tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71386202273993513652024-03-13T00:02:06.281-04:00The Post HoleMorgantown and West Virginia Media, Culture, Sports and PoliticsJanglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-76087639287563624062015-09-16T12:07:00.000-04:002015-09-16T12:08:00.075-04:00I Knew It!Oliver Luck worshipers, look away now.<br />
<br />
It turns out that everyone's favorite uncle and returning hero, WVU President E. Gordon Gee, wasn't exactly a fan of Ollie Luck as top-level administrative peer and athletic director.<br />
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In fact, Gordon Gee, who has built a political network to rival that of any US president or captain of industry, could not wait to be rid of Luck, so he took decisive action. Gee called in favors from anyone and everyone in said network, mostly at the NCAA, to be rid of the troublesome Luck. To Gee's relief, the NCAA took Luck off his hands and placed Luck in a do-nothing job.<br />
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The NCAA's compliance office? Isn't the NCAA's entire existence about compliance? Isn't that like working in the Hamburger Department at McDonald's?<br />
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Any port in a storm. Can't tell you what satisfaction results from knowing without doubt that your suspicions and, yes, opinions were confirmed.Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-26623788388719094902015-09-16T12:01:00.003-04:002015-09-16T12:01:54.640-04:00More Bad Luck/Bad NewsSaint Oliver Luck, the man who did unto others and then split, continues to bestow blessings upon us.<br />
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His IMG radio deal, which was primarily a thumb in the eye of John Raese and other people Luck didn't particularly like, continues to resemble a dog's dinner.<br />
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The latest episode involves the Tunein.com web site and mobile phone app, on which WVU and MSN are prominently advertised and ostensibly have a dedicated channel. The big Flying WV logo is there on-screen, but if you tuned in, er, make that Tuneined, last Saturday to hear the Mountaineers take on the mighty Liberty Flames you heard the radio call for...the Vanderbilt Commodores versus the Georgia Bulldogs. <br />
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Forget that radio has existed for 100 years and the Internet for the last 20-25 of those 100 years, it's clear that many things can go wrong: dead air, static, loss of power at the stadium, lightning striking the transmitter, etc. etc. But the one thing you don't expect is the wrong school's - make that wrong schools' - game being broadcast.<br />
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To employ one current Internet meme, You Had One Job and in this case You Had A Week - Make That An Entire Offseason - To Prepare.<br />
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Faceless individuals in the most far-flung locales around the globe can provide their fellow man with (unauthorized) video and audio streams of live sporting events on a year-round basis, but the so-called Official Partners of WVU, IMG, MSN et al cannot master the basics of delivering the audio for 11 football games lasting 3 hours each (plus pre- and postgame) to a waiting audience.<br />
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Despite the frequent, repeated miscues in this rather simple technical area, Luck was and is praised by far too many for his IMG deal, usually by those who imagine that the university has reaped millions in a windfall. But the WVU Mountaineers are not the LA Dodgers and such riches are mere fantasy. A sober cost/benefit analysis that includes the simple concept of ACTUALLY HEARING THE GAME might well reveal that the theory and the practice are shamefully incongruent.Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-54523364732036002882014-12-29T10:27:00.000-05:002015-09-16T12:02:43.737-04:00Lucky To Be Rid Of LuckWhat is it with my fellow West Virginians?<br />
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Jay Rockefeller is feted as a wonderful, one-of-us DC gladiator instead of what he is: a carpetbagger, a treasonous leaker of national security data (Iraq War etc.) and a self-server of the first order. He cares about West Virginia only because it has a border i.e. it's one of 50 states from which he could run for office with little or no opposition, thanks mostly to the state's childlike wonder at the presence of a 'millionaire.'<br />
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Oliver Luck was given similar treatment. Most choose to ignore his uncommunicative, downright haughty and arrogant style. You (read: we) fund the university through taxes and ticket purchases but Luck believes you are entitled to the odd scrap of information long after HIS decision has been made. No debate, no canvassing of anyone, no consensus - merely a majority of one and off they go with their marching orders.<br />
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Well, he's gone now. The NCAA and its law-unto-itself setup had to be irresistible to a control freak. Warnings, investigations, sanctions...all the NCAA has to do is send a letter and institutions generally bow and scrape and don the hairshirt of self-sanctions lest they be placed in stocks in the public square by the NCAA.<br />
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Indianapolis? What a coincidence. If you're the Colts you now have quite a bit of leverage when it comes time for Andrew's new contract, 'cause mom and dad are in town now. Indian-No-Place? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Starkvegas is taken but Morgantown looks like Macau compared to Naptown.<br />
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The NCAA are like FIFA and the IOC: a self-appointed arbiter of all that is good and right, raking in billions from a monopoly. All that cash leads directly, almost certainly, to corruption. They investigate themselves (!). If any dirt is found, they freeze out the investigator or sack him under false pretenses! Magically, the NCAA, FIFA and the IOC always emerge unscathed from so-called scandal. Time to get the GoPro cameras out and catch payoffs being made in real time!<br />
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Everyone's treating this as a bump in the road for Holgorsen and the football program. Ironically, his assistants are getting contracts and extensions but the new AD may decide to keep them and jettison Holgorsen. Even more ironically, a successful year for Holgy will see his stock rise and increase the chances he leaves. It's clear that he is itching like mad to return to the Big 12's home base of Oklahoma/Texas. Easier recruiting, fans less resistant to his mad-scientist nonsense.<br />
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Milton's 'Paradise Lost' was quoted in the Star Trek episode 'Space Seed' (i.e. the one that introduced Ricardo Montalban as Khan): 'It is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.'<br />
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WVU will always be an afterthought in the Big 12, geographically and every other way. There is no more Big East but the new AD had better come up with an Escape Plan, preferably by finding a way to join the SEC (perhaps Vanderbilt will follow through with its reduced emphasis on athletics and drop out).Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-34009023532231826102014-01-29T09:13:00.003-05:002014-01-29T09:13:39.980-05:00Parsons Out!"Metronews’ Allan Taylor reports that WVU and long-time Deputy Director
of Athletics Mike Parsons are parting company, and it’s not an amicable
separation."<br />
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How to react? Relief? Elation? The mere satisfaction that something going wrong for years has finally been addressed?<br />
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Nobody has been harder on Oliver Luck than me but full marks to him for tending his own back garden and getting rid of the dead wood.<br />
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Parsons was the quintessential blowhard, issuing pompous proclamations that conflicted with reality. His focus was on his agenda and to hell with anyone with a legitimate disagreement. The grapevine, so active in a college town, usually had the information first and accurate already, which made Parsons' PR twaddle even more risible. The only question remaining was, did Parsons himself believe it? If so, he was unfit for purpose.<br />
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Forget the radio kerfluffle (and believe me I'd take MSN back in a heartbeat), Parsons' legacy will be the dagger plunged into Rich Rodriguez's back and allowing Ed Pastilong to take the resulting heat although Pastilong was far from blameless. Rod's requests could have been evaluated and responded to individually. If an NCAA rule prohibited something, then Parsons could have said so. But Parsons seemed to take everything quite personally and so they chose to go to war and lost a quality coach and someone who loved the university and the state with every fiber of his being.Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-90865081822776261912013-12-05T09:00:00.003-05:002013-12-05T09:00:35.274-05:00WVU Consumed By AngerAs the pig-in-a-poke known as Big 12 membership continues to disappoint on several fronts, WVU fans are mad.<br />
<br />
