Public affairs:

• Old news: Somehow, I managed to miss UO cheese Richard Lariviere’s by-then ancient diagnosis with prostate cancer when I was putting together the last digest. I apologize for that if somehow my oversight led to your missing it too. So formalized is the vocabulary of offering sympathy in print when this sort of thing happens, that if I were to do so, I could only hope I was being sincere. Instead, in solidarity, since mustache-growth and fighting prostate cancer appear to have been equated by our culture now, I refuse to shave my upper lip until Lariviere is puttering around that office in good health again. The UO has promised Lariviere will recover swiftly and completely; Jim Bean will preside in the meantime. (Register-Guard, UO Matters, Associated Press, KTVL Medford, OC, Emerald)
• Shames: The University of Washington’s athletic director said this about the UO’s academics: “It’s an embarrassment what their academic institution is, and what’s happened to them as far as their state funding has gone. In my mind it’s a wonderful athletic facility but they’ve watched it at the expense of the university go really down.” Corr! Gah! (Sports by Brooks, UO Matters)
• Competitive medicine: Oregon blood banks are trying to harness the UO-OSU sports-hate to persuade us to try to outbleed our rivals. (Emerald)
• Car movements: Remember, Franklin’s going to be congested. (KVAL)
• Flooring and hardwoods: Over the weekend, a few journalists appear to have mistaken the Matthew Knight Arena floors for catnip. “Iconic … stories woven together … spectacular … innovative … unique … immediately recognizable … unlike anything in college basketball,” the Guard pants, adding “not orange” for good measure. “Art,” screams USA Today. (NESN, ESPN, etc.)

Opinion:

• Letters: The Guard‘s readers call for more suffering and less of the type of democracy that involves mail-in fliers. The Emerald indulges a Colorado resident’s desire for a brief weed-ramble.
• Editorials: The Guard makes some opaque noises about fiscal apocalypse, concluding that employment is more important than inflation; then it cheers on the possibility that state attorney generals might tear apart unscrupulous mortgage-foreclosers. The Emerald joins arms with EmX opponents.
• UO Matters criticizes the administration for not upgrading its computing sooner because of what it says about financial priorities.
• After years at the UO, Emerald editorial honcho Tyree Harris has finally met people who like their roommates. (Emerald blogs)
• UO student Teeona Williams blames income disparities for the disproportionate death toll breast cancer takes among black women. (Emerald)
• The director of a non-profit organization encourages people to adopt. (Register-Guard)
• Reasons the UO thinks you should give it money: Oregon Football gets Trafton B. a little misty eyed, and he also likes shooting pool. (UO’s online begging bowl)

Scene:

• There’s a new Oregon Voice out there, and I’m not going to give a bullet point to every article. OV honcho Noah DeWitt’s editor’s note (p. 2) bills it as “an alternative to the tired ethos (pun intended) of other campus journals.” I assume he means he believes half of his articles aren’t crudely written, his publication has demonstrated it is a viable target for advertisers, the editing has scrubbed and polished the text clean, ideas are not cribbed from other campus magazines, and the articles do not teeter on the edge of libel. If that’s his definition, the magazine is an utter failure. It is just another campus journal, subject to all the pitfalls that face the rest of them, and DeWitt’s holier-than-thou attitude is wholly unjustified, not that the Commentator’s holier-than-thou attitude is. But all things considered, it is actually a very good campus magazine.
• More OV: The best article in the issue is Grace Pettygrove’s (p. 18) about Lariviere’s proposal, which she rubbishes. She opens by criticizing the single worst article I ever wrote for the Emerald, which I’m fine with. Then she questions the degree of influence the proposal will give private donors. That’s something nobody, even Oregon’s most vigilant journalistic watchdog, Brent Walth, not only seems to have failed to ask, but seems not to have considered important. Who are these private donors meeting with candidates for the UO presidency telling them to privatize the school?
• Even more OV: Best of the rest of the articles: A hilarious, unhinged advice column (p. 6) that tought me a great deal about cats and flatulence. A biting critique of the school’s sports culture (p. 7). A jarring meditation on the subliminal promotion of cannibalism by cereal companies (p. 4). Worst of them: Tyler Pell’s article about Jews in campus media (p. 4-5), not because it mentions Lyzi Diamond’s religion (who cares, although the pull-quote is kind of non-classy), but because Pell doesn’t actually do the journalism to learn that the editor-in-chief of the Emerald is Jewish, or the writing to actually make a point (Unless he’s trying to satirize the laziness of people who make the Jews-in-media pronouncements, in which case it doesn’t come through clearly enough). An article about skateboarding that appears to be a Q and A with the writer’s interview subject when it is in fact a Q and A with the writer (p. 24)
• The Emerald’s Andrew Hitz starts comparing Restoration-era fops to modern hipsters. You think you know where he’s going with it, after a very redemptive column about hipsters and their obsession with American Indians a couple of weeks ago; then he changes course and appears to cheer the rise of the Tea Party. Were his intentions ironic? You be the judge.
• A string quartet has been in town! There was a play based on a movie! A movie was well-cast! A band you haven’t heard of is coming to town and you might not have the money to see it! People are pleased with (Emerald)
• Look at some Halloween costumes! Woody Allen’s new movie is better than Jackass 3D! Mushrooms are food! (Ethos)

Sports:

• Oregon Football’s fun was ruined by a Hated Huskies team that refused to play the “hapless victim.” Getting iron-tipped gazelle Kenjon Barner back was pretty chill for OF, but losing designated finger Nate Costa was felt by all to be kind of lame. (Emerald)
• There was a conference Double-Yoo for Oregon Volleyball this weekend. Then it got an Ell. (Emerald)
• Oregon Basketball (W) coach Paul Westhead gives his players a week to get it right after a jammy game against the Hated Warriors. “It might be an appropriate wake-up call,” he said. (Emerald)
• Oregon Basketball (M) got off to a shaky preseason start against the Hated Beacs. (Emerald)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 8th, 2010 at 12:30 by Alex Tomchak Scott and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.