Every now and again, a person or organization I follow on twitter tweets out job opportunities. This time, I’ve got two jobs that are sitting in perpetually-open browser tabs, jobs that I keep looking at longingly, even though my resume’s far too thin to apply. But I’ll tell you about them, and then I’ll resolutely close those tabs, ’til next time. Job #1: Research Analyst, Religion (International Surveys) at the Pew Research Center. Requires three years of experience in a... Read more
Library officials, that is. As announced by the Chicago Tribune (paywall) and eNews Park Forest (non-paywall), the Chicago Public Libarary is offering a fine amnesty. For a two-week period, borrowers may return their overdue items with no fines, and library staff hope that, as a side benefit, people who’d stayed away from the library will renew their library cards and become regular users. You’ll note that no one is proposing that an amnesty means that people simply get to keep... Read more
I’m going to be honest here: I know there are many people who find the Year of Mercy to be truly meaningful to them. And that’s great. But I’m simply skeptical of the whole enterprise. I hadn’t wanted to voice my complaints in the past but I’m getting increasingly irritated with the whole endeavor — though I invite readers to tell me why I’m wrong. 1. Why? To begin with, try as I might, I can’t find a specific reason... Read more
This is something about which news has been dribbling out for the past year: a major reorganization plan in the Archdiocese of Chicago. According to the local NBC station, Archbishop Blasé Cupich is embarking on a major reorganization in the Archdiocese of Chicago. In what’s being called a sweeping change of landscape, priests have been told that in the next 14 years 80 to 100 Chicago-area parishes could be forced to merge or close, sources told NBC Chicago. Though... Read more
That’s Marco Rubio’s new applause line in his stump speech: Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being commander in chief of the United States. . . . Someone who can not handle intelligence information appropriately, can not be commander in chief and someone who lies to the families of those four victims in Benghazi can never be president of the United States. But, in the first place, this is clumsy rhetorically. In the context of all of the (foolish) discussion about... Read more
Perhaps you’ve read about the WASPs — Women Airforce Service Pilots — who are seeking burial in Arlington National Cemetery. No, there weren’t 250,000 of them, only 1,000 or so. The 250,000 comes in later. I read about the WASPs many, many years ago — I have the impression it was one of the first adult non-fiction books I read, in high school. And it’s a great story, with women pilots ferrying planes stateside to free up male pilots for... Read more
Everyone’s jumping into it: the addition of computer science/computer programming/”coding” education into the curriculum. Suburban elementary school district 25 has added “STEM” (effectively, programming plus lessons in using software for design) education to its curriculum. Suburban high school district 214 has added “coding education,” too, though as part of the math curriculum and limited in scope. Chicago is adding computer science education. And President Obama wants coding to be a part of the curriculum, nationwide. Remember the last push for... Read more
I’m putting this out there not because I think I’m right, but because I’m pretty sure I’m wrong, and I’m hoping readers can step in and correct me. This is what I — and likely you — have read about the Zika virus so far: when an individual is infected, 3 times out of 4, you’re asymptomatic. When you do have symptoms, they’re comparable to having a mild and short-lasting flu, for a week or even as few as several days.... Read more
If you read the news this morning, you know the outcome: Clinton and Sanders are effectively tied in Iowa, and the vote was split more evenly than expected among the Republicans, with Cruz, Trump, and Rubio on top with 28%, 24%, and 23% respectively. (I find it hard to say “Cruz won” when he took barely more than a quarter of the vote, so I won’t — though, to be sure, he got a greater share of the vote than,... Read more
Here’s an open-ended request: please share with my your experiences. I am signing on as committee chair, and taking on the responsibility of planning pack meetings, and will need to try to revive them and make them more interesting, as our numbers are dropping and our meetings are getting a bit, well, meh. I’ll be looking at various online resources, but, to the extent that I have Cub Scout parent readers, I’d appreciate your comments. What does a typical pack meeting... Read more
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