Police: Man Gets Shot to Avoid Work

More advice from the crazies we find over the AP newsfeed.

PASCO, Wash. (AP) -- What happened to faking a cough? Sheriff's detectives in Franklin County said a man had his friend shoot him in the shoulder so he wouldn't have to go to work.

When he first spoke with deputies, Daniel Kuch, of Pasco, told them he'd been the victim of a drive-by shooting while he was out jogging Thursday. But detectives told KONA radio that Kuch later acknowledged that he asked his friend to shoot him so he could get some time off work and avoid an upcoming drug test.

The friend, Kurtis Johnson, of Burbank, has been arrested for investigation of reckless endangerment. Kuch was booked into the county jail and is expected to be charged with false reporting.

Detectives declined to say where Kuch works, or whether he still has a job. It wasn't known if he had obtained a lawyer.

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Wednesday Regurgitation of Stuff From the Internetz

Bring out your knits -- Thursday, March 20th will be Sweater Day in honor of what would have been Fred "Mister" Rogers' 80th birthday.



We poor -- The dollar has fallen to $1.50 to the Euro. Dreams of Parisian street crepes fade further on the horizon.

Get Sweded -- If you haven't seen Be Kind Rewind yet, you should go see it this weekend. The Times wrote an article in 2006 on how Michel Gondry used everyday people--300 Passaic residents, actually--to make this movie about, well, everyday people making movies. Awesome. Once you love the movie, go Swede yourself on the movie's website. It may turn out as creepy as mine.
Oldies but Goodies -- OK, so SNL was like so four days ago, but I just had to share this video anyway.

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Will the circle be unbroken?

How is it possible that I end up living above an NU grad student and self-important homeowners' association boardman/jerk who thinks that appliances running after 9 pm is an unreasonable amount of noise? Can I not escape NU douches? Will I forever be hounded?

Anyway, the good news is that I found his Facebook page* (really, everyone should make their pages friends-only), and he's actually all of four years my senior, loves fishing and Tom Petty, and likes to point out on his resume that he is a natural-born American citizen. He must also like Lou Dobbs.



At any rate, I've got a serious nasty neighbor problem on my hands. This guy and his fiancee have complained to the condo board, our neighbors, and our landlords about the noise coming from our apartment. ((You know, all that barefooted walking we do at crazy hours, like 10 PM.))

Since they've taken issue with us by contacting everyone BUT us, we're in the strange situation where the following are options, and I'd love some input. How do you handle the nasty neighbor?

1) We ignore their passive-aggressive nastiness. Ridiculous accusations of loudness, launched through unsuspecting third parties, do not warrant a response. If something is really up, knock on our door. You know where we live.


2.) We go downstairs and knock on their door, formally introduce ourselves (we've never seen them before--unless you count the one time I was struggling to open our front door when I was moving in, and I saw someone in that apartment watch me and then shut their door without helping), and then ask politely, and more specifically, what noises have bothered them and when. We have a feeling that they're hearing noise that isn't us, and assuming it is coming from our apartment. So, we'll just talk it out.


3.) We go downstairs and knock on their door, but this time, I wear a fake prosthetic leg and we apologize profusely for whatever harm I've caused them.

Suggestions?


*I would link to it, but it turns out we have some mutual friends. If you're curious in looking over his profile, please let me know and I'll send it your way.

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Listen to my awesome boyfriend

He has a really special radio show this Monday, Feb. 25 on WNUR 89.3 FM at 10 PM. If you're into Chicago house music (which I know you are), you're going to love what you hear. If you've never heard of Chicago house music (which is also possible), you'll still love what you hear.

Also, here's the poster I made for it.

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Oscars: Animated Shorts

A and I went last night to the Landmark Cinemas to see the Oscar-nominated animated shorts, and I fell in love with one in particular. Although I definitely encourage you to go see it in theatres if you can, I've posted it in its 3 parts here because I just love it that much.

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Is it news?

The Medill drama continues to snowball, and now Hamilton Nolan over at Gawker is mocking the whole situation, calling it “all that self-referential ivory tower bullshit.” Isn’t there something a little bit “people-in-glass-houses” about Nolan’s statement? Isn’t the whole basis of Gawker self-referential ivory tower bullshit? Maybe because this John Lavine story is actual news (rather than regurgitated NYMag and PageSix gossip hash), it upsets Gawker so that they treat it as if they’re above it in lieu of covering it.

It is an egregious error on Gawker’s part (as well as the part of Margaret Lyons over at Chicagoist yesterday who said she “barely cared” about the story) to treat this story flippantly. While this isn’t national mainstream news and there are bigger things to worry about in the world, watching journalists treat this story dismissively disturbs me.

For the dean at one of the top journalism schools in the country—whose controversial curriculum and proposed school name changes are exacerbated only by his heavy-handed manipulation where faculty, stripped of their governance, fear speaking against him on the record—to arrogantly disregard the ethics of his practice is news that should be covered, if only to force John Lavine into communication and transparency with students and alumni and to urge him to reinstate faculty governance among his peers.