Some are strictly mad about losing regardless of conference or opponent of the day. These are also known as New Jerseyans, whose sports loyalties are usually tied solely to W-L records. Postgame analysis limited to attribution error-flavored 'We won - the opponent sucks' or 'They lost - they suck (in reference to 'their' team). They know nothing of history, tradition, or loyalty. They arrive in Morgantown a) with inferior grades and test scores, b) a lack of funds (or an unwillingness to spend them) that would enable them to attend the plethora of schools in NJ and along the East Coast, and c) a desire to continue their fellow New Jerseyans' tradition of treating Morgantown as their personal dumpster, ashtray and bong. Four or five years of beer pong, I'm Shmacked and blazing up and off they go.<br />
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Football, when they can be bothered to get out of bed to attend a game, is an afterthought - a long way down from its longstanding status as most visible demonstration of school spirit. But many of these students couldn't find Morgantown on a map prior to their junior or senior years in high school. Buying tickets is too easy by half - click a mouse and that's it. Camping out for tickets is so 20th Century, even though it's the kind of shared experience that creates a bond as well as an incentive to use a hard-won ticket.<br />
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A losing team is not worthy of their nicotine-stained, beer-soaked, selfie-taking presence. They're mad, even if they're not sure why. They've posted all manner of duckface snaps on Facebook and Twitter in their WVU gear but their enthusiasm isn't enough to make the arduous trek to the stadium<br />
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<br />
WV true believers - at the university and throughout the state - are also mad. Oliver Luck, the Teflon AD, is still regarded as a demigod because, well, he's intelligent. The arrival - at an institution of higher learning chock full of advanced degrees - of one more intelligent person shouldn't be headline news but West Virginians, for all their positive qualities, are far too susceptible to the Cult of Celebrity. The Cult has propelled a cliche-spouting, remarkably unremarkable Natalie Tennant into statewide office simply because she, er, put on some fringed buckskins and jumped around two decades ago. So desperate are we for someone famous to disprove the stereotypes about West Virginia that any name appearing in large font becomes our Avenging Angel. To extend the biblical metaphor, Oliver Luck is both an Avenging Angel (despite his origins in, er, Cleveland, Ohio) and a Prodigal Son. He is, therefore, doubly insulated from criticism.<br />
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But when the football team loses, people get mad. And if they can't direct their anger at the man who engineered the move to the Big 12 (actually, he's praised daily for his horse-trading), they will focus on the coach.<br />
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The coach, Dana Hologorsen, is an easy target. Sold as a combination of James Dean, Jimmy Buffett and Sid Gillman, he has proven to be quite a bit more mundane than any screen, music or football icon. He's had injury problems, recruiting problems, in-game execution problems, assistant coaching problems and self-made problems when it comes to interaction with the fans. All WVU fans want is to love their coach and get a fraction of it in return. When Rich Rodriguez returned home we had 7 years of mutual WV ecstasy. Spot The Ball and all that.<br />
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But when Rod left, we really got mad and we've been mad ever since. Even a nice guy like Bill Stewart got mad the night of the Fiesta Bowl and pep-talked his team to a staggering win. But the fans were still mad at losing to Pitt and a shot at the national championship and eventually got mad at Stewart, along with newly-installed Oliver Luck who was mad, too, and ordered a coaching change of historically sloppy proportions. It made Obamacare look like D-Day. Stewart, despite his gentle nature, got mad that his dream job was taken from him in agonizing slow motion and mad that he had to put a brave face on it all via the coercion of contract terms. He then got mad when the new coach had a public (despite a desperate cover-up) incident of belligerent drunkenness and received a mere slap on the wrist - mad enough to ask a journalist or two to go beyond the official press releases and expose Holgorsen's true colors. Eventually, Stewart was completely out. And still mad. Mad enough that the poor man suffered a fatal stress-related heart attack, leaving his beloved only son without a father.<br />
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And now Holgorsen is mad that results have gone against him, that his team can't or won't demonstrate a working knowledge of his system or football in general, mad that the fans are mad, mad at the media. <br />
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The media are mad at the coach for his haughty attitude. They are mad at Oliver Luck's Berlin Wall of non-communication except for the rare press release. Some of them are mad that their monopoly - contractual or otherwise - on access to athletic coaches and broadcasting of games has been broken up.<br />
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Fans who like the Big 12 are mad at fans who liked the Big East. Fans who like(d) neither are mad WVU isn't in the ACC or SEC and mad that WVU is viewed as academically inferior and therefore unworthy of membership (despite the existence of member schools like Mississippi State, which is literally a cow college and has the deafening bells to prove it).<br />
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And so there is Anger - lots of it and with a capital A. But with no bowl game and no football activity at all until spring, all that Anger has been bottled under extreme pressure and capped. The Anger is now bouncing around, its particles colliding at high speed. The Anger may fade over the bleak winter months. It may be stilled partially by a resurgent basketball program, but it will still there in amounts large or small come August 2014. Will the colliding particles produce useful energy or merely an uncontrolled reaction i.e. an explosion or a meltdown?Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-85465793834607753702012-12-31T09:21:00.003-05:002012-12-31T09:43:05.924-05:00The DP phones it in to end 2012<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The December 31 issue of <i>The Dominion Post</i> has a whopping 24 pages. That's 3.125 cents per page at the newsstand price of 75 cents. 7 of those pages are full-color ads, leaving an even more whopping 17 pages. That's 4.4 cents per page, much of it for wire copy you read on the internet yesterday. One can only wonder what the Jan 1 2013 issue will bring. Probably more of the same.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Most of the full-color ad pages are for - you guessed it - car dealerships. They have 'clearance' sales all year long. Who is doing the buying for these dealerships and why do they keep their jobs if the cars don't sell anywhere near full price? Clothes I can understand. Retailers are forced to buy size runs and the Small and Medium shirts are left on the shelf waiting for the increasingly rare skinny males to buy them. But cars fit everyone. If you have a lotful of previously unsellable cars perhaps you should ask your wife to pick out the colors, since your sense of fashion is obviously a marketplace failure.</span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-76285194437936414612012-11-21T09:45:00.003-05:002012-11-21T09:47:24.000-05:00If You Luck, er, Lock Them In They Will Stay Home<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">WVU Athletic Director can do no wrong in the eyes of many. The old guard are still in thrall to his days as player when he and then-new coach Don Nehlen led WVU out of the dark ages with new uniforms, a new logo (the now-ubiquitous flying WV), a new stadium, and at least a puncher's chance of competing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Those who know Luck only as a sports business executive praise his hiring of go-go offensive wunderkind Dana Holgorsen and his deft maneuvers through the college conference minefield as guided WVU to a soft landing in the prestigious Big 12.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Luck disapproved of frequently-sparse 2nd half attendance as the masses returned to the Blue Lot to enjoy additional refreshments. And so he banned the longstanding practice of issuing passouts i.e. allowing ticket holders to exit and return at will. His brain wave was fourfold:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1) Keep people in the stands by banning re-entry</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">2) Sell alcohol in the stadium to stifle protests against access to tailgate supplies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">3) Claim that it was an attempt to control consumption</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">4) Turn alcohol into a nice little earner to pay the aforementioned offensive wunderkind and his staff</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For a season and a half it worked a treat. Alcohol sales brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars and the cameras didn't advertise the fact that 'loyal' fans were absent late in games, regardless of opponent. Most fans drank in moderation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But 2012 has been a season of two halves. A spectacular 5-0 start and national media attention in the form of poll rankings and Heisman Trophy hype for QB Geno Smith have been replaced by a 5-game losing streak and lots of head-scratching by coaches, players, fans and media alike.