimore Orioles 7-4. Joba Chamberlain got pegged in the leg with a line drive, but with Chien Ming Wang coming back soon, the Yankees should be able to patch things together without him. (Or maybe put him in the number one reliever spot, where he belongs.)

Previous posts:
Full seats, sharp pitching, eight in a row
The Bombers are Back
Tex: batter, gold glover, Sesame Street character
Go! Go, Johnny, go go go!
A-Rod? In the clutch? No way.
Another W for NY
Pen Problems
Our kind of Brett
Sweet curses
An A-Bomb! For A-Rod!
What's that nasty smell from the Bronx?

Full seats, sharp pitching, eight in a row

The Yankees polished off the Orioles 11-4, their eighth win in a row. The Bombers got a three hit, three RBI performance from Robinson Cano, run-scoring doubles from Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira, and three home runs in a row from Nick Swisher, Cano and Melky Cabrera.

But they also got a great performance from Phil Hughes, who hurled a season-high nine strikeouts over his five innings.

It just keeps getting better.

Previous posts:
The Bombers are Back
Tex: batter, gold glover, Sesame Street character
Go! Go, Johnny, go go go!
A-Rod? In the clutch? No way.
Another W for NY
Pen Problems
Our kind of Brett
Sweet curses
An A-Bomb! For A-Rod!
What's that nasty smell from the Bronx?

The Bombers are Back

It's only the third inning, but the Yankees are drubbing the Orioles 4-0, and I can't help but write. Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera just knocked balls over the fence, one batter after the other, and I'm feeling more optimistic about the Yanks than I have in years.

I was reticent about New York after the pricey off-season signings, but the team seems to have a fire now that was missing in former years, and that's exactly what they need to get all the bats and arms working together in a way that will bring wins.

No longer are guys just hitting for average, or pitchers gunning for Ks; the whole team effort is producing victories. Some have been close lately, but in the crazy line that falls between what it takes to make a collection of numbers into a winning effort has been crossed by a Yankee team full of emotion and teamwork. Was A-Rod the juice that caused the changed? Is Tex getting used to his new digs? Is CC in that part of the season where he's CC-good, not CC-stinks?

Who knows, but I'm thinking the Bronx Bombers can keep this up. (Hello, #27!)

Times Reader, I approve

The new Times Reader looks pretty cool, and like a pretty good way to put stuff on a computer screen and still have nice design elements and readability. Still, the amount of information I'm willing to read on a computer screen is still limited. I read a New York Times column a couple minutes ago and stopped after the second paragraph when I realized the thing was about four screens long. And Slate only keeps my attention because its articles are two pages or less, and even then, I sometimes cut out early.

Put me in a chair with an in-depth Newsweek report, though, and I'm reading and underlining away.

Tex: batter, gold glover, Sesame Street character

Am I bad person if I think Mark Teixeira doesn't look that cool? There are plenty of athletes who just don't look good (Sheldon Williams and Lance Thomas are two who quickly come to mind), but whenever Teixera steps up to bat and does his cross-eyed staredown of the opposing pitcher, I have to roll my eyes. The guy is not intimidating; he's a little pudgy; and with that nose and those fleshy cheeks, I'm hearing a stage call for Sesame Street.

Looks aside, though, Teixeira is finally starting to earn his contract. After treading water between the highway (hitting in the .100 to .199 range for non-baseball buffs) and the Mendoza line (around the .250 mark), Teixera has gone on a (small) tear during the recent homestand. He smashed deep, deep home runs from both sides of the plate tonight and lifted his average to .239. And he showed the hidden reason why the Yanks picked up his bat: his superb first-base defense. He had three amazing plays tonight at the corner bag, which is something New York has lacked sorely in the past few years. It's these little things that are going to keep the team in contention.

Tex is just one of several things starting to go right for the Yankees right now. The bullpen, despite letting a couple runs through, held on for the 7-6 win over the Minnesota Twins, even without the arm of closer Mariano Rivera. Andy Pettitte pulled out a win, his performance showing how the typical Yankee starter of 2009 plays: a few unfortunate runs augmented by gutsy pitching into the seventh that leaves enough room for the bats to win the game. Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera all knocked through a couple hits, and tonight the Yankees showed how they could go on a roll and get the new stadium very loud.

