News Day

Depart MSP at 1:10 on May 16. Flight time: 10 hours and 45 minutes

Arrive Amsterdam at 6:55 a.m. on May 17

That was the plan. Then we got to the airport, and Delta informed us that our passports were not good for the trip. Continue reading →

Bikes rule in Utrecht. The parking lot next to the train station is a bike lot, filled with hundreds of bikes. The streets have bike lanes, and people walking and on bikes clearly outnumber cars in the center of the city. Some streets are closed to cars, entirely or at certain hours. Parts of the street along the Oudegracht (Old Canal) are even closed to bikes during the times of heaviest pedestrian traffic. Well — theoretically, they are closed to bikes all the time, but, as our daughter has discovered during her semester in residence, the Dutch are very pragmatic, so when the foot traffic is light to non-existent, people ride instead of walking their bikes.

And those times would be early mornings — shops don’t open until 9 a.m. — and in the evenings. Almost everything closes by 6 p.m., except for restaurants. The Dutch work fewer hours than any other country in the European Union, and far fewer than in the United States. A good idea, I think, especially if that means more time for biking.

People bike everywhere and for everything, with bike carriers for children (sensibly in front of the bicycle, rather than following behind), dogs, extra passengers (riding sidesaddle on the flat carrier behind the bike seat. A variety of baskets and panniers hold everything — bags of groceries, books, bunches of flowers, baguettes. Some bike handles are adorned with ropes of synthetic flowers, which makes it much easier to spot your bike in the parking lot.

The omnipresence of bikes, buses, trams and trains in the Netherlands contrasts sharply with Minnesota’s barely-there transit. A typical trip: walk a couple of blocks to a bus stop, where an electronic sign tells what buses will stop there and how many minutes the wait is for the next bus. We have been in central cities, so I expect the bus service is better here than in areas farther from the center. We have never waited more than five minutes for a bus, even on the weekend. Our longest wait time was about ten minutes for a train from Utrecht to Amsterdam.

In the Twin Cities, I walk a little over half a mile to get to the nearest bus. The schedule posted at the bus stop is usually correct, but there’s no way to know whether there’s a traffic jam or slowdown. The Central Corridor, after it’s completed in 2014, will be another mode of public transportation, with the nearest stop at least 3/4 mile away, and no connecting bus line for us.

In comparison, the Netherlands seems like transportation paradise. Of course, biking is easier here, with completely flat land, contrasting with Minnesota’s hills. The weather is considerably more moderate, too, with freezing winters but not nearly our snowfall accumulation.

Bikes are not for everyone, at all ages and stages of life. My carpal tunnel syndrome came back a little, even with the easy, no-gears, no hand-brakes biking I did today, and that’s minor compared to the mobility problems that lots of other people deal with daily. I don’t believe that biking alone, or even biking and public transportation, are the only answers to transit. Traveling here, though, I realize how much better we could do.

So the latest word is that each of the Big Three has a win — Santorum in Iowa (well, sort of), Romney in New Hampshire, and now Newt Gingrich in South Carolina.

South Carolina is home to skinks and geckos and horned lizards, but … Newt?  The advocate of the little guy, who took millions from big health care companies to advocate for their interests on Capitol HIll, all the while insisting that he is not a lobbyist? The critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who then turns out to have been on their payroll for millions as a consultant?  And, lest we forget, Newt Gingrich – the champion of family values and open marriage?

Not that Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum is any prize … but seriously … Newt?

[image from Bruce Lawson, Creative Commons license]

Lots of people* have been credited with saying, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.” Doesn’t matter who said it — there are plenty of lies and damn lies to go around, and far too many end up in news articles. Continue reading →

Not all the good die young. Some are tough old birds, speaking out and singing loudly all the way to the end. Peace and justice advocate Marv Davidov was one of the good ones. He died on January 14, 80 years old.

I remember Marv saying, at a protest a decade or so ago, that he could go any time now. Gesturing to the crowd gathered in front of the Minneapolis federal building, he told me, “Look at the age of this crowd. The young ones have it now!” Continue reading →

Every time there’s a local sports event (the Vikings, the Twins, the Timberwolves, the Gophers …), my Twitter feed is overrun with play-by-play commentary from news guys.

At BSM v. SLP.  Jacks little brother Max skates in his jersey and drops the first puck #jabs #mnhspuck

Has there ever been medical research into why players for the #twolves have no ability to be ashamed of themselves?

Every time there’s a GOP debate (or caucus or primary), not only my Twitter feed, but also the pages of otherwise reputable newspapers, are overrun with play-by-play commentary:

Trend Chart: Mitt on a glide path to victory in NH — opponents as falling as primary nears http://t.co/bCoERWaW via @TPM

RT @jess_mc: 1. Santorum’s “spendometer” in a real thing. 2. It kind of looks like, well.. http://t.co/WeH04QqR

VP material MT @badler: Perry: “Iran will move back in [to Iraq] at literally the speed of light.”

Did Mitt blow off Newt’s handshake? #nhdebate #firstworldproblem

The sports chatter is annoying, but only because I don’t share the passionate devotion to this form of entertainment. The political chatter is more alarming. Where is the serious discussion of issues? That, of course, was a rhetorical question. Political reporting is about the horse race, the color of someone’s tie, and the gotcha moment.

Important: New York Times and MinnPost stories about how good teachers can change students’ lives, and how that result is measurable, albeit not easily. Quantifiably — good teachers mean higher lifetime earnings. Hmm. Something wrong about measuring the effect of good teaching in dollars, but I would guess that if a teacher makes  a difference in dollars, s/he might also make a difference in other ways: shaping moral behavior, fostering self-esteem, “education for democracy,” and more.

Appalling: The Texas teen deported to Colombia by mistake:

“She looks like a kid, she acts like a kid. How could they think she wasn’t a kid?” Lorene Turner, her grandmother, told the AP.

Also, Turner doesn’t speak Spanish.

Way too much ink: Iowa. New Hampshire. All of them.