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Meanwhile, the grand in-stadium booze experiment has gone off the rails. Overconsumption is now a regular occurrence along with a surprising and unprecedented number of shouting and shoving matches in seating sections where previously genteel season ticket holders are in the majority. Despite University police, state troopers, and security flunkies glowering into the stands, many are uncowed and freely express their displeasure in hands-on fashion with those seated nearby. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The prohibition against re-entry has, in delayed fashion, convinced many that, if the game isn't fun and the tailgate inaccessible, it's not worth the bother of fighting traffic to and from the game on Morgantown's inadequate road system. The team's on-field implosion will be blamed but those making such excuses ignore the fact that college football bluebloods like Oklahoma coming to town for the first time still failed to draw.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">West Virginians are independent-minded. <i>Montani Semper Liberi</i> is not just a Latin phrase on a flag. Cut them and they will bleed - but more likely they will take steps to avoid being cut in the first place. The tailgate and stadium experience has been monetized while being devalued. Fans are voting with their feet. West Virginia football is still an unending topic of conversation throughout the state but that no longer equates to a full house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Oliver Luck can stop them leaving but he's powerless to force them to attend in the first place. Will this cold hard reality penetrate the shell of hearty self-congratulation at Mountaineer Field? </span><br />
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<br />Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-77415471536046423482012-05-22T09:50:00.003-04:002012-05-22T09:50:58.532-04:00Bill Stewart 1952-2012 Rest In PeaceTragic news as Bill Stewart, former WVU head coach and one-man tourism and recruiting dynamo for West Virginia and WVU, died May 21 of a sudden heart attack.<br />
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We had many mutual friends but considering the number of friends Stew had that may not be much of a distinguishing mark for me!<br />
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Football seems unimportant right now but it was his life and despite the messy end to his tenure he got to enjoy one night of unbridled joy and fulfillment.<br />
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Condolences to his family.<br />
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<br />Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-32403021505976544152012-05-14T13:12:00.000-04:002012-05-14T13:13:33.582-04:00In Which The DP Misses The PointHell hath no fury like an Obama-intoxicated editorial board scorned.<br />
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The Dominion Post is upset - angry, even - regarding the significant number of votes cast for Keith Judd, a Texas inmate, on Democratic primary ballots. They are wagging their finger and flinging the usual scolds employed by the press when they disapprove of election results: informed electorate, responsible, lax ballot laws, red flags, etc. Note the contrast with media-approved results, when we see terms like democracy, direct participation, the people have spoken, groundswell, popular support, etc.<br />
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They are upset that the AP, which costs them money, didn't provide the full story on Keith Judd. In this they get to share our opinion of the terminally feckless AP, at least for a day.<br />
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But nowhere in their huffy editorial will you find the word 'protest' - which is unfortunate for the DP because that's exactly what this vote was. To anyone paying attention (and not still in the tank for Obama), those who voted for Judd did so not because they want a Texas inmate to appear on the ballot in a general election or because they want him to serve as president, but because they don't want Barack Obama to appear on the ballot again. These are lifelong registered Democrats - the 'working families' of union agitprop - who want to maintain their party affiliation but who also want to express their disdain for the current occupant of the White House. Like Ronald Reagan, they see their party leaving them.<br />
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The DP also ignores the clever humor of fellow West Virginians. Many cast their vote for Keith Judd with a twinkle in the eye. They knew that a significant number of anybody-but-Obama votes would draw attention in this once-reliable blue state, and that a significant number of votes for a felon would draw even more attention to their disapproval of Obama's policies and performance.<br />
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The DP demands that people 'vote intelligently' - in this case, establishment candidates. But what is more intelligent - and creative - than individuals subverting a rigged and/or flawed system while adhering to the rules of that system? And what is more democratic (small d) or Democratic (big D) than expressing their displeasure via an election?<br />
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Does this make West Virginians a laughingstock? Quite the contrary. It gives West Virginians the opportunity to make a loud and clear statement about the candidates and to disrupt, at least temporarily, the lazy lockstep coverage of this president and this election - the same coverage willingly reprinted by the Dominion Post.Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-33563399228391195702012-04-03T11:02:00.002-04:002012-04-03T11:07:14.936-04:00It's come to this<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The city of Morgantown will be devoting four - FOUR - police officers on bicycles to patrol a - street? avenue? boulevard? - no, a trail. Are they looking for rapists, muggers, or murderers? No, they are looking for helmets - specifically, those goofy tapered bicycle helmets. In the over-the-top spirit of SAAAFETY everywhere, adults moving 5 mph and already operating under the premise of assumed risk will be warned and possibly cited by police if the adults lack a helmet.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Violence on High Street? Fires burning throughout the student housing areas? I'm Shmacked? We'll jawbone those issues to death but preventing them is apparently beyond the reach of the local constabulary. Bike helmets in broad daylight? That's more their speed.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-91026418713060082472012-04-02T10:33:00.006-04:002012-04-02T11:26:36.436-04:00Real bias attacks false bias<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >The Dominion Post plumbs new depths of unintentional comedy with their huffy editorial today complaining about bias in a questionnaire regarding truck traffic in the city of Morgantown.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >As almost everyone knows, WV Route 7 meanders through busy commercial districts (Sabraton), residential areas and downtown Morgantown. The result is no surprise: noise, congestion (especially at lights when the heavily-laden trucks brake slowly to a stop at red lights and 'accelerate' even more slowly at green), diesel smoke, and roads pulverized by the weight of the trucks, to say nothing of curbs and sidewalks damaged by these, er, professional drivers. Route 7 is also infamous for the 'hogback' turn which involves a near-180 on the side of an incline no less. Finally, the trucks must crawl through downtown and make a tricky left turn at the bottom of a relatively steep hill. What could go wrong?</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >Incredibly, there is a perfectly good Interstate and federal four-lane highway (US 119) that would carry the trucks to the same destination (a depot along the Mon River). An alternate route (Greenbag Road) that carries far less traffic was used during a construction period and worked well for all. But for reasons known only to governments and engineers, the trucks are kept off the freeways and on the narrow two-lane roads through the heart of the city. Occasionally a lame excuse about fuel costs, shortest distances, etc. is trotted out but is it better for trucks to idle in traffic and take 3 hours to make a round trip of 20 miles or is it better for trucks to be moving and make a round trip of 2 hours/25 miles?</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >It's been a problem for years but attempts to address or even discuss the problem are routinely squelched by the Raese family, owners of Greer Limestone (whose 'aggregates' fill the third-party trucks) and owners of the Dominion Post. Ironically, the trucks rumble by the Greer Building (which houses the DP offices) every day.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >The DP's editorial is of the 'kill the messenger' variety but with a twist: they don't want the message issued in the first place. Local residents, unsurprisingly, know the most about the problem but apparently this is unacceptable. Instead, the DP wants a 'professional agency' (the same kind that made a hash of property assessments?) or the DOH (not exactly known for their rapid and targeted response).