The masthead photo here changes from time to time. The end of April and beginning of May is time for cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It’s a really beautiful exhibit. If you’re in the area, you should go.
Austin Texas school officials have decided to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary School. They opened the renaming process to public suggestions. After Boatie McBoatface was shot down even though it was the popular choice for the name of a new and expensive British research ship, you’d think everyone knew this is a bad idea, but nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! In the race to rename the school in Austin, Donald Trump came in first and Robert E. Lee came in second. Adolf Hitler got eight votes. A commenter on the website Deadspin.com came up with the cleverest thing I’ve heard on the topic. Someone who identifies as Yusuf-Darba chimed in with, “Say what you will about Adolf Hitler, but he did kill Hitler.” And, here I’d lived my entire life until today thinking nobody could say anything good about Hitler. How wrong was I?
I’ve mentioned before that it’s a bad idea to screw up on a slow news day, but it’s okay to die on one. I should have pointed out that if you’re famous, you shouldn’t die on the same day as someone who is substantially more famous. Since I didn’t point that out before, I’m doing it now. If you don’t believe me, just ask Lonnie Mack or Joanie Laurer. RIP to Joanie, Lonnie, and Prince as well. Yes, Prince was a great talent and an important cultural icon. But I have to question whether his death deserved over a third of the NBC Nightly News.
Speaking of Prince, he apparently died without a will. Nobody is happier about this than the tax man. Even if you don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars, if you expect to have anything left over when you die, a will is a very good idea.
This blog doesn’t have a copy editor. It could use one. Most writing would be improved by copy editing, certainly mine. I am incapable of catching all my own mistakes, although I’m good at catching those of other people. I occasionally catch a mistake I made in this blog a long time ago, and when I do, I correct it. Yet copy editors are laid off at news and publishing organizations more than any other people involved in the process of publishing. People argue that correct grammar and spelling don’t equal intelligence. That’s true. What they indicate is attention to detail and if someone doesn’t care enough to get them right, what’s their attitude toward facts?
I’ve recently started paying attention to radio talk shows and TV news from outside the US. BBC TV news is easy to find on cable. Lots of radio stations stream. Today, I listened to stations in Dublin, Ireland, London, UK, and Sydney Australia. Their perspectives are considerably different from ours. It’s educational.
