The Curmudgeonly Professor

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Newspapers on March 29 2012

Here's the news that's worth knowing from the Salt Lake Trib:

• If you're a Virgo, you are supposed to "focus on your desires and long-term goals."  Really?
• In "comic" Mary Worth, sad looking girl tells homeless man pushing cart full of cans that she's all right, so he says "then I'll just be on my way."  Excellent use of paper, ink, trees, and time.
• Jeremy tells Mom in Zits after she suggests he read "The Scarlet Letter" that the book says "Best read before December 1972."
• Need for donated food for children who depend on the Boys and Girls Club for snacks and supper soaring, writes Heather May.  Tough to think about hungry kids.  And parents.
• Young Utah Jazz kiddie corps runs into old guy buzz saw at Celtics game last night.  Jazz still fun to watch, even though age and experience trumped young legs and blossoming skills.  Besides, Doc Rivers made many kind comments about Jazz players and coach.  Thank you, Doc.
• Liquor package agency owners die in Duchesne County leaving county residents without booze till April 10.  Sad.  You'll have to drive awhile to stock up.

Other than that, Congress dithers, Prez Wannabe candidates blast away, Supreme Court holds our fate in its hands, sick people worry, people with pre-existing conditions are fearful, bloviators bloviate, fact checkers check fibs, and we stumble into spring and summer trying not to give up.  Have a nice day.

 

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Newspapers on March 28 2012

The Curmudgeonly Professor had written an incredibly outstanding post on the newspapers yesterday, but when I tried to post it, my internet connection died.  I apologize to all of my viewers who were required to dwell in abject ignorance of what was happening in the world, but mainly what was happening was the same song second or third verse.    I had to leave for the dentist before rectifying the disaster. So here is the rundown today.

First from Salt Lake's Deseret News (Again, not a misprint, a pioneer word; does it mean honeybee? I don't remember and may look it up some day).

• The military coup in Mali has raised concerns in Utah, since Utah has several ties to Mali.  Hunter Schwarz writes that "Yeah Samake, a BYU graduate, is running for president of Mali and is the executive director of the Raising Mali Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to expand educational opportunities."  Schwarz outlines other Utah connections.  What a small world.
• The nation is twiddling its thumbs, scratching its head, and either cheering or weeping, as the Supreme Court continues deliberations on health care

Now for the SL Trib:

• Tom Harvey writes about the forthcoming May trial pitting Brigham Young University against Pfizer, alleging that Pfizer "reneged on a contract and misappropriated research from professor Daniel Simmons that led to the creation of the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex."  The battle is described as "potentially the largest civil trial in Utah history."
• Three U of Utah students won $5K in a contest "to develop a marketing plan for hand-poured lollipops."  Who said the lollipop industry wasn't important?
• Hunger Games now way outclassing Vampires and Twilight.  What will be next?

So, until next time, the Curmudgeonly Professor will carefully monitor the newspapers and bring you whatever you need to know to live a happy, productive, healthy, and uncontroversial life.  Have a nice day.

Reading the Newspapers on Friday March 9 2012

Starting with USA Today:

• Steve Wiebert writes the feature article "What's Wrong with College Basketball?"  The author discusses something most fans of college basketball already know: attendance at college basketball games has been dwindling for several years.  Digital streaming and TV are two of the reasons for this decline, but I suspect other reasons are also possible.  College students are increasingly mobile and participate in a wider range of all kinds of activities, on campus and off campus.  Attendance at women's college basketball games is often virtually nonexistent.  Weak teams, scandals, expense, time constraints, and a variety of other reasons have all led to glaringly empty arenas at college basketball games.  
• USA Today reminds us to spring forward Sunday.  What a nuisance.
• Church bowling alleys are disappearing.  I didn't know churches had bowling alleys.
• Pressure mounts for price controls on gasoline. My take: Bad, bad idea.  Price controls have serious unintended consequences and result in misallocation of resources.  Look at the history of all kinds of price and wage controls.  Seems like a good idea, creates havoc in actual practice.

 

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Daily Newspapers March 8 2012

The Curmudgeonly Professor apologizes for not getting his news summary to you sooner, but he slept in for a change until 8:30 a.m.  Now he has gone into exile while his wife watches the Young and the Restless, a program I loathe with a passion, so he can get his commentating up-to-date.  Starting with the St. George Spectrum:

• The most important news in The Spectrum today is from the Horoscopes: "You are all personality and then some."  Wow.  I had no idea.  The standard joke around school in the continuing wars between the accountants and the economists was the question "Why didn't you become an accountant?"  And the answer, by economists, always was "Because I just didn't have the personality."  Now the horoscope writer, which is never wrong out there positioned among the moon and the planetary orbits and such, tells me I have "personality and then some."  My wife doubts the veracity of this revelation, and it is too late for me to become an accountant.  Besides, I hate plugging little numbers into big work sheets and memorizing 10,000 new pages in the Federal tax code every six months.  I am much happier drawing supply and demand graphs and explaining how politicians are usually ignorant about economics.
• The wonderful full-scale carousel installed in downtown St. George Town Square is in operation for the year.

