Personal

Flash is almost too big for his home. He was half this size when we got him six months ago, and his tail is now nearly as big as his torso. Time for a diet, fatty!

But what I fear, as things go digital, is that a lot of the visceral love of reading will be lost. Not the romance of paper — although, there is that — but that physical connection one gets with books from an early age. That climbing into the book my daughter is doing, the way she can’t turn the page fast enough when she’s excited, the way she flips it aside when she’s done. Of course, there will always be children’s board books. But the question is, as more and more parents spend more and more time with e-book readers…

That said, for the most part, Valentine seems to work best with disciplined, selfless talent, most of whom are primed to buy in to his style of play.  For instance, I think David Wright would do well with Valentine, but I think Jose Reyes would struggle.  So, if the Mets intend to rely on the Gary Sheffields of the world, the Carlos Delgado, Valentine should never return.  However, if the Mets plan to build a team around hit-and-runs, less power and more doubles in the gap, timely stolen bases, bunting, a versatile bullpen, and basically play chess on a baseball field, Valentine is the best…

"It is the glory and the burden of public schools that they cater to all of our children, whether delinquent or obedient, drug-damaged or clean, brilliant or handicapped, privileged or scarred." - Benjamin R. Barber Three years ago, my wife (Salomé) was accepted into NYC's Teaching Fellows Program, and left the corporate world to become a special education teacher in Hunts Point, one of the worst neighborhoods in the Bronx. Unlike many who enter the program as an escape from corporate life, with fantasies of early dismissal and summer vacations, she was primarily inspired by the ups and downs we…

After a couple of weeks on Storytlr, I don't love it. It's much too inconvenient to use (posting via web is the only method that works well) and it doesn't appear to have any active development going on. Also, its primary gimmick of combining sources to tell a "story" is rather limited, and isn't terribly appealing or relevant to me, so I'm not putting any more energy into it. Posterous is intriguing, though, offering simple posting via email and SMS, plus integration with Flickr; exactly what I'm looking for in advance of our Route 66 trip. Plus, it has a…