EDIT: I'd be remiss not to mention the Eric Zorn's reporting job on this story. In his Trib blog Change of Subject, he's followed up with the faculty who did not sign the faculty memorandum. There are some interesting responses to look over, many of which are telling of the rift that currently divides Medill's faculty.

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I like the moon!!

Total lunar eclipse tonight at 10 PM EST/9 PM CST!

Make sure to look for Saturn to the moon's left (if you have a telescope handy, you'll see rings!) and Regulus (the biggest star in the constellation Leo, not the Harry Potter character--zing! Harry Potter joke!) to its right.

In the meantime, enjoy this video that I probably hadn't thought about in nearly five years. Web 1.0 at its finest.

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More Medill Gossip, Progress

Since David Spett's February 11 Forum piece on Medill Dean John Lavine's hypocritical journalistic standards, things have certainly snowballed. His story received coverage on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, NPR's All Things Considered, The Reader, the Chicago Tribune (not to mention their relatively caustic editorial), the Sun-Times, and a handful of news services.

Now, some of Medill's faculty has released the following statement, and I couldn't be more proud of some of my former professors. Their personal letter to Lavine can be found on Poynter.

Statement from the Medill Faculty

February 19, 2008

We, the undersigned members of the faculty of the Medill School of Journalism, are deeply troubled by Dean John Lavine's use of unidentified sources in his columns for Medill, the school's alumni magazine. We also are concerned about the public questions that have arisen regarding the ethics of attribution and sourcing, and commend the Daily Northwestern and columnist David Spett for raising these issues.

Public discussion about this matter has moved beyond the issue of a quote attributed to an unidentified student to a question of the dean's veracity, specifically whether the quote at issue was fabricated. Regrettably, much of this discussion has itself been anonymous, posted on the Internet by unidentified sources, an act that if predictable is nonetheless unprofessional. We speak publicly, and on the record.

The dean could, if he wished, put an end to what has become an embarrassment to Northwestern and to Medill. We call on him to do so immediately. As the Chicago Sun-Times said in a Feb. 15 editorial, "With his and the school's integrity on the line, the easiest thing for Lavine to do now is produce his notes or have the IT department retrieve that deleted e-mail to allay concerns over whether the unattributed quote is real."

This matter has become a crisis for the school. The principles of truthfulness and transparency in reporting are at the core of Medill's professional and academic mission. The dean's Feb. 14 memorandum in which he offered his explanation of events to Medill faculty is at best inadequate. It says that the quote at issue is essentially the same as that used by a student in an online video, and that the quote at issue is therefore a "fact." But of course the language used in the video is not the same as that in the contested quote, nor is the speaker in the video the unidentified source of the contested quote. Finally, the student in the video is talking about a different Medill class than the one that is the subject of the contested quote.

It is wrong to argue that the forum in which the questionable quote was used, the school's alumni magazine, is not subject to the same standards as other publication venues. Accuracy and truthfulness are non-negotiable requirements for any material prepared for publication in any forum, including in marketing and public relations. Indeed, the defense that Medill magazine is a public relations vehicle and therefore held to a lesser standard than other forms of publication is an insult to Medill's Integrated Marketing Communications faculty and staff, who are bound by the same Integrity Code, in all its particulars, as are the school's journalism students and faculty. As important, Medill magazine speaks directly to the many audiences to whom Medill owes its greatest fealty: students and alumni of the school's journalism and integrated marketing communications programs; our students' parents; the dozens of media firms around the United States and the world where our students take internships; donors to the school's academic and professional programs; employers and practitioners in both journalism and marketing communications. All of these audiences deserve a more complete accounting than the dean has thus far provided. We call on him to do so immediately.

Mary Coffman, Associate Professor
Eric Ferkenhoff, Lecturer
Douglas Foster, Associate Professor
Loren Ghiglione, Professor
George Harmon, Associate Professor
Sharon Kornely, Senior Lecturer
Craig L. LaMay, Associate Professor
Donna Leff, Professor
Arsenio Oloroso, Lecturer
Marcel Pacatte, Lecturer
David Protess, Professor
Larry Stuelpnagel, Assistant Professor
Mindy Trossman, Assistant Professor
Mary Ann Weston, Associate Professor Emerita
Charles Whitaker, Assistant Professor
Jon Ziomek, Assistant Professor Emeritus

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Persisting Kitchen Myths

Oh my God! Throwing an avocado pit in your guac won't keep it fresh?! How my mother duped me!

More info on those myths surrounding the food in your kitchen here.

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No need to mention the twelve hour journey to Orlando wrought with hysteria, delays, no personal space because of hefty builder-men and turbulence

If your day starts with your boyfriend referring to himself as a "cattle prodder," thus making you the lazy cow, chances are it's going to be a bad day.

And if your day ends with the bellhop at your hotel laughing as he directs you toward the "annex" you'll be staying in, chances are it's been a bad day.

Welcome to your first business trip, Caitlin!

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