Reading Log 2/26

Awesome Paper today. Thought the front page presented a bunch of interesting articles- I followed more of them into the interior than I usually do. The piece about the British politician and his son was quite interesting and it was interesting to learn that it doesn't cost more and is actually cheaper to use recycled material in toilet paper. Also though the picture on the front was very good- it's interesting that what is pretty much just a vast expanse of white can be as alluring as a piece full of color, particularly when its on a page that consists of black and white to start with.
Some interesting articles today:
-More than the Menu on Display (sounds like a good idea to me)
-As the Demand for Help Grows, Operators Heed the Calls
-When the Next Wave Wipes Out
-What's Eating Out Kids? Fears About 'Bad' Foods
-A Walk Through A Crop of Readers (I can't see myself getting into this anytime soon)

Anyway, I read a bunch of others besides that, but those stand out on going back a second time.

Speaking seriously, reading the Times is one of the best parts of my day.

Reading Log 2/25 (Wednesday)

Some articles I found interesting in Wednesday's paper:

-They Stand When Called Upon, and When Not
-Bloomberg Buys Out the Neighbors on East 79th St.
-Now in Brooklyn, the 19th Century
-For a New Generation, Kimchi Goes With Tacos
-Frito-Lay Tries to Enter the Minds (And Lunch Bags) of Women
-Humanities Must Justify Their Worth on Campus

The first and the last above both regard education, which also popped up in a couple other areas, about colleges getting less in donations and students trying to condense coursework into 3 years to save money. A little theme through the various sections.

Reading Log 2/24

Tons of stuff to read in the paper today. Found a bunch of interesting stuff in all the sections. Hands down though, the best piece was the profile of Matt Carpenter, record holder in the Pikes Peak Marathon. I did think it was a little low that they brought up doping, particularly so early in the article ("Carpenter has never been publicly accused of doping, he said he has never taken performance enhancing drugs and is willing to be tested anytime). First of all, the money you earn from trail running would probably be less than the drugs would cost. This isn't a hugely popular sport here, there's not that much to gain. Otherwise, though it was a good article.
Again good paper, found a ton to read.

Class Assignment- The French Connection Clip

NYC Detective Fatally Shoots Suspected Assassin After Extensive Chase

A New York City Police Detective shot and killed a suspected assassin late Sunday afternoon. The assassin was allegedly working on belief of a French drug kingpin whom the detective had been investigating.
Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle of the NYCPD’s Narcotics Division brought down Pierre Jeantot, of Nice, France, after an extensive chase. The chase began on foot after Jeantot fired at Doyle from the roof of an apartment building.
After running several blocks, Jeantot was able to elude Doyle by escaping onto an elevated train. Doyle responded by commandeering a car and following the train in a wild high speed chase down city streets, disrupting both vehicular and pedestrian traffic on the way from the 35th. St. Station to the 15th St. Station.
“All of a sudden I saw this big burgundy car coming in my direction and I just froze,” said Manhattan resident Margaret Johnson, who said she narrowly avoided being hit by Doyle as she crossed the street along with her 2-year-old in a stroller.
Numerous collisions also occurred directly or indirectly because of the chase. The car Doyle commandeered suffered extensive damage.
The chaos was not limited to the road level.
Jeantot held the trainman at gunpoint and forced him to bypass the 25th St. Station, believing that Doyle would follow him there. He shot and killed a conductor and police officer who were aboard the train when they confronted him. The trainman died at the controls of a heart attack.
City resident Betty Lou was in the elevated train that Jeantot escaped on.
“Once the train didn’t stop at the station I wanted, I realized something was really wrong,” she said.
Jeantot exited the train at the 15th St. Station. As he made his way down the stairs leaving the platform, he was confronted by Doyle. Doyle shot Jeantot in the back as he turned to get away.
City police officials find themselves reacting to a citywide controversy of whether Doyle’s actions were appropriate.
“I think he could have handled it in another way, because he put a lot of innocent lives in danger,” said Johnson.
NYC Police Chief Morgan Freeman said that Doyle simply did what was necessary.
“We commend Detective Doyle for his bravery in attempting to track down a dangerous criminal,” he said. “We believe that, in the end, he did the right thing.”
Freeman noted that time was a factor in Doyle’s decision, and that Jeantot would likely have gotten away were it not for his actions.
According to a press release from the office of Ruth L. Ess, New York City Police Commissioner, Jeantot is suspected to have been associated with a crime syndicate that had been laying the groundwork for a major heroin shipment into the city from France. Doyle and his partner, Buddy “Cloudy” Russo had been investigating the kingpin in charge of the organization.
“Let me just say that it is always unfortunate when these incidents end in a loss of life,” the release reads. “We would have preferred to see Jeantot prosecuted in the courts, and we believe Doyle was close to a breakthrough on the case.”
Two other men believed to be involved in the smuggling operation are being sought at this time.

