Shots in the Dark

John Lauerman, Bloomberg’s Harvard reporter, writes about Drew Faust’s attempt to “knock down traditional budgeting barriers.”

Harvard’s 70 libraries, for example, must work together to increase savings, she said in a speech today on campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Schools and divisions across Harvard have to work together to cut the impact of the fund’s losses resulting from the global financial crisis, she said.

So, well, let’s call a mistake a mistake—I should take back my assertion yesterday that Drew Faust never speaks on certain types of issues such as, um, budgets.

I take it back.

Though I still find it odd that she gave an interview about organic grass. But maybe this will prove to be charming in time.

Here is Harvard Mag’s coverage of Faust’s speech yesterday.

Before focusing on “our changed financial landscape” and the “difficult challenges” that still face the University, Faust recalled the “resilience” and “creativity” of prior Harvard generations in sustaining and building the institution, and asked that the community “meet this moment with equal devotion.” She underscored the need for the University’s scholarship and teaching in a world beset by global economic problems, climate change, infectious diseases and healthcare disparities, inequality, and religious and cultural strife. In conducting research, devising policy solutions, and education, she said, universities are uniquely placed to “take the long view” of immediate problems, placing them in historical context and maintaining a perspective on the horizon beyond. People within the University, she said, have the obligation “not just to serve but to doubt,” particularly at a time when “our work has never mattered more.”

And here’s the Crimson:

“The shade of crimson is far less important than the fact that it is Crimson,” Faust said, breaking into a smile as she played up the symbolism in her example. “When each of us has discretion to decide which of 30 different shades of Crimson to put on our business cards, we’ve carried things too far.

(Is this example true?)

Since I have faulted Faust in the past for not speaking to these matters, it’s only fair that I give the president credit for doing so now, and I do. Kudos to the prez!

Karl Rove knew and cared nothing about policy issues, was the architect of perhaps the worst presidency in American history, and led the Republican party to its worst defeat in decades.

And he shows no sign of ever acknowledging that he did anything wrong.

So why does anyone give a damn what advice he has for Barack Obama?

This time it’s a “Home and Garden” story about organic-fed grass in Harvard Yard.

Harvard’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, who last year started a university effort to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent by 2016, has adopted the organic program at Elmwood, the president’s house on Brattle Street. Dr. Faust became intrigued by the effort last spring when she saw a display that the Harvard Yard Soils Restoration Project had set up outside her office.

“The lumps of soil showed how grass grew when treated with chemical fertilizers and how it looked when treated organically,” she said. “You could really see the root systems and how different they were.”

As the project proceeded, “and I saw the impact, I was really excited,” Dr. Faust said. “I think it’s an integral part of the larger effort to advance sustainability at Harvard.”

(Dr. Faust?)

I’m all for greener grass, but isn’t it sort of odd that on all the big issues, you never hear a peep from DGF—but when it comes to the grass at Elmwood, she’s all Chatty Cathy?

Are Faust’s handlers steering her away from masculine-gendered issues (budgets, the endowment) and towards “softer,” more “feminine” ones like planting the grass at the president’s mansion?

Especially if you catch one by mistake.

“As the trawl net rose out of the water, I could see that we had something big in there … really big…“

….to Hong Kong. And gave a speech. And got paid for it.

Her subject? International economics.

One attendee said she criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve’s massive intervention in the economy over the last year, arguing its actions only exacerbated the crisis. She also praised the conservative economic policies of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

I’m sure it was entertaining, but could anyone in attendance possibly believe that Palin wrote her own speech and had any idea what she was talking about?

…continues!

Not satisfied with simply having dean of admissions William Fitzgibbons answer reader questions—apparently some 900 of them—the Times hired two writers to navel-gaze those questions.

….we asked two people who write regularly about child development and parenting issues to compose brief essays analyzing, and synthesizing, those Harvard questions.

Lisa Belkin’s answer is narcissistic.

So does that mean I think the high octane scramble is a good thing? No.

Thanks for that, Lisa.

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek’s answer was co-written with two other people, which makes it sort of weird.

In 2009, when E-Z Pass has replaced the tollbooth worker, and customer service is outsourced to a lady in Calcutta, we need to redefine how and what American children are learning if we want to stay competitive.

Yeah. Because so many Harvard kids were learning to make change for a buck.

There’s so much interesting to say about Harvard, it’s a shame the Times didn’t do more with this.

I’m in Florida for work this week, preparing the next issue of Worth for the printer, which means that I’ll miss the U2-at-Giants-Stadium show for which my friends so kindly bought me tickets. Well, bummer, but it happens and I’ve seen them before.

I had reconciled myself to this until I read in today’s Times that the English prog-rock band Muse is opening for U2.

Now I am truly cranky—I’d almost prefer to see Muse.

Here they are rocking Wembley Stadium. This will wake you up on a Monday morning.

He compares Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter, which may or may not be a smart move. (Smart: Carter’s presidency was kind of a drag. Not smart: Carter’s popular. But then, this is for GOP consumption.)

(Also: What if Carter dies? Romney’s going to look like a meanie.)

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reflects conservatives’ growing confidence when he taunts Democrats, saying “I’ll bet you never dreamed you’d look back at Jimmy Carter as the good old days.”

Romney is the only viable candidate in a not very impressive GOP field so far.

A straw vote suggests former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a favorite among religious conservatives to be president in 2012. About one-third of the 1,800 registered attendees cast ballots indicating their preference among potential GOP candidates. Huckabee was tops with 28 percent of the vote, which the group calls a straw poll. Four people tied for second, each with about 12 percent of the vote. They were Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.

Huckabee has some appeal, but it doesn’t look as if he’s gearing up to run….

Please crush the Jets, who, after one game this season, are already insufferable.

Meanwhile, rapture: The Mets are on track to finish the season with a pathetic 70 wins.

One of the great joys in sports is watching the Mets embarrass themselves year after year….

One small town in Japan is finally trying to stop that nation’s determination to drive bluefin tuna into extinction.

“I’m furious at Tokyo’s bureaucrats for failing to protect our tuna,” said Hirofumi Hamahata, 69, the president of the Oma fishermen’s co-op, who has worked as a commercial fisherman since age 15. “They don’t lift a finger against the industrial fishing that just sweeps the ocean clean.”

Of course, part of the problem is the American consumer’s sushi fetish….