Moving on to USA Today:

• The new iPad will further revolutionize the world, as addicts flock to be the first to have the latest and greatest and pass on their old clunkers to their kids and others.  Great.  That will mean even fewer conversations, family reunions where every person can be rubbing their thumbs on their little glass screens playing video games and adding inane chatter to Facebook, and less need for having bookshelves. If you didn't have to worry about little kids breaking or losing or having their iPads stolen, they could replace their 40 pound backpacks, some times dragging down to the ground on little kids going to and from school, with an iPad.  For now, I'll stick with my $199 Kindle.
• Forbes reports 1,226 billionaires in the world.
• Solar storm could cause bad stuff today.
• Obama raising $$$$ at record pace.
• Doomsayers are telling us not to trust the stock market, the bull market won't last.  Beware.
• Girl Scouts turn 100.

Salt Lake Papers:

• SLTrib headline: "Progressives Rally Against Lands and Sex Ed Bills", as Utah's neanderthal (my words) legislators seek to "privatize federal lands, curtail anti-pollution efforts, gut sex education and more"
• DNews: "Romney Far Ahead."
• My former Orem UT neighbor and colleague Dan Peterson, who is the smartest man I know, writes in his weekly DNews column "Defending the Faith" that religious people, according to documented research studies, are more charitable, more likely to volunteer and assist family and friends, "to donate blood, to give food or money to homeless people . . . and even return change mistakenly given them by a cashier."  So if you're a deadbeat, maybe it would help if you would add a dose of religion to your life. (last sentence my words, not Dan's)

So on that positive and inspirational and uplifting note, we forge on to the rest of the day, armed with all of the information that matters to guide us through the day.  Have a nice day.  It is only 10:40 which means 20 more minutes of the Young and the Restless.  Time to post a couple of photos or so.

 

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Daily Newspapers on Wednesday March 7 2012

Just to save my faithful readers the arduous task of reading the daily newspapers, we now bring you the daily unfolding of momentous earth-shattering events that will inspire, anger, motivate, and bore us to tears.  We must skip the St. George Spectrum for the moment since my wife has appropriated it, mainly to read Pickles in the comics and do her crossword.  So we begin with USA Today:

• Eli Manning is being turned loose by the Colts, saving them $$$, and reflecting concerns about age and health issues.  But sad, nonetheless.
• The shameful Saints bounty system for rewarding hits on opposing team players undergoing continuing scrutiny.
• We might have begun with the results of Super Tuesday, but I fell asleep in utter boredom watching the results last night.  Who won?  Who is ahead?  Why don't more candidates give up?
• The Dow sustained a "triple-digit-drop" on Super Tuesday.  An omen?
• In a lucid analysis of the tepid drop in the unemployment rate, Tim Mullaney reminds us of a couple of major factors (1) "The more fundamental reason for slow work-force growth is Baby Boomers' aging."   Mullaney emphasizes that growth in the work force due to so many Boomer women working drove the increase in the labor force from the 1960s on. Now Boomers are reluctant to rejoin the labor force.  (2) "More than half of those who left the work force since 2008 are 55 and older--and they're not coming back" says Moody's chief ecoomist Mark Zandi.

Moving on to the Salt Lake Tribune:

• Headline in the Trib: "On Super Tuesday, Voters Seem to be Divided About Who Should be the Nominee."  headline in the more right Deseret News: "Romney Wins Ohio, 4 Others."  It's all in the point of emphasis.
• The pure thinkers in the Utah legislature, according to Lisa Schencker, "gave final passage Tuesday to a bill that would let schools skip teaching sex education and prohibit instruction in the use of contraception."  Legislators were concerned about whether teachers had any morals, etc., and shouldn't "replace the parent."  Really? Why not outlaw teaching biology, anatomy, botany, and other courses with reproductive overtones?  Leave the learning of such subjects to the locker room, the hallways, and what young people learn on their own.
• Mitt is wearing jeans to show he is one of the folks
• Josh James, who started Omniture while a BYU student, a web traffic analytics company which he sold to Adobe for 1.8B, then founded Domo, a business info monitoring software, was named "one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders for 2012" according to Tom Harvey.  Not too shabby.  And here I thought all BYU students hated economics.  

Now on to the "D" (for Deseret, and no that is not a misspelling) News which often offers fare more palatable to Utah's predominantly GOP readers:

• Since I have reached the point well past diminishing marginal utility in re: GOP primary, the best story in the D News this morning is by Valerie Phillips who wrote about how Carmell Childs of Provo is a finalist in the Fourth Annual Spreading Smucker's Traditions Recipe and Essay Contest.  Ms. Phillips goes on to describe how Ms. Childs "used Smucker's Orchard's Finest Michigan Red Tart Cherry Preserves to give her burger a sweet-tart flavor burst."  Just throw in some onion, Jonathon apple, olive oil, and fresh chives and there you have it.  For the recipe, go to DeseretNews.com , Valerie Phillips, Provo woman named recipe contest finalist.  I'll see if I can run a "blog it" after I get through with my journalistic duties.
• Debate in Utah Legislature about requiring all school classes to start class with pledge of allegiance to the US of A.  So what's new? In 1938, we stood, placed our hands over our tny six-year-old hearts inside our bib overalls, and recited the pledge.  And I still can't bring myself to add "under God" in the appropriate place.  Then we had to sing the egregious "Good morning to you, good morning to you, we'reall in our places, with sunshiny faces," etc., etc.  But I did practice the Parker Penmanship letters endlessly, posted across the entire front of the room, until I could write flawlessly.  Today, centuries later, my friend Dolores and I still write identically, and we can spot each other's writing at a glance.

