Tweets from LeavittDC

• I wonder if #Miami blames last night's loss to #Wisconsin on its decision to put Spirographs™ on their shoulders: ow.ly/RdYb
• Did you know there's a direct correlation between the decline of Spirograph™ and the rise in gang activity? Think about it.
• Today's paint-related stat: It takes 400 gallons of paint to prepare the Citrus Bowl field for the Champs Sports Bowl and Capital One Bowl.
• It is cruel of MTV to shoot #rwdc in the summer and debut it now that there's snow and freezing rain outside.
• The rumor over the summer was that someone on #rwdc left the house. After watching for two seconds, I hope it was Andrew.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• On The Golf Channel: "Lucky amateurs get their shot with Tiger Woods." I only caught the last minute, but it was not what it sounded like.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Wichita police have launched a YouTube channel to help solve crimes. ow.ly/Qu6c (via @kcgrammargirl)

Tweets from LeavittDC

• The president is in Hawaii. If you want to join him, Google Maps recommends a kayak trip: ow.ly/PYbV

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Notre Dame gets half as much money from NBC as each B10 school makes from the conference's TV deals. ow.ly/P0Af
• I'm not saying Notre Dame needs to join the B10, but I always thought the money from NBC was the reason why they haven't.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Is there a language that's so badass that it gives you a lump on your larynx just from speaking it? Why yes. Yes there is. ow.ly/OJ15
• For those who don't feel like reading the Economist article I shared, that larynx-lump-giving language is called "!Xóõ."
• People aged 65 and older use cell phones more than 45- to 64-year-olds. At least that's what the numbers say. ow.ly/OJ9G

Tweets from LeavittDC

• The world is losing a great environmental reporter. RT @revkin: Why I'm leaving staff of The New York Times: j.mp/RevNew
• Good point. The world isn't losing him, but his daily readers are. RT @erdanton: You make it sound like he's dead.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• We need to have $100 million worth of fun today (that's what it costs the feds to shut down for a snow day, per News Channel 8).

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Looks like "Better Off Ted" and "Scrubs" won't get renewed. ow.ly/NXVa Too bad for the former, just as well for the latter.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• RT @DCAgenda: Our editor says there's always a gay angle. Accept his challenge? DC is getting 10 inches of snow. What's the gay angle?
• Say, what's the billing code for Beatles Rock Band? Sigh. Back to work. twitpic.com/u2od0

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Stay tuned for Complaint No. 4. on the new water dispenser. You might want to shift your day around to make sure you're here to read it.
• I love walking out of the store with new glasses and realizing just how little I could see earlier.
• Complaint No. 4: This thing has three buttons and three functions. But does each button do one of the functions? No.
• I will now post the directions for room-temperature water. Keep in mind there are three buttons and three options for water temperature.
• "Press and hold the green button until the green light flashes. Release green button and press and hold the blue button."
• Touché. RT @kaciasng: Leavitt, my suggestion for you is to simply drink tap water from now on.
• Admit it — you hate it too. RT @acaruso: I love how pissed you are about that thing.
• Oh, I'm sure I'll think of something. RT @erdanton: Don't you have anything else to complain about?
• Get ready to be underwhelmed. RT @ashleydc: I am demanding we hold our 2010 planning mtg at your offices just to see this water dispenser.

What's a coastie?

A song by University of Wisconsin students Quincy Harrison and Cliff Grefe has the campus stirred up over its portrayal of "coasties," a term used to describe the school's minority population of out-of-state students. We had a different name for them back in my day, but coasties (compared to their in-state counterparts) are more likely to:

• be wealthy
• live in off-campus dorms
  
• be Jewish

According to the song, coastie women are East Coast fashionistas who wear black spandex tights, North Face jackets, Ugg boots, Gucci sunglasses and carry Coach bags.¹ Their winter uniform looks a bit like this.²

So, what do we make of this? A source of humor that hits on some truths? An ignorant attempt to perpetuate an offensive Jewish stereotype?

First of all, there's no denying that coasties, whether or not they are from a coast,⁴ dress differently than native Wisconsinites. And it's true that most of the university's Jewish population comes from out of state.

I'm amused at what is evidently a stereotype that Jews are fashionable, since I have not necessarily found that to be the case. I could do without the Jewish American Princess reference in the song, but I'm not going to get worked up about that.

Meanwhile, on the topic of stereotypes, my dad finds humor in "farm boys using urban-street-hardened-Eminem-ebonics-influenced speech" while Leo points out that the tune is performed by "two white guys from Indiana who try to sound like two black guys from Atlanta."


