Monthly Archives: January 2010

Technical Difficulties, Ack

Posted on by
2

Some of you probably noticed the Daily Globe website wasn’t updated at the usual time (midnight). As it happens, we experienced some technical difficulties with the website and couldn’t put up any stories for a while.

Whenever this happens (and to the Fargo folks’ credit, it doesn’t happen often), it drives me crazy. It’s kind of the online equivalent of having a piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth and not being able to do anything about it.

On the bright side, the whole website stayed up and functional, and you could still read articles from yesterday, so it wasn’t as if people were hitting an error message or a blue screen of death or a picture of a geek weeping over her keyboard. And I came into work this morning and put up everything as usual, from the obituaries to the news stories to a couple of opinion pieces.

So, sorry about the delay. Be sure to check out the update some time today!

Jumping into a Frozen-Over Lake While Wearing a Swimsuit

Posted on by
Reply

I didn’t really have anything sensible to say after jumping into an ice-cold Lake Okabena in the middle of January. If I’d been entirely sensible, I probably wouldn’t have participated in the Deep Freeze Dip in the first place.

But together, the 30-plus crazy people raised more than $40,000 for the Southwest Minnesota Honor Flight on Saturday, just by agreeing to jump into the lake, and that made the effort seem sane. After all, many of the veterans we were raising money for had gotten shot or at least, shot at, by enemy soldiers during World War II.

I’ve experienced immersion in cold water before, and I’m pretty sure it’s better than being shot.

The worst part about the jump was probably waiting for it, while standing in the 2 inches of cold water on top of the lake. I didn’t actually have to do this. Every time I came out of the ice house while other people were jumping into the lake, the cold water stung my feet badly enough that I had to go back into the ice house.

Finally, all the other women had already gone, so I left my warm shelter and stood outside. The gentleman at the front of the line allowed me to go ahead of him (thank you! I owe my toes to you!) and suddenly, I found myself about to leap into a hole cut into a frozen lake.

I had to take my glasses off for the jump, which is always unsettling, and after I had, I couldn’t actually tell where the carpet on the ice ended and the water began. I had to test the "ground" with my toe to figure out where the edge was before I could jump in. I didn’t want to fall in sideways and bonk my head on the ice and die of either head trauma or severe embarassment.

My first words, once I started climbing up the ladder, were "Uff da." Only it was too cold, and I shivered, and it came out "Uff…ff…ff da."

This was a relief to me; I thought for sure I was going to say something much less printable. I was worried I’d have to find a "beep!" sound effect for our video.

You can see me, Worthington mayor Alan Oberloh, radio guru Chad Cummings and almost everyone else who participated in the Deep Freeze Dip on video at http://www.dglobe.com/event/videos/ and a photo gallery of participants at http://www.dglobe.com/event/photogalleries/tag/photo%20galleries/.

Seriously, Don’t Drive! Really, We Mean It!

Posted on by
Reply

Some people believe the press catastrophizes storms in an attempt to scare people into reading the news. Mostly we just pass on what the National Weather Service says, which is often, in fact, scary.

In this case, visibility has dropped to zero in some places, there’s people in the ditch all over the place, and MN/DoT and the National Weather Service are both telling people to get the heck off the roads (and I paraphrase).

Please do not drive out there, people. For reference, we are under a blizzard warning. Most of the previous storms (including, in our part of the state, the Christmas Blizzard) have not qualified, technically, as blizzards.

(That’s not to say they weren’t, in common parlance, blizzards–winter storms that drop a lot of snow and have some wind and ice associated.)

This one is an actual technical blizzard, and it is very dangerous out there right now.

If you travel, you put yourself at risk, but you also put at risk all the emergency personnel who will have to rescue you. They can’t see any better than you can out there. Unless there is some emergency, by which I mean someone is bleeding or dying, please do not drive!

Deep Freeze Dip Q and A

Posted on by
3

As the weekend looms closer, more and more people are asking me questions about the Deep Freeze Dip for the Southwest Minnesota Honor Flight.

Here are a few, along with my answers.

Q. Where and when will the Deep Freeze Dip be?
A. The Deep Freeze Dip will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday, off the shore of Sunset Park on Lake Okabena.

Q. Are you really going to jump into a freezing cold lake? Really?
A. Yes.

Q. Why are you doing this?
A. I get asked this a lot. For one thing, my grandfather fought in World War II and I’m quite proud of him. Second, many of these men got attacked with bombs, guns and sharp pointy things. Spending a minute and a half immersed in cold water doesn’t really seem that big of a deal compared to that, does it?

Q. Where is the money you raise going?
A. The money will pay for a World War II veteran to visit Washington, D.C., to see the World War II Memorial. None of it goes to me.

