Thursday

adventures / history / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on We just wandered by this square in New Orleans
10
Apr 14

We just wandered by this square in New Orleans

This is a part of the Louisiana Supreme Court, which sits in Judge Fred Cassibry Square.

Louisiana

The square is more interesting, as it is named after Fred James Cassibry, who served as a judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1966 until 1987. The Mississippi native attended Tulane during World War II and was a star athlete there before law school. He cruised on a destroyer in the Pacific during the war. When he came home he got a job with the NLRB and then created a private law practice. He served as a city councilman in the 1950s. His obit says:

With little support from his colleagues, Mr. Cassibry fought Morrison for an investigation of the scandal-ridden Police Department, which was later found to have an organized system of payoffs from illegal lottery operators, horse-racing bookies and houses of prostitution.

In a recent interview, Mr. Cassibry recalled how he was criticized at the time for discussing what he called the police chief’s “intimate relationship” with whorehouse madams. “He sued me,” Mr. Cassibry said. “But when I called him for a deposition, he dropped the suit.”

He was a district judge, too:

After he was elected to a Civil District Court judgeship in 1960, Mr. Cassibry continued to make waves, warning lawyers who tried to talk with him about cases they had in his court. “When they called me, I told them if they mentioned the name of the suit, I was going to go over and beat hell out of them,” he said. “They stopped calling.”

President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Cassibry to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He sat there from 1966 until 1987. He returned to private practice and was appointed to the Louisiana gaming commission “where his outspoken style saw him clash repeatedly with the rising gaming interests.

Given what you’ve already learned about him from those three paragraphs of his obituary, what do you think has to happen for people to make note of your outspoken style in Louisiana?

The historic marker on the square reads:

Fred J. Cassibry (1918-1996), U.S. Navy WWII veteran, served on the New Orleans City Council, Orleans Civil District Court, U.S. District Court, E.D. La., and the Louisiana Economic Development and Gaming Corporation. Throughout his 40 years of public life, Judge Cassibry personified the definition of a dedicated public official. He never forgot he was a servant of the people. Square dedicated by 1999 La. Acts 708.

adventures / food / friends / photo / Samford / Thursday — Comments Off on A day at the conference
3
Apr 14

A day at the conference

Took part in a panel this morning. It was titled The Future of Campus Journalism. The description:

What are we teaching our journalism students? What should we be teaching our journalism students? Given the prolonged state of flux of the journalism industry, it is more important than ever for educators to be conscious of the ever-changing nature of the skills that our students will need to be able to adapt in today’s job market. Panelists will share their experiences with and suggestions for journalism education, both in the classroom and in the newsroom.

I talked about entrepreneurship, partnering with other entities on campus — Samford’s JMC teams with the business school and the law school for combined degrees — and initiative.

Other conference things took place. We attended sessions and other sessions. We visited the welcome mixer and then had dinner across the street at the Palace Cafe:

Palace

It was one of those places that was widely suggested to us by friends. (Tell people you are going to New Orleans and everyone has a restaurant list.) I had the braised pork shank:

Palace

It only needed to be bigger. And there was banana’s foster, which was prepared and fired in front of us. All the people infatuated by fire recorded the moment. The maitre d made a note of it and called the fire marshal, I’m sure. There was also cheesecake:

Palace

Tomorrow I’ll get to take part in two panels at the conference. Also, Wrestlemania is being held in New Orleans. The fans are starting to filter in. And some of the wrestlers. I think Mark Henry is staying in our hotel. That guy is massive.

Auburn / baseball / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on Mizzou at Auburn
27
Mar 14

Mizzou at Auburn

I went outside and did something today! This was preceded by a few hours resting in bed. I feel better, for the most part, but I’m just so weary. That’s gotten old already.

Anyway, there was baseball tonight. Auburn is hosting Missouri for a three-game series. The attendance was announced as a sellout, the first of the year.

Blake Austin slides in for Auburn’s second score of the game:

baseball

The third base umpire blew a call and the head coach, Sunny Golloway, let him hear about it. So did the fans, for quite some time.

baseball

It was a pivotal call and, perhaps, cost Auburn the game. The wrong Tigers won, 4-3. The problems were of the familiar variety. Auburn had four errors and stranded eight.

The great thing about baseball is that they’ll play again tomorrow.

journalism / links / memories / photo / things to read / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on Stay to the left
20
Mar 14

Stay to the left

Slowing traffic for several miles on the way home …

fire

My first job after college was reporting traffic on the radio. College grad! It was originally supposed to be a job where I flew around as a passenger in a small plane and reported from the sky. Something happened, I forget the details, where the guy I was replacing stuck around. So I worked in the office.