Basically, you should be able to get through the day with the knowledge the Curmudgeonly Professor has offered, free of charge and in the interests of dissemination of the truth.  Have a nice day.

 

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Newspapers on Monday March 5 2012

The Salt Lake papers don't get delivered here in St. George until the carrier's conscience gets the better of him, so we begin with the St. George Spectrum.  Everyone in the world needs to gain an appreciation for St. George Utah since it is the finest place in the State of Utah.  As a native Wyomingite who has lived in Montana, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Michigan, I have never become a confirmed Utahan.  For one thing Utah has way too many Republicans who all think strangely alike.  But I do love St. George and the redrock country of Southern Utah.

• The Utah Legislature is winding up this week, which is a good thing.  Legislatures do a lot of good things, but they always have a few representatives of the people, a gift of democracy, who do a lot of mischief, so it is always good when they get through with their business and go home.
• A big reception was held at St. George's Dixie Center to welcome and honor 474 members of the famed "Triple Deuce", the National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 222nd Field Artillery.  The 222nd has served in three deployments in the past decade.  While noting the continuing problems many returning servicemen continue to experience, the gathering was a great manifestation of Southern Utah pride, complete with the governor, and for continued reflection on the great service these men performed for our country while undergoing great sacrifices in their families and personal lives.  I shed at least three tears. 
• My horoscope tells me I "have dealt with a lot of frustration with a partner this past year" and cautions me against starting a rebellion and I should rather, express my "fatigue" (what does that mean? Sick and tired?) at this behavior.  I know better than to start a rebellion anyway since I have never, ever won an argument with my spousal unit.  Besides, she is much, much smarter than I am and right 99 percent of the time anyway.
• The only comic worth reading this Monday morning is Classic Peanuts, bless Mr. Schultz's memory.  Charley Brown is sleeping with Snoopy sleeping on his tummy.  Charley worries first whether life is a multiple-choice test or a true-false test, and "then a voice comes to me (him) out of the dark and says 'we hate to tell you this, but life is a thousand word essay.'
• Now on to USA Today, which has awakened from its two-day weekend rest and slumber, to get back to work for Monday morning.
•   Comedies seem to be making a comeback amidst the recent rounds of hospitals, crime scenes, really dumb (my words) reality shows, etc., etc., with "46 new sitcoms vie(ing) for slots."  Great, but will anything ever match M*A*S*H, Carol Burnett, Three's Company (yes folks, Three's Company--a bit of fluff here and there but John Ritter really was a comedic genius), Dick VanDyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Jackie Gleason, and on and on with the honor roll of true comedy masters.  Plus Johnny Carson.  One would think that with all of the millions more people, comedy writers, wannabe actors, etc., that someone, some day will show up who actually can capture our hearts like our old favorites did.
• Dr. Suess has five books in the USA Today Top 50 List!  Absolutely amazing.  Goes to show you how talent gets doled out only rarely but when it does land somewhere, the results astonish for generations.
• The nation weeps for tornado victims, while some pols tell them they should be on their own to clean up the mess and take care of themselves.  Shameful.
• If you have canceled debt, that is taxable income.  Beware.
• More scams and viruses target mobile devices.
• The Progressive Insurance Lady continues to annoy us on TV and in ads.

I hope you are now ready to start your day with enough knowledge and guidance.  The first clue in the USA Today crossword puzzle is "uneaten morsels" so I have confidence that the rest of the puzzle will be this easy.  Now I'll go check the end of the driveway for the Salt Lake papers.  I keep asking the distribution people to have the carrier chuck the papers up the driveway a bit, like my wonderful Spectrum carrier does, but apparently the concept is too complicated for him.  Have a nice day.

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Sunday Papers and the Sunday Funnies on March 4 2012

The Professor thought about taking the day off from his strenuous blogging duties and rest his tired, unbiased, non-sarcastic mind.  He wondered if blogging broke the Sabbath Day and if we would be punished for it.  Then he opted on the side of knowing that the three or four people who depend on his blog for their daily information would be deprived if he skipped a day.  So here is the St. George Spectrum:

• A local woman celebrated living 108 years, but celebrated only 27 birthdays, being a leap-year baby.  She quoted the poem "I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in."  Beyond that gem, I was able to finish the Spectrum in about 30 seconds.

