Monthly Archives: August 2005

The sun-leaning bias of weather reporters

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Whether NPR or FOX, the news reporters’ currency is fair, objective
reporting… except when it comes to the weather. As the New Yorker’s
“Dawn Patrol” (August 8/15, no longer online) pointed out, the weather
report is really for entertainment and reassurance value, not its
factual content. Newspapers and TV stations have ombudsmen and some
semblance of professional commitment to minimize the impact of
editorial opinion on news reporting, but all such pretensions are shed
when it comes to the weather.

Recently, for example, WBUR’s morning edition has had no problem
proclaiming “beautiful weather on tap today” (btw, why is weather
always “on tap” in WBUR-land;
is it ever really good enough to get drunk on?), even when the opinion
behind the claim is questionable. Highs in the upper 80s is
“beautiful”? Only if broadcasting live from the beach!

My point is simply that one man’s “beautiful day” is another’s
nightmare. Besides, how do you think the day feels when it’s judged to
be “beautiful” or, more commonly, not? Sure is a heavy expectation to
lay on a single day.

I remember arching an eyebrow at a series of New York Times weather
boxes that predicted “brilliant” weather for the day back in early
summer, 1997. Amazingly, the Times later ran an article somewhat
abashedly retracting its over-exuberant reporting (this was the Times,
after all). So, how about it WBUR — a little bit more objectivity in
your weather reporting? After all, highs in the mid-70s and low
humidity pretty much speaks for itself.

A Hazardous and Technically Unexplainable Journey to the Stratosphere

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Pedaling
home from work yesterday, I came upon this fairground ride set up in
the middle of Boston Common. According to the City of Boston’s official
press release, “The AeroBalloon will give Boston’s residents and
visitors a bird’s-eye
view of the city while our partnership will help support the programs
offered through the Fund for Parks and Recreation.”

and kerryandmitt come
running from health care and
taxes and it’s
summer

when the world is hazy-hot-humidful

the queer
marriage activists protest
far         and         wee

Cycling is not laziness

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Two recent NY Times opinion pieces (by Bob Herbert and Maureen Dowd)
have castigated President Bush for “cavorting” around on his ranch in
Texas while American troops are shot at in Iraq.

You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George W.
Bush’s door. If it did, would the president with the unsettling
demeanor of a boy king even bother to answer? Mr. Bush is the commander
in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now spends his days
happily riding his bicycle in Texas.

…quoth
Herbert today, who’s merely taking a page out of Dowd’s playbook. The
day before, Dowd had mentioned cycling (or “riding bikes,” to phrase it
more juvenilely) five times in her article titled “Biking Towards
Nowhere,” in which she plays off the mainstream liberal notion of Bush
as the “Boy in the Bubble.”

All fine and good, but do
they have to do so by equating cycling with childishness, as if it
would be any more adult or manly for Bush to be tearing up the
landscape in a dune buggy or his favorite pickup? The media really is fixated on Bush and his bicycles.

Alice Wolf serves ice cream to Riverside

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Our state rep, Alice Wolf,
came by the Putnam Gardens Community Center across the street from our
apartment yesterday to chat it up with her constituents and serve up
some mean ice cream (donated by Toscanini’s). She was accompanied by her interns and staff (who are fortunately much better with their digital cameras than I!).

It was a great chance to meet a lot of our neighbors and local activists, including candidate for city council Lawrence Adkins
(at left in picture). Rachel and I kicked around, hung out with our
next-door-neighbor Susan, and met some of our other neigbors for the
first time (sadly, since we’ve been there for almost 3 years!). The
neighborhood needs more of these events to bring everyone together.