Section 2

Rent Wordplay. Now.

The adorable doc from director Patrick Creadon is on DVD and if, like me, you are addicted to the NYT crosswords (ok, full disclosure, I only do them on Mondays and Tuesdays because anything later in the week makes me feel dumb...), then you must see it.

A Faustian Deal?

Don't get me wrong, I am THRILLED to hear that Harvard, after its more than 3 centuries in business will finally have a female president.

Only thing is, does anybody else find it intriguing that her last name is Faust?

$ign of the Newspaper Times...

**Please note that the following is an excerpt from the Boston Globe, and not the Globe and Mail**

Globe to close last three foreign bureaus
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff January 24, 2007

The Boston Globe said yesterday it is closing its three foreign bureaus as part of efforts to trim costs, ending more than three decades of reporting from staff members based overseas.

The paper has had bureaus in a number of locations -- including East Asia during the Vietnam War, Moscow during the Cold War, and Baghdad during the Iraq war. Globe reporters have covered global health issues from Africa, the struggle between moderate and radical Islam from the Middle East, and the prospects for peace in Northern Ireland from Belfast.

Over the years, Globe reporters won several awards for foreign reporting, including the George Polk award in 2002 for coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reporter Elizabeth Neuffer was killed in a car accident covering the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. And Anthony Shadid, who won the Polk award, was seriously wounded in the West Bank in 2002.
"Our reporters took enormous risks for many years to try and cover the world for our readers," said James F. Smith, the Globe's foreign editor.

The shuttering of foreign bureaus is the latest cost-cutting precipitated by shrinking Globe revenue. It follows the recent decision by The New York Times Co.'s New England Media Group, of which the Globe is the largest holding, to offer buyouts to employees to cut about 125 jobs, including 19 in the Globe newsroom and editorial pages.

Calling it a "period of hard choices," editor Martin Baron said in a memo that closing bureaus in Berlin, Bogota, and Jerusalem avoids cutting an additional "dozen or so" newsroom jobs. The four reporters in those bureaus will be offered other jobs , Baron said.

They are Thanassis Cambanis and Anne Barnard in Jerusalem; Colin Nickerson in Berlin; and Indira Lakshmanan in Bogota.

"We concluded that it would be unwise to meet the newsroom's financial targets by making additional staff reductions," Baron said . He added that the paper will continue to send reporters and photographers overseas for special projects and major events.

The Globe is among several big-city newspapers that have closed foreign bureaus in recent years as the industry has consolidated. In the summer, for example, the Baltimore Sun said it would shut bureaus in South Africa and Russia after closing offices in the United Kingdom and China in 2005.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonprofit research group in Washington, said big metropolitan newspapers are sustaining the biggest circulation and advertising declines, in part because the Internet has given readers easy access to national and international papers such as The New York Times. As a result, readers no longer "have to rely on metro papers" for international news, and the papers are responding by cutting foreign coverage.

"This is part of the diminishing ambition on the part of American newspapers," Rosenstiel said.

"For 150 years you could measure the quality of a newspaper by how many bureaus it had and how broad its sweep was, not how many city council meetings it covered."

The Globe opened its first foreign bureau in Japan in the early 1970s. As recently as five years ago, the Globe maintained five foreign bureaus, plus one at the United Nations.

In his memo, Baron called the paper's foreign coverage a "point of special pride in our newsroom." But ultimately, he said, Globe management was guided by the principle to "secure the resources required for local coverage and for journalism that has the most direct impact on our readers."

The "L-Bomb"

I remember a story on 60 Minutes a few years ago about female Harvard Business School students being cautious about mentioning where they studied when out on the weekends. They felt as though telling potential suitors that they studied business was bad for, well, business, but that extending that bit of information to include the word "Harvard" spoiled any opportunity for success altogether. They termed the affliction as "dropping the H-Bomb", a sure-fire way to send guys running for the hills. Those fragile male egos.

The same theory was tested on Sex and the City in an episode where Miranda attempts speed-dating.

"I'm a lawyer," she said, smiling at potential hookups.

"Oh," was the reply. Disinterest. Immediately.

After detecting a trend, Miranda decided to shift her strategy.

"I'm a stewardess," she blurted out to the next contestant.

Instant attraction.

They end up back at her apartment, and as they move into the bedroom, Miranda furiously hides a mug with the words "Harvard Law" blazed across it.

Combo H-Bomb/L-Bomb. Harvard Lawyer. Double whammy. Poor Miranda.

