Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Almanacs “The Almanac - Oct.27 - Post Chronicle” plus 3 more

Almanacs “The Almanac - Oct.27 - Post Chronicle” plus 3 more

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The Almanac - Oct.27 - Post Chronicle

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 04:52 AM PDT

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 27, the 300th of 2009 with 65 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus in 1466; English explorer Capt. James Cook in 1728; Italian violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini in 1782; Isaac Singer, developer of the first practical home sewing machine, in 1811; Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States, in 1858; etiquette arbiter Emily Post in 1872; longtime "Tonight Show" producer/director Fred De Cordova in 1910; Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in 1914; actresses Nanette Fabray in 1920 (age 89) and Ruby Dee in 1924 (age 85); pop artist Roy Lichtenstein in 1923; former Secretary of State Warren Christopher in 1925 (age 84); pop pianist Floyd Cramer in 1933; comedian John Cleese in 1939 (age 70); filmmaker Ivan Reitman in 1946 (age 63); actors Carrie Snodgress in 1946, Roberto Benigni ("Life Is Beautiful") in 1952 (age 57), and Robert Picardo ("Star Trek: Voyager") in 1953 (age 56) and singer Simon Le Bon in 1958 (age 51).

On this date in history:

In 1659, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who left England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their outlawed religious beliefs.

In 1787, a New York newspaper published the first of 77 essays explaining the new Constitution and urging its ratification, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay and later combined as "The Federalist Papers."

In 1795, a treaty with Spain settled Florida's northern boundary and gave navigation rights on the Mississippi River to the United States.

In 1904, the first rapid transit subway system in America opened in New York City.

In 1946, the travel show "Geographically Speaking," sponsored by Bristol-Myers, became the first television program with a commercial sponsor.

In 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio divorced, reportedly after a blowup over her famous scene in "The Seven Year Itch," in which a blast of air lifts her skirt.

In 1981, the National Labor Relations Board withdrew recognition of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for an illegal strike by its members.

In 1990, CBS founder William S. Paley died at age 89 and band leader/rumba king Xavier Cugat died at 90.

In 1991, Poland had its first fully free parliamentary elections.

In 1992, Israeli tanks rolled into Lebanon as air force jets staged renewed raids in an effort to crush Muslim fundamentalist guerrillas.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton presented Congress with the administration's plan for healthcare reform in a ceremony at the Capitol.

Also in 1993, Southern California was hit by dozens of brush fires -- the worst in six years. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and thousands of people were forced to flee the flames.

In 1994, the U.S. Justice Department announced that the U.S. prison population topped the 1 million mark.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch, one of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded, began its four-day siege of Central America, causing at least 10,000 deaths.

In 2003, as many as 40 civilians and U.S. soldiers were killed in a flurry of terrorist bombings in Baghdad. Among the targets was the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In 2006, a former General Services Administration official was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for helping lobbyist Jack Abramoff. David Safavian told the judge he didn't realize that passing on inside information about properties controlled by the GSA was wrong.

In 2007, Russian observers predicted Vladimir Putin would seek the post of prime minister when he steps down from the presidency. Putin said earlier he wouldn't seek a third term as president.

In 2008, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was found guilty of seven federal felony charges related to unreported gifts and renovation work on his home. Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history, was convicted of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from friends. The convictions were later vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct.

A thought for the day: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt said, "The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." (c) UPI

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Crisp: Part-timers face long odds - MetroWest Daily News

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 05:07 AM PDT

If I imagined a grand reunion of all of the students who have enrolled in my college classes during some 25 years of teaching, I would also go to the trouble of imagining the commodious lecture hall that would accommodate all 5,000 or 6,000 of them at the same time.

But as I imagine this bank of faces - some of them well into middle age - I might be reluctant to ask for a show of hands to indicate how many had finished their degrees and moved into a job worthy of their college educations.

After all, mostly I've taught freshman composition, a demanding make-or-break course that challenges students who may not be fully committed to the rigors of college work. Not every student makes it through the first semester or comes back for a second.

Furthermore, because I've taught in an exclusive private university, in a large public university, and in a large public community college, my students have ranged across a broad spectrum of abilities and academic preparedness. Some were highly intelligent and talented; some should probably not have been in college at all.

Some came from a long line of university graduates; many others were the first in their families to even imagine going to college. Some were recent high school graduates themselves; many had been out of school long enough to raise a family.

Some were just plain smarter than others, and some were more motivated.

But when I ponder why some of these students succeeded in college while others didn't, I note a two-year-old study from the National Center for Education Statistics, an agency of the U.S. Department of Education. While controlling for other factors like gender and family income, researchers identified a single factor with a very significant correlation to success in college: part-time versus full-time attendance.

The difference is staggering: in a representative sample of students who began college in 1995 and attended on a part-time basis, only 15 percent achieved a degree or certificate of any kind after six years. And none achieved a bachelor's degree.

Among full-time students, on the other hand, 64 percent earned either a degree or a certificate within six years, and 44 percent earned a bachelor's degree.

So, while many factors influence a student's chances of success in college, a prime predictor is simply the number of hours for which the student enrolls. According to this study, a student who takes 12 or 15 hours per semester is much more likely to stay in school and to eventually succeed than the student who takes only three or six hours.

