Words to live by now that Prop. 8 has been upheld by the California Supreme Court

Attributed to Beatrice Campbell (1865-1940), an English actress:

My dear, I don't care what they do, so long as they don't do it in the street and scare the horses.

From a more-pungent-than-average collection of APHORISMS, QUOTATIONS, AND WISECRACKS by Jane A. Leavell.

Reading yet another post-mortem of dead-tree newspapers, on a newspaper website, no less

I usually try to ignore my own witticisms, but this one may be worth recording because it captures a moment in time. It started with an email from one of my graduating students at Benedictine ...

>Doc,
> I'm sure you've seen this but I thought I'd
> send you a link just in case:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/05/08/DI2009050803038.html?hpid=discussions
>
> Funny in a variety of ways, primarily because I found the
> article through a link Rich Miller put up on Twitter which
> he affectionately titled "Kurtz is full of crap"

And I replied:

Thanks, _____. I hadn't seen it. I like Kurtz' columns (I like Rich, too, but they're very different breeds of cat). Anyway, I love the lede to his story in The Post this morning, the one they were keying off on in the forum you linked to. I'll quote it:

Lack of Vision To Blame for Newspaper Woes
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 11, 2009

Is this it?

Is the product you are accustomed to holding in your hands a relic, soon to go the way of silent movies and manual typewriters?

I have been one of the industry's most fervent optimists, convinced that somehow, some way, newspapers would find a path to survival. But the last few weeks have shaken my belief, suggesting that what I find indispensable -- a daily compendium delivered to your doorstep -- may be left behind by history and public indifference.

... and so on. Great lede, isn't it?

But ... how's this for irony? I'm reading it on line, and the only product I'm holding in my hand is a mouse. I'm part of the problem Kurtz is complaining about.

-- Doc

Fw: Fw: Proofreading is a dying art! :-)

From the San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune (and one of those email messages that ricochet around the Internet:

----- Forwarded Message ----->
>Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
>
>This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial
>Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the
>editor realized that what he was reading was impossible!!! They put in a
>correction the next day.
>________________________________________
>Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
>
>No, really? Ya think?
>---------------------------------------------
>
>Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
>
>Now that's taking things a bit far!
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
>
>What a guy!
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Miners Refuse to Work after Death
>
>'good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-so's!
>------------------------------------------------------
>
>Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
>
>See if that works any better than a fair trial!
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>War Dims Hope for Peace
>
>I can see where it might have that effect!
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
>
>Ya think?!
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
>
>Who would have thought!
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
>
>They may be on to something!
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
>
>You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?
>Oklahoma's new construction program!
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
>
>He probably IS the battery charge!
>----------------------------------------------
>
>New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
>
>Weren't they fat enough?!
>-----------------------------------------------
>
>Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
>
>That' s what he gets for eating those beans!
>-------------------------------------------------
>
>Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
>
>Do they taste like chicken?
>---------------------------- ---------------------------------------
>Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
>
>Chainsaw Massacre all over again!
>***************************************************
>
>Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
>
>Boy, are they tall!
>*******************************************
>And the winner is ....
>
>Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
>
>Did I read that right?
>***************************************************
>
>
>Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity
>and send this to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a
>chuckle). We all need a good laugh, at least once a day!

Grateful Dead, Barton Hall, Cornell U., Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University, May 8, 1977

Grateful Dead Live at Barton Hall, Cornell University on 1977-05-08 (May 8, 1977)



http://www.archive.org/details/gd1977-05-08.mtx.seamons.97274.sbeok.flac16

Set 1

New Minglewood Blues
Loser
El Paso
They Love Each Other
Jack Straw
Deal
Lazy Lightnin' ->
Supplication
Brown Eyed Women
Mama Tried
Row Jimmy
Dancing In The Street

Set 2

Scarlet Begonias ->
Fire On The Mountain
Estimated Prophet
Saint Stephen ->
Not Fade Away ->
Saint Stephen ->
Morning Dew

Encore
One More Saturday Night

COMM 390: 'Who Won Feminism?' -- this won't be on the final (but 5 extra credit points if you see this, read the story and quote it on your essay)

... because it sure as hell would have been on the final if The Washington Post had run it before I made out the final exam question!

Naomi Wolf, author and political consultant, has written several important books on feminism. She has an article in today's Post suggesting the new face of feminism is the "Cosmo girl" you see in Cosmopolitan magazine: "The stereotype of feminists as asexual, hirsute Amazons in Birkenstocks that has reigned on campus for the past two decades has been replaced by a breezy vision of hip, smart young women who will take a date to the right-on, woman-friendly sex shop Babeland." All of this has major implications for what we studied this semester.

