BatesLine linkblog

Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled - WSJ

Jeffrey Zaslow, writing in 2007: "Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were "special" just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself.

"Now Mr. Rogers, like Dr. Spock before him, has been targeted for re-evaluation. And he's not the only one. As educators and researchers struggle to define the new parameters of parenting, circa 2007, some are revisiting the language of child ego-boosting. What are the downsides of telling kids they're special? Is it a mistake to have children call us by our first names? When we focus all conversations on our children's lives, are we denying them the insights found when adults talk about adult things?"

Archive link

The Great Tiddlywinks Caper: Goons, Royals and Cambridge games - Comedy Chronicles - British Comedy Guide

In 1958, Prince Philip challenged students at Cambridge University to a battle of tiddlywinks for the benefit of the National Playing Fields Association. The Duke of Edinburgh did not appear for the competition; he recruited as his royal champions the stars of the Goon Show (Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe), announcer Wallace Greenslade, harmonicist Max Geldray, comedian Graham Stark, and comedy writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The university students triumphed over the royal squad.

EXPLORE THE ATLAS -- National Zoning Atlas

This is a very cool idea: An online, interactive map showing zoning nationwide. Found via the Neighborhood Development group on Facebook, where group founder R. John Anderson warns:

"Heads up, this is a promising tool for general investigation, but fully understanding the underlying actual zoning ordinance in a specific municipality is critical. SO DO NOT PUT ANY PROPERTY UNDER CONTRACT BASED UPON THIS WHIZ BANG TECHNOLOGY. If you want to build/rebuild in that place, make it your goal to know that code better than the staff who administer it or the planning commission who interpret it."

Anderson urges prospective developers to pay attention to the procedural info typically at the front of the zoning code, definitions which may have subtle differences from one jurisdiction to another, e.g., how density and building height are calculated, what constitutes a family, what are parking minimums.

Associated Grocers 10th anniversary special section - Nov 13, 1949, page 81 - Tulsa World at Newspapers.com

If you have a Newspapers.com subscription and you're interested in Tulsa history, this will take you to a special treat: A 16-page section celebrating the 10th anniversary of Associated Grocers. A-G was a cooperative of 110 independently-owned neighborhood grocery stores with joint wholesale grocery purchasing and joint newspaper advertising, trying to keep mom-and-pop stores competitive with the growing national chains. This section has a list of member stores and profiles of many of the store owners. A-G's 22,000 sq. ft. warehouse was at 1801 E. Jasper St., and there was a separate building for fruit and vegetable distribution at the North Trenton Street Market.

Matt Goodwin: Kemi Badenoch is not going to save the Tories

"Had the Tories remained committed to this realignment by supplying it with the right policies, including slashing immigration, defending the borders, and vigorously opposing the Woke then, like Trump has done, they would have completely realigned British politics around an entirely new political and cultural zeitgeist.

"But the Tories did not remain committed --quite the opposite. Instead of representing and respecting their new voters, the status-conscious Tory elite class did what the status-conscious Tory elite class always does --it preferred to listen to the likes of Gavin Barwell, William Hague, Iain Martin, Fraser Nelson, Rory Stewart, and countless other urban liberals who masquerade as conservatives and have never come close to actually winning a general election....

"In this way, a once solid and structurally sound electorate completely imploded because these voters can now sense what the Tory elite class knew all along -- the people who run the Tory party never really wanted these voters, nor even liked them. Having to pander to pro-Brexit, anti-immigration, cultural conservatives, having to actually 'be conservative' was just too inconvenient and low-status for the Tory elite class in London. Better to hold one's head up high, put in some leaders who are fashionable in SW1, and definitely not be like Nigel, even if the end destination is total electoral oblivion."

Hand & Racquet : London Remembers

A real-life Leicester Square pub beloved of comedy greats like Tommy Cooper and Tony Hancock, it was forever memorialized by writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as Tony's local in Hancock's Half Hour. Closed circa 2008, demolished for new development in 2015.

Etherical Radio

This is a listing for an antique radio that has already been sold. The Etherical Radio Company of Bristow, Oklahoma, was the owner of radio station KFRU, which moved to Tulsa to become KVOO. They also made radios.

Review of Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces

Leslie Marsh's review of Cory MacLauchlin's biography of John Kennedy Toole, with a critical focus on Simon & Schuster editor Paul Gottlieb's decision to keep Confederacy in limbo.

A Memory Keeper of New Orleans

Much respect to the biographer of John Kennedy Toole for his marathon, week-long, one-man digitizing effort in Tulane's Special Collections. I have had similar (but not as lengthy) sessions of photographing court files, newspaper articles, city directories, and microfilm for later reading and research.

"I spent five full days at the archive, from opening to closing, hunched over a table with my camera, capturing every page of the twenty-six boxes of the collection. At the end of the week, I had not read a single word from the archive. I flew home exhausted and sore. But I had gained something invaluable--a digitized version of the Toole Papers. And that became the backbone to Butterfly in the Typewriter."

Plutarch, De defectu oraculorum, section 17

The Greek historian Plutarch recounts a visit to Delphi and a dialogue about the disappearance of prophecy from once famous oracles. This section is an anecdote about a ship sailing in the Ionian Sea. A voice on the island of Paxi calls the ship's pilot by name and commands, "When you come opposite to Palodes, announce that Great Pan is dead." The pilot, Thamus, was summoned by the Emperor Tiberius, who commissioned an inquiry. Via Charles Haywood on X. Josh Centers replied to Haywood, "It was widely reported in the ancient world that the old pagan rituals stopped working after the resurrection. Christ overthrew the pagan gods and trampled down death by death." The death and resurrection of Christ occurred during the reign of Tiberius (AD 14 - AD 37).

John Milton's poem, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," concludes with a description of the downfall of Satan and the old pagan gods at the birth of Jesus:

And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
Th'old Dragon under ground,
In straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway,
And, wrath to see his kingdom fail,
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The Oracles are dumb;
No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell.