Don’t mess with Texas (schoolteachers)

Texas school district letting teachers carry guns.

David Thweatt, the superintendant of the school district in the small town of Harrold in North Texas, had this to say:

When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ‘em’ to a dog.”

He has a point.  You rarely hear of gunmen marching into, say, an army base or a police barracks with the intent of shooting everything that moves, do you?

Cool site for baseball fans.

Last night the Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers 19-17.  It was a remarkable game, to say the least.  The Red Sox scored ten runs in the first inning, but trailed late in the game before scoring four runs in their final at bat.  The Rangers’ pitcher allowed twelve runs, but did not get the loss.  David Ortiz hit two three-run homers in the first inning.

Here’s a cool way to see all of this information in a glance:

Win Expectancy from Fangraphs.com

This graph was generated by looking at all the baseball games in a vast database.  For each inning, score, number of outs, and baserunner situation, the site determines the chance of the home team winning (or losing).  The graph is updated in real time.  There are also all sorts of charts available for every major league player’s stats, which I would imagine would be useful for fantasy league players.

It’s all here: fangraphs.com.

My new career.

I’ve accepted a position as an editor-at-large for the Wall Street Journal.

Incontrovertible evidence.

Does Art Have to Be Ugly?

The Wall Street Journal has an article up questioning an exhibit being held at the de Young museum in San Francisco.  The headline reads, “Decorative, Yes, but Why Does It Merit This Show?”  The artist is Dale Chihuly, who works in glass.  The author, David Littlejohn, describes the exhibition:

The word most commonly used by Chihuly-fanciers to describe the works is “beautiful,” a concept of little value in defining serious art after the Impressionists. Although some Chihuly objects appear snakelike or surreal, there is never anything troubling or challenging about them.

Now, is it really the art Mr. Littlejohn dislikes, or the kind of people who enjoy it?

While throngs of fans clicked away on their little cameras, I found myself nauseated by the grotesque, gleaming, pointless excess.

How condescending, how snide, how…

Wait a minute.  Mr. Littlejohn was nauseated?  How can that be?

…there is never anything troubling or challenging about them.

Oh!  He meant “troubling” or “challenging” to the hoi polloi.

Perhaps Mr. Chihuly is being truly transgressive here.  He’s upending the expectations of the art critics, and they don’t like it anymore than the rest of us poor schlubs.

An example of Chihuly's work