Our Children's Losses

January 16, 2015

An excellent article today in the Washington Post that shows the effects of war on children left behind by lost service parent since the war in Afghanistan started following September 11. A difficult read, but good for remembering - not to turn away from because of the uncomfortableness of it all. Children of the Fallen: Portraits of Loss. A child's story for each year since 2001.

A Little Song, A Little Dance, .....

Friday's Pearls Before Swine

 

....a little seltzer down your pants. I happened on an article in today's Washington Post pointing out that Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson had collaborated on three comic dailies of Pearls Before Swine this week - how reading the article and looking at the three

The last Calvin and Hobbes panel

panels that were included Wednesday through Friday made me smile and remember good humor. For some random reason I also thought about he episode of the old Mary Tyler Moore Show that featured the funeral of Chuckles the Clown. Even though it seems like there are none to match these today, good humor prevails.

Post Fact Checker

This was a comment I received after posting my blog about the designer awarded the contract to produce a revised map for the Washington, D.C. Metro rail system: Worth Noting - D.C. Metro Cartographer. The anonymous writer gave me more information about the development of the Metro map and a former partner of Lance Wyman who has his Washington, D.C. business, Bill Cannan and Company / Design Consultants. At the Cannan Website is an link about the makings of the map that I found interesting - other D.C. projects are able to be accessed there as well. Here are the blog viewer's comments:

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Government contracts are awarded by somebody at WMATA picking up the phone and calling someone and offering them $50,000 now?

Webpage layout - Bill Cannan

FYI - Lance Wyman had a partner from 1970-1980. A simple Google lookup finds this... http://www.billcannandesign.com/index.html

Unlike Mr. Wyman, his partner gives him due credit and respect on HIS web page detailing the Metro contract "Rock star?" "Icon?"

Does ANYBODY at the [Post] fact check anymore? Do they even spend 5 minutes doing an internet search?

Government contracts are awarded to "iconic rock stars" because, well, the Post thinks that's cool?

What about Mr. Cannan? According to his website, he also worked on the Green line maps in the early 90's.

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I cannot get worked up over a feature article in the newspaper - the Washington Post and the New York Times are my favorite sources of news and other information. It is hard to gauge whether this is a large issue the anonymous commenter raises, or no issue at all. Regardless, it is fun to find out more about the work of talented people who contributed to a project like the Metro Map that has staying power, even if after a short few decades it needs to be updated. As for the cost of the new map, maybe Cannan put in a bid for $100,000 and lost out to Wyman;s $50,000 - regardless, both obviously do the kind of work that makes them virtuosos.
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The title: "Post Fact Checker" has multiple meanings. a) A fact checker of Washington Post feature articles; b) A fact checker of my blog post - Worth Noting - D.C. Metro Cartographer; and c) An after-the-fact fact checker - opposite of fact checking before a post or Post feature are posted.