CBS oops

Scott Pelley, on the CBS Evening News a few minutes ago: “a secret stash of momentos.” Oops. Stop playing with your eyeglasses, sir, and start proofreading.

I’ll post a link to the video when it becomes available.

*

And here it is. The story starts at 14:27.

[The broadcast clocks in at 15:14. Which means that the news is about half commercials?]

“The evolution of big sound”

[Illustration by Jim Flora. From the Life article ”The Sound Flowed Out of Old Musical Streams,” May 21, 1965. Click for a larger view.]

Found while looking, as usual, for something else. The text at the bottom right reads

This drawing shows the evolution of big sound. At bottom are the three major streams. Country and western continues to prosper, produced today’s star, Roger Miller. Gospel is not widely popular but has deeply influenced the blues. The blues spawned jazz, which has come a long cool way from hot Dixieland. All came together since since the 1950’s to form rhythm and blues and its successor, big rock ’n’ roll sound.

This picture of things is not perfect: the category country and western came long after Jimmie Rodgers; James Brown and Hank Williams and Chicago blues (Muddy Waters &c.) are missing; the idea of early blues (Skip James &c.) is largely a matter of 1960s white-blues-fanatic taste. But it’s remarkable how much this picture got right.

A joke in the traditional manner

Q: Why did King Kong climb the Empire State Building?

A: He was too big to fit in the elevator.

If my blog is to be trusted, I learned why in 2012. But yesterday on the phone I didn’t know why, and I think this silliness is worth sharing again anyway.

More jokes in the traditional manner
How did Bela Lugosi know what to expect?
How did Samuel Clemens do all his long-distance traveling?
What did the plumber do when embarrassed?
Why did the doctor spend his time helping injured squirrels?
Why did Oliver Hardy attempt a solo career in movies?
Why was Santa Claus wandering the East Side of Manhattan?

[“In the traditional manner”: by or à la my dad. Kong, Lugosi, Clemens, Hardy, and the plumber are his. I have to take responsibility for the doctor and Santa Claus.]

Recently updated

Smoke Smoke Smoke Smoke Now with some Couperin.

I bark for Mutts

[Mutts, January 19, 2015.]

I read only a handful of comic strips. Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts is the sweetest and most endearing. Fast friends (Mooch the cat, Earl the dog) who attempt to hibernate, squirrels who bonk pedestrians with acorns, a groundhog named Lamont (get it?): there’s something for everyone. And the strip is beautifully drawn, with strong George Herriman overtones.

The main page of McDonnell’s website has an observation from the painter Robert Genn: “Drawing is still the bottom line.” Read Mutts and you’ll see why.

I read Mutts via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Musical Assumptions turns ten

Elaine’s blog Musical Assumptions turns ten today. In the blog-o-sphere (which may no longer exist), ten years is a long time, and longer. Huzzah!

Overheard

[Home alone, with the television on for “warmth.” ]

“I believe that my molecular polarity is exactly the opposite of other people’s.”

It’s like that with me sometimes too.

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

[It was Superman speaking.]

Sigh

Esta mensagem tem como intenção a divulgação de nossos informativos e novidades.

Sigh. I mean, suspiro. Or just aah. It must be the hopeless romantic in me. But I like getting spam from Brazil.

Se você disser que eu desafino, amor and all that.

Another college president plagiarizing?

Trouble to the north:

Critics of a southern Minnesota college president have published what they say is evidence that she plagiarized parts of her dissertation for her doctoral degree.

Annette Parker has led South Central College in Faribault and North Mankato since July 2013. She received a doctorate in educational leadership from Western Kentucky University in December 2012.

The evidence, assembled by a former South Central instructor, an instructor’s spouse, and anonymous contributors, appears in a blog post, and it looks pretty damning.

Plagiarism in high places in a minor theme in Orange Crate Art. The presidents of Jacksonville State University, Malone University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Tennessee Temple University have appeared in earlier posts.

*

March 2, 2015: A second Minnesota college president has been accused of plagiarism.

*

April 8, 2015: The Star Tribune reports that Western Kentucky University has concluded that Annette Parker “‘did not intentionally commit plagiarism, and that a full investigation is not warranted.’” I’m reminded of what I wrote in a 2009 post: “plagiarism seems to be governed by a sliding scale, with consequences lessening as the wrongdoer's status rises.”


*

May 11, 2015: The second president, Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical’s Dorothy Duran, has been cleared, kinda sort of. A University of Texas at Austin investigation has concluded that Duran’s “behavior does not rise to scientific misconduct”: Second Minnesota college president cleared of plagiarism allegations (Minnesota Star Tribune). That quotation comes from Duran. What else the investigation had to say about her work has not been made public.

Related reading
All OCA plagiarism posts (Pinboard)

X does not mark the spot

It happened again: holding a MacBook Pro in front of me to show some photographs to students, I ended up touching the screen to close out the slideshow. Stupid screen!

Stupid indeed — or in tech terms, dumb. And how remarkable that touching a screen should become so intuitive. I wonder whether my mistake is a common one.