Browsing Through Monday
Category: Kitchen Sink...
Posted Monday, August 16, 2004 at 02:52 PM [GMT-6]

No theme...just trickles of consciousness...

• Today is the first day of the new school year in Midland, and for the first time in memory, the weather actually feels like a fall day, at least relative to what August is usually like around here. Indeed, ever since my whiny post about the dog days of August, the weather has provided us with cool temps, cloudy skies and brief showers here and there. Our good fortune won't last but a day or so longer, but it's been quite wonderful to contemplate. Not that the returning schoolkids will appreciate it, other than the football players during afternoon practices.


• Speaking of the first day of school, there's an editorial in today's MRT that is quite baffling in its intent. The editorial is entitled "Early start of school means loss of dollars" and it tries to make the argument that starting school so early is an economic impediment to our city and state. The writer argues that we're losing almost three weeks of tourist dollars, for example, by not waiting until after Labor Day to start the new school year.
  
  I'm quite skeptical of this claim. I don't dispute that the statistics show a drop in sales tax and other indicators of tourism spending once school begins, but I will argue that there's only a finite number of dollars that will be spent by vacationers in any given year, and that extending the summer vacation would serve only to let them spread those dollars over a longer period of time.
  
  In any event, taking this argument to its (il)logical conclusion, why not just call off school completely and turn the whole year over to vacationers and tourists? I'm sure the merchants of the state would be ecstatic over that prospect. That is, until they found out just how much disposable income is generated by a whole generation of -- forgive the cliché -- burger-flippers and "greeters."


• Speaking of the MRT, you can imagine my shock and disgust to find that the regular Monday morning edition of Dave Barry's column had the last line of each of its four columns missing, due to an apparent paper alignment problem on the press. (Do they still use a "press" to print papers?) This is a boo-boo of epic proportions, especially considering the usual brevity of reportage in the Monday edition. Why, it's like if I was telling you a joke, a wonderful and witty anecdote that had you on the edge of your seat, and