And over brunch recently, my friend was recounting how the night before, while flirting with a guy at a martini bar, she was forced to downplay her being a law student once the interest disappared following the dropping of the L-Bomb.

I have no profound social commentary to add here, I wanted only to raise the issue because, well, it's really messed up.

Class Notes from a Pequiste

I guess you write class notes to your alumni newsletter when you have a proud achievement to report. Looks like Andre Boisclair was very proud of being elected leader of the Parti Quebecois... I wonder if he were actually elected Premier of Quebec whether he'd have the time to submit news to his former classmates?

... from the online Harvard University class notes: (Boisclair did a one-year Masters at the Kennedy School of Government in 2004-2005)

Andre Boisclair (2005) Andre Boisclair (2005, KSG) writes, After becoming leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) in November 2005, André Boisclair was recently elected to represent the Montreal riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles, thus becoming the leader of the official opposition in Québec’s National Assembly. “After becoming party leader, I spent several months visiting the various regions of Québec and meeting with people from all walks of life. This afforded me a new understanding of the issues that concern Quebeckers. I look forward to going back to the National Assembly to perform the important job of opposition leader. Along with the other PQ members in the National Assembly, I hope to win the trust of the people at the next general election and be chosen to form the next government and lead Quebec on the way to becoming an independent nation”.

Sunset delayed.

It's 5 pm and the sky over downtown Montreal is only now darkening, with a soft orangey-pink cascading the horizon.

Longer days are here.

Kahlo Revisited.

Just a short note to readers in Ottawa who may have the chance this week to see a performance of Frida K. - a one-woman show recounting the tumultuous life of Mexican artista Frida Kahlo - before the end of its run at the National Arts Centre.

GO.

In a 90-minute, intermission-free monologue, you will be yanked by the collar into Frida's bedroom, a place haunted by demons and skeletons but imbued also with love. And beauty. Even as Frida clutches a model skeleton, she wraps it in Diego Rivera's jacket, clinging to those fibres and delighting in the scent of the man she truly loved in spite of his many disloyalties, and a few of her own.

Not an easy show, but a really, really good one.

Pounding the... Keyboard?

As a job hunter I dedicate at least 45 minutes of my day to searching and applying for online job postings.

In the past three months, I've probably applied to 20 jobs online, using handy dandy online applications. They're great - no need to buy fancy resume paper, no overnight express mailing, no busy signals.

One-Two-Three, application done. And online makes multiple applications way easier. You can track the status of the application. You can print a copy for yourself. So many advantages.

But here's the downer - I think online applications have made the whole process far more anonymous and, thus, far more complicated.

"Only candidates selected for interviews" will be contacted. Fair enough. But online you aren't a person. You're a number. One of many, many numbers. And there's no piercing the online veil - impossible to set yourself apart from the pack.

Who reads these online apps? HR people? Who knows? There is very little divulged to the job seeker, and therefore little room to maneuver. No chance to really go for something you know you'd be great at.

I don't know what the feeling is on the other side, if employers prefer this method of selecting employees, but I think this 21 C. method of pavement pounding forces us to be far too passive.

The Buzz Thursday Afternoon...

... is that Stephane Dion may deliver the upset victory...

Of course it's waaaaaaaaay too early to call this horse race, I'm just reporting what I'm reading in the blogosphere.

Park Avenue Lost

It isn't a pretty street. In fact, it would by most accounts be considered gritty, a little dirty, definitely rough around the edges. But it is lovable because of its flaws; after the past few weeks, there can be no doubt that it is a beloved piece of this funny Montreal puzzle.

The people spoke. And so did city council. And they spoke in two different voices.

Park Avenue/Avenue du Parc will be renamed Robert Bourassa Boulevard, in honour of the late Premier much admired by Mayor Gerald Tremblay. Bourassa served as Premier for, like, ever. Or so it seems. He is generally respected, and having a civic landmark named for him isn't a stretch. Most of the Save Park Avenue supporters acknowledged that there is reason to name something for him - just not their street. The same street upon which many of their families and friends have lived and worked, have cultivated and developed for the better part of a century.

But the Mayor pushed ahead, and his council mostly stuck with him. Despite the pleas, despite the petitions, despite the outpouring of input from across this island and well, well beyond.

This is democracy in action?

Is there a political benefit to derive from this? Is it just the right thing to do?

Umm, neither, by my calculation.

There were ways to right this situation. Screwing over thousands of Montrealers - not to mention, I dunno, city heritage - serves very little purpose.

Black day for city hall. Black day for Montreal. Black day for democracy.