Unca Darrell

JANUARY 31 / You too can do

MY FRIENDS Steve and Sharon Fiffer, inspired by President Obama's call to service, have started a new blog called "The Daily Can-Do." It's about "the relatively simple things folks can do to make their world or their community a better place -- projects, organizations, and initiatives we can start, join, or replicate. "Our hope," they write, "is that you might be inspired and that you will share with others your thoughts and suggestions for involvement."

Good people. Good ideas. Worth a good look.  

JANUARY 30 / Newsweek = Jason Voorhees

I tried to kill my Newsweek subscription, but it won't die.  Herewith the sequel.

JANUARY 30 / Only three? Count that a blessing

SINCE DECEMBER 17, the Chronicle has run three -- count'em three -- editorials that could under anybody's understanding be treated as about foreign relations, only one more than the Chronicle wrote over the same period about the Houston dog pound or Hollywood. 

JANUARY 30 / A righteous takedown of Ledbetter

THE INDISPENSABLE Stuart Taylor, Jr. -- compared to whom all other legal commentators, Unca D included, are unworthy -- says the media have distorted the facts underlying the new national equal-pay law. (He probably didn't see the Chronicle's "decency and common sense" editorial on the lawsuit that inspired the legislation, but it could have served well as Exhibit A for his charge.)  

JANUARY 29 / John Updike

 

I ALWAYS MEANT to get around to John Updike but never quite did, except once, thanks to an airport remainder rack that offered Gertrude and Claudius. This lesser-known Updike novel retold the Hamlet backstory from the perspective of Mr. Melancholy's mom and stepfather. And a brilliant retelling it was:

JANUARY 29 / Bipartisanship in action

THE CHRONICLE is much taken these days with the virtues of bipartisanship. This means, I suppose, that the Chronicle is now obligated to go nasty on the partisan Democrats who just pushed the biggest pork bill in the history of humankind through the House against bipartisan opposition.

JANUARY 28 / Token conservative better than no conservative

The Atlanta Constitution-Journal is advertising for a token conservative columnist to replace its present token conservative columnist, Jim Wooten.

Note to the Chronicle: Go and do likewise.

JANUARY 28 / Quote of the day

ACCORDING TO a senior IRS spokesman, one-quarter of those who qualify for the Earned Income Credit do not file for it, even though those who owe no taxes can qualify to receive it.

(Editorial, "Bank on it: Ignorance harms those who can least afford it. Let's commit to financial literacy," Houston Chronicle, January 28, 2009)

JANUARY 28 / Yesterday's headline of the day

"Speaker Nancy Malthus"

JANUARY 27 / Oops

Unca D on January 15, 2009:

"Why T. Geithner will never be Treasury secretary"

Headline of January 27, 2009:

"Geithner Confirmed as Treasury Secretary"