Wolf's article is a review of a biography of Helen Gurley Brown, "a young self-described 'mouseburger' who was raised in Arkansas during the Depression, who never graduated from college but wrote a bestseller that sold in 28 countries and who became, for a quarter-century, the voice of one of America's most influential women's magazines." The magazine, of course, is Cosmo. Brown's bio is by Jennifer Scanlon, a women's studies prof at Bowdoin College.

You've got to love that word "mouseburger."

But the value of Wolf's reveiw is in her description of what she calls "second wave feminism," the women's lib movement of the 1970s that won major legislative victories for women's rights but lost the public relations battle:

... second wave feminism, loosely described, was sincere in its emotional tone, reformist (though many would say radical) in its goals and middle-class or upper-middle-class and overwhelmingly white in terms of its most visible spokeswomen. Its great strength lay in analyzing entrenched gender-based power and challenging it politically, ushering in the great triumphs that made women's lives today possible -- from reproductive rights to Title IX to laws against sexual assault and domestic violence.

But its shortcomings grew more visible with wear: Second wave theory and practice tended toward humorlessness. The movement often saw men and women in opposition (rather than seeing sex discrimination as the enemy). It sometimes viewed domesticity and family life as a trap rather than a potential source of joy for both sexes. It could be puritanical about sexuality, and it often cast a skeptical eye on what it saw as women's frivolous pursuit of romance, fun and fashion.

Wolf contrasts this with "third wave" feminism, which she finds equally in Cosmo and First Lady Michelle Obama:

It has led to an embrace of what was once so politically suspect -- the notion that you can be a "lipstick lesbian" or a "riot grrrl" if you want to be, that you can choose your persona and your freedom for yourself.

But that very individualism, which has been great for feminism's rebranding, is also its weakness: It can be fun and frisky, but too often, it's ahistorical and apolitical. As many older feminists justly point out, the world isn't going to change because a lot of young women feel confident and personally empowered, if they don't have grass-roots groups or lobbies to advance woman-friendly policies, help women break through the glass ceiling, develop decent work-family support structures or solidify real political clout.

I'm not sure I buy all of this. (And Wolf shows herself a "second-wave" feminist in the end.) But it's one of the best short critiques of the feminist movement overall that I've seen lately.

COMM 390: Final exam, Monday, May 4

COMM 390: Advertising/Gender Images

Spring Semester – May 4, 2009

Final Exam

Write four to five pages (12pt Times New Roman or Verdana) on this question:

Is advertising as terrible as Arthur Berger and Jean Kilbourne seem to make it out to be? In “Ads, Fads & Consumer Culture,” Berger says advertising helps create a culture in which we try to go out and buy our identity. In “Can’t Buy My Love,” Kilbourne says the portrayal of women in advertising has a negative impact on society and societal relationships. Are these critiques accurate, or do they give advertising too much credit by exaggerating its impact on society? Consider Berger’s argument and Kilbourne’s independently of each other and in combination. (You may decide to accept parts of their reasoning and reject other parts.) Throughout the course of this class have your views changed regarding advertising? Positively or negatively? If so, how?

Quote from the books, from specific ads and from other sources to support the points you make. While this is not a documented essay, you should attribute quotes to their sources and give page numbers, when appropriate, in parentheses after the quote. The essay is due during our regularly scheduled final exam Monday, May 4, in Dawson 220.

Pete Ellertsen, instructor, 211 Beata Hall, pellertsen@sci.edu

Do marketing guru, Miss USA California stray off message?

John Tantillo, a branding and marketing consultant who goes by the name the "Marketing Doctor," has waded into the kerfuffle over Miss California's recent gay-bashing at a nationwide beauty pageant. She's the one who told celebrity gossip maven Perez Hilton she doesn't approve of gay marriage and later cut a spot for the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay rights lobby.

Tantillo's remarks came in his "Winner and Loser of The Week" column in The Marketing Doctor, his eponymous blog. The winner: Apple Corp. The loser: Miss California.

Basically, Miss [Carrie] Prejean earns this week’s Brand Loser title because she showed that she was not Miss USA material —her brand characteristics simply did not match the job description.

It wasn’t that she spoke her mind or answered honestly and that this was wrong. Right and wrong have nothing to do with it.

It was the way she said what she said that disqualified her from consideration for the crown.

By taking a stand on a controversial issue without considering her audience, Prejean forgot her role as a representative of the Miss USA organization, and the "diplomacy and leadership" that go with it, according to Tantillo. In a word, she should have pulled her punches.

On Fox News, Tantillo elaborated on his point. He said she should resign her crown as Miss California if she wants to do political advocacy:

Now, Miss Prejean is using the Miss California platform to promote her own beliefs and her own brand –not the state she is supposed to be representing. As a result she is not upholding the responsibilities of her crown. She is, after all, Miss California, a representative of a state and a people that are many things but unanimously anti-gay marriage is not one of them.

