In search of 'In Search of Steve Ditko'

The downside of YouTube: Things come down almost as quickly as they go up. Blink and you'll miss it.

Such is the way with the BBC documentary, "In Search of Steve Ditko."

Bah. Looks like I'll have to wait until it comes to BBC America:

Stan Lee is famous as the author of the Spider-Man stories, but the man who designed the characters, illustrated the comics and came up with many of the storylines, co-creator Steve Ditko, is virtually unheard of. In this documentary, Jonathan Ross, a lifelong fan of Ditko's work, hopes to tell his story.

Ditko is a recluse and has never revealed why he left Marvel Comics. He has never been interviewed and won't allow his photograph to be taken. As well as creating the commercially successful Spider-Man and equally influential Dr Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, the artist was responsible for post-Marvel creations such as The Creeper, The Hawk and the Dove, and Mr A.

UMass jumps into casino fray?

That'd be UMass Amherst. Maybe. (The Dartmouth campus is already involved, through one professor unabashedly touting the economic benefits of casinos.)

According to Amherst's student paper, the university's Hospitality and Tourism Management department is looking into launching a "casino management program," setting up the university as the only one on the east cost to offer that kind of program.

The creation of the program coincides with Governor Deval Patrick's move to authorize three resort casinos in the state of Massachusetts. Patrick's proposal has caused a lot of debate, with opposition pointing out problems like the costs of gambling addiction and possible harm to the state's economy. But while different factions wage war over this issue, UMass's Isenberg School of Management is quietly preparing to make an entrance in the furor - by training students as industry executives and managers.

The problem? It appears it already exists, as a bunch of online courses.

So I'm not sure what to make of the story. Are they considering having physical face-to-face classes? Several Lexis-Nexis searches come up dry.

If it is an entirely new program, then it has to go through the university's Board of Trustees, which has some of the state's top movers and shakers on it. Could make for an interesting debate.

Separately, the state's district attorneys want some answers from the governor before they come out for or against his plan:

Along with the tax revenue, resort casinos like the three that Patrick wants to license in Massachusetts will bring increases in property crimes, child neglect, and possibly prostitution and organized crime, said Jonathan Blodgett, Essex district attorney and president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association.

"We have great concerns about the public safety implications," Blodgett told The Associated Press on Monday. "We're looking for the governor to meet us so we can express our concerns.

Supreme Court Sunday

In the NYTimes today. First a profile of Justice John Paul Stevens.

And next, a review of Jeffrey Toobin's book on the "Secret World of the Supreme Court."

Hats off to the artist who did up the illustrations for the review in the style of the Ocean's Eleven posters. If only they were for sale.

I want one

And these!



This is how you fight a fire:



These are from the National Library of France's collection of prints from 1910 showing life in the year 2000.

[via paleo-future]

Impressed

This is way old, internet time-wise, but still: They Might Be Giants have a new video out.

My favorite will always remain "Istanbul." Yeah, that links to a Tiny Toons version, but it's the one I prefer.

A possible answer

Back in June, Gov. Patrick held a big rally in the hall right outside the House speaker's office, exhorting the Legislature to pass all of his so-called Municipal Partnership Act. Lawmakers and local officials crowded the stage behind him, and about 250 activists filled the hall in front of him.

But afterwards, as Patrick made his way through the crowd, one supporter grabbed a Patrick aide behind the governor. "How come he didn't mention Sal DiMasi in his speech?" he demanded. The aide just kept following the governor.

"I just don't understand why the governor doesn't just take him on directly," the supporter told me. "[DiMasi's] making him look kind of silly by stonewalling this."

The supporter might find an answer in this.

The second item in Governing magazine's Observer column had a bit on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

It's hard to think of a contemporary state official who has misplayed a winning hand as badly as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Sweptinto office in 2002, Blagojevich brought with him Democratic majorities in both chambers of the legislature for the first time inthree decades. The result has been heated acrimony and severe governmental dysfunction.

Blagojevich ran by railing against a "culture of corruption" and chose not to let up after taking office. During his first year, he characterized legislators as "drunken sailors" unable to curb their free-spending habits. He seemed surprised that they took offense but kept up the heat. For more than four years, he has acted in the belief that he can generate momentum toward change through public relations campaigns, rather than by cultivating legislative leaders, or evenfully briefing them about his plans...

