Tag: general grumbling

Recently, three (male) basketball players at the University of Oregon were removed from the team (though they waited until after the playoffs) because they sexually assaulted another UO student.  They maintain it was consensual, the woman says it was not, and the Eugene Police Department declined to prosecute, citing lack of evidence.  Susan Nielsen wrote an opinion piece about the incident. One sentence took my breath away.

Did you catch that? 

 “…treats its athletes like stars and then expresses shock when they behave accordingly.” 

So that’s what stars do?  Rape?

I’d love if we could move rape into something that is assumed will not happen rather than something that is stupidly, insanely, infuriatingly common.

Ah, the profile of real moms.

“It would be a lot harder if she didn’t have so much help at home from her husband…”

Why is what the husband does at home “helping”?  Does he not live there too?  Does he also “babysit” his own children?  

Here I am on the train, reading my paper.

And here I am reading the recipe for Greek-Style Souffleed Omelet.

And here I am having to turn and read over the fold.

In the old, pre-tabloid days, printing a recipe over the fold was no big deal because you could just open the paper and cut the recipe, right over the fold.  But now two parts of the recipe are on two different pieces of the newspaper. Which means taping things together.  Grrr.

Here it is folks!  Transformed indeed.

You still have to pull things apart into sections, but now the fold is only on the left, not down the middle of the paper.

We have our tabloid format, which I’ve already expressed my displeasure about.  And now there is another problem.  Here’s how big the tabloid paper is when folded open.  It’s too big to read on the train that way, so I fold it in half.

Except what the hell am I supposed to do when I get to the middle of the column?

I’m not sure what I did in a previous life to deserve what has become the Oregonian, but I’m very, very sorry.

I can’t tell you the number of articles I’ve read over the years about the subject.  It drives me crazy.  Big muscles are very cool.  Quit trying to be diminutive and tiny.

Before, we had the long skinny paper, as pictured on the right.  After, we will have the short, stubby tabloid-style on the left.  But right now?  We have both.

A two-sized paper is annoying for the following reason.  Here is the normal mode of transport for the paper.  It tucks nicely in my bag.

Right now, we have two different sizes, resulting in a hangover flap thing that doesn’t tuck away very easily.

This will last until April, when it all becomes tabloid.

No?  Funny, it must have slipped our minds.  But no matter, this is the last time you will see one.

To summarize the above article: Hey!  Now that you only get a newspaper four days per week, we’re also going to turn that newspaper into a crappy tabloid format.  It will be great?  Why?  Because we say so!

Judging from the amount of shelf space devoted to thank you notes, one can extrapolate that the only thing people hand write and mail anymore are thank you notes.  This is a shelf at Target, where I had a gift card.  Maybe I will get some stationary, I thought to myself.  I was excited to see the huge selection they hand and then, as usual deflated to realize that 90% of the offerings are thank you notes.  Grrr.