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Update: And to think that back during the Civil War a member of the military was convicted of “contemptuous speech” against the president (Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) for saying:
Jeff Davis was as good a man as Abraham Lincoln
I didn’t run out into the streets like I did after the Saints won the Superbowl because it would’ve just been me all alone screaming in the streets. The Blackhawks victory parade is the one out-of-town parade I’d like to attend. It’s only a 15-17 hour drive …
Here’s what hockey looked like the last time the Blackhawks won (note the absence of goalie masks):
And here’s a goofy-but-kind-of-catchy-fan song:
I went fishing with him earlier in the day. He showed me a particular kind of knot–a knot I pretty much use whenever I’m called upon to tie a knot. I don’t remember much else, other than we had a decent time down at the lake. I was 12ish when I took this in the mid/late 70s? I probably flashed into the room out of nowhere. I’ll have to consult my family to fill in some blanks … That’s my father in the foreground.
Pall Malls and Butternut white bread on the dining table, an Old Style over my cousin’s shoulder …
As far as I know the family hasn’t seen or heard from him since the early 1980s. He was a Vietnam veteran.
Update: My father verifies his name is Larry. Larry was my mother’s sister’s son. Larry’s father was killed in WWII (Army, I think). My father also dates the picture to 1974-75, given some of the architectural details in the picture, which places my age at 9-10 when I snapped it. Further, he says the family lost contact with Larry not long after this picture was taken. The family speculates–hopes–he moved to Germany, where he was once stationed. My father said he was a nice, soft spoken guy. He liked him.
Yes, that’s my favorite sign from the protest yesterday. More here.
When a photographer from The Times-Picayune earlier this week tried to hire a plane to fly over Grand Isle, the charter plane company was told that the flight could not descend below 3,000 feet.
The Lens has a heartbreaking report out of St. Bernard Parish.
Best-case thinking means generally bad decision making for several reasons. First, it’s only half of the cost-benefit equation. Every decision has costs and benefits, risks and rewards. By speculating about what can possibly go right, and then acting as if that is likely to happen, best-case thinking focuses only on the extreme but improbable risks and does a poor job at assessing outcomes.
Oh, wait, I’ve got that wrong–or right. “Best” shouldn’t be “worst,” “right” shouldn’t be “wrong.”
Nice:
Sensing blood, the Blackhawks were now fully ready to kick their game into high gear and took advantage of another Canucks meltdown.
I’m hip to the Duchampian idea that a work of art is finished by the viewer. The artist isn’t god. That’s all fine and good, but what about art critics and their art criticism? Especially the nasty and mean ones who seem to have an inherent disdain for artists. When I read their stuff I usually think something along the lines of, “If it’s so obvious that _________ is such offending shit, you should show us what would pass your test. Don’t point to somebody else’s work either. Make something. You do it or shut the hell up.” A work of art is the best form to express criticism of another work of art. That’s not to say I don’t like to read critics and reviewers. There are good ones–usually other artists and writers (not that they can’t also be nasty and mean). A post over at Back of Town brought all this to mind.
Good work by Brentin Mock pushing back against Spike Lee in his interview published in The Root and also covered in The Lens. Check out this exchange I’ve cut and pasted from The Root:
TR: You went to Mississippi and Texas this time around. Tell us about what you discovered there.
Lee: We went … and talked to some of the displaced people. Actually, I don’t know if you would call them displaced. A lot of them made the decision to stay in Houston. It’s going on five years. They’ve found better jobs, better housing and better education for their children. We interviewed one lady whose son is autistic, and she can’t move back to New Orleans because there are no schools open that deal with autistic children, which really is against federal law.
TR: It has been reported that there are schools in New Orleans that are not taking in their fair share of students with special needs, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say that no schools take these students.
Lee: Well, from what I’ve heard, it’s not happening, and federal law states cities must provide a public education for students with special needs. And that’s the reason why she can’t move back to New Orleans because those services are not here, but they are available where she is in Texas. I can only go by what she told me. She is a single mother and has to care for an autistic child, so if she tells me she can’t move back to New Orleans because there is no place, no school that can fulfill her child’s needs, then I’m going to believe her. She doesn’t want to live in Texas. Her family is here. But she’s doing that for her child.
I can only go by what she told me? Really, as a documentary filmmaker you can only go by the perceptions of the people you talk to, you can’t dig into the matter further, there’s no truth beyond simple belief? Look, I’m one of the first people to complain about this very issue–the lack of special education services in our local charter schools–but I think this kind of truthiness is unhelpful because Lee leaves himself so vulnerable to hack criticism. If he’s wrong about this, then he’s obviously wrong about …