</span><br style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Predictably, the DP emphasizes that the trucks are using designated state routes and such routes are beyond the purview of city agencies. But if these same routes are the city's arterial roads and choked by trucks that could very easily be diverted. Win-win scenarios are invisible to those determined to preserve the status quo at all costs.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >And so, a newspaper that is irreversibly biased by virtue of its links with the trucks decries the Morgantown Traffic Commission's attempt to simply GATHER information. It's not a law, a ballot issue or even a referendum, simply a survey. What are the chances that if and when the city attempts to discuss the issue the Dominion Post will assail the city for a lack of data?<br /><br />The editorial is like asking the elves what they think of Santa.<br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"></span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-7395966246004616862012-01-27T09:22:00.004-05:002012-01-27T09:43:49.718-05:00DP quietly raises its price<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Somewhat odd timing but the Dominion Post quietly increased its single-issue newsstand price to 75 cents effective January 9, 2012.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Issues immediately preceding the change mentioned nothing about it - no surprise there.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The DP is hardly alone in facing difficult conditions given the economy at large and specifically the newspaper business but such a decision is typically the product of closed-loop thinking wherein the publisher attempts to improve the bottom line by making a move that will almost certainly decrease already-dwindling circulation.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">What is the DP telling its advertisers, one wonders? I doubt their rates will be adjusted in proportion to any improvement in revenue while their potential impression rate (eyeballs) will decrease along with circulation. A nice Catch-22 for the entities on which the DP depends most for revenue!</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">A weekday edition of this newspaper is typically 22-25 pages exclusive of special inserts (read: ads), TV guides etc. It's fair to ask what improvements, expansions of coverage, etc. if any, will result from this increase, given that the DP is hopelessly addicted to reprints of AP articles that most readers already saw on the internet on the previous day. No doubt this AP recycling program will continue, including the maddening practice of printing a lame 'quirky' story ('150 year old tortoise has birthday party') on the lower front page with every single issue. If the price increase is due to an increase in AP subscription costs then that is another reason - beyond the AP's bias, shoddy journalism and stilted style - to consider reducing the AP content.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Like most papers, the DP is happy to pat itself on the back whenever it receives some award from its mutual-back-scratching peers but their PR machine shifts quickly and quietly into silent running when it increases its price by 50%.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-69271211254095686622012-01-14T10:12:00.004-05:002012-01-14T10:24:36.395-05:00Good Riddance Rodney Pyles<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Mon County Assessor Rodney Pyles selected a third party (Tyler Technologies) to perform the nuts-and-bolts tasks associated with new valuations of property in the county. Since the title of his office is a very large hint, you might ask what else he had to do with his time. And you would be right. But not in county government, apparently.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">He went for the Cowardly Politician's Daily Double when he disavowed any knowledge of Tyler's methods or data and then refused to face the music when it became clear that Tyler had made a complete hash of things, including 8100% increases for small parcels of land. In many cases Tyler claimed to have visited properties and/or taken photographs but when challenged (by those lucky enough to obtain a Constitutionally-protected redress of their grievances) admitted that they had no such evidence.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">An individual submitting an insurance claim for a nonexistent loss would be prosecuted for fraud and rightly so. But government (including contractors) feel justified in inventing property value numbers that have a immediate and permanent financial impact on the taxpayers.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Incredibly, some defended Pyles' actions and offered up the non-defense that he hadn't broken any laws. Perhaps, but he displayed an unconscionable level of sloth, arrogance and stubbornness when the full scale of the debacle was exposed.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Pyles says he will step down after this term due to 'pressure and stress,' mostly of his own making. Good riddance to another hypocritical public official too cowardly to clean up his mess.</span><br style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-85901502191295871542011-09-05T21:08:00.003-04:002011-09-05T21:12:57.811-04:00The Mantrip Mess<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Mountaineer Mantrip - WVU's version of a pregame team walk through a crowd of fans - was a shambles for all concerned. It was disorganized and failed utterly to live up to a fraction of the hype that preceded it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The first sign of trouble was one of the blue-shirted CSC event staff. You know the type from the Coliseum: self-important to a fault. Had one of those Mission Control full-ear headsets on which presumably put him in contact with someone, somewhere but - as usual - prevented him from hearing anything or anyone in his presence. So much for communication and coordination.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">State troopers arrived late and, disciplined fellows that they are, asked for orders from their superiors. Except there were neither superiors nor orders. The troopers fell back into usual parade-route routine, vaguely waving at the crowd and telling them to - wait for it - 'Get back.' Real helpful stuff, this.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Nobody - including CSC Headset Man - knew where the team buses were or when they would arrive. The cheerleaders and band had arrived at the trailhead many long minutes before and cheek cramps were imminent as the female cheerleaders' forced smiles for the cameras became grimaces.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Finally the buses arrived. The driver of the lead bus attempted the impossible: a simultaneous left and right turn. And so as he frantically cranked the wheel from side to side his 60 ft vehicle headed straight at the assembled crowd causing a bit of a panic. He fought valiantly and brought it to a stop in the middle of the intersection. Whew.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Who would lead the team out? Coach? Captains? Prominent players? Again, planning was rather thin on the ground as a random assortment of anyone BUT players and coaches (trainers, managers) wandered aimlessly off the buses. The band blurted out the least enthusiastic rendition of the fight song in the history of the university. Eventually the players emerged, wearing random outfits and every athlete's standard accessory of headphones - which means they neither spoke to nor heard the crowd. So much for unity with the fan base. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Coach Holgorsen strode through the crowd, exhibiting all the warmth of a harried business traveler attempting to make his late-night connection in the busy Delta terminal at Hartsfield Airport. He neither spoke nor smiled. This was not a game face, rather it was clear annoyance at having to interrupt his usual gameday routine with a half-baked marketing stunt imposed upon him and his team by Athletic Director PT Barnum.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Mantrip is emblematic of the sort of wrongheaded thinking that an inferiority complex produces i.e. They Do It Therefore We Should Do It Too. Sorry but that isn't how identity or tradition is built.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But if the Mantrip is to be made a permanent fixture then someone needs to move beyond They Do It and seek out the schools at which They Do It Right e.g. SEC schools like Auburn with its Tiger Walk.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >For example: </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://tnjn.com/content/storyimage/2008/10/04/100_1960.box.jpg">http://tnjn.com/content/storyimage/2008/10/04/100_1960.box.jpg</a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Crowd barriers! What an amazing concept! No cops, no CSC martinets needed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Those who view it as a success are using some high-powered rose-colored glasses. As is too often the case, the enthusiasm and cooperative nature of West Virginia fans overcame the lack of planning and coordination to save everyone some blushes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Mantrip is not an organic, spontaneous thing. It is derivative. It is yet another attempt to trade on honest, heartfelt fan loyalty and spirit for crass marketing purposes. Logistically it is a nightmare since WVU's campus layout does not provide a natural and/or picturesque route. The team is not walking FROM somewhere else on campus - they are being dropped off on a street corner like urban summer day campers only to hoof it up a nondescript asphalt path past scenic Port-O-Lets and dirt piles pushed up by bulldozers and left for no apparent reason.