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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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My Highest Recommendation
Now and then I mention interesting books I'm reading, or TV shows I'm watching. I've found two related TV specials that are so good, I ended up saving them and showing them to my wife, who is also finding them fascinating.
The Worship of Joe Paterno
I posted this on Facebook on Sunday. The response was amazing:
I'm having trouble with all the Joe Paterno worship I'm seeing today. Yeah, he was a "winning football coach" and all, but when he found out one of his assistant coaches was raping little boys in his spare time (even on campus!), he did the very minimum required by law (reported it to his supervisor). He did NOT make sure it stopped, he did NOT make sure that the police had been notified, he did NOT fire the assistant coach, he did NOT apparently follow up at all. Seems to me that failure to act as a human being WAY outweighs being good at a freaking GAME. Who seriously disagrees with that? Really: if you still respect the man, tell me WHY.
In less than 24 hours, more than 150 people clicked "Like" to that statement and question, and there are nearly that many comments, too.
Hiding Places
There were two wonderful stories in this week's issue that really go nicely together. And one has a photo that has to be seen to be believed. Let's start with the stories, from True's 15 January 2012 issue:
Sydney Spies' Yearbook Photo
You don't really need the photo that the girl submitted to the yearbook to "get" the story in this week's issue (8 January 12), but she did release it to the media, so I'll bring it to you -- along with some additional details. First, the story:
Zero Tolerance: Alive and Well
When I run a string of zero tolerance stories, readers typically respond, "What should we do about this?" What I don't want you to do is e-mailbomb the school officials or school boards involved.
But first, let's recap several of this week's ZT stories (from the 1 January 2012 issue):
Christmas Blues
Today I'm working while listening to my collection of "weird Christmas music", which I've compiled over the years. Things like the "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" mashup duet -- by Bing Crosby and David Bowie in 1977. Yeah, really.
Dah-Dit Dah-Dit, Dah-Dah Di-Dah
Now and then I mention ham radio (I've been an "amateur radio operator" (the more formal title) for [gasp] a third of a century now; I'm K0RCC. You'd think, with the Internet creating instant, "free", worldwide communications, that ham radio would be dwindling away, with just a few old-timers (heck: even older than me!) grasping at the straws of "No! Don't change!" I'm happy to say nothing's further from the truth.
Rural Electrification, Meet the Rural Internet
Back in the early years of the 20th century, as cities were starting to get electrical power, that was the problem: only cities were getting electrical power. City clustering of homes and multi-family dwellings made for a lot of customers per mile of wire strung, and the payback to the electric companies came quickly.
Continue reading "Rural Electrification, Meet the Rural Internet" »
True's Focus
When readers unsubscribe from True they have the opportunity to send a comment. Most give the "reason" they're unsubscribing, and some even apologize (not necessary -- really!)
The two most-common reasons people give for unsubscribing is "I've upgraded to Premium" (woo hoo!) and "I'm just too busy to read it" (bummer! Life is too short not to have some fun!) This weekend, one woman put in a rather startling reason:
Fix-a-Flat
It's another story that absolutely demands the accompanying illustration -- in this case, a mug shot. But trust me: read the story first! It's from True's 20 November 2011 issue:
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