It's A 5 Dog Eat-Off

"This is one of the greatest moments in sports history."

"The passion is raw, but the hot dogs are cooked."

Nothing screams American pride quite like competitive eating. Nathan's Hot Doge Eating Contest just finished after a five dog eat-off between Joey Chestnut and Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, which apparently has never happened in the annual Coney Island-hosted event. This year marked the 93rd time eaters pitted their stomachs against other's.

I love the hyperbole used in sportscasting. The announcers managed to hang the future of the world on the outcome.

Winning hot dog count: 59 (plus 5 dog eat-off).
My record for hot dogs eaten in a day: 4.



So this Fourth of July, be sure to load up on calories and forget about all those who are starving elsewhere in the world.
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Fourth of July

I got a bison burger yesterday and it had an American flag toothpick holding it together. Inspired by this clear display of patriotism, could everyone make an effort to snap some pictures of their holiday festivities (parades, fireworks, bbq's, trouble-making, etc.) and post them along with blurbs about their day?

Let's share how independence is celebrated around the country in all its lavish glory.

I will do my best to capture the essence of the Fourth in a small 'burb outside of Chicago.

I just came across this as well. It makes Mt. Rushmore look pathetic. I get a lactose-induced headache just looking at this. Why is patriotism so painful?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a one-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist's tribute to the Fourth of July.

Who brought the Ritz?
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Chancellor Concurs With Gillespie

In an article from the future, Times Online reports on the increase in paying bills with plastic.

This week the Bank of England revealed that credit card borrowing staged its sharpest rise in May for almost two and a half years. A survey by E[rnst]&Y[oung] found that households were 15 per cent worse off than they were five years ago.
...
Alistair Darling said: “The UK economy is fundamentally far, far better than it ever was in the past.

And we all know that access to credit has far improved the quality of life for citizens.

At least we aren't the only country going through money problems.
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...And the Murrow Goes to...

It struck me a bit odd today when I read that media awards themselves for disaster coverage. The RTNDA announced the 2008 winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards, honoring excellence in electronic journalism. The awards will be presented at a swanky dinner on Oct. 13, in New York.

Isn't standard award procedure to announce the nominees, THEN have a dramatic reveal at the dinner? This sounds like a pseudo event. They are doubling their news coverage of the awards. Maybe we can secure a late award for best coverage of the awards?

Despite all of the negative press regarding Katie Couric as host of the CBS Evening News, the program won for best newscast. Take that NBC and ABC.

The awarding of disaster coverage reminds me of Mitch Hedberg's sketch regarding reservations at restaurants.

Sadly, our blog did not bring home any Murrow's. Consequently, there will be no after party. We'll get 'em next year.
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New Yorker

I yoinked my first issue of the New Yorker from the library last night. The magazine makes me feel simultaneously educated and dumb. The articles are rather lengthy and my attention span is rather short. The cartoons are amusing and I very much enjoy the overall style of the mag.

Anyone discovering new mags/news sources?
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Happy Birthday, Patrick!!

To the man who only wears his Red Hot Chili Peppers tee. To the man who drunkenly wanders around in aviators, nearly smashing the guitar he's playing. To the man who loses a group of 20 people within 5 minutes. To the man who can hold a conversation about chewing gum. We all love him. And I'm sure if he were around right now, we'd get him schnockered and make him do all those silly things over again. Happy Birthday, Patrick. I hope wherever you are, you're getting schnockered and doing all those silly things over again. ...Go on

Guns Don't Kill People: Follow Up

I went online to The Disaster Center at http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/dccrime.htm and looked up the D.C. statistics taken from the District of Columbia's 2005 Cities crimes and Rates as reported in the FBI's September 2006 release of the "UCR for Metropolitan Statistical Areas" (MSA). Go to the link if you want to see actual numbers. I calculated the number of violent crimes, divided by the year, times one thousand, getting to the number of violent crimes per 1000 people in a given year. Here is a table so you can visualize this data. In Mr. Gillespie's interview, it was mentioned that D.C. gun laws have not helped to lower the violent crime rate. This would appear to be true, as it has fluctuated minimally in either direction, seemingly at random. You would not necessarily be able to pinpoint the year the gun laws came to be unless someone told you. Remember, the number of crimes is per one thousand people.



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How 'bout going to New York?

New York City is HARDLY Bryn Mawr, but it's a nice enough town, I guess.

I know this is hardly Serious Journalistic Business, but since we are Serious Journalists, and travel is a part of our Business, it's relevant. I was talking with Ew yesterday and the possibility of meeting in NYC at summer's end came up. What do you think? Want to come with? Some of our very favorite people live in New York, and so do their couches. Let's take advantage of that!

(People who live in New York: wouldn't it be cool if we all came and visited you? In New York? En masse? Can we stay on your couch?)

Email me at kalipeterson@gmail.com if you're interested and we'll talk dates. ...Go on

Guns Don't Kill People

With the recent Supreme Court decision regarding gun regulation and the Second Amendment here is a collection of work from our lecturers:

Reason's articles on the topic can be found here.

Reason.tv:


National Review Online's editors wrote this:

For decades, localities around the country — the capital, New York City, Chicago, and many of its suburbs — have violated their residents’ right to keep and bear arms. Each of these locations directly or indirectly bans handguns.

Today the Supreme Court, in a ruling that is faithful to the Constitution, struck down the handgun ban in the nation’s capital. This ruling is the beginning of a long process — it will not affect bans in Illinois or New York — but is a good sign in itself.

Philadelphia Inquirer localized with this.

Does anyone have stats on the effectiveness of gun laws?

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There's Nothing On The Prompter

Here's a clip from the exalted CNN. Anchor Kyra Phillips had no script and no prompter.

I've been there. One of my first broadcast stories I did in college was, what some might call, a train wreck. As I recall the story was a consumer piece comparing the prices of goods on-campus versus off-campus. I bought an assortment of goods at the different stores to assess price differences. I had boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (arguably the greatest cereal known to man) and candy bars. The prompter went out mid-sentence and my face could best be described as "fearful."

Lesson: Read your script and have a general understanding of the point of what you're reading. All too often we see anchors just reading the work of the producers and writers. When something messes up they are lost.
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Isn't She Beautiful

I remember learning about Greek mythology in 7th grade. That is how I vaguely remembered Aphrodite, when I saw a statue of her in The Great Hall at Bryn Mawr College. What was so stunning about Aphrodite (statue is apparently Athena), was not only her beauty, but the gifts, or offerings scattered around her.

I was confused at first; here I am in the hall, a wide open space in front of me, and in the corner I spotted a statue of a woman with bright gold painted eyes and lips. My curiosity encouraged me to seek out this woman. Soon I was no longer paying attention to the statue but the things around her. There were notes apologizing to Aphrodite, cards made in her honor, and two items that stood out more than the rest. At her feet rest the box of an ept pregnancy test and on her outstretched arm a black thong hanging for the world to see. While there were many more random items, those were the ones that stood out in my mind.

The ladies of Bryn Mawr must have a tradition with this statue of Aphrodite. I only wish I had captured it on film. ...Go on