Reading Log 2/19

Short and sweet today.
Favorite article was on E1 about the fitness benefits of climbing stairs and the Empire State Building Run-up. I really want to do this someday. Talk about building up lactic acid. Would have been nice to hear from the winner though- maybe what he did for training, whether he's run it before, what other events he runs, etc.

2/18 (Wednesday) Reading Log

Really nice paper today. Seemed like I read a lot of it.

Interesting that Obama signing the bailout bill was buried on page 17. So used to every little development on it being front page news that it just seems odd that the actual signing got so little respect. But hey, maybe A-Rod's selling more papers.
Great piece on uninsured 20somethings. Read the entire piece, held my interest the entire time. That's a good article.
Also read a fair amount of National and New York, including feeding the elk, photos on subways (made me wanna just go down there and start taking pictures to see what would happen), cheney vs. bush over libby.

Section B- Liked the piece on Instant Starbucks a lot. Saw a snippet about it on CNN, but nice to sit down with the times and get the full story. Be interesting to see how it goes over. Seems like SBucks is targeting those who already drink starbucks and would use it when they couldn't get to the nearest SBucks (b/c they closed some stores so there's not one on every corner anymore...) as opposed to people who already drink instant. Thought the fact that europeans drink a lot more instant than we do was intriguing.
Picture on B8 of distressed trader on floor of Stock Exchange- They just love showing these type of pictures. Somebody should start a blog called "Stressed Trader of the Day Photo"

Arts- Still not finding much stuff in Arts that's all that interesting.

Dining- Best dining yet. Read the entire thing,

Reading Log 2/17

I just noticed how blurry some of the photos in the Times are. The one on today's front page today is particularly bad. Just an observation.

Section A- Didn't read a ton of the front section today. Interesting how many Republican governors support the stimulus when Rep. Congressmen don't. I suppose they're desperate for any money they can get to their state. Also read about the death of the bodybuilder. Odd. That's a subculture I don't understand.

Section B- Mostly skimmed. Unemployment of white collar auto workers sort of interesting. Also read about deodorant advertising though, so not too sure I have very good taste.
Interesting that cycling's Tour of California makes the Times. I wouldn't necessarily have thought that it would. Definitely not a complaint though.

Section C- Liked reading about how much various films made over the weekend. I used to keep up on this (despite not being a movie buff), but rarely think to look into it now.

Section D- Liked the health section, particularly the personal health column, which I commented on last week (come to think of it, last week they talked about real sugar, this week fake sugar- "artificial sweeteners"- a little trend there).

Oh, side note, the frequent flier column person said his favorite airport was Norfolk, Va. Wouldn't have thought of it as particuarly nice. But there's a couple trees around it, I guess that's rare for airports.

Reading Log 2/16

Section A- Interesting article about librarians- to be honest I'd say that the librarians I've encountered were expendable. Also read the article about New Orleans day laborers. Topical since I'm in an honors inquiry course about New Orleans, where we obviously talk about Katrina and the aftermath of it, as well as racial relations, so this ties in in several ways.
Good article about helicopters- usually I know about most of the domestic articles from 24 hour news, checking online, but hadn't heard about this dilemma.
Oh, and as a side note, "Metropolitan Diary" always has the most interesting little stories- short, sweet, and always positive.

Business- Section B- Mostly skimmed, nothing caught my eye enough to make me commit to reading the whole thing.

Arts- Section C- I have no idea why I read the article about "The Bachelor," but I did. Please don't hold it against me.

Sports - Section D- Awesome article about women's cycling. Amazing how sucessfully the woman are managing to be in the corporate/business world while still going to various races and finding time to train. Interesting that they wish they had the media attention that men's cycling has, considering men's cycling gets no media attention compared to football, baseball, basketball, etc.
"The Yankees 25 Fact Roster" was as interesting as the 25 lists it emulates. Why do we crave random facts about people we don't really know?

Reading Log...or why you should skip the first 22 pages of the paper today...