Q. How much money have you raised?
A. Is this a multiple choice question? Can I use a calculator?

Q. Are you going to wear a wetsuit?
A. No. That would be cheating. Besides, they’re expensive.

Q. What are you going to wear to jump into the lake, then?
A. A swimsuit.

Q. You should dress like Lady Gaga.
A. Unlike Lady Gaga, I believe in pants.

Q. You should dress in your swimsuit to get donations.
A. If I did that, they’d probably offer to pay me to wear a muumuu over the swimsuit; scream and run away; or die laughing.

Q. What about a hat?
A. Arr, but I don’t want to lose my pirate hat in the lake, matey.

Q. Are you going to put your head under the water?
A. I don’t have to, because I was trained as a lifeguard at one point and theoretically know how to jump into water without ducking my head. Also, I’m not sure how deep the water will be. Time is gonna have to tell on this one, folks.

Q. How much money do you need?
A. How much money do you have?

Q. You’re crazy.
A. Yes.

Q. Where can I donate money to the Southwest Minnesota Honor Flight?
A. Stop by the Daily Globe office today before 5 p.m. We also have nifty Honor Flight buttons for sale here at the Globe office.

Time Wasters: The Cost of Blood, the Phantom Barber and Homicidal Jellyfish

Posted on by
2

A few links on sports, nuclear waste, the Babysitters Club and other random ephemera, all designed to help you while away your time.

  • A geoscientist discusses how, exactly, the U.S. government intends to isolate nuclear waste for a million years. Yes, he is building a structure that is supposed to last a million years. Ozymandias will look like a pathetic dweeb compared to this guy.
  • A funny comic from The Oatmeal about how web designs go terribly, terribly wrong. It’s a big profane, so if that bothers you, please don’t clickyclick. But it’s vaguely amusing.
  •  Next time you take a swim in the ocean, you won’t be worried about Jaws snapping your legs off. You’ll worry about a peanut-sized jellyfish that’s just as deadly, and because it’s so small, you wouldn’t even have time to scream if you saw it before it stung you. It’s teeny, tiny.
  • You’ve heard of Sweeney Todd. Maybe you’ve even heard of the Barber of Seville. But you probably haven’t heard of… the Phantom Barber of Pascagoula! … yeah, me either. It happened in 1942, when a town was victimized by some guy who would sneak into girls’ homes and commit the dastardly, wicked deed… cutting off a piece of their hair. Weird, weird, weird.
  • Testosterone makes people more selfish… but only if they believe it does, oddly. Good news for men, and bad news for people who malign men. I suppose it just goes to show that you can convince yourself of just about anything, and that the placebo effect is extremely powerful.
  • A columnist for Slate magazine stopped being a sports fan. I noticed this article because it reminded me of when I stopped playing World of Warcraft. I learned something very important from doing that: if your hobby isn’t fun anymore, stop doing it. This is less obvious than you might think.
  • Here’s a fascinating post about the mysteries of rabies from BoingBoing, which makes you think twice about how science treats illnesses differently after vaccines have been found: The rabies vaccine works so well that we don’t really know how rabies works.
  • Kim Peek, who inspired the movie "Rain Man," died in December. His brain was a mystery and the way it worked fascinated and inspired many. Do you know someone with an autism-spectrum disorder? I know several, and I’m constantly amazed at the hard work they put in every day just to have "normal" reactions to stimuli that other people respond to naturally.
  • A gallery of lethal-looking standpipes in New York, which you are definitely not permitted to sit upon, and with the modifications given to them (sharp, and pointy modifications) you probably wouldn’t want to sit upon anyway.
  • And finally, confirmation of a fact we all already knew: Printer ink is worth more than your own blood. Think twice before you hit the print button!

Big Girls in the New York Times

Posted on by
5

Apparently, "You don’t put a big girl in a big dress."

I’m not going to dispute that, because I’m not a fashion photographer or a fashion anything, but what I’m wondering is, when did lovely Christina Hendricks (5’7", statuesque, and pictured at left) become a "big girl"?

Only in Hollywood could somebody who looks like that even be considered "big." Most of us would kill or at least maim to look like Hendricks, who stars in the popular TV show "Mad Men."

The question is, did the New York Times, where a columnist stated "You don’t put a big girl in a big dress," back up the assertion by deliberately stretching a photo of Hendricks horizontally so that she looked wider? This is a controversial question.

The photo was definitely run out of proportion, but it may easily have been an accident, because there are plenty of lazy shortcuts you can take in most layout programs that size photos to fit the space, which is often quicker than sizing the space to fit the photo and then putting the article on the page all over again. Or maybe someone thought it would be funny to make the gorgeous Hendricks look wider to fit the column better. I can’t say.

But what’s really wrong to me seems to be the columnist’s blithe assertion that Hendricks was a "big girl" in the first place.

Apparently our definition of beauty has now become so narrow that even a big-chested, small-waisted woman is just a "big girl."