The office was a big bullpen with miniature studio bays instead of cubicles. There was one guy who had the job of calling police stations, listening to scanners and taking the occasional phone call about traffic reports. He was inputting all of this data into the system so that people like me could read on various radio stations in the region. On any given day I was reporting on five or six stations. We all had stations and times and some people crafted miniature personalities behind it. This was, after all, something of a stepping stone job for some people.

One of those guys, an older gentleman, did this cantankerous bit, like the accidents, the minor ones at least, were an imposition to him, already at his office. It was probably funny in a sympathetic sort of way. One day he called a car fire a “Car-B-Q.” That seemed less funny to me, since these are more serious than a fender bender. I always think of that whenever I hear about or see a car fire.

You never hear what became of the people involved. Did they escape safely? How many of their things did they bother to reach for? How did it start? You only know it ruined more than their weekend plans.

Things to read … because that is almost always in the plans.

Concerns about cancer centers under health law:

Some of America’s best cancer hospitals are off-limits to many of the people now signing up for coverage under the nation’s new health care program.

Doctors and administrators say they’re concerned. So are some state insurance regulators.

An Associated Press survey found examples coast to coast. Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is excluded by five out of eight insurers in Washington’s insurance exchange. MD Anderson Cancer Center says it’s in less than half of the plans in the Houston area. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is included by two of nine insurers in New York City and has out-of-network agreements with two more.

In all, only four of 19 nationally recognized comprehensive cancer centers that responded to AP’s survey said patients have access through all the insurance companies in their states’ exchanges.

If you haven’t come around to the reality that there is a difference between “coverage” and “health care” then you are well behind the curve.

Following up on a piece you read here on Monday, TV Subscriptions Fall for First Time as Viewers Cut the Cord:

The decline is small so far. Video subscribers across the entire pay-TV industry, which includes Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), DirecTV and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), dropped by 251,000 last year to about 100 million, SNL Kagan said in a statement today.

The industry has seen this coming for a while; research firm IHS said in August that TV subscriptions would decline to 100.8 million from 100.9 million in 2013. And cable companies have been suffering declines for years as satellite and phone carriers wrested away market share. In fact, DirecTV (DTV), Verizon and their ilk still gained TV subscribers last year — just not enough to make up for 2 million lost cable subscribers.

Pay-TV carriers have been preparing for this inflection point by developing services for watching video on tablets and smartphones. They’re also investing to boost Internet speeds as broadband services become more popular, often at the expense of TV subscriptions.

On our Blu-ray player there is an option for all manner of non-television video platforms. Most of them you probably don’t even know are out there. Seems we won’t need a la carte cable, we’re going to get it in some other fashion.

Remember when CNN stood for something? Now they’ll fall for anything.

Reaction is here.

For word nerds, AP removes distinction between ‘over’ and ‘more than’. If you want to see how that is being received, you can read the reaction beneath the Associated Press’ announcement on Twitter.

I like to tell people that I think we all have a superpower, no matter how lame. Mine, I say, is that I can always anticipate the size of plasticware needed to store the leftovers. It isn’t going to save the world from alien invaders, but at least it is helpful in the kitchen. Unlike the Incredible Hulk.

It is a fun joke. It usually gets a little laugh. It starts a little “What’s your superpower?” conversation. Tonight, though, in maybe the third such event in the history of my discovering my comic book destiny …

Even Superman has an off day, or so I’m telling myself.

Things on my campus blog:

Know your rights
Giving Skype interviews
Where your eyes are going these days
Robot news
The place where television news, schools and ethics meet

friends / iPhone / memories / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on Corner pocket
13
Mar 14

Corner pocket

Look at that beautiful, blue sky:

tree

That was this afternoon, this beautiful, clear, cool afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky, high of 55. Have we discussed how this is March?

Tonight I got a call from Stephen, at around 8:30. He was in town and invited me to his parents’ place to shoot a little pool. So we retired to the basement, my old college friend and his wife, whom I also know from college, and his father. Brooke and Stephen’s two kids were asleep upstairs. We were down among personalized photos of Reagan and antique gas station epherma and Rotary Club paraphernalia and played doubles. Brooke and Stephen won the first game. His dad and I won the next two. We played a game of cutthroat and I won that, too.

But this was the shot of the night. Mr. W. dropped the two in the corner pocket without the 13 even noticing.

pool

Always such a reserved gentleman, it seems he was something of a pool shark in his younger days. You’d never expect it to know him.

As we played Stephen regaled us with impersonations and tales of his in-laws. Before we played he told one of those “Well, I’m old enough now, dad, you can’t do anything about this” story. Stephen is a lawyer, so he used the old statute of limitations line, which made it sound so important, particularly opposite the silly story he told. It involved mud and a lot of walking, like more than a few stories of youth in the South.

So I look at us. I think of all of our other friends, some who came up in conversation tonight and others who didn’t. How did we all get here, sitting over a pesky three ball I can’t knock down, in a life grand as all this?

Life gives you interesting questions on a Thursday night, doesn’t it?

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