From Salt Lake's Deseret News:

• David Crary writes about how more scams are targeting older Americans, that a multi-billion dollar industry is growing, causing great anguish.
• Ladd Brubaker writes about how new World Book Encyclopedias arrived at many Utah schools this week and go unused.  I remember buying a complete Collier's encyclopedia for my kids when they were in school which only collected dust.  Now, just ask Google.  Encyclopedias are out of date before they are even boxed up and shipped.
• Both BYU and the Jazz crumpled last night.  Will BYU be asked to the NCAA tourney?
• The dysfunction of Congress that led to the announced departure of Sen. Olympia Snowe is highlighted in an editorial opinion "Restoring Statesmanship."  "There has been a long slow slide from a Senate that was rewarded for cultivating national policy expertise and consensus in deliberative committees to the fractious institution of today.  Senator Snowe leaves a heritage as a dignified, reasonable, and gracious policy maker.  
• A Russian training ship "spotted a refrigerator, a television, and other appliances west of Hawaii," which soon could reach U.S. shores, as reported by Jay Evenson in "nasty politics: a strategy that really works.
• Except for the great tragedy and human suffering caused by the string of tornadoes, that's about all the factual information you'll have room to absorb today.  So on to the funnies.
• In Baby Blues, Hammie's exploits in jumping up and down on his bed, reminded me of when we were young and waited until the car lights receded in the distance when Mom and Dad went someplace, and then we all cut loose, using the bed for a trampoline.
• That's about it.  Nothing else in the funnies on a not-so-funny funnies day.  Maybe you found something.

So there you have it.  We hope to see you right back here tomorrow, as Brian Williams says nightly.  I may or may not ever post another newspaper reading blog post, ever.  Have a nice day.

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Newspapers and Commentates Thereon on March 3 2012

The Curmudgeonly Professor's time is limited as he must devote his energies to watching basketball, but just to save some valued readers from remaining in the dark about stuff that is going on, we will do a brief report today.  First, the St. George Spectrum:

• Lisa Larson has written an informative article about a truly impressive program instituted by LDS missionaries in Southern Utah.  The missionaries go into homes to teach conversational English for two 20 minute sessions per week for 24 weeks.  Other than an opening prayer, no religion is involved or mentioned.  Eighteen couples are now involved in this program, and a waiting list suggests the importance of this activity.  No religious affiliation of any kind is required.  The program is known as "The Daily Dose" and was first instituted in the Provo area, and now spread throughout Utah.  Plans are to take the Daily Dose nationwide.  Teachers report gaining empathy and appreciation for the problems faced by Hispanics and others when they arrive here without English language skills.  See Lisa Larson, "Learning English: LDS Daily Dose Program Takes Lessons into Homes."  Incidentally, the program moved from church settings to homes as instructors discovered many students wanting to learn to speak English couldn't afford gas to go outside the home.  Just think about this situation for a few reflective moments.
• The Utah Jazz, bless them, knocked off the Miami Heat last night.  Up by 17 at one point, they won by a lucky point, thus sending LJ, DW, and other arrogant Heat players to the locker room without bumping chests, staring down the crowd, clenching jaws, and other signs of global superiority.  What a wonderful moment.
• Some people in the obits just pass.  Others pass away or pass on.  One person a year or two ago fell into the loving arms of Father Abraham.  Others fall into the arms of various family members or religious figures.  But what do you do if you run into someone you really don't want to see?  Some fight valiant and courageous battles.  I'm afraid I'll be a coward when my time comes.
• Nothing much to report in the funnies this morning, so just save your time.  Pickles is getting ready to watch The Price is Right and justifying his "perks" of saying "whatever is on his mind."  Wizard of Id bellringer cautions not to cut off your nose to spite your face because not covered by insurance.

Since we don't have USA Today, which assumes nothing happens worth reporting from Friday p.m. till Monday a.m., we enrich your lives with a couple of tidbits from the AARP Bulletin (American Association of Retired Persons in case you're under 40.)  Be aware that AARP is public enemy No. 1 to some members of Congress and other pols.

• Katherine Greider reports in "The Worst Place to Be if You're Sick" that medical harms done to Medicare patients did not report 86% of harms done to them.  Furthermore, "one study" reports 1 in 7 Medicare patients died or were harmed by hospital care.  Of course, I would want to see the statistical accuracy of these allegations, but even if they are off the mark somewhat, the general direction is worth paying attention to.
• The number of patients who die each year from hospital errors is equal to 4 jumbo jets crashing each week.  Again, I'd have to see the actual data, their source, and their statistical reliability to have confidence in this conclusion, but the implications are frightening enough to launch an intensive search for the causes and reasons for these alarming trends.
• A 98 year old man just published a book "Fisherman's Language".  Jim Henry advocates never giving up on anything "even if it seems impossible."  First two printings sold out.
• Hope obviously springs eternal among AARP members as AARP Bulletin offers full page ads ot therapeutic explicit info on you know what.  Maybe these ads are profitable, but they are certainly lurid.

