1. Via Mickey Kaus, I saw this odd item reporting that the Congressional page program has gotten more interest after the Mark Foley scandal. Hey — drinking, sex, computers, powerful suitors…what’s not to like?! It really does seem to prove the adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I wonder if that same phenomenon is at work with the Duke admissions applications numbers. And, probably, the psychological phenomenon that people will foresee experiencing the good aspects of an event (whether paging or matriculating at Duke) but none of the bad (getting pursued by a lecher, being accused of rape). A.k.a., That won’t happen to me! According to the news story, the pages report that for the most part it’s a pretty cool experience. And I’m sure that, aside from the whole sex crime thing, life was pretty good for the lacrosse team at Duke.
2. At the Right Coast, this post led me to this neat story about Ernst Leitz, founder of the Leica camera company, and his efforts to save Jews from the Nazis. See also this story, which some blog led me to a few months ago but now I can’t remember which. Anyway, it’s a very nice story about Leitz. On Friday the ADL will recognize him with an award.
3. A lawyer in Corpus Christi, Texas, says he has the power to heal and has been doing so in services. It seems like it would be helpful in personal injury suits.
4. Coke ran a Super Bowl commercial the other night relating a few milestone moments in black history, side-by-side with contemporaneous Coke bottles. The obvious implication is that Coca-Cola has marched hand-in-hand with the civil rights movement. A new book, The Real Pepsi Challenge, argues that it was in fact the Pepsi-Cola Company that had a more progressive approach. Sure, Pepsi marketed to black consumers primarily as a way to sell more soda pop, but in the process assembled one of the largest contingents of black executives in (white) corporate America. The book accuses Coke of supporting segregationist leaders. (An aside: Coke’s general counsel, John A. Sibley, chaired the commission implementing desegregation of Atlanta’s schools in 1960, but it wasn’t exactly a profile in courage.) Anyway, Coke recently donated land in Atlanta for a civil rights museum, so I don’t want to imply that Coke’s corporate attitude hasn’t changed at all. But it seems dodgy at best for Coke to suggest that it stood alongside Martin Luther King or sat alongside Rosa Parks. (It’s not enough to make me switch from Coke to Pepsi, though.)
5. The mayor of Macon, Georgia has announced he is converting to Islam and changing his name. In my continuing quest to figure out why Southern Appeal shut down, I’m going to assume Feddie had something to do with this.
6. Finally for now, GTHC and good luck to the Blue Devils as the North Carolina Tar Heels come to Cameron to take on Duke tonight. To get myself in the proper state of mind, I’ll remind myself of probably my favorite game I saw in person, one Duke managed to pull out with a tremendous comeback. I’m in this throng somewhere.