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">For these reasons and others, the Mantrip will be discontinued and perhaps soon. Good riddance. If the fans truly want the best results from their team, they should let the coaches and players concentrate on their duties full time.</span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-51253317285446392372011-08-04T11:43:00.006-04:002012-12-31T09:34:24.698-05:00A missed headline opportunity<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Derrick Pounds, a teen considered 'missing' from the Tyrone area for over a week called his mother from Moundsville. She picked up him and brought him home - end of crisis at least from an official standpoint.</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 100%;">The DP's news blurb was downright boring: Missing teen found in Moundsville</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 100%;">Where are the poets? The wags? The editors with some creativity and/or rhyming ability? It should have been:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 180%; font-style: italic;">POUNDS FOUND IN MOUNDS</span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-49482679206327611142011-06-07T11:57:00.004-04:002011-06-07T12:08:29.218-04:00Coach Who?<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The Dominion Post has plumbed the depths of see-hear-speak-no-evil before. This newspaper protects its friends not by writing supportive articles but by actively suppressing coverage. Some combination of arrogance and ignorance has them convinced that they have a monopoly on news originating in Morgantown and particularly at WVU.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Who can forget the Heather Bresch scandal? Actually it was three scandals - an unearned degree awarded to the daughter of a governor, the inept cover-up of same and a refusal to observe the most basic tenets of journalism by The Dominion Post in covering the story - especially after The DP was scooped by out of state newspapers on a daily basis.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Today, intrigue surrounding the WVU football program and the head coaching position is exploding. This goes beyond blog and message board speculation - national media are doing segments and interviews. And today the DP has....nothing on the story. Oh they have WVU stories...on basketball transfers (zzz), distance runners (zzz) and a who-asked-for-it comparison of 2007 and 2010 WVU defensive units. In a paper that claims to be the go-to source for WVU coverage they have not a word about Stewart/Holgorsen/Luck.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">If deliberate, it's another abandonment of journalistic integrity and obligation to readers.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">If not deliberate, it is utter incompetence.</span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-50923994326955142252011-04-06T09:25:00.007-04:002011-04-06T10:13:09.200-04:00'Perfect Lady' Shouldn't Have Been Driving At All<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The stretch of I-68 between the I-79 junction and the Maryland state line is gaining (or has already gained) a reputation for carnage. Possible reasons include:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">1) Since the surface roads in Morgantown/Mon County are either inadequate, in a deplorable state of repair or altogether nonexistent, many locals use I-68 (and I-79) for quick hops. Moving from 35 or 45 MPH on a city street to 70+ MPH on an Interstate sounds simple enough but many of these drivers display an appalling lack of care or awareness when entering or exiting the freeway. They fail to signal, fail to accelerate adequately (many of the vehicles appear to be incapable of reaching freeway speeds) and of course fail to check their mirrors. The result is a daily series of harrowing near-misses and panic lane changes by those already in the travel lanes (and many of them aren't paying attention either) with a knock-on effect for those in the left lane and those yet to arrive at the merge point.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">2) Terrain. Although Interstates are built to certain specifications with regard to sightlines, steepness of grades, etc., routes such as I-68 must pass through mountainous regions. The long hill from Exit 1 (University Ave.) to Exit 4 (Rt 7/Sabraton) is as straight as a sunbeam but its grade and length can and do cause issues for drivers who find themselves well above the speed limit (going downhill) or well below (going up) along with the usual issues of trucks carrying heavy loads effectively blocking half the travel lanes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">3) Unfamiliarity and Inattention. I-68 is the preferred route west for many traveling out of the DC area, especially compared to the expensive and constantly under construction PA Turnpike. But I-68 ends abruptly in Mon County and drivers must travel about 60 miles north (to Washington PA) in order to continue west on I-70. From their erratic driving it's clear that the I-68 terminus generates confusion (even though one only has two choices - north or south!) among out-of-state drivers (most of them sporting MD plates). For those heading home (i.e. east) to MD and beyond they apparently believe I-68 is the 'home stretch' and can be seen topping 80 MPH in the mistaken belief that it's about one hour (but in reality three) to the DC metro area.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The warm months mean migration and tourism and on this stretch of I-68 it also means a regular series of rollover accidents (especially near Exit 4), many involving fatalities.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But back to point #1. Earlier this week a 78 year old lady entered the eastbound lanes of I-68 at Exit 1 (University Ave.). She merged into the right lane. A large truck was in the left lane. This lady decided that a) she needed to be going west, b) that making a U-turn on semi-blind hilltop would be a safe maneuver and c) that she could do so without regard to any other eastbound vehicles. And so she jerked the wheel to the left attempting to reach a median crossover (i.e. the kind labeled 'for emergency vehicles only') and was immediately struck by the large truck. The driver of the truck had nowhere to go and nearly zero reaction time when this obstacle appeared in his lane.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The 78 year old woman, Nellie Kinsley, was killed, sadly. But the story doesn't end there especially when the Dominion Post is about. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Today's edition (April 6) has a front page story on Kinsley headlined 'She was perfect in every way' (a quote from a family member). The bulk of the story is typical of family members who have lost a loved quite suddenly as they remember a sunny disposition etc. But tucked among the fond farewell are some very revealing - and frankly maddening - quotes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Her sister says "We just can't imagine how this ever happened." Well I wasn't there but I can definitely imagine how! Ms. Kinsley was operating her vehicle in an unsafe manner and made an incredibly foolish decision at a critical moment!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Ms. Kinsley's son, who lived next door, readily admits that "She shouldn't have been driving." (!?!?). But, he says, "she liked being independent" and "there was no quit in this lady." Well, that's all right then! By all means cheer her fighting spirit as she endangers lives simply by taking the wheel. If the son knew of her physical and/or mental liabilities why didn't he step in to prevent her driving, especially when he was next door?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This is not to heap scorn on a grieving family but the myopia here - reported and printed without any sort of objectivity or questioning by the DP - is staggering. What if their indulgent attitude towards a woman incapable of operating a vehicle safely, particularly at high speed, had caused the death of the trucker or caused a chain reaction accident that resulted in more injuries or deaths?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Taken a step further, instead of relying on police and EMTs called out to yet another grisly after-the-fact scene on I-68, why isn't the DMV taking a more proactive role in determining senior and/or disabled citizens' fitness to operate a vehicle? Why are untold dollars funneled to logistics and overtime for DUI checkpoints that make a mockery of the 4th and 5th Amendments while producing a miserable catch rate in terms of arrests vs. the number of cars passing through the checkpoint? Why do we see police vehicles traveling 90+ MPH while the officers chat away on mobile phones? Why do we get lectures about "aggressive driving" by otherwise capable drivers but hear very little about "clueless driving" by those making unsafe lane changes, driving too slow for conditions, impeding traffic flow, etc.?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"Accident" is a convenient catch-all term but from the family's own lips it's clear there was nothing accidental about this very preventable death.