Thus, we are through with the papers today without ever getting around to the Salt Lake papers.  We hope we have provided guidance, inspiration, consternation, and confusion to your daily life.  The Professor has given up commentating on current politics for the moment as he cannot keep up with the plethora of interesting names and vitriolic bile being spewed forth among those deeming themselves fit to be our great leader.  Have a nice Saturday.

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Newspapers March 2 2012

Now a long-standing tradition (two days), the Curmudgeonly Professor is continuing his public service and unselfish efforts to keep his readers informed.  We begin with USA Today:

• The crossword puzzle should have been easy today, but the puzzle person threw in these gems: gong, tamtam; Swedish pile rug, rya.  Now who ever heard of a tamtam as a gong? Seriously.
• Latest hot college major: video game design.  Great. Start out at age 4, stay addicted until college, major in video games, go to work for video game designer, never grow up.  No wonder we are in economic stagnation.  All everyone is doing is playing and inventing video games.
• Santorum gospel: "don't send your kid to college, he or she will become a snob, become brainwashed, turn leftist and European socialist, and never graduate."  And if they do graduate they won't know anything.  So unlike Santorum, who has 3 college degrees, and is, by self definition, a snob and a brainwashed person, we are destined under his leadership to become a nation of even worse ignorance, but fewer and fewer snobs.
• Analysts don't think $4 gas is a big deal.
• Surprise, it didn't snow much this winter.
• Tornado grief and damage reminds us that often so much of our lives is out of our own control but that the humanity of often unnamed others lifts our spirits when we need help most.

The St. George Spectrum

• One of the great joys of living in and visiting St. George is the abundance of musical and theatrical talent, not only in St. George but at the annual Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, an hour north up the road.  Tuacahn Amphitheatre is an awesome red rock setting for all kinds of theatrical and musical talent.  Currently scheduled are Aladdin: The Stage Musical; Hairspray; Chicago; Juilliard Jazz Concert.  Local concert and musical talent produce a continuing series of concerts and performances.  The St. George Musical Theatre, an enormously wonderful and successful producer of brilliant musical stage presentations has been in limbo after losing their quarters to the City of St. George and is still searching for a way to acquire new facilities and reopen.  We need some major benefactor to open his or her pockets and get SGMT going again!
• The Utah Shakespeare Festival is one of the marvels of theatre anywhere.  Now nearing the continuation of rebuilding an incredible new set of venues for their productions, a trip to Cedar City during the summer and fall festivals is one of the most rewarding trips you can make.
• The Robert N. and Peggy Sears Dixie Invitational art Show is now running through March 25, featuring stunning works by the best local and regional talent.

Salt Lake Papers:

• Yesterday's papers were three hours late due to heavy snow.
• Patio eateries may be allowed to apply for dog permits.
• Baby was born two hours and 39 minutes early to become a Leap Day Baby.
• U of Utah video game program ranked 3d in nation.  Much better than U basketball team.
• The incredible City Creek Center shopping mall will debut on March 22 in downtown Salt Lake City, just south of Temple Square.

When I was young, one of the featured newsreels was called "The March of Time."  The term is still appropriate.  The daily papers chronicle the March of Time, much sad news, some dramatic, some puzzling, and the guy's obit today who had married and divorced three times.  And the papers will be out again tomorrow and we will continue to wonder if we have lost our collective minds, how we will get out of the messes we are in, and how much we still have to be grateful for in a country with free speech and a democracy in which anyone can play a role.

 

The Journalism Credentials of the Curmudgeonly Professor

Some of my faithful readers who have become accustomed to perusing a half dozen or so new photographs each day may be shocked to find out the Curmudgeonly Professor Blog has turned into a journalistic and commentating masterpiece.  Lest you might think I have no credentials in journalism, let me elucidate.  When I was ten years old, I hand printed a two page newspaper and circulated it to my family.  When I was a junior in high school, I was editor of the school paper, circulation about 300.  One of my most important pieces was an editorial suggesting we turn the study hall into a pool hall since Funk's Pool Hall was several blocks away.  This was done on April Fool's Day, so I was not chastised, but I still think it would have done much to improve the quality of life at Powell High School.

When I was a senior in high school, I was editor of the school annual.  We had a faculty sponsor who was supposed to oversee us and pay attention to what we were doing but the only time we saw her was when we finished the annual and turned it over to the printer.  At the age of 16, I went to Casper and negotiated the publishing contract.  Since we were over budget, I asked the principal if we could have a senior work day so we could raise the money needed, and he agreed, so I spent a day hacking weeds at the transmission tower of KPOW, the local radio station.

After I graduated, I got a job for four months with the Park County Sentinel, a twice-weekly free paper, with an energetic editor.  One of my jobs, having just turned 17, was to sell advertising.  I remember going up one side of Powell WY's main street, with the urbane editor of the Powell Tribune on my tail, making sarcastic remarks about what I was doing.  I did draw up a number of creative ads which Powell merchants, many of whom I had known from school, accepted.  Then I left for the University of Wyoming and the Park County Sentinel folded.  But it was the most fun job I ever had.

