I recently wrote about “discouraged workers” — often older ones — who have lost jobs and sought new ones, but have given up hope of finding decent any. And I came across a corollary, and chilling, article in the New York Times. In it, Matthew C. Klein, a research associate at the Council on Foreign […]
All posts by Ted Landphair
The Heartland
Posted April 7th, 2011 at 4:41 pm (UTC-4)
A longtime colleague and friend, VOA science reporter Art Chimes, had the nerve to retire and move to St. Louis. Even though he had lots of good reasons to pick the city where a stunning Gateway Arch beckons travelers to the threshold of the American West, his decision was a bit of a shock. After […]
Tags: boredom, heartland, lifestyles, Midwest, St. Louis, values Posted in American Culture, Character and Values
Curating Fun! 21st-Century Style
Posted April 5th, 2011 at 1:31 pm (UTC-4)
At times during January’s uprising in Egypt, 1,000 people or more were tweeting on a single hash tag every 10 seconds. Let me explain hash tags and then take you on a brief tangent before I tell you about all the fun that curators are having, as mentioned in my title. A hash tag is […]
Tags: curator, light bulbs, new media, states' rights, Twitter Posted in Communications, Media and Journalism
Blog Reboot
Posted March 30th, 2011 at 1:12 pm (UTC-4)
One hundred-forty-seven postings into this blogging adventure, I’m taking stock, tweaking a few things — not tweeting; tweaking, though we’ll talk social media in a bit — and fixing to invite you to share even more than you are in my exploration of the American landscape and experience. I remember the time, eight years ago, […]
Clowning Around
Posted March 28th, 2011 at 8:34 am (UTC-4)
In the unlikely event that you heard, five years ago, that there was a fascinating clown museum — that’s right, a museum and hall of fame about clowns — in the Midwest city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I certainly hope you didn’t rush there to see it. That’s because it existed only in packing boxes in […]
Our Everlasting Civil War
Posted March 24th, 2011 at 8:49 am (UTC-4)
The other night I watched actor-director Maximillian Schell’s fascinating 1984 docudrama about Marlene Dietrich, the glamorous (on-screen), reclusive (off it), German-born femme fatale who mesmerized cinema and cabaret audiences but lived her final years cloistered in a Paris apartment. A pragmatic woman utterly devoid of romantic reverie despite her public persona, Dietrich told Schell, over […]
Tags: Civil War, Confederate flag, Edward Ayers, Marlene Dietrich, slavery Posted in American History
Discouraged Workers
Posted March 18th, 2011 at 1:14 pm (UTC-4)
Provocative words: discouraged workers. They could be those whose good work isn’t rewarded with raises and promotions, or isn’t even much noticed. And they’re the lucky ones. They have jobs. Those whom the government categorizes as “discouraged workers” do not. They’re “marginally attached to the labor force” in official parlance — not employed, not even […]
Shifting Middle America
Posted March 16th, 2011 at 2:14 pm (UTC-4)
Imagine that every one of the 310,989,947 Americans — even babies, fat people, and the frail elderly — weighed exactly the same for statistical purposes. Make that every one of the 310,989,955 Americans. The number ticks inexorably upward and will probably reach 310,990,000 before I’m through writing this, and, who knows, maybe 311,000,000 by the […]
Everyone’s a V.I.P. at Work!
Posted March 11th, 2011 at 3:22 pm (UTC-4)
Next month, bosses across America will observe “Administrative Professionals Day” by taking their administrative professionals out to lunch. Some will buy their “administrative assistants” flower arrangements for the occasion. The day’s official theme (I kid you not): “This year, celebrate all office professionals.” Talk about catchy! Everyone’s an office professional. “I’m not a secretary,” one […]
Potting It Down
Posted March 10th, 2011 at 2:44 pm (UTC-4)
At the risk of agitating reader Brad, who already calls me “old and cranky,” let me tell you about a nostalgic email that I got from Dean Everette, a friend and old radio hand who laughs that he, like many in that transient profession, “was fired every couple of years or so.” (I was fired […]
