It’s Friday at lunch, and you know what that means: Clearing out the links accumulated during lunchtime reading over the week:
- Movement Afoot. The LA Sheriff is moving back to the Hall of Justice downtown. This is a good thing. Not only does it centralize things, but it actually saves money for the Sheriff’s department. I’m glad they are rehabilitating the Hall of Justice—it is a classic historical building (with loads of history) downtown.
- Readin’ and Writin’. Today’s kids can’t write. No, I don’t mean they can’t craft a paragraph; rather, their handwriting is terrible. This is because no one teaches cursive these days.
- I’m Just Fakin’ It. New Yorkers are shocked. Zabar’s Lobster Salad contains no lobster, only crawfish. It’s now being sold as “Seafare Salad”, even though crawdad’s don’t come from the sea.
- Jews of Color. Appropos of a discussion last night I had with trinker, there’s a camp for Jews of Color—that is, something other than the Eastern European “white” Jews.
- Benched. You’re tired. You want to take the bus home. Guess what? Your bus bench is missing due to a contract dispute with the city.
- Be A Pepper. Another interesting contract dispute, this time between Dublin Dr. Pepper and its corporate parent. Dublin Dr. Pepper makes their product with cane sugar and sells nationally; the corporate parent wants to use beet sugar, and have the Dublin bottler use standard logos and sell only in their 6-county area.
- Ranking Colleges. A bunch of college lists found through Huff Post: The 10 Colleges with the Best Professors; I’ll note that Harvey Mudd and Reed are on this list. 10 Colleges with the Best Campus Food; notables here is Wash U in St. Louis. 10 Colleges with the Best Dorms; notable here is Wash U. again. The Most Hipster Colleges, notable here is UC Santa Cruz. I’ll note some colleges seem to be on multiple lists, such as Bryn Mawr, Olin College of Engineering, and Bowdoin.
- PC Anniversary. It’s the 30th Anniversary of what some call the first PC, the IBM 5150. You can read a review here. to me, however, that’s not the first PC. That honor goes to the IBM 5100.
- Leadership. Lastly, Michele Bachmann is in the news for her fight with Tim Pawlenty. She’s arguing that she should be president because of her being the leading voice, almost the lone voice in the wilderness of Washington. Guess what? If there’s anything our experience with President Obama has shown us (and I agree with his policies), is that we need a president who is a leader, and who has sufficient leadership and managerial ability to convince opposing parties of the strength of his/her position, and can have sufficient skills to bring them together to compromise positions. Ideas are great, and a push for change is great, but if you can’t convince others to go along with you, you’re stalled. So far, I haven’t seen any of the candidates with that strength of leadership ability. It is a skill that both Clinton and Reagan had. It is what this country needs.