There is nothing I would have liked better than to have had time for working on the college paper, but my 40 hour per week schedule of doing janitor work didn't allow even time to sleep and go to class.  But my sophomore year, I abruptly changed my major to journalism and sat through several classes.  Unfortunately, the Korean War was in full bloom, I was working 40 hours per week, not knowing when I would be drafted, and I just quit going to class.  Thus ended my college career in journalism.

Thus ended my journalism training, but not my writing career.  During my decades as an economist, I wrote thousands of pages of boring, irrelevant, and scarcely-read research monographs.  I only wished that I could have been writing history books or scandal articles for the National Enquirer.  But I had five kids and my wife sort of expected me to at least make enough money to buy corn flakes.

Which brings me up to the present day.  I should properly call myself a journalist-commentator.  Journalists report the facts, so to speak, as they interpret them, free of bias, prejudice, and objective accuracy.  Some commentators spew forth bias, prejudice, bile, and sheer nonsense since many commentators consider themselve entertainers as they rack up millions of dollars.  So far, I haven't made any money and am not likely to do so.  However, my role in this blog has devolved into commentating on the news.  I may try doing so for two or three more times before I give up and go back to just posting photos.

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Daily Newspapers on March 1 2012

By overwhelming popular request (2 people), the Curmudgeonly Professor is bringing back the informative and inspiring commentary on the contents of the daily papers.  We begin first with the St. George Spectrum:

• My horoscope, which is my infallible guide to each day's activities says, "Without intending to, you could be sarcastic and cop an attitude."  Really? Sarcastic?   Well, I never! How do they know this stuff?  And I learned in the 7th grade that I had a bad attitude which kept me out of the Junior Honor Society.  I had no idea.  Yet, today's horoscope adds "Your smile draws many people."  How can a sarcastic geezer with a bad attitude draw many people?  You figure it out.
• For the sake of art, the AP is reporting that a 340 ton "chunk of granite" is being moved 105 miles to the LA County Museum of Art.  Wow.  Who knew you needed 340 tons of granite for the sake of art.
• An acid reflux victim testifies in an ad that he was tortured with indigestion for 40 years but now found a magic cure.  You mean they didn't tell the MDs that in Med school?
• Now to the comic strip Pickles: Opal says to Earl, "Thank you dear heart," to which Earl replies, "You're welcome, lovely liver."  They agree pet names may leave "something to be desired." I once called my wife a "precious tomato" much to the delight of some of my granddaughters, and it has sort of stuck as a precious term of endearment for special occasions.
• The casinos in Mesquite NV, a mere skip and a jump through the Virgin River Canyon away from St. George, are advertising chances at $10,000 cash and "hot seat drawings" of $200 to lure faithful LDS members from St. George to go sin in Mesquite.  But the casino did provide the Spectrum with two full-page ads, not to be sneezed at in a tight ad market.

That is pretty much it for the Spectrum. No bile-filled letters to the ed or especially interesting obits today, so we move on to USA Today: (SLCity papers won't be here till 9 or after, whenever the spirit moves the carrier to get them out).

• Facebook is embarking on "ad evolution" according to Scott Martin, as they "get a new way to reach social network's users." Get ready for the ad blizzard!
• Fed Chair Bernanke played Scrooge about future declines in unemployment "without stronger economic growth."  When the Fed eyebrow twitches or the Fed chair sneezes, the markets throw up.  I learned that in economics.
• If you fly first class on Virgin Air to London, the flight attendants have been trained to communicate only by "whispering."  So remember to stick in your hearing aids.
• Fannie Mae begging for $4.6B to cover more losses as defaults grow and mortgage interest payments fall, now bringing the Fannie Mae bailout to a gazillion or more.
• USA Today crossword piece of cake today.  But yesterday? I'm used to doing the USA Today Xword puzzle in about 10 min. flat.  So yesterday, some clown puzzle demon throws in the following: rabbit sized rodent: agouti; dispatch vessel, aviso; badgerlike mammal, ratel; common man of ancient Rome, pleb.  I ask you, is this fair?  The USA Today puzzle is supposed to be a soporific, a gentle puzzle to calm the nerves while half asleep, not a reminder that the evil NYTimes Saturday puzzle is close at hand.
• Now on to sports:  Red Sox and Yankees still monumentally hacked off at each other, no brotherly love among multimillionaires.  Then on to other major league baseball, nascar, and stuff the Curmudgeonly Professor doesn't bother with.
• Now the front page: Apple worth $500 B.  Think about it.  But the long-run rule I used to tell my classes is that "every dynasty will fall.  sooner or later."  Apple may well be quite a long, long, way later.  But, like Kodak and a zillion others, eventually something, someone, or new technology will catch up with them.  Meanwhile, enjoy your iPads, iPhones, and ProBooks.  They've changed the world.  Now, no one speaks to each other.  No one knows how to write. Groups of people consist of groups of people with iPads and iPhones twiddling with them, ignoring everyone else, thumbs texting, smudging their glass panels. Playing Words and Angry Birds.

That's it for today.  It's hard work being curmudgeonly, geezerly, sarcastic, and having a bad attitude all at once.  But you can go forth into the day assured that you have all the knowledge you need to succeed, influence people, and make zillions of $$$.  Have a nice day.

The Curmudgeonly Professor Reads the Daily Newspapers on February 29, 2012

The Curmudgeonly Professor realizes that he has been derelict in his duties in informing his faithful readers about what is going on in the world, as gleaned from the daily newspapers.  People who write blogs about how to do blogs keep telling us that your blog must be informative, providing information that inspires, informs, educates, and entertains one's readers.  I apologize for not living up to this lofty expectation.  So here is a summary of the good stuff out of today's four newspapers that I take.

First, from the St. George Daily Spectrum.  The best thing in the Spectrum this morning is the Pickles cartoon, which for the comics illiterates, is a cartoon about two geezer retirees, Opal and Earl.  The creator is a genius at getting inside the minds of older retired people.  Today, Earl gets out of bed, stretches, and reminisces about his former purpose of getting up: to go to work.  Now, however, as he goes to lie down on the couch, his purpose of getting up is to go take a nap.  You may not understand how true this (this being an indefinite antecedent) is unless you have been there.  Other than that, the best feature of the Spectrum is that the daily funnies are printed in color.  The obits usually take up a bunch of room since Spectrum obit writers tend to include a full-scale biography of the deceased, starting in grade school and continuing through successions of marriages, divorces, jobs, moves, and finishing often, for ladies at least, with lists of how many quilts and afghans they made for each of their 72  grand children and great grand children.

Now to USA Today.  Here is a gleaning of the best of the best from USA Today, one of my favorite newspapers. 

• Hallmark has released a themed collection of 48 everyday cards featuring Justin Bieber, who turns 18.  I knew he is some teen aged heartthrob, but I'm still in the Sinatra-Spike Jones-Doris Day era.
• Lindsay Lohan will not be "clubbing" any more, as she has learned her lesson doing public service at the morgue.
• Ten shows to watch or skip in TV are listed, which doesn't do me much good since I only watch NBA, NFL, Rio Bravo reruns, and political bloviators.
• According to Craig Wilson  in "The Final Word," class lectures may be passe since you can package the stuff on YouTube or iTunes.  Having lectured for 45 years, I can testify that the only things my students remembered and recited back to me years later  were examples of my classic stories.  But not knowing what else to do, I kept at it anyway even though I knew full well many of my students didn't know enough to graduate even though they marched in commencement.
• According to Fashion Forward, Paltrow, Streep, Mara, Bejo (whoever she is) were the best of the Oscar fashion parade.  Diaz had the best necklace, a $560K Tiffany emerald cut diamond right up there with Newt's half million $ jewelry bill, and Jolie had the best lips. Jolie's slit skirt was not mentioned.
• The top ten TV shows in viewer counts were listed for each day.  I scanned these quickly, realized I had never watched any of them.
• Subway is giving away a free chocolate chip cookie today to celebrate Leap Day with any purchase.
• If there were no leap years, the calendar would be 'scrambled', according to Dan Vergano.
• The Dow closed above 13,000, for whatever that means to the unemployed, the homeless, and the GOP.
• On the political front, Santorum is throwing up, Gingrich is promising $2.50 gas if we elect him Prez, Romney is "sighing with relief," as the GOP marathon stumbles wearily on to its inevitable conclusion. No mention of what Ron Paul is doing today.
• In sports, a remorseful Dwayne Wade says he didn't mean to break Kobe's nose.
• Nascar continues to befuddle me.
• In Salt Lake City, a massive Gun Show is advertised at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy with, get this, "a SEMI load of Wholesale AMMO and Thousands of Guns."  Holy Cow! Just what we need to stimulate the economy! A SEMI load! Thousands of Guns!
• In Wyoming, the legislature (which I worked for for three years once upon a time) "shot down the doomsday bill" which would have "set up a task force to create a strategy for a replacement state currency and a military, complete with an aircraft carrier."  Turns out the aircraft carrier was injected as humor in attempt to kill the bill.  But isn't the people's democracy wonderful?
• Utah Jazz working for high position in the lottery.

We've used up too much space already.  But just ask yourself, how many of these valuable tidbits would you have known about without this wonderful commentary and summary of the day's news?  Freedom of the press is an anchor of democracy, no matter whether we like what is printed or not, and so we cherish this gift.  People who threaten to cancel their subscriptions when they read something they don't like, or which angers them, miss the point.

The Curmudgeonly Professor's Ode to the Daily Newspapers

We take four daily newspapers: The St. George Spectrum, USA Today, and the two Salt Lake papers, The Deseret News, and the Salt Lake Tribune.  My wife complains about the huge bills for these papers and thinks we should just read them on line.  However, there are certain features and advantages to having the print copies around.  For one thing, you can feel happy that you are responsible for cutting down more trees, using up fuel to haul the Salt Lake papers 300 miles in the middle of the night through snow and ice to St. George, get a paper carrier out of bed to drive around and make a feeble toss out his car window that usually ends up on the end of the driveway.  I used to take a few more papers, like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. However, when the US Postal Service began to go down the tubes and they raised postage for newspapers to astronomical rates, I had to give these up.  Too bad, because the Washington Post always had the best funnies.  I required all my students for decades to subscribe to the student rate for the WS Journal, and many often said the most useful part of their college education was learning to read it, interpret all the data, and get the general drift of business and economic news.  I warned them, however, not to pay any attention to the far-right main editorial page except for entertainment purposes. 