That garnered him 261 responses (as of Saturday afternoon). A sampling:

A woman doesn’t loose her right to freedom of speech because she wins a beauty contest. We all know Miss California didn’t win because of PC BS, and it makes many of us hate liberals more than ever. Think about that PR.

* * *

Well said. Her answer lacked tact.

By being Miss California, she is taking on a role no longer as an individual citizen but more like that of a public figure that is representative of a diverse group of people. She is supposed to be a leader and role model. ...

* * *

is Obama narrow-minded and ignorant?
His opinion is the same as Miss Ca.

Why does everyone not know this?

* * *

what a load of disguised PC hogwash ! I may or may not agree with her views but she shows some backbone….

* * *

Miss California represents the majority as voted on the gay marriage stand in the State of California and probably in most, if not all states in the USA. Seems to me the real haters are those that burned and vandalized churches as a protest of the vote. Miss California was asked the question and she answered it honestly, without the malice of the article writer or many of the posters.

* * *

who are you to opine? Marketing department of America? Give me a break - you are just another snake like Specter.

Let me give you a reason why I think you qualify for coward or enabler ….that’s a person that makes excuses for other people’s unhealthy behavioral problems.

don’t agree…think about it - what do you think a man marrying a man does? do you not know about the diseases that stem from this union? why shouldn’t we speak out against it?

* * *

Wow - judging by the hateful comments on this board, I’d say the Republican party is swirling down the drain, only supported by a small wacko fringe.

You jokers don’t have a clue, do you? You’re not even thinking about the article, just bleating about your hatred of ‘liberals’.

Stereotypical jagoffs.

* * *

Wow John! You really blew this one. Uh what happened to the pagent asked the question and she responded openly, honestly and with diplomacy. You are way off base here John.

To as honest and diplomatic as possible: I will never read your articles again. Your true colors are a’shinin’ as we say here in the right-winged, gun-toting, conspiritorial South.

* * *

John Tantillo doesn’t seem to understand that Miss California was not on stage to sell a product. Her response was about character - her OWN character - and she did not “sell” herself in any way by telling the truth, though Tantillo clearly thinks she should have compromised her own values when asked this question. She responded honestly, bravely and respectfully to a question that should not have been asked if there was only one “correct” viewpoint, and this is why her miscreant detractors will never truly be successful in diminishing her. I am proud of Miss Prejean. She should have won the pageant. We should have many more like her on capital hill.

* * *

So President Obama who is supposedly a diplomat and a leader provided the same answer as Miss California, but she is not Miss USA material. I suppose that means that Obama is not president material either.

Fair enough, I guess. But I don't think President Obama is Miss USA material, either. Nor am I sure that Tantillo was on message any more than Miss USA California.

COMM 390: Open thread, last class

If you had to sum up COMM 390 (images of women and men in advertising) in 25 words or less (and you do, because I'm assigning it now), what would you say? In other words, what’s the one most important thing you learned. Post your answer as a comment to this blog post.

COMM 209: Final exam

Our final exam will partly consist of covering the SpringFest free food day this noon in Angela Hall, so you'll want to go there as soon as I hand back your last stories (the ones on Joanna Beth Tweedy's presentation about her new novel). I'll keep banker's hours in my office during final exam week, and I'm always available by email. I check my Yahoo! account several times a day. The exam, posted below, is a takehome, but you have the option of coming in and writing it during the regularly scheduled period, from _____ to _____ Friday, May 8, in Dawson Hall.


COMM 209: Basic Newswriting
Spring Semester – May 8, 2009

Final Exam

Question 1. Write a story (50 points). During our last class period at noon Friday, May 1, the university’s annual SpringFest will be held in Angela Hall. Your assignment: Write a color story about the event in modified inverted pyramid newspaper style. Length: at least 750 to 1,000 words. Quote at least three sources. Organize it with a narrative lede, a nut graf that sums up your overall impression of the event and pertinent detail including quotes and description in the body of the story.

Question 2A. Self-reflective essay (25 points). How has your perception of yourself as a writer changed as a result of what we have studied in COMM 209? What was your overall sense of your writing before you took the course? How has that changed as a result of your reading, class discussion and the stories you wrote? How much have you used what you learned in COMM 209 in your other writing? Consider it in the context of what you knew at the beginning of the semester and what you know now. In grading this essay, I will evaluate the relevance of your discussion to the main goals and objectives of the course (which are listed in the syllabus); the detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the connections you make. Be specific.

Question 2B. News value (25 points). Attached to this exam is a story from Monday’s Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa. Evaluate it in terms of the elements of news value outlined by Tim Harrower in “Inside Reporting,” by Ken Blake of Middle Tennessee State University or any other standard reference. Be specific: How do specific elements of news value correspond to specific angles in the story?