Believe it or not, the Yankees' rise to 21-17 puts them only a game behind the Boston Red Sox, and although the Toronto Blue Jays still lead the division at 27-14, they've had little play against their American League East counterparts. The Yankees and BoSox have played 19 games in the division, the Tampa Bay Rays 22 and the Baltimore Orioles 19. The Jays have tallied six.

It's shaping up to be a good part of the season.

Go! Go, Johnny, go go go!

Johnny Damon's walkoff home run to lead the Yankees past the Twins 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th today was the Yankees' third walkoff win in a row (the most since 1972) and their fifth win in a row. Whether the tear will continue or not, I won't predict, but at least there's excitement at Yankee Stadium. You could hear the crowd today, and even Damon's playing like he doesn't want his curse on the team to be true. He leads the team in batting average (.324), RBIs (26) and home runs (10).

A-Rod? In the clutch? No way.

Yes, it was Alex Rodriguez who smashed the game-winning two-run homer in the bottom of the eleventh to give the Yankees the 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins Saturday afternoon.

Let's hope this is the beginning of the new-and-improved A-Rod showing up in the clutch.

By the way, this is the fourth in the row for the Yankees.

Another W for NY

The Yankees came back late again, topping the Twins 5-4. This is the kind of team they need to be if they're going to make any sort of run. Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner have fueled each other, "competing" for the same spot (they'll be on the field together if they continue to play well). Starting pitcher Phil Hughes didn't start, but he had an average outing, enough to let the bats win the game.

If manager Joe Girardi can continue to tap into the style of play the Yankees have right now (including some feistiness from Johnny Damon, who got tossed after getting fired up over some strikes-and-balls at home plate), New York can start nabbing two of three and even go on a run.

Older is better

As newspapers (the old way of spreading news) fall to the Internet (the new way), I found this Slate article about train travel very interesting. It's a classic case of the old way being more efficient and enjoyable, even though most people would think trains are better left in the past.

Note the 220-m.p.h. speed of a train in China, and how much faster mail could get around the U.S. on a rail system than by plane. Those are just two interesting observations I found in this article.

If trains were brought back in their most luxurious, efficient form, it could take a lot of congestion off the highways and avoid a lot of the fear when traveling by air.

But the same questions face trains as those that face newspapers: is the system to stuck in one way to be upgraded to a modern model? Now that it has been trimmed back to its 1881 form (see the article), can rail travel ever be great again?

More fun from Slate

Read Barack Obama's latest Facebook feed.

Unpleasant Distraction

Forget the ins and outs of the torture debate; the real problem here is no longer what has been done in the past but what will be done in the future. People are agreeing the torture should stop, and they're taking care of measures to ensure it, but an increasing number of government leaders are just pointing fingers and arguing instead of paying attention to steering the country right now.

This Slate piece on the situation makes me wonder if the fearless leaders in Congress (and, my, Ms. Pelosi, are you looking old!) are too busy arguing about the sea buoy they avoided to turn the ocean liner of the U.S. away from that massive cliff in front of them (Read: massive economic issues, crumbling education system, huge deficit, two wars (and more to come!), pandemics, etc.).

Pen Problems

It's no secret that the New York Yankees' bullpen is much of the reason the team is sitting at .500 at this point in the season (with the starters haveing some off nights but generally above-average performances). But the real surprise is that bullpen problems have proved infectious, affecting many staffs across Major League Baseball.

The time to start looking to Triple-A is fast approaching for all teams, but the Yankees I suggest another tweak: instead of continuing to mess up parts of your team that are already good, try to fix something that's actually bad. Put Joba Chamberlain back in the pen to take care of seventh and eighth inning needs. Then all you'll need is decent performances from your starters, a little batting to back them up, Mo to close and some cobbling by the half-dozen guys that should be able to get three to five outs every night. That's not asking too much, right?

