Category Archives: People

Walter Cronkite

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 17, 2009

What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times… and you were there. – Walter Cronkite, narrating He informed my youth with You Are There (1953 — 1957). I saw every show. He informed my adulthood, reporting on six US Presidents from Kennedy [...]

Also posted in Journalism, Journo | Comments closed

Good enough, smart enough, and people like him

By Frank Paynter | Published: June 30, 2009

Al Franken has finally been declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate race. According to NPR, the State Supreme Court ruling was unanimous. Minnesota’s Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, has said previously that he would certify Franken if the Court directed him to do so. Follow-up news coming soon on the Daily Show, I’m sure.

Also posted in Blue Left, Democracy, Government, Politics | Comments closed

Jennifer Balderama

By Frank Paynter | Published: June 29, 2009

[Wordnik is] “A crowdsourced toolkit for tracking and recording the evolution of language as it occurs, its goal is to gather as much information about a word as possible — not its mere definition, but also in-sentence examples, semantic ‘neighborhoods’ of related words, images, statistics about usage, and more. And it’s all compiled via user [...]

Also posted in Bloggers 'n blogs, Verbalistics, Writing | Comments closed

President Obama on a woman’s right to privacy

By Frank Paynter | Published: January 23, 2009

…and a woman’s right to choose. How did I miss this largely symbolic but altogether reassuring statement by the President on protecting women’s health and reproductive freedom? So far he’s batting 1000 with me (I say with my eyes averted from the Pakistan border). President Obama issued a statement defending Roe v. Wade for protecting [...]

Also posted in Blue Left, Global Concern, Government, Politics | Comments closed

Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

By Frank Paynter | Published: January 11, 2009

William Devereux Zantzinger died January 3, 2009 in Charlotte Hall, Maryland. tacar616 (1 month ago) I thank whoever put this up. I am the great-granddaughter of Hattie Carroll, and I have never heard the song until now William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger At [...]

Also posted in Arts and Literature, Class Warfare, Creative Arts, Music, Peace and Politics, Writing | Comments closed

Happy Birthday Elvis, wherever you are…

By Frank Paynter | Published: January 8, 2009

Elvis Presley, the King of Bling. Fry yourself up a deelishus peanut butter, bacon, and banana sandwich on white bread, and pause for a moment to contemplate The King. Today he is, or would have been, 74 years old. They served cake today in the Elvis shopping center across US51 from Graceland.

Also posted in Arts and Literature, Creative Arts, Hep jive, Music | Comments closed

Prop. 8 Failure, Obama Success

By Frank Paynter | Published: November 16, 2008

I’m bummed that Proposition 8 passed in California and I’m delighted that Obama won. As a supporter of same sex marriage and a supporter of Barack Obama, I want to weigh in on an unfortunate bit of pop-political analysis that implies that it is somehow the black communities’ fault that same sex marriage was defeated [...]

Also posted in Democracy, Disparities, Government, Peace and Politics, Politics, Racism, Sex | Comments closed

Alice Walker’s Open Letter to Barack Obama

By Frank Paynter | Published: November 12, 2008

In Alice Walker’s open letter to Barack Obama on the day following the election, she says: I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, [...]

Also posted in High Signal - Low Noise | Comments closed