-- Pete Ellertsen, instructor, 211 Beata Hall, pellertsen@sci.edu

The Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa.

[Link here to read the original story on the Quad-City Times' website.]

MAKING HISTORY IN IOWA
19 same-sex couples get marriage licenses in Scott County
Ed Tibbetts Posted: Monday, April 27, 2009 8:00 pm

History was made here Monday. It just looked rather ordinary.

By the end of the day, 19 same-sex couples got marriage licenses at the Scott County Recorder’s Office, the first day they could do so since the state Supreme Court overturned Iowa’s ban on gay marriage three weeks ago.

Yet, for all the uncertainty about what the day would bring, the fifth floor of the Scott County Admininstrative Center appeared as it usually does — except for the phalanx of reporters and photographers.

There weren’t the kind of wedding parties, complete with rice and champagne, that were seen in other states on the first day same-sex marriage licenses were handed out there.

There were no loud protests. No long lines out the door.

There were, simply, pairs of same-sex couples trickling into the building throughout the day. They made their application, then left with their licenses.

For Rich Hendricks, a 50-year-old pastor from Davenport, who got the first one, it was a moment of joy.

“It means equality,” he said.

The first couple to get a license together were Tearese Bomar, 22, and Shamera Page, 27, of Davenport. The two had hoped to get married Monday but had their waiver request denied by Scott County District Judge James Kelley.

Iowa law requires that a couple wait three days after getting a license to be married.

The pair’s application for a waiver did not offer the kind of “extraordinary circumstances” required, however, Scott County Recorder Rita Vargas said.

The two had simply said they waited for three years to get married and didn’t want to wait any longer, Vargas said.

The rejection didn’t bother Bomar. The two plan to be married later in the week.

“We waited three years,” she said. “We can wait three more days.”

The Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to allow same-sex marriage makes Iowa only the third state to do so. It’s the first in the Midwest.

Critics of the decision tried in the closing days of the legislative session to get Gov. Chet Culver to issue an executive order stopping the decision from going into effect. Culver’s office said he didn’t have the power.

Also, opponents of gay marriage urged people to take petitions to county recorders asking them not to issue licenses. Vargas said she had received a half-dozen petitions by Monday with 97 signatures in all.

“I understand how they may feel, but I can’t pick and choose which laws I can ignore and which ones I can observe,” she said.

Other recorders in the Quad-City area also reported getting a small number of applications. Clinton County had two, and Cedar and Jackson counties each got one application from same-sex couples.

Representatives of One Iowa, the advocacy group, was on hand in the Quad-Cities, giving out bouquets to the couples.

The group had people at three dozen courthouses, according to a representative.

A woman who wasn’t affilliated with One Iowa also dropped off a bouquet, and two women briefly appeared in the administrative center’s parking lot selling T-shirts reading, “Iowa I do.”
There was little sign of protest at the building, although a sheriff’s deputy was posted on the fifth floor as a precaution.

The only demonstrator as of midday was a man who stationed himself at 4th and Gaines streets, holding a sign deploring homosexuality.

“Man can make all the laws they want and write all the licenses they want. But God’s law stands above man eternally. It always has. Every nation, society that’s decided sodomy is OK, fell shortly thereafter,” said Doug Mott, of Davenport.

Mott said the people who are opposed to the ruling but weren’t out protesting with him should be “ashamed” of themselves.

Some critics of the decision have said their resources are better spent seeking a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

For the most part, the couples appearing in Scott County were Iowans. But two Rock Island men, Curtis Harris, 50, and Daren Adkisson, 39, got a license Monday, too.
Iowa does not have a residency requirement for a marriage license.

Even though they won’t be recognized by their home state as married because Illinois doesn’t allow same-sex marriages, Harris said they will see themselves as married when they are joined next Sunday.

They said they hope other states do as Iowa has.

“We’re just like everybody else,” Adkisson said. “It’s just fair.”

While all the attention was paid to the same-sex couples getting licenses, there also were heterosexual couples seeking to marry Monday, too.

The first couple at the counter, in fact, were a man and woman seeking a license. There were nine such couples Monday.

There are several same-sex marriages planned for Sunday and Monday at Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad-Cities, including more than a dozen couples who are from the Minneapolis area.

The weddings will be historic, although not the first.

There was a short period in 2007, when a Polk County judge ruled against the state ban, prompting some couples to go to the state capital and get a license.

Only one couple, Sean and Tim McQuillan, were married before the judge stayed the decision. Sean McQuillan is a native of Bettendorf.

They said a few weeks ago, after the court’s decision, they are happy to be joined by others.

Posted in Government-and-politics, Iowa, Local on Monday, April 27, 2009 8:00 pm Updated: 10:23 am. Tags: Marriage License, Recorder's Office, Same-sex Marriage License, Iowa Supreme Court,