Author: jbenton

Remember my post a few days ago about Greg Packer, the guy who mysteriously shows up as the “man on the street” in seemingly every story based in New York?
As Jon pointed out in the comments, ol’ Greg is a known quantity — a fame whore, basically. The mainstream media’s on it, too. (Here’s AP’s version.)

That’s what I get for not checking in at laexaminer.com for a couple weeks: they’ve up and relaunched. What was once a smart media-centric site (run by West Coast bloglords Layne and Welch) has now become a low-rent SoCal Gawker. Maybe they’ll hit their stride, but I’m not seeing it yet (and I’m a Gawker fan). The tone’s off, and the design’s goofy.
Meanwhile, the old laexaminer.com role appears to have fallen to the new laobserved.com.
Also noted: “Los Angeles is the world’s first and only city to receive its own unique Internet address: .la.” How strange is that? Can Dallas now get .dl or .ds? Or .df for the Metroplex?
Of course the added bonus is that .la works perfectly well for Louisiana web sites. I immediately tried to register www.rayne.la (in homage to my hometown), but the site says it’s already been registered. Doubtful.

Here’s my story from today’s front page, on Texas’ new efforts to sell its standardized tests to folks out of state. I believe (cross your fingers) that this is my last standardized test story for a while. Praise be.
I had to work a 3 p.m.-to-midnight shift Saturday night, and I thought it would be a fine time to catch up on some blogging. Alas, I ended up spending the whole damned shift dodging mosquitoes and tracking escaped convicts. Here’s that story.

Last year, I posted about a great boozy-Muppet video by the Starlight Mints. Unfortunately, the version I linked to broke about halfway through the song.
So to make up for that year-old slight, I now present you, in full and unbroken Quicktime glory, the Starlight Mints’ “Popsicle.”
(Their new album is quite good, too.)

Here’s my story from today’s paper, a middling effort on the Hispanic dropout problem.

Words I never thought I’d say: Ann Coulter may be on to something. Who is Greg Packer, what does he know, and when did he know it?
Reminds me of the highest honor a journalist can receive, membership in the Occult Hand Society (see June 4 entry). (Don’t believe me?)

If anyone’s interested, here’s the press release on my Zambia trip.
Regular blogging to return soon, I pledge.

Don’t you even try to stop me from ordering what will someday no doubt be declared Book of the Last Several Millennia: Carol J. Adams’ epic The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. A real page-turner, I’m sure! I’m particularly heartened by the five-star review from one “Gwen”:
“I was so moved by this extraordinary text. Interrogating the assumptions of white male Women beaters/meat eaters, this important work examines how the white dominating and oppressive culture dictates that the eating of meat is ‘good’ and even ‘necessary’, subject Peoples of Color to dietary regimes alien to their own subjectivities. As the writer notes, there is considerable resistance among patriarchal-dominated discourses to vegetarianism. This resistance is a form of textual rape, to be combatted by a ‘taste of their own medicine’: ‘A vegetarian writer may express feelings about textual violation by referring to images of butchered animals and raising the issue of dismemberment.’ A wonderful book, highly recommended.”
Hey, meat lovers! Bet you didn’t know you were a textual rapist!

Hey, kids! No matter what Finding Nemo says, don’t flush your fish and expect them to reach the ocean.
A company that manufactures equipment used to process sewage issued a news release Thursday warning that drain pipes do lead to the ocean