Gas Guzzlin' Texans
Unfair Park's Rob Wilonsky explains why he doesn't listen to NPR anymore -- it's for their stereotyping Texans in a story that quotes a Texan on the subject of big cars: "Here, it's the bigger the truck, the better off you are; the bigger the gas guzzler you are, the better off you are." Wilonsky doesn't think the stereotype is fair. As evidence, he cites the "brawl over the coal-burning plants" that north Texas had earlier this year. One might argue that the fact it took a "brawl" to stop the coal-burning plants is evidence that the gas-guzzlin' stereotype fits a lot of Texans. In contrast, Massachusetts' brawls are over wind farms. No one there would even try putting coal-burning power plants in Martha's Vineyard.
Ironically, Wilonsky himself provides evidence of the truth behind the stereotype. In the post just before the one berating NPR, Wilonsky told his Texas readers all about a Farmers Branch car dealer who manufactured knock-offs of the 1967 Shelby GT500E, a car that got, what, 8.4 MPG? Apparently, there is demand for gas guzzlers in Texas and journalists who cater to those stereotypical Texans. But I'll still read Wilonsky anyway.
PTA Podcasts
The Dallas Morning News shows just how trendy it can be when it recommends podcasts for PTA as a way of increasing parental involvement in their children's schools. A Highland Park middle school just spent $1280 setting up podcasts of PTA meetings. I suspect some geek parent or geek administrator just managed to get the PTA and HPISD to fund that geek's latest toy. If parents are too busy to attend long, boring PTA meetings, they'll be too busy to sit through equally long, boring PTA podcasts. PTAs typically schedule student plays and concerts the night of PTA meetings to get busy parents to attend. There's no substitute for parents actually being there in the audience where their child can see them beaming with pride. Listening to a podcast later won't cut it.
This isn't to say there aren't better ways to document and communicate what the PTA is up to. PTAs regularly publish minutes of meetings. A sixty minute meeting can be condensed into a five minute read. Historically these take the form of printed minutes that are passed out at the next meeting. In other words, stale news available only to the people who were probably at the last meeting and know what happened anyway. Making PTA meeting minutes immediately available on the Web for parents who missed the meeting is good. But putting a sixty minute meeting into a podcast is a waste of time.
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