Author: jbenton

Why you should short Netflix. That said, they’ve done fine by me. A DVD they sent me got lost in the mail. I filled out a simple form on their site, and presto chango my account is credited. No grilling about DVD thievery, no assumption of my guilt.
Roy Orbison’s little known Confederate-spy period. Roy Orbison: Not blind, not albino.
I love it when journalists are willing to print obviously false statements just to give a story a feeling of “balance.” Take this story, for instance, about how a small Catholic college in Pennsylvania confiscated copies of the student paper because it featured a student column promoting condom use. Here’s the school’s P.R. guy:
“Ken Service, vice president for institutional relations, said La Roche [College] was not trying to stifle student expression or interfere with the campus press.”
Come on! You can argue the relative wisdom of confiscating pro-condom (ooh!) literature. But you can’t with a straight face say it isn’t “interfer[ing] with the campus press” or “stifl[ing] student expression.” It’s obviously those things. If you want to defend those actions, go to it. But don’t tell obvious falsehoods.
Have you seen Kill Bill Vol. 2 yet? (If not, you should. Quite entertaining, particularly in a large crowd, as I saw it Friday in S.F.) If you’re wondering where Tarantino got the black mamba information Daryl Hannah quotes in Budd’s trailer, this is it. “Their volatility is their greatest danger, particularly when cornered or surprised. East Africa’s famed snake expert C.J.P. Ionides cites a reliable account from Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) of 11 people dying in a fracas between shepherds and a single black mamba. One mamba that Ionides captured had killed seven villagers at the same spot. She lived out her remaining years peaceably at the London Zoo.”
Finally, bravo to Julie Bykowicz, whoever she is, for her letter on Romenesko. She decries unpaid summer internships (in journalism, but by extension in all industries). Her point: Only rich kids can afford to work all summer and not get paid for it, so unpaid internships give unfair advantage to rich kids. As a poor kid who couldn’t afford the White House intern/Harper’s Magazine intern/whatever route, I can tell you she’s dead on. She cites this stat: “A survey at a summer intern lunch…in Washington in 1998 found that more than 60% of these mostly unpaid interns had parents earning more than $100,000 a year. Only about 20% of all families of college students earn that much.” So you’re taking only the richest of an already pretty well-off bunch.
Anyway, I’m back from San Francisco. A lovely week. After the conference, ended up roaming the streets until 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Went up to Napa, drove up to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, then got to see Barry Bonds hit his 666th career home run. (Or, as I prefer to call it, his Satan homer.) Anyway, many thanks to the San Franciscans who put up with me, most notably providers-of-sleeping-space Jessa and Lisa.
Now, back to work.

It appears I had a story in today’s paper, on how 3,300 third-graders got ever so slightly screwed on the TAKS test this year. (Well, depends how you define “screwed,” I suppose.) If anyone with access to the paper could tell me where it ran, I’d be much appreciative.

Greetings from San Francisco. It’s a little drizzly, and I haven’t had a chance to venture beyond tourist-choked Fisherman’s Wharf yet today, but it’s good to be here. Had a lovely dinner last night with Jessa, Kristin, Kevin, Jane, MJ, and the sadly blogless Suzan, who collectively make up my West Coast Krew (415 Chapter). Today I got to enjoy the wonders of Caltrain, sample my first In-N-Out burger, try a place called Bob’s Sushi (a tactical error, I regret to report), and generally wandered around. Oh, and spent too much time in a Starbucks, soaking up wifi to finish a story for work. The edumacation excitement starts tomorrow.

