Port Folio Weekly announced a "Big Idea" essay contest in their Independence Day issue, an idea inspired by Gen. Wesley Clark's speech at the 2006 AAN Convention. "Clark noted that today ... there are few if any big ideas around which the country can rally," Tom Robotham says in his Sept. 26 Editor's Note. "What we need in these dire times, it seems to me, are motivating ideas that appeal to our inherent expansiveness -- our collective and foundational belief in intellectual enlightenment, social justice and tolerance of diversity." This week's issue contains the top three submissions as well as an interview with the winner, Missy Cotter Smasal, who proposed "a Foreign Language Corps, to be sponsored by the federal government in a manner similar to university ROTC programs throughout the country. "
The Dallas Observer blog "Unfair Park" has hosted a feisty debate between Jim Schutze and Laura Miller over the past few days. Schutze, the weekly's city columnist, wrote a cover story for the Aug. 31 issue criticizing Dallas' plan to build new bridges. Mayor Laura Miller, who wrote the city column for the Observer in her days before holding office, sent a letter to the weekly disputing Schutze's economic analysis, which the paper then posted on its blog. "The Dallas City Council took a mediocre project and made it great -- all in the bright light of day -- and I resent, as a former reporter for this newspaper, Schutze's gross distortion of the facts," Miller wrote. Schutze's response, posted a few hours later, briefly covers Miller's assertions before saying that he hopes to publish a better analysis in the Observer: "Blogs are O.K., but blogs have their limitations too; they are not the place for a comprehensive review of this very complex story," he says. "I look forward to working with the mayor and her staff on a search for these very important answers. Notice that I did not accuse the mayor of 'gross distortion.'"
Robert Christgau, the music critic who was dismissed from his longtime job at The Village Voice last month, will soon assume a regular gig on National Public Radio. Bob Boilen, the host of NPR's "All Songs Considered" program, made the announcement while introducing Christgau as part of a roundtable previewing fall CDs on the Sept. 21 show. Immediately after being introduced, Christgau blurted, "I need a job. I got one, I need more."
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