Confessions of an AP fan

So, I'm an AP fan, both the Associated Press and Amy Poehler. (I promise that no one else in the world will write that sentence.)

Saturday Night Live hooked me (both the regular show and the 1:30 a.m. reruns on E! ...the stuff from three to five years ago is strangely classic), but this year Poehler has been all Parks and Recreation, as in her new show on NBC.

I had high expectations for the sitcom, especially because even the dullest of characters were never that bad with Poehler. And Park and Recreation's pilot did not let me down. It was funny in both a raw and endearing way, and I was thrilled that it wasn't a dud.

The next four weeks, however, were alarmingly terrible. The show's creators, who also spun the Office into what it is today, have made much of the new show like the Office, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. When it is bad is when a scene is so awkward and not funny that you want to leave the room. Even worse, I never even wanted to watch the reruns online. Gasp.

But this week renewed my faith in the new show. Poehler was vintage Poehler, while still being Knope (Leslie Knope is the character she plays). Having her wander into a date with an 81-year-old man was excellent and none-too-forced, and her reaction showed her not only as an overoptimistic, delusional, uncool woman to be pitied but also a very layered human.

She was looking off camera for her eye contact punchlines, but they weren't dazed, discontented moments of misplaced joy; rather, they were the sardonic eyes that, with a mouth curled in a variety of tone-setting cues, pulled in audiences for years on SNL.

Basically, this Knope was cooler than that other Knope that's been showing up in Pawnee for the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong, she's not cool by any means, but at least she's not so uncool you cringe when you watch her.

Better yet, she seemed like a real person who wasn't always going to be at the mercy of the world. Instead of being surrounded by insults, an unloving mother and compatriots who turned out to be dirtbags, Knope had the upper hand tonight. She was stuck on a date with an 81-year-old man, but it was in her hands, and even though she was stuck with him, it was because she was a decent person, not because she was helpless. She went to the show and talked to the band and didn't seem crazy. She got the guy, then chose on her own not to get him, rather than being the gimpy dog trailing the boy with a slice of bacon.

And the extra mascara helped.

I have wondered this season where the character drama would come in. This episode seemed to latch onto the good parts of the characters and play them up rather than making, well, caricatures, of some poor points in writing. Tom Haverford was not so annoying and actually believable. Ann and Andy's characters fell into the roles that were written for them, starting to fully flesh out. Ron Swanson makes an excellent jerk. And Mark, the "seventh wheel," took a steady stride toward being Jim Halpert tonight — not that he should be Jim, but the show needed some of that drama Jim always created. Mark brought it, and Leslie picked up the pieces pretty well. (Who didn't feel the drama when Mark went to talk to Ann and you thought it was going to be Jim-and-Karen-when-it-should-have-been-Jim-and-Pam all over again?)

The finale was excellent, for at least showing that Parks and Recreation has room to grow. Remember, the Office was pretty bad its first season, with moments of brilliance, and I think Parks and Rec can take off as it finds its good points and builds on them.

Now that Poehler is not so bad in her new sitcom, it's easier not to wish she was still on SNL (which, by the way, is having some issues this year, despite fine shows from Alec Baldwin and Justin Timberlake).

Another nice thing to come out of the sitcom is the rash of media coverage Poehler is getting — and not just the funny interviews where you can tell she's not going to tell the E! reporter anything serious, but some nice, in-depth stuff, too, about her craft.

I've culled these from the Internet for future enjoyment:
Charlie Rose interview
Today Show
NPR Fresh Air interview
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (Clip 1) (Clip 2) (Skit)
Time 10 Questions
Parks and Recreation episodes
Good clips

And, as a final note, don't worry, 30 Rock. I haven't forgotten you. You are still the best show, and the most well-written.

In your face, dumbhead

So, Chad Johnson decided to be a narcissistic adolescent and change his official name to Chad Ocho Cinco (can I hear "marketing ploy"?! Or perhaps "attempt to brand an identity"?!). But yeah, he spelled it wrong on his form, so now it's coming out as Chad Ochocinco until further notice. Serves you right, Einstein.

