{"id":2950,"date":"2008-07-28T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-28T19:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2950"},"modified":"2008-07-28T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-28T19:32:00","slug":"monday-news-chum-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2950","title":{"rendered":"Monday News Chum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some interesting notes from today&#8217;s perusal of the headlines over lunch:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Your kitchen, it glows&#8230;<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> It appears the homeowners are discovering a new source of radiation and radon in their homes: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/07\/24\/garden\/24granite.html?ex=1374811200&#038;en=9c6dfe790a10e012&#038;ei=5124&#038;partner=permalink&#038;exprod=permalink\" target=\"_blank\">their new stylish granite countertops<\/a>. Granite, it turns out, can contain trace uranium. Usually it\u2019s not high enough to be a problem, but sometimes&#8230;.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>And That\u2019s How The Money Goes Around<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> The Bush Administration is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/n\/a\/2008\/07\/28\/national\/w063102D15.DTL&#038;tsp=1\" target=\"_blank\">projecting a record budget deficit<\/a>. In other news, the <a href=\"http:\/\/ap.google.com\/article\/ALeqM5ihrXXebCc-1ukON23aArsxLrveNwD9256EK80\" target=\"_blank\">total cost of the Iraq war is approaching that of Vietnam<\/a>. Are these connected? On paper, no, because the budget deficit doesn\u2019t include war costs.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>What\u2019s In A Name?<\/b>\u201d Department: <\/i> The Secretary of State has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/n\/a\/2008\/07\/26\/state\/n151154D01.DTL\" target=\"_blank\">changed the description<\/a> of Proposition 8 from a measure \u201cto limit marriage between a man and a woman\u201d to \u201ca constitutional change to eliminate the right of same sex couples to marry.\u201d It should have an interesting effect, for it is much harder to argue taking away existing rights. In related news, money is flowing to both sides, including a major contribution to the \u201cNo on 8\u201d campaign by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2008\/07\/27\/BA7E12038R.DTL\" target=\"_blank\">one of the original founders of WordPerfect<\/a>.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Will They Never Learn?<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> John Waters is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.playbill.com\/news\/article\/119764.html\" target=\"_blank\">writing a sequel to the musical \u201cHairspray\u201d<\/a>, holding up \u201cHigh School Musical 2\u201d as a successful sequel to a musical. Hint to Mr. Waters: That\u2019s TV, not stage. I cannot think of a successful stage sequel, although I can think of many failed ones: \u201cBest Little Whorehouse Goes Public\u201d, \u201cBring Back Birdie\u201d, \u201cAnnie Warbucks\u201d, \u201cAnnie 2\u201d, \u201cLet \u2018Em Eat Cake\u201d. Even in terms of screen musicals, can we really hold up \u201cGrease 2\u201d as a paragon of a good movie musical?<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some interesting notes from today&#8217;s perusal of the headlines over lunch: From the \u201cYour kitchen, it glows&#8230;\u201d Department: It appears the homeowners are discovering a new source of radiation and radon in their homes: their new stylish granite countertops. Granite, it turns out, can contain trace uranium. Usually it\u2019s not high enough to be a <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2950\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,28,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","category-theatre","category-lj-xfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}