Switching things up for the reading log today. Going to focus on what I thought was the best piece of journalism in today's time. Not on the front page, not international, not even national. A piece out of Queens, NY (a reminder that the times is first and foremost NYC's paper). It's buried- a whooping page A23. "Queens Driver Unknowingly Drags a Body Nearly 20 Miles." For some reason, this piece really struck me. Not that there wasn't death elsewhere in the paper (Afghan deaths on the front page), it wasn't some huge catastrophe. But it was so unusual and so incredibly disturbing. A car hits a person crossing the street. The driver gets out, but doesn't see a person or a body anywhere. The police even come, decide he was mistaken. An HOUR LATER, a car is flagged down and the driver realizes he has been dragging a body underneath his car for the last 20 miles. Yep, the same guy. Normally I don't show much/any facial expression when reading the paper, but with this article I couldn't stop myself from reacting. Disturbing is the only word I can think of for it. This was an incredibly unusual story and I believe it was a very good account of a horrific incident.

Well, that's the times for another week.

By the way, Gregg is currently on CNN announcing that he's withdrawing from commerce secretary consideration. Way to make my newswriting article for the week obsolete, senator. Oh well, such is the nature of the news...

Reading Log 2/11

Section A- I've noticed that I always seem to read the main article on the front page of National, which starts midway through Section A. I like it because it's an indepth focus at a problem/issue affecting a small geographic area, but they're always very interesting and you can learn a lot about the area being covered.
Interesting article about Republicans in the Tennessee House. Politics can be so...odd at times. Fascinating what people in positions of power do.
Article on Maine senators- I like how they're described as part of the vanishing breed of New England republicans- moderate, bipartisan. When I did the article on Bonnie Newman, Dante Scala (Poly Sci professor) described her in that exact term- New England Republican, and he actually compared her to Susan Collins. Times basically backs him up.

Section B- Nice photo on the front. Interesting that it's two photos they put next to each other. I almost didn't notice that. Main comment from that section.

Section C- I guess I need to develop an interest in New York theatre and classical music, because otherwise I'm never going to read the Arts section. Which means I'll just spend more time reading...

Section D- I like reading about food. High-brow food. Low-brow food. Looking at pictures of food. Liked the piece about picking up the check and companies/agents/etc eating out less, as well as the lead story.

Class Assignment - 2/11

Quick Thinking Saves Man Whose Car Stalled on Downeaster Tracks

The quick thinking of a 17-year-old and a captain on the police force saved the life of an 80-year-old tourist whose car stalled on the Downeaster’s tracks yesterday morning in Old Orchard Beach.

According to police reports, James Laboke ran into the Pier Street police station at 6 a.m. Monday and reported seeing a car stalled on the tracks and a man, who appeared unconscious, slumped over the steering wheel. The car’s engine was still running and the doors were locked. Laboke reportedly pounded on the window but received no response from the driver.

Laboke, a Sudanese refugee, said there was never any question about what he should do.

“I never thought about it,” he said. “I just knew I couldn’t let that man get crushed by a train.”

Janket Paradiso, a captain on the town police force, was a mile away from the railroad crossing when she heard the call on the radio about the stranded vehicle.

“I knew there was no time,” Paradiso said later. “I had to do something.”

Brian Paul, Chief of Police, said Paradiso rammed her police cruiser into the 1987 Cadillac and pushed it from the tracks. Thirty seconds later, a train passed by.

“It was that close,” said Paul.

The Downeaster is a passenger train operated by Amtrak that runs from Portland, Maine to Boston, and makes a stop in Old Orchard Beach during the summer.

The man in the car was Francois Truffaut, a tourist from Quebec City, Canada. He is listed as being in stable condition at Southern Maine Medical Center.

“I don’t remember a thing,” Truffaut said.

Police believe Truffaut, who is diabetic, may have gone into insulin shock just as he reached the railroad crossing.

Traffaut said he has been coming to Old Orchard Beach, a summer tourist community on the southern Maine seacoast, since he was a child.

He can thank one of the workers in the tourist industry for his narrow escape.

Laboke is a waiter at the Eezy Breezy Restaurant on East Grand Street and was on his way to the restaurant when he came across Truffaut.

Charles Champaigne, Laboke’s boss, said Laboke reported to work on time and didn’t even mention the incident.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Champaigne. “That young man is one of my most responsible employees. He’s just a great kid.”

Reading Log 2/10

Section A- Nothing really grabbed me until Page 8. Interesting article about the hotel that houses most of Wyoming's legislature. Seems like a good idea having politicians living next to each other and seeing each other as human beings. And I can't imagine that they the lobbyist influence is all that much more than in other states. I especially like how the photo showed the hotel sign had both "Welcome Legislators" and "Welcome Lobbyist," showing how closely the two interacted. Didn't read much about Obama's speech because I'd heard a lot about it (and some of the actual speech) from CNN.