Our kind of Brett

As Brett Favre continues to shop himself around the NFL, looking for teams that want to win with gray whiskers, young Brett Gardner gave the New York Yankees the spark they've been needing this season.

The Yankees rolled over the Blue Jays 8-2 tonight, which is good news for a franchise that's heavy on the veteran end. The young blood will hopefully not only power the team for this season but for years to come.

Pope a member of Hitler Youth

I'm withholding most of my commentary and judgment, but I do find this suspicious: After going back and forth, it's been confirmed that the Pope was once a member of the Hitler Youth.

He said it was compulsory. But a man who just got deported to Germany was also involved in some sort of compulsory Nazi service, as far as I remember.

I would not draw attention to this, except for the Pope's recent insensitivity to Jews and other victims of Nazi atrocities, when the Pope sided with a Catholic leader who had been excommunicated for saying the Holocaust never happened.

Whether it's the Catholic church or a Protestant denomination, does no one abide by the New Testament rule anymore that says leaders should be chosen for their service and blamelessness rather than...whatever? It's alarming the number of church leaders who have conflicts of interest like this.

Whether or not the Pope was an active member of the Hitler Youth or not, or whether he did anything wrong, there's something to be said for blamelessness. And please tell us these things, such as one-time participating in a group associated with brainwashing that led to the attempted extermination of an entire race, when whoever decides you're going to be Pope is deciding. (I'm aware of the process; that was a deliberate poke at the church.)

Obama supports the press

Read Obama's speech to journalists at the White House Correspondents Dinner here.

Online reading

Dan Kennedy's MediaNation blog had some interesting numbers about the Nielsen ratings for online reading. Please note that people trust Yahoo and CNN more for their news than newspaper sites. Fantastic.

Courtside seats: $$$; Getting bumped by a Celtic: apparently not priceless enough

The father of a boy who got bumped by the Boston Celtic's Glen "Big Baby" Davis as he was celebrating the game-winning shot last night wants an apology or money or a cookie or something. He thinks that his kid getting touched during the exuberance was some sort of misdemeanor.

Knowing how much he probably paid to get his kid and him a seat at a playoff game against last year's champions, I'm going to go out on a limb and call him a douche bag.

Dry those tears, Big Baby

Possibly the only thing better than watching ultra-large Glen "Big Baby" Davis sink the crazy winning shot in the Celtics' 95-94 victory over the Orlando Magic tonight is watching the video from a couple months ago of Davis crying after Kevin Garnett chewed him out.

Wise move, KG. You turned this lump of flesh into a pinpoint marksman. On a team with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, Davis should have never gotten the ball. Yet he did, and he sunk a J from out near the three-point line. And the Celtics, needing all the help they can get with Garnett sidelined, watched it go through to even up the series.

Boston's deeper than we thought.

Sweet curses

I still believe in the Johnny Damon curse (the one where he brought an 85-year title drought with him from Boston), but I also can smile upon Damon this season, as he is the only Yankee playing decent baseball consistently.

Damon thumped a three-run shot over the right-field porch today to give New York a 5-3 win. He's leading the team in home runs (9) and has the third-highest batting average (.314).

Damon's the good end of the Yankees' yo-yo performance so far. They're due to go on a run, and maybe this will spark it.

Game recap

Good news for news

I seem to be posting a lot about the newspaper industry, but I've found something I think is very encouraging for those who love journalism and want to keep viable news sources alive. Note that I'm saying "news sources," not newspapers. (I was sitting by the Charles River near Harvard yesterday and had my broadsheet blown into a tissue paper-like ball of messy ink, and thus my distaste for the massive, hard-to-read medium grows, although I love the source.)

One of the hardest things for me to swallow as newspapers fall is not only that these great institutions are failing but that the presentation of news on the Web is mediocre. It's harder to read, comes at you more frequently and is often shorter. That's just the way it is with the Internet; no one is going to read a 5,000-word Vanity Fair profile online just for sport.

So, I laud any journalistic enterprises that can find a way to take the presentation of information as we know it right now, in newspapers and magazines, and get it — in full design glory — onto the Web.