Worthington in the News

Posted on by
1

Lately, southwest Minnesota has cropped up a lot in a variety of online locales. Here are a few instances:

  • An article from the Pioneer Press featuring Gary Crippen, a retired appellate judge, who happens to be the brother of former Daily Globe editor and current columnist Ray Crippen. Said Ray: "Gary was born and reared at Worthington, was a partner in the Mork law firm and then was appointed to the Court of Appeals. He lives in St. Paul."
  • Here’s a blog allegedly written by Worthington native Tim O’Brien, a pretty famous author. I can’t say for certain it’s really O’Brien writing it.
  • Staff Sgt. Devon Bruns and his daughter Madison were snapped by the Mankato Free Press before he shipped out to Iraq. Cute photo!
  • And of course, everything written about Matt Entenza mentions that he’s from Worthington.
  • A Strib columnist wrote about Daily Globe columnist Scott Rall recently. It’s about pheasants, conservation and hunting.
  • Former Worthington resident Dave Grimmius was featured in an article by the St. Peter Herald, about the mixed emotions of Packers/Favre fans regarding the Vikings controversy.
  • Here’s a story from the Jackson County Pilot about housing in southwest Minnesota, with a focus on Jackson.
  • The Minnesota Independent mentioned the Elizabeth House in Worthington.
  • The Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network posted a piece about its executive director, Mariano Espinoza, who is an elected member of the board of the Worthington Area Language Academy.
  • MPR had a really great article about the Karen people (from Burma), and mentioned that quite a few of them have come to work in Worthington.

Finally, I definitely recommend you check out the Flickr stream of Debora Drower, who has photographed buildings throughout southwest Minnesota, showing architectural detail, old, fascinating signs and a little bit of urban-rural decay. It’ll make you give your community a second look.

Review: Sherlock Holmes

Posted on by
Reply

I was hesitant to watch "Sherlock Holmes," the latest movie adaptation of the exploits of the world’s first consulting detective, because I like Robert Downey Jr. (Holmes), Jude Law (Watson), Guy Ritchie (the director) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal deductive genius and crime-fighter (Sherlock).

So naturally I was afraid the movie was going to be worse than "Ishtar."

Happily, I was wrong. "Sherlock Holmes" was a fun movie, and a good adaptation faithful to the spirit of Doyle’s Holmes. Some liberties were taken, particularly with the character of Irene Adler, but there was much in the film for a Holmes fan to love: a cryptic reference to Sherlock’s cocaine usage ("used for eye surgeries"), Holmes shooting VR into the wall, Holmes beating people up using martial arts (Holmes was a baritsu master and demonstrated unusual strength at least once) and Holmes taking liberties left and right with the law.

This movie chose to emphasize different aspects of the character. Downey’s Holmes was cerebral but also very physical, and people who aren’t Holmes fans would have been entertained enough by the explosions, shooting matches and fistfights everybody seemed to be getting into left and right. This Holmes was also somewhat socially… well, not inept, per se, because he seemed to be obnoxious on purpose.

Doyle’s Holmes was also rude and abrupt on many occasions (often to people who really deserved it), though the hundred-year-old dialogue may make it a bit more difficult for a modern audience to discern, so I felt this was a very reasonable interpretation.

And I absolutely adored how the film treated Watson. I get very annoyed when Watson is portrayed as a blithering idiot, because in "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" Holmes, pretending to be gravely ill, must keep Watson at least 10 feet away because if he doesn’t, Watson will immediately realize Holmes is faking. Holmes had a deep respect for Watson’s abilities, and Watson was never portrayed as stupid in Doyle’s work. He was simply a conventional, linear thinker. He was also very loyal and brave, both in the stories and in the Ritchie film.

It was an enjoyable movie, both on the level of mindless action-filled eye-candy, and as a faithful-in-spirit adaptation of Doyle’s work.

Rarely am I so deeply glad to be thoroughly wrong!

The Wonders of the Nintendo World

Posted on by
Reply

In the days of Halo III and the Wii, I would have thought that old-fashioned Nintendo games would be a distant memory relegated to the mental dustbin of "the bad old days." However, it seems I am not the only one to have fond memories of the 8-bit Nintendo system.

I liked to play Tetris on my gameboy when I was a kid, and occasionally, when I visited friends’ houses, I’d play the original game. If you played Tetris, you may like this modern version, called "first-person," in which the blocks do not rotate. Instead, everything else rotates.

Or you could try this version of Tetris, which combines Tetris and Super Mario Bros. Wacky fun!

I also played Super Mario Bros. quite a bit, and although I liked it, I did not like it enough to wear a sweatervest based on it. In fact I’m not sure I like anything enough to wear a sweatervest of any kind. However, these old-school games (including Pacman) made pretty good mom-based sweaters.

My favorite game, however, was Zelda, because you could save your progress. My mom would watch as I sat and played, and she even helped out by making maps to show me where I’d been, where I needed to go and exactly which critters I needed to kill and which ones I could run away from.

We had a lot of fun with Zelda, and we had a lot of fun together, which is one of the reasons I’ve never believed in the "antisocial videogamer" stereotype. Videogames are best played with other people.

I never pondered what Zelda would look like as a medieval manuscript. But it’s cool that someone did.