Odds and ends, 4/23/07

Over the weekend, my 13-year-old son and I mowed his grandmother's lawn. She has a big lawn, and we had to use a push mower. He's trying earn money for something he wants, so I let him do most of the work.

When it was all done yesterday, I noticed my arms and face were red. It was my first sunburn of the season. When I was my son's age, the first sunburn meant you were getting a tan. Natural tans were healthy. Now the fearmongers have us afraid of tans, because we might get skin cancer. My son takes after his mother's side, and his maternal grandfather died of cancer. But I don't want him to fear a bit of redness from the sun.

On a related note, I used his lawnmowing experience to tell of how when I was young, a teenage or adult male wasn't considered much of a worker unless his hands were calloused. Uncalloused men who lived in the country just weren't valued as much as men whose hands had callouses.

I-O-I

Remember the proposed intermodal container facility at Prichard? Container shipping is the big thing now, and lots of places want in on the action. The latest is Cleveland, as seen from this piece by the AP:

Port officials say container traffic would be a boon

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cuyahoga County port officials hope an increase in container ship traffic on coastal ports could pay dividends if the vessels can be lured to Cleveland.

The number of container ships — carrying cargo ranging from auto parts to patio furniture to clothing — is increasing 8 percent a year, but none if it heads to Cleveland’s port, which handles iron ore, stone and steel.

“The question is, do we want to be a significant maritime port or not,” said Adam Wasserman, who took over as director of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Port Authority in February.

Within five years, Cleveland could raise its profile as a shipping center for container cargo if congestion at coastal ports worsens, said Stephen Pfeiffer, the port’s head of maritime operations.

The necessity for smaller ports to handle some of the load is inevitable, and smaller freighters could easily use the St. Lawrence Seaway to access Great Lakes ports, said Terry Johnston, administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.

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The 40th anniversary of "Star Trek" was a few months ago, and the 30th anniversary of "Star Wars" is next month. I feel old.

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I've never been a fan of Katie Couric, but I don't want her to fail. Still, the media buzzards are circling over CBS News, where Couric supposedly is failing.

Some folks will say the day of the evening news is over. I'm not willing to go that far, but I never thought a news person should be a celebrity. One reason I don't like having my picture in the paper is that I don't want to be a local celebrity. I want my byline recognized, but that's about it.

Couric, on the other hand, has played the celebrity game for years. She has a great job, but until she can get the celebrity reputation behind her, it will be hard for some folks to consider her as the legitimate heir to the people who came before. They had their own problems, but none stemmed from being celebs.