Friday, July 24, 2015

Have I Mentioned That Journalism Is Dead?

Journalism is dead, especially in my city.

Case in point: someone on Facebook, I think, linked to an article that they agreed with (I assume) about changing a street name here in Cincinnati. Why? T'was named after a horrible segregationist racist Vice President!!!!  The horror!

Original letter to the editor: It's time to dump Calhoun Street
Calhoun Street was named after John C. Calhoun, a two-time vice president of the United States (under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson), a U.S. senator from South Carolina, and a staunch supporter of slavery and states' rights. He is credited by many with having started the Civil War, even though he died in 1850.
I have wondered how a major city in a free state came to name a street after such a man, who had zero local ties. Quick searches of Google reveal that in 1828, a city in Illinois changed its name from Calhoun to Springfield; a bike shop in Minnesota is changing its name from Calhoun Bikes and op-eds are being published in the Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina) suggesting that it rename its Calhoun Street.
The realignment of Taft Road and Calhoun Street in the middle of the last century has presented a great opportunity to fairly easily drop "Calhoun" in favor of native son, President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft.
As an added bonus, it would be a great opportunity to more publicly feature the statue of Taft that now stands outside the University of Cincinnati's College of Law at the current corner of Calhoun and Clifton Avenue.
The time to do this is now.

Jack Martin, Clifton Heights

I, ever trusting my instincts, thought "BS' and tried in vain to locate some research online that either corroborated or refuted the claim. The comments were, of course, hilarious and frustratingly stupid, but there was some back and forth about who the namesake actually was.

Then, when attempting another web search for truth, I found that the paper finally, after the fact was informed that the writer WAS WRONG!

Editor's note, 9:20 a.m. Monday: Kevin Grace, head of archives and rare books at the University of Cincinnati, says the letter writer is incorrect: "There's no historical evidence at all for it being named for John C. Calhoun. There is some evidence that it was named for a Revolutionary War pensioner named Calhoun who was allocated a parcel of land that abutted the McMillan subdivison." Military veterans were often given the opportunity to buy land, Grace said. The street on the south border of the UC campus was called Calhoun before John C. Calhoun came into prominence, he said.

I was not shocked, after all, why would the have place a few phone calls to actual historians to be sure BEFORE they published the editorial letter, right? Crazy! Actually perform journalism? Ha!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

The Big Birthday Has Come and Gone

50 has arrived, and I'm none the worse for the wear (although the weekend of celebration reminded me how easy weight can return), and as I haven't posted for a while, I thought I'd take a few minutes to say Hi!

It was fun to have a little celebration, to sing a little, eat a lot, and get some unexpected gifts from some unexpected folks. I recommend it whole-heartedly.

All in all, remember one thing: getting older beats the alternative!

Here's a picture of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch to ponder as a reminder that I received Go Set A Watchman as a gift, and the dvd of the movie from which the photo comes!

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Target Fail, Kroger Win? Nutrition Label Fun

This really belongs on my other blog, but it's also inline with my cynical commentary here: nutrition labels are crap!

I essentially gave up drinking pop (soda for those in other regions) three years ago  after giving it up for Lent. Maybe one a month since then, not a truly hard and fast rule ("more of a guideline, really") and mostly the hard stuff like Creme Soda when I bother, no diet crap if I'm drinking a pop now! A lot of Lipton's Diet Green Tea Mixed Berry.

I do drink these single sleeve energy put-in-your-water-bottle drinks, although never as directed. I use a big bottle, more like 30 oz.

 I started with Crystal Light's Energy brand, but they are never on sale it seems, so I switched primarily to Kroger's brand (btw, the "Yumberry" isn't). Today when charting my breakfast as a part of my 50 Days To 50 Years Old countdown,

I pulled out the Target brand my wife had purchased and discovered the old trick: nutrition labeling a serving that's not a whole serving. Kroger FTW:


You see that correctly, Target has the serving as a half packet so that they can say "5 calories per serving" on the front of the box. Wow. Just. Wow.