¹I would add brown lipstick, although that fashion choice doesn't come up in the song.
²Photo by thechrisproject. My dad regularly sees this uniform at his preferred Madison coffee shop, which he dubs "coastie Grand Central Station."^3
3That is — my dad, the Jewish New Yorker.
⁴The song makes reference to a coastie from Chicago. Clearly, this is not about geography.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• ESPN says its coverage of the Michigan-Kansas basketball game tomorrow will be "green." How so?
• For one thing, the ESPN production crew rented hybrid cars. And the corner of the screen will have a "Green Game" logo.
• Also, ESPN will provide viewers with "full-screen graphics panels providing conservation-themed information."

Fun at BDL

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — My favorite thing about Bradley Airport is the innovative Travelers Insurance ads. For awhile, the ads featured a virtual golf course. Lately, the interactive display has featured umbrellas. Marnie already performed an on-camera exposition last year. But we couldn't resist another demonstration:

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Before I make Complaint No. 3 about the new water dispenser, let's review the previous two.
• Complaint No. 1: It has three settings: hot, cold and room-temperature. Room-temperature, really?
  
• Complaint No. 2: The cold water should be opposite the hot water. Not in the middle. twitpic.com/t29cf
• At long last, here is Complaint No. 3: It continues to dispense water even after un-pressing the button. ow.ly/MkY6

Tweets from LeavittDC

• I'm saving my next water dispenser complaint for next week. But it's a good one.
• Enjoying a happy hour behind bars. twitpic.com/t4c3x

Tweets from LeavittDC

• The new water dispenser at the office has three settings: hot, cold and room-temperature. Who would want room-temperature?
• I learned a lot today. For instance, @JLo, @kaciasng, @CreativeVictual @mistcat, @ashleyDC all like room-temperature water,
• Ever see a snowplow get booed? ow.ly/KZl7 There. Now you have.
• Water dispenser complaints, Day 2: The cold water should be opposite the hot water. Not in the middle. twitpic.com/t29cf

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Just as we had all forgotten about its existence, the second season of "Better Off Ted" resumes tonight. Welcome back. #BetterOffTed

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Is Big Business among the world's strongest positive forces for environmental sustainability? Jared Diamond says yes. ow.ly/JBSh
• 40.8 million people watched Obama's Afghanistan speech, up 27 percent from his prime-time health care address to Congress. ow.ly/JFTj
• Teens watch 7 hours per month of mobile video. It's relatively high for adults too — 3 hours for people aged 45-54. ow.ly/JFPZ
• RT @ListenDammit: Vampire Weekend gives a song from its new album. ow.ly/JFuS

Bowl game gifts

College football players can't accept payments, of course. But NCAA allows the bowl game sponsors to give players up to $500 worth of gifts. In addition, the schools themselves can elect to chip in an additional $350 in gifts from their own budgets.

See for yourself what the bowl game gifts are this year.

Journalists have asked plenty of athletes how it feels to work for free in helping earn their schools millions of dollars. But I'd like someone to ask players in the upcoming Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl how they feel about receiving a laptop bag without an actual laptop.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Great newspaper correction: Public Enemy did not declare 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number. ow.ly/JyGu

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Southwest Airlines now has cute little murals on the overhead bins from the Ronald McDonald House: twitpic.com/s4uvi
• Southwest attendant: "If you leave something behind on today's flight, make sure it is valuable and divisible by 3 flight attendants."
• Are the funny product reviews a coordinated effort or posted organically? Either way, fantastic! ow.ly/ILwF (via @grandmarnier)

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Wisconsin basketball went 3-1 in its four-game stretch against Arizona, Gonzaga, Maryland and Duke. I'm so proud of this team.
• And by the way, Bob Knight is a fantastic announcer. I thouroughly enjoyed the Musburger-Knight crew.