Despite the fact that Democrats are in full control of the machinery of government, Springfield has devolved into an unproductive war of words worse than anyone can remember even in a famously fractious capital. The question now is whether Blagojevich and the legislature can learn to get along well enough to make something--anything--out of his remaining time in office.

This may not bode well...

...for the Municipal Partnership Act if this keeps happening across the state:

Swampscott’s town employee unions walked out of what was supposed to be a bargaining session to discuss health insurance last week.

Adam Forman, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, says he is disappointed with the actions of the union in dealing with a plan, unanimously endorsed by selectmen, to have town employees join the state employee group insurance plan, administered by the commonwealth’s Group Insurance Commission.

Such action would save the town between $500,000 and $800,000 in the coming fiscal year, Forman and many other town officials said in a joint statement issued Monday, Sept. 17. It would also result in significant savings for a great majority of town employees, they said.

However, 70 percent of town employees and retirees must approve the plan by Oct. 1 this year or lose eligibility for it until July 1, 2009.

God couldn't be reached for comment?

Or, "A request for comment through a prayer was not immediately returned."

This is almost like an Onion article.

Tanking

Awesome photo essay at Foreign Policy magazine. Brendan Corr took pictures of the place tankers go when they're being dissembled.

[via warren ellis]

Strange bedfellows

One of the more interesting things in the move toward expanded gambling, if that is indeed the direction the state will be headed towards, is the folks who will join together mount the fight to stop it.

That includes conservative religious groups and liberal interest groups, who just a few months ago were warring over gay marriage. Such as the League of Women Voters and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Check out both their websites. On their front pages, both groups outline their opposition to gambling.

Also: The Pilot, which bills itself as the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, writes up an editorial declaring "no" to a gambling "invasion."

Earlier, from an AP story this week:

Beside a handful of lawmakers, opposition to casino gambling has been limited.

The Roman Catholic church, historically outspoken on matters related to family values, has taken a reserved approach.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley has declined several interview requests on the subject. On his blog, however, he wrote that casino gambling "is fraught with many dangers for a community," including gambling addiction. He said the state should raise taxes rather than rely on casinos "which will result in many ruined lives, ruined businesses and ruined neighborhoods."

O'Malley didn't mention bingo, but did note that the church's position on gambling is "nuanced."

Something I just realized

But was at the back of my mind in the last day or so. Gov. Patrick did make the "failure of human understanding" remarks back at the commencement address for Mt. Wachusett Community College, as Dan Kennedy notes. (As does David Bernstein.)

Those remarks were actually made even earlier, at a May 3 bar association dinner that I popped in on and wrote up for the News Service:

Condemning the "politics of fear," Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday night took aim at Bush administration policies and opponents of gay marriage, tighter gun control laws, and his plan to eliminate the tax exemption telecommunication companies receive in state. In a speech before 1,700 lawyers at the Boston Marriott in Copley Place, Patrick compared the lawyers who volunteered to take on the cases of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay as following in the tradition of John Adams, defending British soldiers implicated in the Boston Massacre. "It took real courage to take on those cases, because fear, fear as a device to manipulate and ultimately to govern is at large again in our times," Patrick, who was applauded several times, said. The September 11 attacks disrupted the nation's state of well being, but also represented "a catastrophic failure of human understanding," he said. "In its wake, I believe we have been governed by fear. Fear drove us to round up people of Arab descent, many of them American citizens and to hold hundreds without cause or charge. Fear led us to turn our attention from a known enemy in Afghanistan and invade Iraq instead. Fear justified what I believe to be the greatest assault on personal freedoms - the Patriot Act - and the greatest aggregation of presidential power in recent time." The use of fear isn't limited to national security, he added, drawing a connection to the debate over gay marriage. Four years after the Supreme Judicial Court signed off on gay marriage, "the institution of marriage has survived. But the fear-mongering persists, you see," he said...

Enough to make an Anglophile's heart beat like a big brass band

A fortieth anniversary DVD boxset for "The Prisoner."

Due for release on October 1, according to this site.

Another WSJ reporter jumps ship

First Robert Block left to cover NASA for the Orlando Sentinel.

Now Dan Golden, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Boston Globe reporter. He's leaving to join Portfolio, the Conde Nast business mag headed up by former WSJ editor Joanne Lipman.

It goes without saying that this is a huge loss for the WSJ.

Via a friend

From Overheard in the Office:

Managing editor: Our system's down until 2:50.
Reporter: To the bars, then!
Other reporters: Yay!
Editor-in-chief: Why the hell not?