Several magazines are putting their actual layouts online, and they flip like a real magazine. I think this is awesome. You get the full presentation, complete with great layouts and colors, and don't have to read it as a standard Web piece. The superior design also helps you sit through the longer articles, even though it's still a pain to read a lot from a screen.

The other alternative is the waves the Detroit Free Press is making with its online newspaper, an e-edition now available, since the paper version isn't printed a couple days a week anymore. People said this signaled the path toward death for the newspaper, but readership has actually increased, and the online version has attracted more people, according to Poynter. Even better, the Detroit people are uploading whole broadsheets for viewing fun, which means, once again, that the design is preserved.

(With newspapers, the layout is especially important, because this is where these great news organizations show their editorial prowess. A front page story is still a front page story, and where they place the articles as you go through an edition shows you how they rank news value. This role — of the news source setting the tone and importance of news as well as giving "just the facts" (we hope) — is one that the Internet is taking away. While the democratization is good on some levels (meaning people get to pick their own news), a lot of us still want to know what the New York Times thinks is the most important story of the day.)

I'm encouraged by these online versions, meaning that although we may have to ditch newsprint, we can still keep the art form alive. I've even heard rumblings that we may be going back to multi-edition days, like in the early 20th century, as e-editions are easier to produce and news changes throughout the day.

But hardly any newspapers or magazines are doing this. The Kindle2 was released this week, and everyone went crazy about how it was going to be great for newspapers — but all it the new Kindle does is give people a larger screen to read the same stuff. Some new forms to disseminate news are under way at the New York Times and the Boston Globe, but newspapers have yet to take control of a device like the Kindle and make it an essential for getting their news.

My suggestion? Use the Kindle, or another device, but make news packages that are way superior to what you can get on the regular Internet, whether it is from your organizations' Web site or the blogging cess pools. Hand out some of these free devices, or get people to buy them (whatever), but make the news packages only available on these devices. Make them so cutting edge that they'll be a go-to place for all your business, a step up from a newspaper you can pack in your bag and the Blackberry you tuck in your pocket. (This is a brief sketch. I have the entire plan under lock and key.)

It sounds expensive, but news organizations need to start the move toward being multi-serving news sources, or it's all going to be over soon.

Frickin' crazy T drivers!

So, apparently last night one of Boston's lovely T drivers was texting and rammed a car into the back of another train. 49 people were injured. 49 people! How fast do you have to be going to injure 49 people?

Here's a quote from the Globe story: "Officials described a chaotic scene, with metal strewn about, passengers in disarray, and some people who had to be removed from under twisted metal using saws and excavation equipment."

What?!?!?!

And bad PR for Boston and the MBTA: "Several of the passengers were on their way to the Red Sox game. Children in blue baseball jerseys were seen on stretchers, one with a bandage around his head."

[See some crazy photos here, and a graphic. Kudos to the Boston Globe.]

I've always questioned the sobriety of some of the T drivers (how you can swerve from side to side when moving along a set of tracks is beyond me) and the spastic feet of others (speed up a tiny bit, then slow way down, then speeeeed up, then slow down. Stop. Speed up. Slow down, okay now we're moving again).

This guy, of course, was texting, which is just stupid.

I wish I could say I wasn't taking the green line anymore, but hey, these accidents can only happen once in a while, right?

This is what the Globe story has to say about the green line, which is news to me. (I always thought the orange line was easily the oldest and most archaic, not to mention unsafe. But apparently it's the green line, which I ride frequently.)

"The MBTA's Green Line is a 19th-century antique and the oldest line in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which is the country's oldest subway system. It has been under scrutiny for years because of numerous crashes and derailments. Green Line trains are operated manually, and travel closer together and with less input from dispatchers than the Blue, Red, and Orange lines."

And don't let me see any articles about these problems happening because the MBTA is short-staffed. You don't need extra people to be able to start and stop a train; you just need enough common sense to confiscate their cell phones (and in some cases, books they're reading (I've seen it), although it's rare) before they get in the driver's seat.

