Election Day 2009

Go vote. Daily News’ Michael Daly points out how it becomes even more important to vote during an otherwise moribund campaign season:

Who wants to choose between giving Bloomberg what he should not have and depriving the city of a mayor it needs?

The impulse is not to vote at all.

Fight it. Look at it as a challenge.

Anybody can vote in a historic contest like the last presidential election.

Then, you felt part of history being made.

The test comes when it just feels like history being perpetuated.

What we need to remember then is that the right to vote is what defines us, not the particular candidate we choose. [….]

Today’s election seems a yawn.

Unless you consider that “The Star-Spangled Banner” we sing about before every ballgame as well as upon a new warship’s arrival is a symbol of freedom.

And freedom begins with the vote.

The sailors and Marines on the New York sail into harm’s way to defend freedom. The least we can do is exercise it.

The arrival of the USS New York got big attention. The NY Times’ coverage includes video on their website.

An interesting look at Gracie Mansion, from the Daily News.

Fascinating story about a Bronx-born woman, Linda Noel Kawabata, who is a sake sommelier.

Umm, trying not to think about work while not at work, personally, but NY Times’ John Tierney has an interesting column on workplace gossip and the science behind it.

A whole article on jaywalking and how other media cover jaywalking, in Slate – interesting; one of my many pet peeves is seeing people cross the street at Rector and Trinity in downtown, even though a bus is right about to hit them.

Fascinating article on Al Gore in Newsweek – how his strengths and weaknesses are what make him uniquely him; he is a lot more open-minded and hopeful about climate change and environmentalism than I thought.

November!

Oh my – It’s November! The year’s going by so fast.

And, it’s… National Novel Writing Month!

Hat tip to my friend NW – “Ice-Skating Bear Kills Circus Head” – dramatic headline. Plus, apparently, Russian circuses train bears to skate and play ice hockey. Seriously, there is a reason why you don’t make animals wear skates.

A profile on a neighborhood in Brooklyn: Sheepshead Bay in the NY Times.

Besides having been Halloween last night, and the whole re-gaining an hour, and the Yankees beating Phillies, we had the NY Marathon today! Congrats to winners and participants (who are winners for doing this!). Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia as number one for the women and Meb Keflezighi of USA as number one for the men. Hooray for Meb, since he’s been at this for quite awhile, and we haven’t seen a USA man in the number spot for so long! In fact, USA men dominated the top ten!

Some other great stories from the Marathon, as usual – including the covering the wheelchair racers, Joan Benoit Samuelson – the former USA champion marathoner, Jorge Torres – a possible American future in American distance running, and another participant: George Hirsch, who at 75 and chairman of NY Road Runners Club – the people behind the Marathon. He looked pretty good running when I was watching it on tv.

A great story on the story behind the wreaths worn by the winners of the Marathon, made by Jane Muhrcke.

And, boo to marathon cheaters; they even deny that they do that kind of thing! The nerve!

The complicated digital library anti-trust matter. Oh, Google.

NY Times’ Janet Maslin on Otto Penzler’s project on getting mystery writers to write about their characters. Fascinating stuff.

Last but not least: an interesting NY Times article on South Koreans and the issue of racial discrimination and xenophobia.

Last Week in October

Controversy in California: whether the Chinese American kids learn to write simplified Chinese characters or traditional characters – which has some political implications (complicated, when you consider the whole China v. Taiwan thing).

What Lawyers Can Learn from Sisyphus” – interesting article on how to persist in the face of difficulty. Then again, it’s not often that I see a reference to Sisyphus.

What a sad possible outcome about Amelia Earheart. Of course, crash landing on a coral reef would be a likelier outcome than, say, what Star Trek: Voyager once proposed had happened to her (kidnapped by aliens, of course).

Slate’s Ad Report Card column by Seth Stevenson analyzes tat Levi’s commercial, which has someone narrating a Walt Whitman poem amidst arty cinematography and – of course – people wearing Levi jeans.

Well, as seen in the video below, there was the weird thing at Grand Central, last year-ish, as a complement to the dancing at a Belgian train station.