In the field's defense, it's possible to file a story from a bar nowadays. (Though I prefer a Panera.)

In the gambling debate

Won't someone please think of the bingo players?

Is it just me

Or does the title of Indiana Jones 4 sound like a piece of fan fiction?

(I almost wrote "a really bad piece of fan fiction," but then realized I'd be repeating myself.)

Then again, it was George Lucas who named Star Wars I and II "the Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," respectively.

Yes, yes, I know the titles are supposed to evoke the serial feel. But still. "Raiders," "Temple of Doom," "Last Crusade." Those were all actually cool titles, even if the "Temple" movie sucked.

Full disclosure: I've been feeling "eh" about an Indiana Jones 4 since it was first anounced. Two out of three wasn't bad.

Buffy never did it for me.

I dunno why. Good show, but it just never caught on with me. (Firefly, on the other hand...if only Fox didn't kick it to the curb like another awesome sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.)

Anyway. I still pick up creator Joss Whedon's comics, and that includes the newest one exclusively online: Sugarshock, as part of Dark Horse Comics Presents on MySpace. (First part more easily readable here, second part here.)

With the same artist who does the Casanova comic. Which everybody must own. Must.

Putting criminals out to sea

That's almost as wacky as Kentucky supporting the purchase of a submarine to hunt casino riverboats.

But one citizen activist, Vincent Zarrilli, liked the idea, and it made it as far as the Boston City Council:

After reading about a shortage of prison space in the late ’70s, Zarrilli proposed converting an aircraft carrier into a prison, and docking it near Deer Island in Boston Harbor. It gained some support from the Boston City Council, but never went further.

Zarrilli has been in the news lately 'cause he got the Turnpike Authority to conduct an analysis on whether lowering the speed limit in the Central Artery Tunnel is needed. He's also Turnpike Board member Mary Connaughton's father.

A few quick things

Before I go back to trying to wake up a friend for a Labor Day breakfast:

--Yes, it would've been a lot more fun to appoint (or re-appoint) Christy Mihos to the Turnpike Board. Not that the meetings haven't been entertaining without him. But come on. Who else, during the heat of the gubernatorial campaign, would call in to Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey on a radio show and whose cheery hello would be greeted by silence.

But anyway. There's a new guy on the Turnpike, who is in his own words "by no means one of the state's leading authorities on transportation issues, nor am I the brightest bulb in the pack." But he "hates traffic." He also gives "great deference to whatever the staff comes up with." (Is that really a good idea?)

--How green are Massachusetts politicians? Some respond to a MetroWest Daily News questionnaire. Some don't: "While Beacon Hill leaders have a host of policy and legislative solutions to make the Bay State more environmentally friendly, most refuse to reveal what they are doing in their own homes."

--Widespread belief on Beacon Hill comes down on the side of the governor deciding to go through with casino gambling, according to the New Bedford Standard-Times. Dan Kennedy urges caution, recounting the last few weeks' events. As does the Salem News. Connecticut's casinos certainly aren't waiting for Patrick to make a decision.

--Low turnout predicted at tomorrow's Fifth CD primaries.

--Mr. Tux in Braintree closes; 110 employees to lose jobs, according to the Patriot Ledger.

--And finally, where organized labor is at in Massachusetts, one of the first states to make the day a holiday, on this Labor Day.

Jackson Publick checks in

The creator of the Ventures Bros. toon updated his LiveJournal this week with backgrounds from the show.

Season 3 can't come soon enough, lemme tell you.

Publick also points us to this delightfully odd website. I'm a fan of "Nobody Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford," "Signifier and Signified," and "Two Warriors Come Out of the Sky."

I've been due to change my wallpaper on my laptop. I think I found a new one in the Ford picture.

More Big Dig mistakes?

Seriously, the Big Dig, and by extension the Turnpike Authority, is just the gift that keeps on giving in the form of news stories. From Bloomberg:

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority faces the possibility of higher borrowing costs because of derivative agreements it made with UBS AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. involving $800 million of debt for Boston's `Big Dig' highway project, credit-rating analysts and officials said.

UBS may exercise an option it bought from the authority to start an interest-rate swap on the bonds on Sept. 4. Should Lehman exercise a similar option it purchased, the authority may end up paying variable interest rates on more than a third of its debt, a prospect credit raters said is risky given the agency's pinched finances from cost overruns on the $14.8 billion Big Dig.