</span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-64360853871267749892011-03-07T09:26:00.003-05:002011-03-07T10:05:00.490-05:00Anybody But Tennant<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Northern West Virginia has had its eight-year-long moment in the sun with one of its own as governor of the state. But Joe Manchin was always going to move into Robert Byrd's seat and the death of the longtime Senator prior to Manchin's term expiration made that succession a fait accompli.<br /><br />The calling of a special election brought no fewer than 12 candidates into the frame including fellow Northerner Natalie Tennant. Still trading on her in-state fame as WVU's first female Mountaineer mascot, Tennant bided her time as a local TV broadcaster until a statewide office (job description and duties unimportant) for which she could run came open. Suddenly Tennant was WV Secretary of State and she luxuriated in visits to schools and Rotary lunches along with delivering the obligatory newspaper quotes about 'the democratic process' on Election Day.<br /><br />Tennant is the classic case of the overgrown teacher's pet, kissing backsides and promoting herself shamelessly round the clock. She has taken simple name recognition devoid of any real-world accomplishment (unless you regard pogo-jumping in buckskins as accomplishment) to staggering heights. Her campaigns, slogans and speeches are embarrassingly banal and derivative even for a banal and derivative endeavor like politics. She and her sycophants advertise her as a 'game-changer' despite a lifetime of assiduosly avoiding any sort of controversy that might result from expressing deep thought or a strong position on any issue. Her experience in any industry (save reading a TelePrompTer) is nil.<br /><br />In short, Tennant is the worst sort of professional politician i.e. one who views campaigns and elections strictly as an ego trip. She wants the office but not the job and is obviously convinced that any serious issue she might encounter can be jawboned into submission. As we've seen with one Barack Obama, Student Council types make horrible chief executives. Let us hope that West Virginians can apply this lesson to the current governor's race.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-84227166473265906722011-02-28T09:26:00.002-05:002011-02-28T10:49:47.823-05:00'Educators' and their toys<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> 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Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">In the IT business one often acquires retired equipment, usually PCs, monitors, etc. that are well past the threshold of usability due to antiquated specs. However, with a bit of elbow grease they can be made into perfectly usable machines for users on a budget and/or those who are content to run older operating systems, applications, etc.<br /><br />I once had a stable of PCs such as these and offered them to my cousin who is an elementary school principal. My thought was that they might be useful as platforms for simple scholastic math, science, history, etc. programs. <br /><br />Without malice he laughed right in my face. "Have you seen our computer lab?" he replied. "We have 30 state-of-the-art machines, flat-panel monitors, the works." Momentarily stunned, I mentally added it to the list of goodies lavished upon schools that are never mentioned when teachers and their sympathizers have a moan about wages and benefits.<br /><br />In Morgantown the battle is over a new school. Not just another soulless consolidation school rammed down the throats of students, parents and those paying the freight (i.e. property taxpayers) - no, this would be a new GREEN school. Not the color green, mind, but a school with all manner of energy-saving systems built with environmentally-friendly construction materials (all very well provided you don't notice the chemical holocausts foisted upon dirt-poor Chinese villages where those green batteries are made). Scratch an 'educator' and you expose a liberal which means they are still true believers in the global warming hoax. A green school, therefore, represents the apex of all their various fantasies: moral superiority, children indoctrinated into the AGW myth simply by walking through the door each day, and a show pony for school board members, district administrators and others who - let's face it - aren't terribly interested in the three R's.<br /><br />Best of all, the feds are paying for it! You see, espousing the proper viewpoints on environmental issues isn't just for cocktail parties and student projects entitled 'How Mom & Dad Are Killing The Earth.' In this case it actually gets you a school built courtesy of Uncle Sam! Skylights, fluorescent lights, recirculated air, etc. But wait, you say, weren't these part of the first wave of 'new' schools built in the 60s and 70s? Why yes they were, but we didn't call them GREEN! A green school is certified by, er, experts on greenness. Their serene, benevolent knowledge of what is good for Mother Earth is self-proclaimed but when Uncle Sam's dollars are on offer you don't question the experts!<br /><br />In a university town the pressure for the local school system to keep up with the college Joneses on the political correctness front is immense which is why superintendent Frank Devono was over the moon when handed an opportunity to out-green the greens on campus! You shall go to the Earth Day Ball!<br /><br />There were the small matters of finding a site for the school and rounding up the students whose good fortune it would be to be photographed entering this shrine of greenness! The educators decided that two elementary schools would be closed and their student bodies consolidated into one new, vibrant green group.<br /><br />In West Virginia school consolidation has been a shambles especially at the secondary level. Communities treasured their local high schools as the nexus - along with churches - of local life. The schools also had something church did not - sports. Pride in the local athletic teams and year-round displays of colors, logos and nicknames gave each small town and its residents tucked away in the mountains an identity even (or especially) when they ventured to the bigger cities. <br /><br />Politicians, always looking to combine their voter base in order to make pandering an easier task, announced that school consolidation was the way forward. We can offer more programs and more opportunities, they said. National and state educational 'experts' (them again) agreed. Nobody bothered to ask the teachers, students and parents who liked their existing, if aging, schools and if they did ask the answers were ignored. Who cared if teachers did a fantastic job of mentoring students in and out of the classroom simply because they knew their families personally and felt a sense of duty beyond lesson plans? This was progress, dammit, and a sense of community identity was nothing alongside the chance to cut a ribbon in front of a soulless concrete and glass County Consolidated High School. And so community identities were stripped overnight, the usual meaningless, inoffensive generic nicknames like Eagles, Falcons, or Knights were chosen (no Applemen or Hillbillies or Farmers for them thank you very much) and the daily nightmare of busing kids across rugged terrain began. Majestic and unique architecture might have been appropriate for the first half of the 20th Century but consolidated schools relied on a bloodless, practical geometry that would have brought a tear to the eye of any good East German.<br /><br />Those community high schools produced alumni with a great affection for their school, teachers and classmates and reunions are chock-full of fond remembrances. Reunions at consolidated schools, when they are held and, more crucially, when they are actually attended, have all the charm of your last trip to Wal-Mart. Sheer numbers mean that many students never get acquainted even after attending for four years - what would they have to reminisce about?<br /><br />But consolidation, like green, is good, they tell us. Oh, but hang on. It seems that many parents, some of them no doubt products of consolidated schools, want to keep their neighborhood elementary! They like knowing all the kids and their parents. They like having the school within walking distance or a quick car commute. And these parents have no interest in a new school elsewhere, green or any other color.<br /><br />They're bucking the system! They should be grateful that their offspring will be fodder for all those green dreams! Don't they know the oceans will boil, the skies will rain fire and the polar bears will be in for a long swim if they don't get with the program?<br /><br />And then there's the small matter of a site. West Virginia isn't called The Mountain State because of one or two impressive but isolated mountain ranges. Instead, there is a sizeable hill in just about every direction. Clearing and grading land parcels for large developments like retail or schools is expensive and time-consuming.<span style=""> </span>It just so happens that a large, flat parcel of land is equidistant from the two schools marked for closure.<span style=""> </span>And the land is used for agronomy work by the university which means it’s already timbered and relatively flat!<span style=""> </span>Surely they would part with it especially given the politically correct mission of a green school.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Oh but hang on (again).<span style=""> </span>That site just happens to be adjacent to the T-junction from hell known as the intersection of the Mileground and WV Rte 705.<span style=""> </span>A staggering volume of vehicles both commercial and private pass through this intersection on the way to and from the university, the hospital complex, the offices, banks and clinics surrounding them, etc.