Inbox 9.7.05
If you’re not a Mormon, the terms in the following email may be a little puzzling. The “LDS” standard is a type of honor code common at Mormon schools. A “ward” is like a sub-sector of the Mormon public, and it determines where and when you go to church and who you’re going to church…
Another Stab at the Big One
If you love autumn, you probably look forward to the vivid colors, the sweet evocative scent of decaying leaves, and the faraway hint of a bonfire as you stroll in the crisp, thin air. That’s all well and good, but autumn really means football. The advent of a new season is a time when hope…
There are still plenty of conspiracies
The destruction of the Berlin Wall signaled not only the demise of Soviet Communism and the end of Cold War, but also, for many literary commentators, the death of the spy novel and consequently, of the career of its most distinguished contemporary practitioner, John le Carré. That structure had served as the great monument to…
Here’s the kicker: Grandma is dead
When I see a film in a theater, I spend almost as much time observing the other moviegoers as I do staring at the screen. I’m not some creepy, trenchcoated voyeur, but witnessing the unbridled reactions of strangers to something as intimate as art is a rare opportunity for insight into your fellow man. As…
Honky tonk luau
Video killed the radio star but not ZZ Top. ZZ Top was one of the more conventional — or the least new wavish — acts a fledgling Empty V helped launch into superstardom in the early 1980s. The problem, s’far as I’m concerned, was this was at the band’s musical lowest. Drum machines and neon…
Say What? 9.7.05
Despite the almost insatiable demand for graduates from brand-name engineering and business schools, small liberal arts colleges are more relevant than ever. That’s the message from the new president of one of those schools, Rochester’s Nazareth College. “A good liberal arts education gives students the ability to look at a problem from multiple perspectives,” says…
‘Arms’ for the schools
Improving Student Performance: Can We Get Our Arms Around It
Cost of War 9.7.05
The totals: 1,887 US soldiers, 196 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 24,508 to 27,718 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to September 2. As of August 30, 14,265 US soldiers have been wounded in action. American soldiers killed between August 26 and September 2: Specialist Joseph L.…
Present Tense 9.7.05
“Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright.” — Randy Newman, “Louisiana 1927.” New Orleans is gone. I left it behind me on Saturday, with my two kids in the back seat, the soundtrack to Shrek on the CD player. My wife, a pediatrician, was on call for the weekend and…
The city of New Orleans
“There was no way we could have predicted this kind of catastrophe.” — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. While we send money to help the victims; while doctors and nurses treat the injured, the ill, the traumatized; while the displaced mourn their losses and continue their frantic search for loved ones; while law enforcement officers…
Metro Ink 9.7.05
Water, water, everywhere… Forty million people a day (maybe you?) drink from them. They’re a full fifth of the planet’s fresh water. Yet in places — consider Charlotte Beach — the Great Lakes are often not even safe to swim in. Now there’s yet another plan afoot to restore them. A year ago, then-EPA Administrator…
Reader Feedback 9.7.05
Responses to our endorsements
Family Valued 9.7.05
Hello dad, I’m in jail Built in 1854 as the Wayne County jail and sheriff’s residence, the Museum of Wayne County History retains its original charm, including 24 jail cells. Jail cells charming? At the end of my kids’ summer vacation, you bet they are. Like every jail, this one’s got a rat. He can’t…
On the money
Part one of a two-part series. Think of life as a series of equations. Everything you do is a trade-off. Every decision has a plus or minus attached. You’ve never considered economics a part of your life? Steven Landsburg wants to change that. In popular books and newspaper and magazine columns, Landsburg vividly illustrates the…
Fiz 9.7.05
For some people with children and feet, the stepping upon of Legos in the dark is a moment of anger
There’s got to be more to it
The photographs currently on exhibit at A\V in the Public Market remind us of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still series or the documentary photographs in Nan Goldin’s book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. In their own ways, both of these photographers deal with the complexities of gender, identity politics, and sexuality. Goldin portrays the people…
Onstage 9.7.05
Only the puppets get bruised The man in the box office at the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre summed it up well: “It’s a real cute love story, actually.” The name of the show — Trick Boxing — combined with the promise of a love story set visions of a Punch and Judy-esque barrage dancing. But no:…
