Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Today is L's birthday. I thought I knew how old she was, but she kindly pointed out, after a swift smack to the noggin, that I was a year off in my calendar. That leaves me doing that math to figure out how old she is. I went to law school so I wouldn't have to do math. Thus, she gets a simple Happy Birthday, I Love You without benefit of the year.

MORE CHANGE

The Straights Times of Singapore has an article about Bobby Jindal, who is running for governor of Louisiana. He is a Republican, which used to be a big impediment in the South, but is not now. He is also neither white, nor black, which used to be very near impossible in most of the South. Jindal is the son of South Asian immigrants. He was born Piyush Jindal, but changed his first name to "Bobby" in honor of the youngest Brady boy. He has also had a remarkable and successful public career in Louisiana. The fact that the same state that ran David Duke not so long ago is now running Bobby Jindal may be the best indicator I have ever seen that times really are changing.

FORBES? COOL!

The Christian Science Monitor has a story today about the Forbes magazine list of 40 best cities for singles, and the fallout for "uncool" cities on that list. The first thing they missed was that Forbes magazine is as about uncool a publication as exists. Thus, the Forbes list is kind of like the MTV guide to the top 100 large cap funds. Who cares?

Anyway, the article mostly focuses on Cincinnati and the challenges it faces (which are considerable if you've ever been there). Chicago was 11, behind Dallas, but ahead of Miami and San Diego, while St. Louis was 19, behind Houston, but ahead of Orlando and Sacramento.

IT'S A BIG, SMALL WORLD

The New York Times has a story (registration required) about an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the photographer of the works exhibited. The photographer was a social anthropologist in France and decided to photograph the "quintessential Jew." He went to Jerusalem and photographed Hassidim there. However, as he began to explore the topic further, he photographed non-Israeli, non-American, non-Ashkenazi (European), non-male, non-white Jews. He eventually reached the conclusion that "religious identity is nested in layers of culture, race and nationality." This is a tremendous insight that is interesting because of all of the pictures this guy took, but also in relation to yesterday's posts about the Anglicans, and other changing church issues. In some ways this is an easier concept for some Catholics to grasp, since we, for instance, have English Mass, German Mass, and Spanish Mass. There is a church near us that has Tagalog (Filipino) Mass. There are plenty with Polish Masses. Thus, we are confronted with our diversity all the time. Nevertheless, it is nice to see that conclusion reached when someone tries to photograph the perfect exemplar of their faith.

GOOD GRIEF

The New York Times (registration still required) also has a short piece about the guy in the projects in Manhattan who kept a 400 pound tiger. The guy sounds pretty loopy, but I love the fact that the guy's mother and her two foster children moved out of the apartment EARLIER THIS YEAR because they feared the tiger. First, good idea, family. Second, does New York not do any home visits for foster families? How did they explain away the feral cat in the front room?

In another example of wild animals being wild, the Chicago Tribune (registration required) picked up an LA Times story about a couple that was mauled (to death) by grizzly bears in Alaska. Apparently these people enjoyed camping on bear trails, and otherwise pursuing grizzly bears (even into their dens) on the theory that these bears (a) were not inherently dangerous, and (b) would understand that they just wanted to learn about the bears. Apparently they were wrong on both counts.

WE WANT MEL! WE WANT MEL!

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that former congressman Mel Reynolds is planning to run against Jesse Jackson, Jr. for Mel's old Congressional seat. Mel is apparently going on the assumption that nobody remembers his trial in 1995. He had a 16 year old girlfriend. She agreed to call him on a phone the police were recording to incriminate him. The transcript is absolutely priceless (although very explicit), and is capped off when Mel discusses the possibility of a threesome with a 15 year old she made up…

MEL: Interesting. Where does she go to school?
BEV: Uh, she said, uhm, oh goodness, I think it's Our Lady of Peace, something like that.
MEL: Lady of Peace? A Catholic school?
BEV: Huh? Yes.
MEL: Jesus, a Catholic --
BEV: A Catholic school girl, right?
MEL: Did I win the Lotto?

Yes, Mel. The Federal prison Lotto.

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