Tweets from LeavittDC

• Huffington gets laughs by telling Murdoch that having Glen Beck not searchable on Google is good for democracy, bad for business. #ftcnews
• Free content is in the Internet's DNA, Huffington said. "People are only going to pay for specialized information. And weird porn." #ftcnews
• Okay, lunch break is over. Time for me to resume taking over your Twitter feed with online journalism tidbits. Bwaa-ha-ha!
• Web traffic no longer comes through a site's "front door." This means every page is a front page, says Josh Cohen of Google News. #ftcnews
• "We do not produce content," a Google News rep brags. "We help publishers create a more engaging experience for their readers." #ftcnews
• Steven Brill: "Search engines are our friends, not our enemies." I can't believe we're spending so much time debating this. #ftcnews
• Reuters president Chris Ahearn: "A lot of the media publishers in this room want to turn back the clock. Not me." #ftcnews.
• Solid advice from Reuters: "Stop replicating things that are already done by people who, frankly, do it better than you." #ftcnews
• As we heard from the Yahoo! and Google reps, sites can opt out of search engines if they choose. RT @amandachapel: But they ARE to blame!!
• Google Wave could reinvent journalism? How? As a confused-but-fascinated Wave user, I want to know what Jeff Jarvis means by this. #ftcnews
• Actually, he simply said stay away. No call for help. RT @jeffbercovici Murdoch to Washington: Stay out of the way but please help. #ftcnews
• Women/girls are 59 percent of Twitter users and 57 percent of Facebook users. ow.ly/HD0F Yet this #ftcnews hearing is mostly men.
• Speaking of the demographics at the #ftcnews hearing, it's an older crowd. My hair is graying, but I'm the youngest in the r oom by far.
• Question at #ftcnews: Are newspapers more like typewriters (no market) or bicycles (small market compared to cars, but it still exists).
• For those of us who have been in this room at #ftcnews for 10 hours, it's disappointing to see the speakers leave after their presentations.
• What else did I learn today? Bring along an extension cord. Or would you prefer lessons that don't involve electricity? #ftcnews
• So what did I learn today? For one thing, always bring along a power strip. There are never enough outlets. #ftcnews
• Kudos to the FTC for putting on this event. I enjoyed the reminder that all questions can be turned over in a FOIA request. #ftcnews
• Thanks, everyone, for permitting me to carpet-bomb your Twitter feed today. And for my 60 or so new followers: I hope you stick around.
• For those who missed it, here was "The Future of News" video shown yesterday to #ftcnews attendees: ow.ly/HRoO

Tweets from LeavittDC

• During the life of a bulb, from manufacturing through disposal, LEDs save five times the energy of incandescent bulbs. ow.ly/HdxC
• You are looking live at the FTC, where security is tighter than a White House state dinner. #ftcnews twitpic.com/rpbpt
• Journalism does not face an audience problem or a credibility problem. It faces a revenue problem, says FTC Chair John Liebowitz. #ftcnews
• Regarding changes in media, "When Guttenburg printed the bible, that was bad for those who illustrate by hand," FTC chairman said. #ftcnews
• RT @amykoehler: "The answer is not to save newspapers. The goal should be to assure the continuation of journalism." --Paul Steiger #ftcnews
• Former WSJ editor Paul Steiger: newspapers are "liked but not needed" by college graduates over 40 and ignored by everyone else. #ftcnews
• You are looking live at Rupert Murdoch. The era of free content is over. "Customers will pay." #ftcnews twitpic.com/rpmjk
• "There's no such thing as a free news story," Murdoch quips. #ftcnews
• Government bailouts for newspapers? No way, Murdoch says. Don't prop up things that customers don't want. #ftcnews
• After Murdoch finished speaking, someone yelled out: "Do you agree that Obama is a racist?" Rupert was escorted out of the room. #ftcnews
• Murdoch, shall we say, isn't keen on sites using his content. "Let aggregators desist and start employing their own journalists." #ftcnews
• I wish Murdoch had given examples when he said editors don't deliver news customers want and instead "produce news for themselves." #ftcnews
• Odd that the lone question for Rupert was whether Obama is racist. Surely there's a better topic (even for a heckler) to bring up. #ftcnews
• It is outrageous that there's no standardized definition of a "unique visitor," Mark Contreras says. Standardization is needed. #ftcnews
• But doesn't news suffer when journalists are laid off? RT @saduros: Losers are shareholders, journalists. Winners are consumers. #ftcnews
• Ever wondered how revenue for Kindle content is divided? I just learned: 1/3 to publisher, 1/3 to Amazon, 1/3 to mobile provider. #ftcnews
• Arianna Huffington gives advice to Rupert Murdoch: opting out of being linked in Google would be a bad business move. #ftcnews
• Huffington says her site makes Murdoch $ by sending traffic his way. He should be asking her to link to his stuff more, not less. #ftcnews
• Huffington is fixated on Murdoch's attack on "aggregators." What's the all-time record for using that word in one sentence? #ftcnews
• You are looking live at Arianna Huffington, who opened with a full-on attack on Murdoch. #ftcnews twitpic.com/rpza9

A national championship that Notre Dame 'values very highly'

"You know, Charlie Weis did win a national championship. He won a national championship when his football program finished first in graduation success rate this year. That is an important contribution and one in which we value very highly."

— Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick,

announcing the firing of football coach Charlie Weis.