Tom Bartel One of the few perks of this job, if you can call seeing a movie you have to write about a perk, is getting to see movie screenings before having to wait in line with the rest of the blockbuster fans. Tomorrow, while most of humanity is lined up to see if the Silver Surfer … Read more
It’s a barely kept secret that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are among the most searched terms on the internet. In fact, if you teamed “rehab” with “Lohan” last week, you got over 6.8 million Google references. That was, of course, topped this week with 6.9 Google hits on “Hilton” and “jail”. I’ve railed here … Read more
Lost in the loud wailing heard in our little journalistic glade over the clear-cutting of staff at the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press is any serious discussion about what’s being severed: Is it actually worth the efforts of the journalistic tree huggers? To some, the answer is a stentorian “No.” I got an email the … Read more
I wrote a post last week about the NY Times coming in to Minnesota and snatching a significant story about Minnesota doctors accepting money from drug companies…and then showing a greater propensity for prescribing those drugs to children. It was useful to me at the time for pointing out how lame our local gang over … Read more
Will someone please think of the children? I keep trying to quit, but it’s an addiction. I know it’s bad for me. It raises my blood pressure, makes me wheeze, and makes my head hurt. It kills brain cells and it’s bad for the people around me. No, it’s not cigarette smoking. I quit doing … Read more
The most emailed story of yesterday’s New York Times was a story about how doctors, particularly psychiatrists, were receiving payment from manufacturers of various drugs used to treat various psychiatric conditions. It detailed, in particular, how children were being prescribed powerful drugs, for non-indicated uses, and how the receipt of honoraria by the doctors was … Read more
Eugene Sit’s grandfather was one of the twelve thousand Chinese immigrants who were paid one dollar a week to build the Central Pacific railroad in the 1860s. But before the end of the nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants were all but forced to return to China by the Chinese Exclusion Act legislation of 1882. Although the … Read more
A few weeks ago the new owners of the Star Tribune threatened to send the jobs of thirty-two of their advertising production employees to India, unless the employees agreed to find “expense reductions” of half a million dollars—or about $15,600 per employee. This business came hot on the heels of the Strib’s announcement that Pioneer … Read more
When I was a kid, we often took votes at the dinner table. More often than not, the count was four to one, with my Dad being the one. After the count, he’d invariably announce, “Well, I won again.” When we’d protest, he’d explain, “My vote is the only one that counts.” (My brother soon … Read more
This from the St. Cloud Times about our gal Michele being one of seven Republican House members to vote against a bill that would require the IRS to notify tax payers if there was evidence their identity had been stolen. Why the hell would anyone vote against that? But then I read down a bit … Read more