Five at 8: May 28, 2009

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 28, 2009
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Who needs a hug?

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  • Now that smoking has been banned throughout Minnesota, how about taking on hugging? Teenagers, rapidly losing the ability to form words when communicating, are hugging. A lot, says the New York Times. “A measure of how rapidly the ritual is spreading is that some students complain of peer pressure to hug to fit in. And schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., wary in a litigious era about sexual harassment or improper touching — or citing hallway clogging and late arrivals to class — have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule,” the story says.

    Hug full or hug empty? It’s a matter of perspective, I guess. In Tuscaloosa there’s love being dispensed for “the hugging preacher.” Reverend Lorenza James has been greeting students with a hug at school for the last five years. Yesterday, however, was his last day.

  • Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and the 2nd Amendment. SCOTUS blog notes the court has a big case coming up in the next term. Does the 2nd Amendment limit states’ authority to control guns? Sotomayor would likely take herself out of the case because it’s one she ruled on as an Appeals Court judge. But there are plenty of gun battles heading in the court’s direction.
  • The “Fiddling Around America” tour dropped in on Duluth yesterday (Duluth News Tribune, registration required). Dan Gryder and Jeff Pritchard are flying a DC-3 around the country, landing, and playing some bluegrass. They found Duluth a little chilly, so they left. When they’re flying, they broadcast live and are hosting live chats.

  • What’s the sound of one triangle clapping? We are all capable of “hearing” shapes and sizes and perhaps even “tasting” sounds, researchers say in a BBC story.
  • Things to chew on. The 5th grade band has been eliminated in Jordan, according to this blog in the Jordan Independent. But check out the “breaking news.”

    jordan_-blog.jpg

    There’s still a golf team. Good? Bad? Who knows? But here’s the thing: Keep track of the cutbacks in extracurriculars in your local school district and pass them along. Let’s test the “prevailing wisdom” that schools value athletics over the arts.

    Speaking of the arts. This doesn’t. Video battle: The Big East baseball “dance off” or Mary Lucia and cows? You decide. There appears to be some hugging in at least one of the videos.

    WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON

    Midmorning (9-11) – In the first hour: Terror cells in America. Second hour: Do we lose something when we move media from a “hard” to a digital format?

    Midday (11-1) – They’ve bitten off a big bite in the first hour: Making sense of North Korea. In the second hour, another American RadioWorks documentary, Hard Times in Middletown. Here’s the Web site.

    Talk of the Nation (1-3) – First hour: How the world uses cellphones. Second hour: Confessions of an international drug smuggler.

    All Things Considered (3-6:30) – Fargo native Roxana Saberi spent three months in an Iranian prison, you may have heard. This afternoon she talks to NPR. Also: Jury deliberations are underway in the Fong Lee case. Brandt Williams is following that. Laura Yuen talks to a former gang member about efforts to prevent youth violence in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood Marty Moylan is in suburban Milwaukee where Bill Ackman is trying to get four upstarts on the Target board of directors. I’m interesting in finding out this morning whether Target’s cone of silence will hold.

    Rep. Dean Urdahl has a news conference. He’s asking Congress to repeal an 1863 federal law that banished Dakota and Winnebago Indians from Minnesota. Here’s some background.

    (Photo: Getty Images)