Do you know this guy? I think so. What are your thoughts on this piece as a profile and story? Does the tone match the content?
Is this argument a good one? Some would say the wealth disparity in this country is the cause of the troubles mentioned. Level out the amount of money a family takes home, and things will get better.
Share your thoughts and insights!
3 comments:
Tim Lincecum:
This article was quality. A funny, quirky profile that really worked well with Lincecum (who appears to be a funny, quirky person). My favorite quip: "and here Lincecum used a colloquialism that’s synonymous with a part of the male anatomy that is unprintable in this magazine." it made me laugh. I really like the light tone of the article. It's a good balance of sass, sarcasm and poked-fun (is that a usable phrase?) vs. information, context and storytelling. Tim Lincecum himself is a sassy little critter. He really does seem like a teenage boy in his own little fantasy-land. Maybe he deserves it, but I think athletes are overrated. They are paid waaaay too much money, but we Americans put a high price on entertainment. Overall, I enjoyed the piece immensely (even though I know zilch about baseball).
Pay Teachers More:
Well, "pernicious fallacy" is now my phrase of the week. I lie, I don't quite know what that means. This just in: it would be a "highly injurious or destructive/deadly/wicked" "guile, trickery, deceptive appearance, deception or a false or mistaken idea". Essentially, a (fancy) harmful lie. The man who wrote this article speaks truths. Teachers are not valued as much as they should be in America (as much as Tim Lincecum, per say). We really don't consider teaching a great career even though it's one of the most important. However, the writer didn't go so far as to provide a solution to these issues. I will go out on a limb here and say our government isn't exactly wallowing in cash right now. It'd be lovely to give dem teachers some money, but it's a little tight at the moment. So, whaddowedo? Well I sure as heck don't know because Mister Writer-Man didn't tell me. His name's Nicholas D. Kristof. Should we all move to Finland, Singapore or South Korea? ¡Yo no sé! So, an informative little article, but some advice or possible solutions might have been nice.
Little Big Man:
I love this guy, and I found the article very entertaining. However, I wish that Mahler would have cut some of the facts (which don't mean much to people who aren't baseball fanatics), and rather, include more quotes. I like how Mahler compared the serious training and the pressure of being a star pitcher with Lincecum's indifference and coolness about it all. Clearly, he isn't like most pitchers, and has a mind of his own. It will be interesting to see how he does next year!
Little Big Man
This was a very interesting profile piece. There was a great contrast in the tone from different parts of the article, but they did match with the subject matter. The descriptions of his long hair, his listening to music and singing along, and especially his tiny size had a tone of light-hearted fun and silliness. One especially fun part of the article was a paragraph talking about Lincecum’s “freakish” abilities, such as backflips and being able to throw a baseball 400 feet. He seems like a kid in a grown-up world, with his dad picking up his dog’s poop for him in his giant condo. That first tone in the article changed quickly. Later in the article, with talk of the World Series and Lincecum’s future in baseball, the tone changed slightly to something more serious. It gave the title, “Little Big Man” a meaning. He seemed almost like a little kid in the first half of the article, but in the second half there was a lot of focus on his incredible success and abilities and how seriously he takes baseball.
Pay Teachers More
This article made a strong case in support of teachers, examining the problems our education system faces. Statements such as the fact that teachers on average have lower SAT scores, that teacher unions are not function, and that a good teacher can have a profound difference on a student’s life were backed up by effective statistics. The article calls for better teacher salaries to attract better teachers to educate the next generation. Here at MA, I feel that we have no problem with sub-par teachers. The teachers here genuinely inspire students, and as we can see with the center spread this issue, we have very successful alumni graduating from MA. Last class, one person talked about someone who took the photography class at MA and was inspired to be a photographer. He now shoots for Vanity Fair and Vogue. However, at MA things are not the same as everywhere else. In order to find that level of success everywhere, teachers need to be better, so the article says. Once again, the cold hard statistics came in handy in this article. By saying that teachers used to be paid nearly as much as lawyers, and that in other countries such as Singapore teachers earn more than engineers or lawyers, it shows us that our system is not the way it should be and has serious flaws.
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