New York Times

Our Summer Guide comes out tomorrow and it's insanely packed with things to do in Lane County, in Oregon and in Wash-ifornia.

But the New York Times recently came out with its "31 Places to Go This Summer," and guess what? They tell Oregonians to stay home.

Of the 31 picks, we get:

No. 11: Portland, Ore.
No. 13: Highway 101, Ore.
No. 21: Owyhee River, Ore.
No. 27: Pacific Northwest (By Rail)

Jeez, in another story, the NYT tells people to come to the Olympic Trials after the Trials are finished to run at Hayward Field.

Judging from these and other slobbery articles on Portland, I'm guessing the NYT will be moving its headquarters here soon.

Image courtesy of The Seattle Times

The New York Times' Dot Earth blog has a post on the false sense of security we in a Developed Nation perceive our safety should a cataclysmic earthquake the size of the recent China quake occur. Yumei Wang, the geohazards team leader for Oregon, warns that "over a thousand schools [in Oregon] are ready to fall in a Sichuan-style quake." That earthquake was 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Back in 2001, as a senior in high school, I experienced the Nisqually Earthquake centered around Olympia, Washington. That one was 6.8 magnitude, and easily traveled the 120 miles to my high school in Astoria, causing it to sway and buck like the school was suddenly a surf board in a wave pool. Astoria High School was made of reinforced brick, probably the weakest building material (and most dangerous) to suffer an earthquake. Luckily, the quake was over quickly and caused very little damage and, after the quake passed and everyone became unfrozen in position (the Earthquake Alarm came on after the quake was through; there was definitely no diving under desks like they taught us to do) we all filed outside. But I do remember Ms. Marconeri, an ornery witch who also passed the time as a computer room monitor, pushing students out of her way as she scrambled out the door.

But, as students, we expected as much from a witch.

Super cool authors + imaginary playlists (alas, without links) = some of the coolest blog-based stuff I've read in ages: the New York Times' "Living With Music" series.

Apologies to all of you who're rolling your eyes; as established this morning, if it's not about movies, music or books, then everyone else knows about it before me. And sometimes they all know about it first even when it IS about these things.

(Tied for coolest blog-based stuff I've read in ages is David Edelstein's blog over at New York magazine, which also, we discovered this morning, has an awesome theater critic who rivals Anthony Lane for pure sleek cleverness in his sentences. I don't always agree with Edelstein — for one example, check his blog post about Sideways — but I very often like the way he says things.)

To the surprise of almost no one who reads any local news, The New York Times is reporting that the UO, among other public universities, is under-supported by the state, and as a result it's adding considerable fees on top of tuition:

All told, fees add up to $1,542, or nearly an additional 40 percent on top of tuition of $3,984. That does not even count additional fees charged for taking certain courses.

Later in the story comes this:

“There’s a particular appeal for the students who pay it, because they see it and they see the benefit,' said Dave Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon.

But earlier in the story, the student interviewed, student body president Emily McLain, says, "“Students want more transparency."

Whichever of those viewpoints you're inclined to agree with, I'd like to give the NYT a hug: I tire of hearing about sports vs. academics when what I really want to hear about is why the UO is so underfunded by the state. Why not take the question to the next level? Just for a little while, can we stop asking why sports gets more money and attention from donors, and ask instead why this public institution doesn't get more attention and money from the state?

Need something meaty to read this morning? Try "The Road to Clarity," The New York Times Magazine's six-page story about highway sign fonts. (Use BugMeNot if you don't have a NYT login and it asks for one.)

I'm still on page one, but here's what makes it relevant to Eugeneans:

The typeface is the brainchild of Don Meeker, an environmental graphic designer, and James Montalbano, a type designer. ... As a teenager in Portland, Ore., Meeker ran a small business out of his parents’ house making signs for local stores, cutting letters out of Plexiglas with a band saw. He majored in fine art at the University of Oregon and went on to get a master’s degree in graphic and industrial design at Pratt Institute in New York.

Fonts have been in the news a surprising bit lately, between this story and the documentary Helvetica. And then there's Achewood's nastily funny anti-Comic Sans cartoon. (Don't use that font. Ever. Same goes for Mistral and Grunge, but those are my own personal hatreds. Comic Sans is the enemy.)