The Curmudgeonly Professor

We Share an Unbiased Look at Today's News as Gleaned from USA Today

As an exciting new feature of the Curmudgeonly Professor Blog, we are sharing the most important tidbits and gleanings from today's news, as reported by USA Today .  As follows:

• Republicans have gazillions more bucks to spend on state governor and legislator races, proving that the GOP is the party of the rich and we miserable Democrats are just poor people who can't afford to pay for our elected officials.
• page 1: strong Canadian dollar and drop in housing prices luring Canadians to Arizona "and other states where the weather is warm and the housing cheap."
• page 3: Census reports cohabitation up 13%, in case you're interested.  Maybe to deal with unemployment.
• page 2: U.S. fattest country with 36% of women and 37% of men fat.  Including me.  I helped these stats.  Only 3% of Japanese are fat.
• page 2:  U.S. does rotten job in science education; K-12 math education ranks 48th worldwide.  And "49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the sun."  That's nothing.  The other day I asked my wife, "Which is it, does the sun circle the earth, or visa-versa."  Mrs. Strong explained all this stuff in 7th grade science but I was busy piddling around and goofing off and never got it straight even though she had these little models of stuff rotating around other stuff.  Just like daylight savings time.  I have no idea how that works.
• page 3A: more storms, less drought.  Get out umbrellas, etc.
• page 6A: in Wyoming, motorcycle fatalities are "surging" while most do not wear safety helmets.  I worry every time I see some moron on a motorcycle who thinks he's immortal and his brains won't splatter when he gets in an accident.
• Now onward to Section B: Home sales rose slightly in August after big drop in July; airlines and fliers dealing with regulatory change and passenger gripes over extra fees, etc.
• The Vegas line says BYU will lose to Nevada, third loss in row, more weeping and wailing.

USA Today has a bunch of other interesting stuff, like in the financial and entertainment sections.  But look at it this way: If you didn't look at the papers at all today, and you read this post, you at least know more than you would have otherwise.  Known.  Whether this news summary becomes a regular feature depends on whether we have an outpouring of popular support.  Like one or two readers.  Thank you for your attention.

The Curmudgeonly Professor has a Question for the Deseret News

When the morning papers hit the screen door at 4:30 a.m., my stuffy nose was keeping me awake anyway, so I collected the two Salt Lake papers, plus USA Today. I am probably as sick of the presidential primary campaign as anyone, but I was immediately struck by the fact that the Deseret News relegated the news about yesterday's Democratic primary election results to page 2, while the Salt Lake Tribune gave the event front page coverage. Thus, one can hypothesize as to the reason for diminishing the importance of the election by the News. The Deseret News, of course, is viewed as Salt Lake's conservative and true newspaper, while the Salt Lake Tribune is viewed as a "liberal" newspaper, not to be read, subscribed to, or given any consideration by those who depend on the News for the unbiased news of the day. Thus, any news about Democrats is likely to be viewed as relatively obnoxious or insignificant.

After all, the election ballots in Utah may have a smattering of sacrificial Democrats in local races and we do have a Democratic congressman and a Democratic Salt Lake mayor, and a minority of Utah legislators, but otherwise the only reason, mostly, to run as a Democrat in Utah is if you want to spend your IRA and 401(k) savings in a futile effort to unseat some long-term incumbent Republican. And Democrats are basically disenfranchised through the electoral college in the general election since all the electoral votes go to the Republican candidate, no matter who it is.

Thus, since Democrats are viewed as liberals who are in favor of big government, higher taxes, and a host of other evils, why should we put news about them on the front page of the Deseret News? Well, just possibly, perhaps, maybe, could be, we might end up with a Democratic president for a change. And, since Utah is still part of the Union, Utahns would now have to suffer through a Democratic administration, lamenting that whatever Republican they voted for did not get elected.

My only experience as a newspaper editor was during my junior year of high school at the ripe old age of 15, I served as editor of the Powell Powwow, the mimeographed weekly newspaper for our high school in Powell, Wyoming. We put the most important news on page 1 because that is what we thought we were supposed to do. Apparently some changes of which I am not aware have occurred in the philosophy and management of page ones in the newspaper business. Or maybe the Deseret News just didn't want to offend it's Republican readers. Just wondered.

Perhaps this blog entry will reduce my readers by 75%. Oh well, we still believe in freedom of the press. And of the blogosphere. Thank heavens.

Headlines: The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Newspapers

In the interests of helping us all stay informed concerning what is happening, the Curmudgeonly Professor is borrowing a leaf from Jay Leno's book and will provide you with important headlines.

1. "If you meet a bear, don't shoot. Spray." by Brian Maffley, Salt Lake Trib, March 26 2008. This important information has arrived just in time for the bears to wake up, where a researcher, BYU wildlife biologist Tom Smith, found that bears stopped charging 90 percent of the time with bear spray. So get yourself some bear spray and pray you are not in the other 10 percent.

2. "Vast Iceberg breaks off Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctic" by Mark Henderson, Times Online, March 26 2008. A 160-square-mile chunk of ice, seven times the size of Manhattan, collapsed. More global warming, more stuff to worry about, more debate about who did this. Watch for ice.

3. "UVSC (Utah Valley State College) drafts nude-modeling rules". Deseret Morning News March 26 2008, B1. Pay attention here if you are a UVSC artist or nude model. You can't take photos, and UVSC students can't model in the nude. These rules put an abrupt halt to cases where a model didn't show up and a class member "stepped in". Keep your eyes to yourself.

4. "BYU's 'Cloak Boy': Student surprised by support after some objections to his folk singing." Deseret Morning News, March 26, 2008, article by Elizabeth Stuart. p.1. Seems Nathan Langford, a 19-year old mathematics major from Wisconsin, liked to bundle up "in a hobbit-inspired cloak singing folk songs between classes." The ever-vigilant campus police "threatened to cite Langford for disturbing the peace with his exuberant caroling." But the students began greeting him with "We support you, Cloak Boy." Now, here's the good part: "Within a week . . . 800 people joined a 'Revive Cloak Boy' Facebook group dedicated to restoring [his] right to sing." Police considered "suspicious activity". Callers were "concerned about mental health." But Langford quit. He was "spooked."
So much for the right to sing folk songs in public.

5. "Surprises fall as genealogists shake candidates' family trees," AP by Denise Lavoie, Deseret Morning News, March 26 2008, p. 1. Well, it turns out we may all be related to each other if we poke around in the archives. Obama, for example, has "distant cousins [that] include President Bush, his father George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman, and James Madison." For starters.

We don't want to push this headline business too far, so let these bits of information soak in today and we'll see what happens tomorrow.