Business- Section B- I really like the "Frequent Flier" column- it always has interesting stories.
Sports- As a runner, nice to see a piece of US Track, though not exactly positive.

The Arts- Section C- Don't think I read any articles completely here, just skimmed.

Science- Enjoyed the Personal Help column on there being too much sugar in American's diet. Even though I already knew that, I just enjoy reading about nutrition.

Looking forward to the Dining section tomorrow...

Reading Log 2/9

Nice paper today.
Read a decent amount of the front section today. Nice comprehensive article on the Georgia peanut plant. Also read about Australia's fires and really liked the picture that accompanied it (page A8). It was interesting to compare the plane that crashed in the Amazon (also page 8) to last month's Miracle on the Hudson.
Very nice article on downtown Vegas and the the representative who's been in the House since 1955 (!!).
Business- Think that the service stations to recharge electric cars is an amazing idea. Its definitely necessary if we ever want to translate to a all electric fleet. Also liked the article on Newsweek, since I pick it up from time to time.
Arts- Didn't really read it. Not interested in the Grammys.
Sports- Skipped the article on A-Rod and opted for the one on the Native American boxers instead. Fairly good- a little hard to follow, but a nice human interest sports story about a non-mainstream sport.

But speaking of sports, saw this on nytimes.com over the weekend. I think I have a new hero:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/sports/othersports/08cycling.html?_r=1

Reading Log 2/5- Going Fridgeless, Diet Betting, 25 Things

Paper seemed pretty dead flipping through section A today. Read about Daschle and digital piracy but overall didn't find many articles that really cried out for me to read them.

That changed with section D. I thought the article about the environmentalists who decided to get rid of their fridges was fascinating. I hadn't heard anything about it before, and I consider myself fairly well versed in the various environmental experiments that catch headlines (I frequently visited No Impact Man's blog, which is referenced in the article, along with 365 days of Trash and other wites similar). Thought the article did great job presenting people who did it, and people who couldn't fathom doing it. Really says a lot about how difficult it would be that both sides were represented by environmental types. Definitely a thing to do when you're single or with a very tolerable, like-minded spouse. Maybe I'll have to add it to my to-do list.

Also liked the "diet betting" article in the Styles section, mostly due to interest in food and nutrition.

Finally, I liked the article in Styles about the 25 Random Things About Me lists. The article couldn't have been more perfectly timed. In the past week, it seems half my "friends" have written one of these. I haven't, but I guess it says something about me that I read them, even (as the article references) people I don't really know. Also liked the little line about the guy having 1790 friends, 17 of which he knew personally. So true, so true.

And I don't know if this was in print anywhere, but saw this on the times website and was convinced once again that Christoph Niemann is a genius.
http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/i-lego-ny/?em
Read the coffee timeline he drew on napkins back in December too.

Class Assignment- 2/4

Who- Three people- 17 year old Jamie Peterson and two young female passengers
What- Car Accident
When- Monday evening
Where- Mile Hill Road in Belmont, Massachusetts
Why- Accident likely due to speeding and lack of street lights
How- Car swerved off road, hit embankment, and flipped over
So what- Local, site of previous accident

2 Injured When Car Flips on Mile Hill Road

A car swerved off the road, hit an embankment, and flipped over along Mile Hill Road in Belmont approximately 9 pm Monday evening, injuring two of the three young passengers inside.
The two female passengers, who have not yet been identified, were trapped inside the crushed car, and had to be rescued with the jaws of life, a process which took 45 minutes. Both victims were taken to Memorial Hospital in Belmont. One remains there in stable condition. The other was airlifted to Mass. General Hospital in Boston.

The driver of the white Ford Mustang, seventeen-year-old Jamie Peterson of Belmont, was unhurt, and managed to crawl out of the car on his own, according to Lieutenant Judith Barkus of the Belmont Police Department.

Josie M. Crandall saw the accident from her house at 27 Mile Rd and called police.“I’ve never seen a car going so fast on this road,” Crandall said. “It’s a dirt road, and it’s really easy to lose control.”

Tom Carroll Jr., 17, was driving on Mile Hill Road at the time, and was the first on the scene.“I thought the worst,” Carroll said. “They were flying. It’s hard to see kids your age in something like this. You realize when you see it what could happen, especially on this road.”

Mile Hill Road has no streetlights. There was a fatal accident at this same sport December 24, 1998. Two people were killed in that accident.