Shots in the Dark

Will it end tonight? Please?

I’m sure that this is satisfying for Sox fans, but this World Series is frigging boring…..
An ALCS between the Yanks and the Sox would have been much more fun—and much more competitive. The Yankees seem to be the only team that’s not intimidated by Boston’s lineup….

They’re down, 2-0, having lost a slugfest and a pitching duel. Will the thin air of Coors Field help them? Will David Ortiz playing first base help them? Will the collective will of millions upon millions who agree that the Red Sox are the new evil empire help them? (Let us not forget that the Red Sox resurgence has coincided with the presidency of George W. Bush.)

Go Rockies!

(If only to make this a more interesting World Series….)

In the Globe, Linda Wertheimer writes that the number of student groups at Harvard has soared.

Harvard now recognizes nearly 400 clubs, up from 240 a decade ago, while the number at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has doubled to 508 over that period. Dartmouth College has more than 200 groups, a 25 percent jump.

Sounds like a good thing, right? Not necessarily. It’s possible that some kids are starting groups just because they’d rather run something than be just one member of a group. Some of the organizations are redundant, and they all put pressure on the finite amount of funding for student groups.

“The high-achieving students come here and want to run something,” said Judith Kidd, Harvard College’s associate dean of student life. “What I try to tell students is: ‘Most of you will not be Bill Gates. You need to learn how to work within an organization.‘ “

That is just a fascinating quote. I would have thought that a college dean might be sending the message, “You can be whatever you want to be, you’re a Harvard student.” Which is, after all, pretty much the way the college markets itself.

I’m not saying that Kidd is wrong, but it’s curious to hear a dean tell students that not all of them were meant to be leaders, some are supposed to be followers.

Not sure if that argument would really work on your Harvard application essay….

Wertheimer fails to note one stunningly obvious reason for the growth in clubs: the Internet, and, in particular, Facebook, which allows for much easier student communication and cohesion than was possible in the pre- e-mail, pre-social networking days.

In the Times yesterday, John Tierney attacked the Harvard School of Public Health for giving an award to Michael Bloomberg due to Bloomberg’s fight against the use of trans-fats in New York City restaurant food.

How much good Mr. Bloomberg has done for New Yorkers’ health is debatable. But there’s no question he’s been good for the Harvard School of Public Health by promoting the trans-fat notions of its researchers, notably Walter Willett, the epidemiologist who has been the leading critic of trans fat.

Tierney goes on to say that maybe trans fats aren’t so bad for you after all, and he quotes at length—it’s actually a block quote—Elizabeth Whelan, the head of a group called the American Council on Science and Public Health.

How many deaths from heart disease will be prevented by the restaurant ban on trans fat? Our best guess is zero.
What Tierney doesn’t bother to mention, though, is that both Whelan and her group are generally considered less than credible sources.

For one thing, it receives some of its funding from the fast food industry, which heavily fought the trans fat ban.

Some of the commenters point this out, and Tierney responds to them quite disdainfully—until Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, also chimes in, and Tierney doesn’t bother to respond to him.

Here is a rule about journalism: If you make a mistake, it’s better to admit it than to stonewall, whether you work for the New York Times or Podunk Weekly. And definitely don’t compound it by mocking the people who point out your mistake. (Tierney actually asks readers to discuss whether he should delete a comment which criticizes him.)

Tierney should admit his mistake. And even better, the Times should hire Eric Schlosser as a columnist.
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P.S. A footnote: I’ve just read through all the comments, which are pretty lengthy. They absolutely destroy Tierney’s argument—to the point where his column now seems not just wrong, but irresponsible.

That New York Times has some pretty sharp readers.

…women’s or African-Americans’?

That James Watson has just resigned as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory within days of making remarks skeptical of Africans, while Lawrence Summers lingered at Harvard for over a year after his comments, suggests that the answer is the latter…

In the roster of offensive remarks, race apparently still trumps gender….

Why, I wonder?

Finally figured it out—my old friend, Karin, who was in London at the time; hence the 1:35 AM text. Sweet of her to remember! Also, someone at the K School should give her a job. She’s brilliant.

Sorry about the light posting lately, folks, especially because there’s lots to talk about—James Watson, Jeffrey Epstein, the Princeton lawsuit.

But I am, at the moment, deathly ill, and my head feels like someone bored a(nother) hole in it and filled it with Corning fiberglass insulation. Plus, the Red Sox aren’t helping things.

So I will post as health permits….

Many thanks to those who wished me a happy birthday yesterday; much appreciated.

Also, would “k” who texted me at 1:35 AM please tell me who she is?

I think Rudy Giuliani has just made a major mistake in saying that he would root for the Red Sox.

As a poster below points out, New Hampshire-based Sox fans will smell a/the rat.

And the New York media is playing this big.

CNN, for example, headlines, “Giuliani Stuns New York.” (And CNN is New York media, these days.)

The Post calls him a “Red Coat,” and the Daily News calls him a traitor and—I like this one!—”the Yankee flipper.“

He really is an awful human being.

Rudy Giuliani yesterday proved what an untrustworthy little rat he is: He announced, “I’m rooting for the Red Sox.”

Nonononnonono, Rudy.

I know you say that you’re rooting for the American League, and if it were any other team involved, that would be fine.

But this is different; this is the Red Sox. As any real Yankee fan will tell you, one’s antipathy to the Red Sox vastly outweighs one’s allegiance to the American League. (I mean, please. Who really cares that much about the AL versus the NL anymore?) And if the places were reversed, Sox fans would say the same, I have no doubt.

Rudy, you are a snake.

I mean, we already knew that, but this provides the damning photo evidence…..

Rudy Giuliani: snake, rat, and traitor.