[Just as I write this, I see that the MBTA head has indeed banned T drivers from bringing cell phones with them.]

An A-Bomb! For A-Rod!

I'd like to think it was my words spurring the Yankees to action today, but perhaps it was just some good, old-fashioned baseball juice from the game's biggest performance enhancer, Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod's smooth swing sent the first pitch he faced into the left field seats (that's not the gimme section of the new park, folks) to drive in three runs, get him some slaps on the butt and land the Yankees with a 4-0 victory.

And this man is infectious, at least enough to have CC Sabathia pitch his best game of the year and to keep the bullpen from blowing the win. The rest of the team was still sputtering, but one run wins a game, and A-Rod is always a contender to get that one run with one swing. The win broke a five-game losing streak for New York.

By the way, I read part of Selena Robert's book on Rodriguez tonight. I find it intriguing but will not give my full synopsis on the situation until I've read the text. But I'm a supporter of paying attention to what's happening today; I wasn't pining for A-Rod to come back, and if he goes lame tomorrow, I won't cry (you have to win with what you have). And as much as I wish the Yankees could play without him, apparently he was the boost they needed for tonight. So let's ride him for a while and not think about other things.

A final word about the Manny situation: I say kudos to Manny for 'fessing up and taking the sentence like a man. Whether he did it knowingly or not, whether he's trying to get back quicker for the season or not, whether he's smart or not, whatever. I like to see a guy admit it, take the pay cut, sit it out and come back for another day.

What's that nasty smell from the Bronx?

The Yankees flat-out stink right now. That's all I can say to describe the preposterous situation they're in. At 13-15 and going into Baltimore for a three-day stint, they face the possibility of becoming the American League East cellar occupants, and trailing the Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. And while you can say a lot of nice things about the AL East being tough this year, the Yankees have earned every one of their losses.

At first, I thought it was just the bullpen, which consistently gave up multi-run leads at the beginning of the season. Then the starting pitching faltered. The $15 million batters (there's several...and a few in the $20 million range) are barely batting over the Mendoza line. Tonight Mariano Rivera blew another save and let two guys go deep off of him for the first time in forever.

The Yankees' best hitter right now is Johnny Damon, the very man who brought the curse with him from Boston. Derek Jeter's artificial hip isn't helping him grab grounders at short, and Mark Teixera's famed first base play has been less than flawless. Chubs Molina continues to blow it behind the plate, but that's better than having Grandpa Posada and his gimpy legs and arms anchor the backstop.

Who else? All of them. They all stink right now.

The Yankees are good at one thing right now: taking something good and changing it, for no reason. A couple examples: Joba Chamberlain was the best reliever the Yankees have had for decades, so instead of relying on his heat to anchor the seventh and eighth innings, they brought him into a starting pitching spot, where he's been decent but not great. Meanwhile, Yankees' relievers regularly give up four earned runs a night and walk the bases full every other game.

My other example: you had the world's best stadium, with DiMaggio's ghost in the basement, and you tore it down to build a palace across the street. Fine. But in the process, you happened to create a wind tunnel that helps the other team win (you can't even get your own hitters to pull for right field) and also spread the stinking grandstands out so far that it's no longer loud within the stadium. That's fine, too, because with all the white-collar bums that are "packing" the stadium now in the Berkaloungers down near home plate, the only cheering you'll get is, as John Lennon would say, rich people rattling their jewelry.

Argh.

there's an app for that

Check out Slate's take on the iPhone commercial you'll never see.

Manny being ... banned

Manny Ramirez has been banned from baseball for 50 games for violating league anti-doping rules. His side of the story is that he took medication without checking what it was, and he adds that he's been tested 15 times over five years and hasn't flunked once.

My side is that I was never very interested in the finger-pointing, back-and-forth and complete silence of the steroid situation, so I'm just going to point at the irony.

Ramirez came pretty closing to coming down to the wire with his salary negotiations this year, and in the end, he notched a nice $25 million contract. Now, he has to give back a little over $7 million of that and not play for 50 games.

