Lancelot Links

Saturday August 08, 2015

Lancelot Links

Joe Posnanski counts down the 10 most lopsided MLB trades�(by WAR). Shockingly, no Mariners trade made the list. But it sucks to be a BoSox fan.
Jim Walsh's dog poops three times on a two-bag walk. What happens next is what the column is all about.�
Tim Egan talks guns and the two Americas: those with kinda sorta sensible gun laws and those without.�
As of this year, Oregonians don't have to register to vote; they only have to register to opt out of voting. Otherwise, they are automatically registered. “Instead of asking voters, 'Do you want to register to vote?' they ask voters, 'Do you not want to vote?'” Great effin' idea. Right, Texas?�
You know how you go into work on a hot summer day and freeze because the air-conditioning is on too high? Two scientists claim that's the case because office buildings set temps based on decades-old formula that uses the metabolic rates of men, not women. In some cases, in fact, it's based upon “a 40-year-old man weighing about 154 pounds.” Which is exactly me (give or take a dozen years). So�follow-up question�why am *I* cold?�
Seattle is supposedly one of the rattiest cities in the country. I know I've seen my share. A few weekends ago, LoLo's dog Scout flushed one from the bushes at Seattle University.
L.E.J., three cute French girls singing mostly a capella, give us a medley of the summer's big hits, and it's quite charming. �
Manohla Dargis breaks down a USC Communications/Journalism report on how little diversity there is on American movies screens. From 2007-14, according to the report, men made up 69.8% of all speaking or named characters, white people 73.1%. We get hardly any gay, lesbian, trans characters, while women characters disappear the older they get. Shocked, shocked. This is obviously disadvantageous to all of the women and non-white artists in the world, but, I would argue, it's also disadvantageous to white men like me, who don't get to see other people's stories.
I'm surprised Kelefa Sanneh's New Yorker piece on the shifting landscape of free-speech advocacy isn't called “Blurred Lines,” after the controversial Robin Thicke song that begins the piece. Instead it's called “The Hell You Say,” which isn't bad. The shifting landscape, of course, is because of political correctness. It's also about sensitivity and safety. In the 1960s, conservatives were sensitive to bad language, and wanted women and children to be safe from such words, and liberals said, “Fuck that.” Now, liberals are sensitive to racist and misogynistic language, and want women and minorities to be safe from such an environment, and conservatives are saying, “Shut up, whores.” The piece also dives deeper into the issue, parsing whether, for example, hate speech is speech that expresses hatred or is likely to inspire it.�
Jerry Grillo's daughter Samantha has a nice piece on an early job mentor and what she learned from him. I wonder if she learned how to write well from Jerry? Apple/tree.