How to Tell if Your Child Is Gifted. Blog | Double X. The search engine Bing would like to salute the heroic women of 2013. Malala Yousafzai, who “stood up to educate us all.” Margaret Thatcher, for “blazing a trail.” Adrianne Haslet-David, for “vowing to dance again” after she lost a foot in the Boston bombing. Diana Nyad, who “swam a really long way” (just kidding, who “persevered”). In its new commercial, which premiered during the Golden Globes Sunday night, Bing flashes images of these women, as well as of Gabrielle Giffords, Janet Yellen, Antoinette Tuff, Angela Merkel, Edith Windsor, Deb Cohan, and female troops, while girl-power anthemist Sara Bareilles sings “I wanna see you be brave” in the background.
The chancellor of Germany and a Pakistani teen activist are strange bedfellows, perhaps, but companies can cast a wide net when their only criteria for inclusion are “female” and “famous.” Perhaps, as the smaller and more social search engine in a world dominated by Google, Bing identifies with the female plight, such as it is. A primer on the word racism. - By Richard Thompson Ford. More than a few naive souls hoped that the election of Barack Obama signaled a new era of racial harmony. Instead, alas, American race relations have entered a bizarre new phase in which tension is ubiquitous and almost anyone can claim to be the victim of racism. Former President Jimmy Carter lamented that "there is an inherent feeling among many in the country that an African-American should not be president," in reaction to Rep.
Joe Wilson's now-infamous outburst during President Obama's congressional address. Also of late, the Rev. Al Sharpton and many others cried racism over a tasteless New York Post cartoon, Cambridge police were accused of "racial profiling" after arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home, and Newsweek asked "Is Your Baby Racist? " And although conservatives have long complained of unwarranted accusations of racism, two of their henchmen, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, have been shamelessly playing the race card. Is this racism? Neal Pollack's Alternadad. - By Michael Agger. The trend came into the world naked, innocent, screaming. It demanded attention and round-the-clock care. In just two years, it grew and became more self-aware. Some people thought the trend was cute, others were simply annoyed. Yes, the daddy blog has accomplished much in its young life—scoured the world for Bauhaus children's furniture, discovered vintage R.E.M.
Sesame Street appearances —but with the publication of Neal Pollack's Alternadad, the cuddly stage is officially over. The trend has grown into a book, and a target. Most people know Pollack as an arch McSweeney's ironist, the self-proclaimed "greatest writer in the world" who satirized men's magazine writing and journalistic machismo with a Hunter S.
The actual alternadads appear in the book's opening section. Pollack embarks into parent-land from a different starting point than those two. "Maybe we shouldn't live in the city. "" Pollack and Regina leave Philly and resettle in Austin, Texas. Matt Groening - By A.O. Scott. I have before me the current issue of The Comics Journal, which features a list of the 100 greatest comics of the century, from Prince Valiant at the bottom to Pogo, Peanuts, and Krazy Kat at the top, with room for everyone from R. Crumb to Captain Marvel in between. There is no place in it, however, for Matt Groening's Life in Hell. Groening's friend Lynda Barry (whose work often shows up next to his in the pages of alternative weeklies across the land) gets the nod for her brilliant Ernie Pook's Comeek (No. 74). Up-and-coming comics superstar Ben Katchor's Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer checks in at No. 56. But those anxious bunnies Binky and Bongo and their sidekicks, the deadpan fez wearers Akbar and Jeff, are conspicuous (to me, anyway) in their absence.
This is a shame, since Groening, better known as the creator of The Simpsons, and now of the much-hyped Futurama, is also an important figure in the world of pen-and-ink serial cartooning. Except one.