Another advantage to having so many papers is that they tend to pile up and cause consternation in the mind of my dear spousal unit.  However, have you tried to do a crossword puzzle on a computer or Kindle screen? Just doesn't work.  My Saturday NYTimes Xword puzzle ends up being half black with strikeouts and writeovers so that unless I have the letter memorized in a particular box, and have an approximate idea of what the box number is, I have a tough time finishing the puzzle.  I never give up on the Saturday NY Times puzzle, however, even though I gag every time I read some hotshot who writes on his blog that it took him nine minutes flat to solve it, and that without having to look anything up.  Aside from that, trying to read anything on my Kindle means that the battery is always going dead, and reading on my computer means being hunched over, squinting, and torturing my herniated back disc.

 So I persevere in my love for newspapers so I can yell and cuss at the contents and haul the papers out to the trash, feeling guilty for not being green.  But we all know the litany: environmentalists are all nuts anyway, according to some learned politicians.  Besides, where else can you read so many obituaries, study the comics, read all the inane letters to the editor, and find out little-known tidbits about your community?  So three cheers for the daily papers.

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.

Are the Print Media a Dying Relic of the Past?

News comes today, not intending a partial pun, that Salt Lake City's Deseret News is paring its staff in big chunks, changing its leadership, moving its office, and going in new directions to try and salvage whatever can be salvaged in today's spreading print media demise.  My grandfather, who had a 3d grade education, became self educated and subscribed to a wide variety of magazines and newspapers.  His favorites were National Geographic and the Deseret News, which he received by mail at his farm in northwestern Wyoming.  Our grandparents faithfully saved the "funny papers" from the DNews, so I was a DNews reader beginning in the 1930s.

A number of major city dailies have already "bit the dust."  Want ad revenue has diminished because of the internet.  Amazon announced that ebooks sold 180 copies for every 100 print copies, and that Amazon expected that ebook paperback books would outsell print paperback books in a few short months.  The character of magazines has been sharply altered, typically without much fanfare, but with obvious intent to appeal to more readers.  The tidbit-multiple news section-format of the weekly news magazines of a half century ago has given way to portfolios of photos and articles on timely issues.  Network local news proograms are similarly sufffering.  I have weaned myself away from the 10:00 clock news for some time now as I have tired of the focus on drive-by shootings, traffic accidents, home fires, and about 10 minutes of ads out of a total of 30 minutes of "news."  I got tired of waiting for 27 1/2 minutes to get, maybe, 120 seconds of sports news at the end of the program.  The nature of major network news programs, following in the honored footsteps of television news giants, is obviously also shifting.  There just isn't much incentive to follow regular local and national network news, or newspapers, when we have already seen the latest details on the internet hours before.

Kodak almost died a complete death when it failed to anticipate the digital revolution and hung on to film far too long.  Textbook publishers are clinging to their monopoly positions in marketing $150-300 textbooks in the face of the ebook revolution.  And why would you want to cart a dozen books around with you, let alone 3,500 books, when you can load them all on your ebook reader and have access to technical information about medicine, engineering, economic forecasting, or any other subject, when you are away from home and libraries and need to know something?

The print media are in about the same phase of their storied existence as were the harness industry, the film and film camera industries, and numerous other industries that shot themselves in the foot by stubbornly clinging to tradition and failing to ride new waves.  Think : auto industry.  Libraries full of shelves of print journals.  Law libraries full of tomes.  Research is now done with one question to a major search engine like Google instead of sending research assistants off to the library and, beginning with the card catalogue, search for the volumes in the stacks, copy information by hand before the Xerox machine, and, hours later, showing up at the office with an often incomplete set of references.

We are just now trying to catch the vision of what a comprehensive digitized society we are now in, and the incredible level of digitizing we will soon see as the transcript of the world will be reduced to thumbnail size storage cards.  No more concerns about the vast library of Alexandria.  We may not like to give up our daily print papers, our weekly magazines, our 10:00 p.m. news, our written letters to our children and parents, our privacy.  But we will be whittled away into shavings of the past unless we ride this wave and see what our incredible future is going to be.  The other day I took back a two-year old phone system to Costco, with no receipt.  Costco looked me up on their computer.  It didn't matter which of many Costco stores I may have purchased it from.  Costco has a record of every roll of toilet paper you ever bought from them.  And five minutes later I had my money back and went and bought a new phone.  We cannot even imagine what we have in store.  But those with vision, inventiveness, and a genius for asking simple questions of vital importance to all of us and figuring out simple ways to answer them for the benefit of all society, are about to take us on an exhilarating ride.  You may as well prepare yourself for it.