The poor Los Angeles Dodgers, who not only gave him that contract (knowing that he's no Cal Ripken) but also renamed part of their seats after him ("Mannywood"...and yes, he's been there less than a full season), have seen ticket sales jump with Ramirez in town. Only time will tell, of course, how much a part of the increase in profits for the team he has been, but the more worrisome point for the Dodgers is what they have to deal with right away: keep winning.

Los Angeles just broke the modern record for games won in a row at home, pulling out their 13th in a 10-3 drubbing of the Washington Nationals.

Unlucky number, unlucky player...if the Dodgers make it through this hiccup and are still alive in July when Ramirez comes back, pick them to go all the way.

The Phoenix foreshadows the Globe's inner woes

While the situation between the Boston Globe and its remaining union, Boston's Newspaper Guild, continues to drag on and be increasingly frustrating, I have pulled a column run by the Boston Phoenix on April 30, the day before the feverish murmurings began (both by the Globe and the parasitic Boston Herald).

This column provides insight that few in the business were having on the fateful day but that, after the climatic weekend, more people are beginning to realize. The column foretold union leadership problems and also had a juicy paragraph about how the Guild handed out surveys to its members to get suggestions about how the members would suggest cutting costs — but the Guild went ahead with its own cost-cutting measures before the surveys could even be tabulated.

The most interesting part of the column, however, was its details on the "Save the Globe" rally. On the surface, such a rally seems like a great idea, but examples of how the Globe and its employees went about calling to save the newspaper are suspect and ultimately saddening for journalists, for they show that many within the industry are clueless about what is really at stake, and thus they will probably miss the boat and kill what's left of journalism.

At the rally, there were insinuations that the Globe's suffering was a First Amendment issue, which is dead wrong; the Globe is going out of business because the common man has stopped paying advertising dollars, not because the government has done anything. Another employee talked about not liking the Internet; one testimonial was about how a guy didn't think he could find another job.

Basically, the presentation given by the Globe showed it was out of touch with the real issue at hand — preserving real journalism and finding a way to make it viable for generations. Journalism needs to survive on the Internet and with new business models, and that's what Globe supporters are not realizing through all this. They are fretting over details to try to save the paper today, but they're still clueless as to how to keep the paper running for years to come. Hint: it's not by employing a lot of people to make a great product people are loath to buy. And it's not about mislabeling the problem or playing the victim, whether the oppressor is the Web, the job market or the New York Times.

One last note: It's easy to hate the New York Times for giving this ultimatum, but kudos to the Times for thinking ahead. They know serious changes need to be made, and they're making bold moves, even if it's not easy. Let's hope they cut some of their own fat in the next round of progress, but until then, all journalists are in this together. Save the ship for the future, not just for today.

Boston Globe coverage
Boston Herald coverage

Shoot the dinosaurs. Take the canoli.

It's no longer the gray lady disowning her golden child. It's the kid insisting that he be allowed to build a taller sandcastle, with no clue that the tides are due in any time now.

From what it looks like, the Globe has avoided being shut down again. The leadership of the papers got a nice list of concessions from its unions, with the paper currently talking over details with the final union, a 700-member stick-in-the-mud organization that continues to squabble with the paper's leadership. These union members are loath to give up perks such as lifetime guarantees or health care reductions, assuming, of course, that the paper they work for will be able to survive in the coming years without a drastic change in business style.

After the other unions working with the Globe gave up millions in concessions over the past few days, you'd hope this last group could scrounge up enough to give to the Globe, so the paper can please the New York Times. But right now it looks like the union (and mostly the managers, in fact) are fighting for a few marbles as a tidal wave approaches from offshore.

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr wrote a rather nasty column about the future of the Globe, but while his remarks could have been nicer as the deadline loomed over the weekend, a lot of what he said was right. The news business is changing, and this is just the first step. The Globe is going to have to do some serious thinking about its focus and business practices if it wants to stay alive in the future.

This is not the New York Times' fault; it is merely offering to shoot the horse before it suffers too much.