Two notable additions to the KEXP streaming live archives: American Music Club (April 1) and Sea Ray (March 22).
(If you’re unfamiliar with KEXP’s live streams, the “Interview.rm” and “Interview.wma” files are the complete performance.)
Listen to the Sea Ray for a strong version of “Sister Gone” and to be amused at how much DJ John in the Morning kisses the band’s ass. (Deservedly, of course.) Listen to the AMC to be further convinced that their new album might actually be strong. (One exception: “Patriot’s Heart,” the tale of a gay male stripper with a smile in his underwear [!], sounds like a lyrical disaster in the making. Might work with Mark Eitzel’s vocals more in tune. Might.)
But in the interview, Mark sounds happier than I’ve heard him for a while, which is good to hear. It’s nice to hear him sounding upbeat after singing “Another Morning,” a song about his longtime muse Kathleen Burns. (MP3 here.) Kathleen was Mark’s ex-lover and inspiration for several AMC/Eitzel songs. She killed herself a few years back. Photo here (bottom of the page). If you want to read something heartbreaking, try this interview with Mark during one of his low moments. The interviewers didn’t know Kathleen had just died and started asking questions about her. (Scan for Kathleen’s name.)
By the way, two old AMC songs are now available on their web site: If I Had A Hammer (1993, one of my college faves) and Why Won’t You Stay (1991).

West Coast Alert: I leave tomorrow afternoon for a week in lovely San Francisco. (I’ll be at the Education Writers Association’s National Seminar. I’m even giving a talk on Friday afternoon, if you’re deeply interested in comparing teacher preparedness evaluation methodologies. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.)
While the conference will keep me busy for most of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, if any crabwalk.com are interested in grabbing a beer, just drop me a line.
Running note: I have tentative plans to run this 5K race in San Francisco on Saturday morning. A fine cause, I’m sure. If you’re interested in running with, let me know.
Running note the second: I have more certain plans to run the Fort Worth Zoo 5k the following Saturday, April 24. Nothing like sweating amongst the monkeys. If you’re interested in running with, &c.
Finally, is it just me or is it rude to name a whole class of animal lesser? It’s just a self-image problem waiting to happen.

That’s a hell of a most recent entry.

Here’s my column from today’s paper, on the push to shrink class sizes — and how smaller classes don’t have the academic impact you might expect.

Jiri Jirout is a geek god.

Well, I have now officially run my first race: the 3.5-mile JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge.
Regular readers may remember that I started running for the first time in my life back in November, after getting back from Zambia. And while I’ve been regularly able to run 6-7 miles at a time, it’s all been indoors on a treadmill. There aren’t many races held indoor on a treadmill, though, and if I hope to meet my goal — a half-marathon less than three months away — I had to be able to run outdoors.
I actually finished without much of a problem, and with a slightly better time than I’d been hoping for, 32:26. That’s about a 9:15 pace, which is about a 2:01 half-marathon.
Then I remembered that there was a hold-up at the race’s start — I was kinda far back in the 5,000 runners and, as a result, didn’t even reach the starting line until about 30 seconds into the race. So I mentally reduced my time to 31:56.
Then I remembered that the first quarter-mile or so was still awfully crowded, forcing everyone around me to walk for certain portions. I figured that’s worth about another 56 seconds, so that drops me to 31:00 even.
Then I remembered that the temperature, while bearable, was slightly warmer than would be optimal. That certainly cost me another two minutes, dropping me to 29:00.
Then I remembered that the humidity was a touch high, and that there was one block where there was a strong, sudden breeze obstructing my natural path. While the breeze was only momentary, it messed with my head and, I believe, cost me about three minutes.
Then I remembered that all this trouble in Iraq has really been getting me down lately, and that the recent Fallujah uprising has prevented me from reaching my mental peak — my Zone, if you will — in preparation for this race. That’s six minutes right there.
Finally, I remembered that Elvis Presley had, in fact, a twin brother named Jesse who was stillborn, and that some have argued that Elvis’ musical abilities were inherited or transfered in some way from his dead twin. And I remembered that something similar must have happened to me, in reverse. I remembered that, while I was in fact not a twin, I was likely spiritually twinned to some other child on earth and that, in all likelihood, I had amazing, Olympic-caliber running ability that was mysteriously transfered to this spiritual twin upon our births, separated by some distance though they were. If I can ever find this spiritual twin and perform a ceremony of athletic reunion, I believe I shall be granted this amazing, Olympic-caliber running ability again. I don’t think the fact that I have not yet found this twin should be held against me. Therefore, that’s worth about nine minutes.
So, to conclude, I actually ran today’s race in 11:00 flat, a world-record 3:08 pace. So I think I did pretty well.

For a geek like me, this is just as scary as a loaded firearm. A couple quick swipes and my life goes away.