Statistics aren't destiny, of course, but considering that - according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's current Almanac Issue - nearly 50 percent of all college students attend part-time during all or part of the year, one wonders if the deck isn't stacked against some students just by the nature of their enrollment.

Of course, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to attend college part-time. But many of the part-time students at the community college where I work - around 70 percent attend part-time - don't register for a full load because of the simple economic necessity of having to put in close to a 40-hour workweek to attend college at all.

There's a lot to be said for the virtues of "working your way through college." But it's one thing to put in a few on-campus work-study hours per week while attending an expensive university on someone else's dime. It's another to pull an overnight shift at a convenience store and then rush to your freshman comp class, which you can barely pay for.

Yet these hard workers are precisely the ones whose success in college would strengthen both our economy and our nation. Unfortunately, trends in our culture and in higher education are working against their full-time attendance and, therefore, undermining rather than enhancing their chances of success.

John M. Crisp teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. E-mail him at jcrisp@delmar.edu.

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Are Phillies of today Phila.'s best team ever? - Philadelphia Daily News

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 01:25 AM PDT

But are the 2009 Phils the best team ever to play baseball in Philadelphia?

From 1901 through 1954, Philadelphia was home to two major-league franchises, the Phillies and the Athletics, now the Oakland A's.

The A's were easily the better of the two. Before the old A's left the city, they won, in just over 50 years, nine American League pennants and five World Series.

Twice, the A's won back-to-back World Series, in 1910 and 1911, and in 1929 and 1930. They also won in 1913.

(Three of the A's World Series were against the New York Giants, making the 2009 Series the fifth time that teams from Philadelphia and New York have faced off in the Fall Classic, including the Yanks-Phillies 1950 matchup.)

The first A's dynasty was unique in a city where hitters have dominated the headlines. The club, a powerhouse from 1910 to 1914, had unparalleled pitching. These A's boasted Chief Bender and Eddie Plank, both Hall of Famers. Plank finished with 326 victories.

The hitters were also impressive. Infielder Stuffy McInnis had a career average of .307, according to the Baseball Almanac. Eddie Collins, the best second baseman ever (Chase Utley notwithstanding), had a lifetime batting average of .333. The team, however, was best defined by its slugger, third baseman Frank Baker.

"Home Run" Baker, also an RBI leader, won the American League home-run title in four consecutive seasons, 1911 through 1914. But his numbers were 11, 10, 12, and 9 home runs. This was the middle of the dead-ball era. It's hard to compare teams from this period with modern-day teams.

You can make a much better set of comparisons with the Athletics teams that won back-to-back championships in 1929 and 1930, and the American League pennant in 1931. This team had one monumentally good pitcher, Lefty Grove, who was even better than Steve Carlton.

In those three seasons, Grove was 20-6, 28-5, and a remarkable 31-4. A noted wag said he could "throw a lamb chop past a wolf." Grove was unhittable at a time when sluggers batting over .300 were not uncommon.

The 1929-31 A's had their share of sluggers who could hit for high average. Outfielder Al Simmons hit .365 in 1929, .381 in 1930, and .390 in 1931. Mickey Cochrane is considered one of the greatest catchers ever, largely because of his hitting.

The really big stick belonged to first baseman Jimmie Foxx. Experts today argue whether Ryan Howard is better than Mike Schmidt. Here, I think, Howard is the winner. The harder question might be: Is Howard the equal of Foxx, who also had a 58-home-run season (in 1932).

Like Howard, "Double X" had tremendous power, amazing folks at the ballpark with his colossal home runs. Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez reportedly said about him, "He has muscles in his hair."

New York fans do know about their best team, the 1927 Yankees with its famed "Murderers' Row," anchored by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The 1929 or 1930 A's may have been better: Foxx and Simmons were equal to Ruth and Gehrig, and had a better supporting cast of characters, with players such as Cochrane.

Here, the Phillies' dynasty of 2007-09 looks much like those old A's. In the middle of the lineup, you have Utley, Howard, and Werth, and around them Rollins, Victorino, and Ibanez. Not too shabby. Both the 1929-31 A's and the 2009 Phillies relied on the long ball.

Both teams are also notable for their dogged determination. In Game 4 of the 1929 Series, the A's, down by 8-0 in the seventh against the Chicago Cubs, came up with 10 runs in the inning to take the heart out of their opponent. In their own way, the Phillies have already done this twice in the playoffs, against the Rockies and then the Dodgers.

But while the 21st-century Phillies may be the equal of those of 1980, and comparable to the 1929-31 A's, no memorable Phillies team has been rich in pitching.

There have been great pitchers in Robin Roberts and Carlton. But the franchise has never enjoyed the luxury of a couple of aces on the mound over several seasons. The club has had to patch together effective staffs from year to year.

Pitching is always decisive, right? Yes, but that doesn't mean that only the aces can perform in money games. One interesting characteristic of the two Phillies dynasties - and the A's of 1929-1931 - is that they have often gotten extraordinary gems of games from a group of just everyday pitchers.

We'll see.

 

Bruce Kuklick is the author of "To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban America."

 

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Banning smoking in apartments, condos? - The Almanac Online

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 12:13 AM PDT

Uploaded: Monday, October 26, 2009, 11:19 AM
Updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 12:17 AM

Banning smoking in apartments, condos?  
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1 comment:

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