I'm interrupting my DNC duties to point to the Hublog guide for the visiting media crowd.
I don't expect to be able to post much until after the DNC. If anything good comes up though, I'll try to put it up.
The Republican group Protest Warriors will be headed to NY for the RNC. While most protesters will be anti-Bush, this group is drawn from young Republicans eager to show the left that both sides can play the protest game. Well, at least in spirit, if not in numbers. Only about 200 warriors are expected.
Everything about this controversy, from the original comment to the reaction, is just plain entertaining.
Tom Wolfe's new book, I Am Charlotte Simmons is due in the fall. Here is an excerpt from Rolling Stone. And here's some background from the NY Post.
Remember what I said earlier about the Democratic party imploding? According to Maureen Dowd the process is well underway. And Instapundit says (and I agree) that even if Kerry wins, the Democrats could still lose.
In preparation for the DNC, the Washington Post checks out the local hangouts. Doyle's gets high marks.
Forget about Cheers, the tourist trap ruined by the popular 1980s sitcom. Doyle's is quintessential Boston, the perfect blend of politics, beer, baseball, beer, religion and . . . did I mention beer?
The charm of the place, they say, is that it goes light on the charm. That would go double for JJ Foley's which got an honorable mention in the article. Personally I prefer Foley's (Kingston or Dover, either will do.)
So what's happening with the anthrax letters investigation? After more than 5000 interviews, extensive laboratory work and the draining of a lake, it's still going strong.
In the Globe Ideas section, Ilan Stavans writes a rebuttal to the critics of Issac Bashevis Singer who say he sold out his ethnic roots.
The Globe media writer examines the new-style Herald. Front page editorials and screaming headlines seem to be the major complaints.
I don't mind the tabloid makeover as much as the shrinking local coverage. Comprehensive local reporting would excuse any excess in style. And maybe I'm wrong, but there seemed to be more local stories in the past than now.
But Jurkowitz was right about one thing: the Barnicle hire hasn't worked to increase readership. It was kind of like Kerry using Neil Diamond to bring in the youth vote.
How about a reality TV show about producers trying to come up with an idea for a reality TV show?
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of HTML was knighted by the Queen this week. Lee wrote the protocol as a way for physicists to collaborate over the existing non-graphical internet using hyperlinks to reference documents. It later became more widely used and known as the World Wide Web (and for a short time, the Information Superhighway, as Sky News unhappily reminds us. )
Medicare is reversing itself and defining obseity as a disease. This will have implications for coverage of weight related treatments that had, previously, been considered cosmetic.
Zoll has called for a monday morning meeting to get the ball rolling on expedited arbitration for the police contract dispute. He says that his only knowledge of the stalemate is what he has read in the papers.
On that subject, almost every one of the many news stories I've read on the dispute has included or ended with, "Menino has offered an 11.9 percent raise over four years. The cops are seeking nearly 17 percent."
Is that actually true? Has Menino offered 11.9 to the union? When was that put on the table exactly, and have the two sides been, at least in informal conversations, much closer to common ground than has been reported?
My point is that the real story is more complicated then that highly reported boilerplate gap would indicate, and the constant repeating of it doesn't do justice to the issue.
The search for Bobby Fischer has ended in Japan where he was taken into custody. Fischer, once a chess wizard but now a wackjob, was wanted for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in the early 90s. He'll be headed back to Washington to face charges.
Steven Hawking has a new theory on black holes. It may solve the black hole information paradox but because of an old bet, could cost Hawking an encyclopedia.
SanDisk is aiming to become the Kodak of the digital age.
There's an interesting dustup developing between Michael Moore and Pete Townsend. Then again, who cares.
The NYPD offered protesters a 'take it or leave it' option for the RNC. In Boston, DNC protesters faced with similar options are apparently deciding to 'leave it.'
The Times weighs in on credentialing bloggers for the conventions.
Is there really a DNC bathroom gap in the city? Don't most bars have bathrooms? Presumably that's where the delegates will be hydrating themselves.
An NEA survey has initiated a series of harrumphs in literary circles over the decline in literary reading. I don's see it. Just considering the growth and success of Borders and Barnes and Nobles stores argues against it.
One very interesting note from the survey: while reading declined, creative writing increased, 30%.
Joan Venocci writes a good column on the politics and delicate negotiations that led up to the Greenway plan.
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