We put diesel in our tank yesterday. The price was about 20 cents a gallon higher than the last fillup, which was about the same amount higher than the time before that. I think yesterday was $4.469 per gallon. Ouch. When we bought this car, diesel was selling for less than gasoline. No more. At these prices, our behavior is changing. Fewer “just for the heck of it” drives, more days using phones and the net to work from home. I wonder if overall gas/diesel sales are down as a result? Where are those stats?
Meda and I still laugh about the old ads for Ron Tonkin Chevrolet in Portland, Oregon. He used to hawk his used cars on television, slapping the hood of a used vehicle and smiling into the camera. “Here’s one that won’t last long,” he would say, leaving us wondering if he was also enjoying the double meaning or just trying to sell cars.
That old “here’s one that won’t last” slogan would be an apt farewell for the “In a Huff” blog, mentioned here this week. Daryl’s shutting down his blog after stirring up just a ruckus or two.
Huff writes:
There is a reason columnists in newspapers are not usually day-to-day reporters. The columnists can afford to piss people off, and are often encouraged to do so, while reporters need to maintain their credibility as objective observers as much as humanly possible.
I thought I could blog in the space between those two roles, but now, I don’t think so.
The challenge is that when you write outside the usual pattern of reporting – which usually requires an event warranting coverage – you open yourself to accusations that you are picking and choosing subject matter in pursuit of a political or personal agenda. When you offer a different perspective on a story, which was the reason for my blog in the first place, you again open yourself up to those allegations.
I thought Daryl’s blog was off to a very good start, but he’s also a very good reporter. If forced to choose, his choice is certainly not unreasonable. So I’ll just have to go back to watching for the news that he makes.
Did you notice this blog item about “dumping” of homeless in Hawaii?
And if you’re looking for a way to spend a bit of this Friday, check out the news from Zodiac Arts, written and maintained by friends and neighbors right here in Kaaawa.
It is Friday, after all, so it’s time for a few more of our favorite felines.
News junkies can feel free not to click on Harriet’s photo, which will take you to the rest of this week’s cat gallery.
2 responses so far ↓
1 LarryG // May 16, 2008 at 9:09 am
The question of homeless dumping came up on last night’s Town Square on HPR. The podcast isn’t available yet, so I’ll relate from (fallable) memory that I think it was guest Utu Langi who said that he had met a few, but that it must be a small number. Also, there is the reverse effect–people who have not been able to succeed here who do go to another state to make a new start.
If Hawaii is a state, then people can move back and forth freely. Certainly it would not be good public policy for another jurisdiction to pay to ship people to another state for any reason including joblessness. There are reports of homeless people being bussed to other states.
In the absence of any reasonably reliable numbers I don’t think this is established as a problem. The KHON story did not support Rod Tam’s claims.
Tam might go back to advocating napping, I have always thought he was ahead of his time on that one.
2 Andy Parx // May 16, 2008 at 11:54 am
Maybe Rod could hire the homelss to nap for him when he’s busy.
If this “dumping” is actually happening wouldn’t you think there would be a specific story about a specific person who was sent from a specific jurisdiction by a specific state agency?
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