<span style=""> </span>It’s not unusual to see cars stacked up in the left-turn lane for 0.5 miles (despite a total lack of oncoming traffic – it’s a T-junction after all).<span style=""> </span>When they added a right-turn lane (a simple and practical act) all were so grateful that they actually dedicated it and erected a sign!<span style=""> </span>Other places have entire roads and streets named after people but this particular bottleneck was so bad that they named just one lane after a person!</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">It’s an area, then, that sees a near-constant stream of idling vehicles, many of them pickup trucks, minivans, and SUVs – in short, a greenie’s nightmare.<span style=""> </span>Anyone with or without a lick of common sense can see that adding a school with its morning-and-afternoon bus and parent-vehicle traffic to the mix will convert a bottleneck into total gridlock.<span style=""> </span>Imagine waiting 20 minutes to make a left turn only to be held for another 10 minutes by a crossing guard while 15 school buses rumble out of the parking lot.<span style=""> </span>30 minutes to travel less than one mile all while burning gasoline costing $3.50/gal or more!</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">“Madness,” you might think and rightly so.<span style=""> </span>But madness is already part of everyday life for some in the form of AGW hysteria.<span style=""> </span>The site will not change.<span style=""> </span>The school will be green even if it’s surrounded by very brown, black and grey shades of vehicle exhaust!</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">The parents (the ones who are supposedly too apathetic to care and whose role as providers of nourishment is to be supplanted by the schools) opposed to the school are challenging the establishment and location of the green school.<span style=""> </span>Those ingrates are asking legitimate procedural and legal questions about the actions of the superintendent and the board.<span style=""> </span>And what’s this?<span style=""> </span>FOIA requests?<span style=""> </span>How dare they!<span style=""> </span>And so the superintendent decides – independent of any precedent, rule, law or policy – that each request will cost a nominal fee for processing, postage, etc.<span style=""> </span>35 cents here, 50 cents there.<span style=""> </span>Stamps aren’t cheap, he says.<span style=""> </span>But wait – aren’t these requests being filed, filled and returned electronically i.e. without the use of any paper or postal mail at all (very green, you might say)?<span style=""> </span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">But it doesn’t matter to the ‘educators.’<span style=""> </span>Their show pony, their calling card, their ticket to hosannas from the greater green movement (they dream of Obama attending the grand opening but they don’t dare verbalize it yet) is being threatened, which means a serious digging in of heels.<span style=""> </span>Green schools may be the future, but bureaucracy is a time-tested specialty of the educational establishment.<span style=""> </span>Nobody, except perhaps the DMV or the Post Office, can sap the enemy’s morale like a front-line secretary in a government office who will demand forms, signatures, stamps, approvals, and photocopies until the enemy forgets why he asked in the first place or at least is very sorry he did so.<span style=""> </span>You see, green is good.<span style=""> </span>You might even say green is God to some people and they will act and react with a distinctly religious fervor when their faith is questioned.<span style=""> </span></p>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-13914369380838768682010-05-04T08:17:00.004-04:002010-05-04T08:25:03.120-04:00The dramatic opening<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Staff reporter Brandy Brubaker occasionally drives me to distraction with her writing style and today is a perfect example.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Headline: Downtown club loses license </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">"The liquor license of a downtown</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">nightclub has been suspended</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">during an investigation into the</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">alleged serving of alcohol to underage</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">patrons and an alleged sexual</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">assault involving a patron.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">State Alcohol Beverage Control</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Administration (ABCA) officials</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">suspended the liquor license held</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">by Tabu, on Chestnut Street, until</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">further notice, ABCA Spokesman</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Gig Robinson said Monday."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Why, oh why, oh why are we forced to wait until halfway through the second paragraph to discover the name of the club?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">There are only three possible reasons for this silly device:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">1) It's part of AP style. To hell with AP style. AP style is boring, stilted and verbose for the sake of verbosity.</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">2) Purely to fill column inches i.e. 250 words of fact stretched to 500 words of prose</span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">3) Ms Brubaker, her editor and/or others believe it adds drama, tension, suspense, etc.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I'm partial to UK newspapers for their terse, direct style. They would have identified Tabu in the first paragraph, perhaps the first sentence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">In fact, the second paragraph should be the first paragraph. In fact, the first paragraph should be struck entirely except for the mention of underage patrons and an alleged sexual assault - items which could have been incorporated into the second paragraph.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Maddening.</span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-64955659216127965612010-04-12T09:13:00.004-04:002010-04-12T09:35:20.166-04:00Stefanie Loh moves on<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">In a move that was kept as quiet as the relocation of the Baltimore Colts, (former) WVU football beat writer for the DP has moved up the road to Harrisburg, PA's Patriot-News. She is now writing on their high school sports (!?) and minor league baseball (!?).<br /><br />A quick Google shows that this paper had advertised a vacancy and it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out the rest.<br /><br />One could say that Harrisburg is a larger market (if we include Lebanon, Carlisle, York, etc.) but it's in the sports wilderness given the huge Philadelphia market to the east. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">College football is one subject where a beat writer can gain some traction and build a name by being associated with a particular program as the go-to person for information. It works in countless college towns in the SEC and Big 12. But the subject never changes - literally - so one must be committed to the cause.<br /><br />But Ms. Loh was a West Coaster and Morgantown was almost certainly going to a be a short-term proposition for her. I'm sure there was more than a bit of culture shock upon arrival.<br /><br />On balance, she did her best and it generally was good enough but the DP continues to suffer from Lack of Institutional Memory syndrome. There is nobody there - with the possible exception of Todd Murray - who can personally recall people, games, stories and other moments in Mountaineer history and this lack of historical perspective, by definition, hinders any ability to provide context for the events of the present. 'History repeating itself' and/or 'exorcising the demons of the past' are stock constructs for game stories yet the lack of experience at the DP means they can't even manage to rely on these hoary cliches.<br /><br />Ms. Loh was often reduced to pumping the sunshine for the only coach she had worked with - Bill Stewart. Stewart's optimism in the face of very long odds can be endearing at times but can also be a bit maddening and Ms. Loh occasionally demonstrated symptoms of madness-by-association when defending what was, at best, a mediocre team and a string of uninspiring opponents. It was all borne out by the egg laid on the 50 yard line of the Gator Bowl (next to the flaming spear planted by Coach Bowden).<br /><br />To be fair, the beat writer had a frequently thankless job by playing up the positive qualities of many WVU football recruits while ignoring or sugar-coating their shortcomings (criminal backgrounds, broken homes, children fathered out of wedlock by multiple women, academic deficiencies). One can only imagine being instructed to submit 500 words on Johnny Linebacker-loves-his-mom and attempting to make it seem compelling.<br /><br />The bread-and-water rations at the DP appear to be the meal of the day, every day, and it remains to be seen if a football writer will be brought in or if musical chairs (don't forget to take one away!) will be employed to shuffle assignments yet again. Todd Murray has, either out of common sense or necessity, been assigned to spring football along with his editor Drew Rubenstein.<br /><br /><br /></span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-27657822270558343362010-03-20T11:15:00.004-04:002010-03-20T11:37:56.328-04:00Headlines and Priorities (?)<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Lessee....West Virginia University's men's basketball team is a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and won their first game in this eagerly-anticipated event.<br /><br />What did the sports editor select as the lead story on the sports page? Baseball. In March. During the regular season. Against noted baseball power Eastern Michigan from the sports hotbed of Ypsilanti. Oh - there's a wrestling blurb in there also but it requires moving to a jump page.<br /><br />Oh - look - there's the basketball story halfway down the page! It's the USA Today Attention Deficit & Hyperactive Disorder school of layout and design! Here a column! There a sidebar! There a teaser for stories inside - but you must travel all the way to Page 6-B for coverage of the most important sporting event this month!<br /><br />Just imagine if the critical (apparently) stories on college baseball were moved to the prime (apparently) real estate on Page 6-B! Why you might even have enough room to publish the entire game story without the need for a jump page, thus serving your readers AND making your layout less chaotic! What's that? Yes - you can also move a non-story about non-WVU players being paraded like cattle at the stockyard in anticipation of the NFL Draft.<br /><br />Also included is a story on a WVU recruit. But he's still in high school! Before we cover the people who haven't put on the uniform yet why not cover those who are currently wearing the uniform?<br /><br />Wow - now there's plenty of room - even for those whose common sense has temporarily disappeared!<br /><br />Newspaper types will say, no doubt, that 'readers want to see all the previous day's results at a glance.' Erm, no. Readers want to see the IMPORTANT results. The opening round of the NCAA Tournament involving the #2 seeded college team is important. Baseball against a MAC school is not important. Football players running around cones in the off-season is even less important.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3A14d6X4KjbpO11cLT4KMhoIL1LXuh7M46MDdmxkmu-YS2xEL42spYYuqsr5ebuVdH3sBCCdTknKZd7GaPJIt0TQKE4v9Etf3xtngHHciD9Zvv7qV4peisYWC5_5EWV0MOsCfup8we0/s1600-h/dpsat.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 189px; height: 374px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3A14d6X4KjbpO11cLT4KMhoIL1LXuh7M46MDdmxkmu-YS2xEL42spYYuqsr5ebuVdH3sBCCdTknKZd7GaPJIt0TQKE4v9Etf3xtngHHciD9Zvv7qV4peisYWC5_5EWV0MOsCfup8we0/s400/dpsat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450740366362655650" border="0" /></a>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-2487157921640614112010-02-25T06:15:00.000-05:002010-02-25T06:27:41.745-05:00And the wall came down....<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Let's see if I've got this recipe correct:<br /><br />1) Take a steep valley previously only suitable for use as pastureland by some presumably agile cattle (with the proverbial one pair of legs shorter than the other).<br /><br />2) Build hundreds, if not thousands, of student condos using the cheapest construction materials available. Perch them precariously on hillsides.<br /><br />3) Clad most/all of it in that boring, tacky, ubiquitous tan vinyl siding.<br /><br />4) Ignore minor details like draining and a road actually capable of handling the traffic to, from and past your development. Hint: the golf cart path known as West Run Road wasn't and isn't up to the job.<br /><br />5) Inconvenience everyone who uses nearby roads by failing utterly to plan for the traffic impact. Rely on local traffic engineers to stick a traffic light up thus turning one bottleneck into four.<br /><br />Well, the karma has been building and while nobody wants to see any injuries, the cynical developers may be starting to see their bill come due as nature and gravity are starting to push back. Here's a pic of a retaining wall that couldn't.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcDJnjcjf3lUnXzvpXCl4jyTwQl3cEh7aTePT2F2PUgC3wOKyIMfePxvzL_8E3qqDLdbgginniM8VP1GysG-LXvpo3BBpmGpf-8EAXo_Eqepv8Ho7fDKevWynp6qWwEWR3Vf6LucvxLQY/s1600-h/westrunwall.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 273px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcDJnjcjf3lUnXzvpXCl4jyTwQl3cEh7aTePT2F2PUgC3wOKyIMfePxvzL_8E3qqDLdbgginniM8VP1GysG-LXvpo3BBpmGpf-8EAXo_Eqepv8Ho7fDKevWynp6qWwEWR3Vf6LucvxLQY/s400/westrunwall.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442140955704382754" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-66016280178014886242010-01-09T11:00:00.000-05:002010-01-09T11:18:01.000-05:00Fonts: Back To The Future<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuGpt6XO8ZxyRBOuPvrOmHI_44bhuTOjyhvumEe_XomJlOpOq_ESInljaavBgQyi5OpnE2R55Kf7j3V6cm8kBdziky3DRYoJsp7JNZgUeQFHMC7U9yAqqQNrgYzEFe7mN6MKXNcv-NtUE/s1600-h/dpnewfont.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 192px; height: 307px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuGpt6XO8ZxyRBOuPvrOmHI_44bhuTOjyhvumEe_XomJlOpOq_ESInljaavBgQyi5OpnE2R55Kf7j3V6cm8kBdziky3DRYoJsp7JNZgUeQFHMC7U9yAqqQNrgYzEFe7mN6MKXNcv-NtUE/s400/dpnewfont.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424774542615419090" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAhMcXXD1m-hkLqyZ8YmLP0CrqqO-vz1EhIJgBoU4XeoBJGGTLuGAkxjM_pfRZd3uuaFsuQyEIVoC23mLCf2qbZuGYFw4a0ZhjipUjfEsTDYZUzZUhZragYmN8L_79-v8jysKGEydSssg/s1600-h/dpoldfont.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 193px; height: 263px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAhMcXXD1m-hkLqyZ8YmLP0CrqqO-vz1EhIJgBoU4XeoBJGGTLuGAkxjM_pfRZd3uuaFsuQyEIVoC23mLCf2qbZuGYFw4a0ZhjipUjfEsTDYZUzZUhZragYmN8L_79-v8jysKGEydSssg/s400/dpoldfont.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424774455737856066" border="0" /></a><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Football season is over but the DP have apparently punted on their revamped column-body font, dumping the new serif-heavy, smaller font and bringing back their old reliable. Curiously, they are still using the new font for subheadlines.<br /><br />The new font lasted only 5 days - the January 6 edition uses the old font.<br /><br />With or without the reversion, the conversion was hardly 'seamless to the eye' as editor Geri Ferrara claimed. It was, in fact, quite jarring and bringing back the old font is unassailable evidence that readers, employees or both decided the new font was unacceptable.<br /><br />While I applaud the move it's a rather quick and humiliating climbdown considering all the breathless hype trotted out by DP editors & management less than one week ago.<br /><br /><br /></span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7138620227399351365.post-74178455376105090412010-01-03T10:35:00.001-05:002010-01-06T15:51:26.820-05:00It's smaller - but it is improved?<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The DP has joined the huge number of dailies in trimming itself down from traditional broadsheet width to a more narrow format.<br /><br />Nothing new under the sun of course but newspaper hacks cannot resist the urge to imply that this somehow qualifies them for collective sainthood. Cue the greenie litany: less ink, less newsprint and soy-based ink (yummy)!<br /><br />This new skinny paper is a wonderful thing. How do we know? Because the people at the paper say so dammit! Editor Geri Ferrara and her lieutenants may have fewer columns to work with but that still gives them plenty of room to gush: dedication to local news, increased ad value (read: they will charge more for less), streamlined (presumably for the car-based carriers who must toss each copy), reader friendly. Yes, reader friendly - this paper now purrs like a cat when you open it up! No more paper cuts or stains on hands! In fact it may have curative properties but the FDA has not evaluated such a claim.<br /><br />Back to reality...the decreasing size of newspapers mirrors perfectly the decline in the role they play in news coverage and in the (abusive) position they have played in influencing public opinion. Even papers 'leaning right' typically support every and any government boondoggle and expenditure. One-horse towns buying property, police cruisers, computers and other things they don't understand let alone use is just ducky with the DP. With six columns or five you can be sure the DP will never call for an accounting of all those dollars flowing into the system but never flowing back out.<br /><br />As for the physical look of the paper the other big change is the standard typeface used. Inexplicably the DP has bucked the Internet-inspired trend of clean, neat fonts that aid legibility even if they lack a certain artistry. Instead, they have gone with a serif-heavy font (i.e., lots of little lines, wings and so forth on the letters) and a surfeit of mysterious, inconsistent spaces between words and letters that harkens back to the age of manual typesetting when type had to be 'slugged' in order to create clean column edges. A charitable description might be text produced using an early version of PageMaker for the original Macintosh computer. It now looks like text in a high school paper.<br /><br />I haven't yet mustered the energy to compare individual news items from the old and new DP to see if this brave new version is actually an excuse to also cut down on article length but obviously fewer columns mean less real estate on offer for all stories.<br /></span>Janglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954888100169029057noreply@blogger.com0