Still, the Globe has a lot to offer and a lot of resources, which is why anger should be turned to the unions. Workers' rights are one thing; not having a place to work is another. And, for goodness' sake, the union leaders that are still making tons of money while their workers offer to get paid even less (they already have wage freezes) need to stop. They represent everything that is wrong with the Globe, whereas the people willing to sacrifice pay, benefits and cushy bonuses for the good of journalism represent all that is right (and sustainable).

It's a new age. Shoot the dinosaurs. Take the canoli.

Boston Herald news coverage
Boston Globe news coverage

As the Globe turns

Some interesting articles about the Globe's (and many newspapers') situation:

A. David Warsh writes about the Globe's shift in focus after being bought by the New York Times.

I see this as a representation of a deep problem in newspapers all across the nation: a detachment from the base. Instead of being family-owned, community-oriented newspapers, publications have tried to go after the evil twins of praise and money.

By pursuing high-profile pieces that make "good" papers in national eyes (and win prizes), newspapers have moved away from the communities that turned to them for down-to-earth, relevant news. On the other side, many papers have marketed to younger crowds to pull in more advertising dollars (which may have been lost in the first place with articles that didn't resonate with the community). The result? A paper that is always playing to the younger crowd instead of developing a following that will remain for a lifetime. Newspapers have cheapened their products and now have nothing to offer even to the sensible people who are trying to do the right thing and turn to a quality source.

I've got news for you, newspapers: little Johnny likes Dad's Beatles albums almost as much as the new Jonas Brothers track. And in 50 years, he'll still be playing the Beatles. Products built to last will attract all ages and be better in the long haul. But, why am I telling you that? You're still trying to make newsprint exciting for 11-year-olds with iPods.

B. Dan Kennedy's MediaNation has some great comments and links on the Globe situation.

Two parts I thought were particularly insightful were the comments about lifetime guarantees at the Globe and the New York Times' coverage of the situation.

Kennedy writes that the Times is "undercovering" the Globe situation, which I would have to agree with, seeing the next-to-nothing news coming from New York about one of its biggest assets (or leeches, in this case). Kennedy hints that this could be because of the Times' control of news coverage across the U.S., which is why the shutdown of one of America's biggest cities' largest newspaper has been covered less than the death of Denver's second largest paper a month ago.

My answer to that is: After years of hearing conservatives whine about the New York Times, is it possible that sheep from the Times' own "liberal" fold may also start bleeting, when news coverage turns against them in an unfavorable way? Liberal, not liberal, good news judgment or not, it is suspicious how little the Times is saying about the Globe's situation, and how little the nation is paying attention.

Second, the lifetime guarantees. First of all, lifetime guarantees are a preposterous way to enhance productivity. It's a well-known fact that there's an 80-something-year-old woman who still writes a couple obituaries a week for the Globe because she has a lifetime guarantee. That's no way to keep your business from going under. (See my blog post on shooting the dinosaur, taking the canoli to see what I think about people whining over benefits when their 137-year-old employer is about to croak.)

The real problem with these lifetime guarantees are that they are apparently very difficult to undo, which is part of why the Times is pushing to get the Globe to get them taken care of, or shut the paper. Kennedy suggests that bankruptcy court may be an easier way to get rid of these guarantees, since the paper isn't looking to take them away despite the dire times. I would have shrugged at Kennedy's assertion, until today, when I realized that the one union that has held up the process of keeping the Globe alive was still trying to keep those guarantees, even as the paper was hours from death (again, see dinosaur, canoli blog post). If I was the Globe, I'd go to bankruptcy court, cut off some fat, and then start again with people who really want to work for what they see is good and true. The rest of the grumblers should get a taste of how much worse life can be.

Globe issues ultimatum

The Globe has issued an ultimatum, telling the paper's unions that more concessions must be made or the Globe will be shut down.

Boston Herald reports
Boston Globe reports

100 days

U.S. President Barack Obama recently spent his 100th day in office, a mark primarily set aside to make sure journalists still know how to count. I've culled the Web for interesting articles and offer one serious link and two that I wish I had thought of. See if you can figure out which is which.
1. Slate's 100 days video
2. Slate's 100 days article
3. Pew's 100 days article