UNASKED QUESTION

posted by James Reel

    I should turn this into a recurring feature: What important question has a reporter failed to ask? Here’s the latest example.
    The story of the poor dog found stuck up to his neck in a muddy wash after the recent heavy rains has ended sadly. The dog, called Clay by his rescuers, has apparently died from tick fever. He received good care at a private facility for the last week of his life—after having been rescued from the pound, where he’d been taken after passersby pulled him out of the muck.
    According to the Arizona Daily Star, “Clay was taken to the Pima Animal Care Center but did not receive veterinary treatment for three days.” What? Here was a dog whose plight had been highly publicized, languishing with baseball-sized mats in his fur and a vicious tick infestation, vomiting mud and too weak to stand, and he did not receive medical attention? The Pima Animal “Care” Center may have reasons or at least excuses for the neglect, but they’re not detailed in the article, and there’s no sign that the reporter or her editors even thought to ask. This is going to be another public-relations disaster for the pound, and the Star should have looked into it before readers write angry letters calling for an investigation.

DRESSED DOWN

posted by James Reel

    The Tucson Symphony has sent its subscribers some pointers on concert deportment. One item:

Concert Dress: Wear what makes you feel comfortable! According to a recent survey, 70% of men wear open shirt and slacks, 30% wear a jacket and tie. Of the women surveyed, 60% wear dresses and 40% wear slacks.

    Orchestras and opera companies, attempting to make their fare more accessible, have been getting the word out that there’s no dress code, implied or otherwise, at the concert hall. This is good insofar as starving students and fixed-income seniors needn’t stay home for fear they’ll be ridiculed for not being able to afford fancy dress. Still, I think people should dress as well as they can when they go to a concert. If the best they can really do is a clean button-front shirt and jeans, fine. But a lot of orchestra patrons can do better than that. Why, I wonder, would a guy who has a halfway decent wardrobe want to show up for symphony in a grubby sweatshirt? Never mind showing respect for the musicians, who are required to dress to the nines for our benefit; what about having enough self-respect to clean yourself up before you go out in public?
    Concerts shouldn’t be exclusive events that bar the “wrong” kind of people—those who haven’t reached the upper rungs of society. But concerts are big productions, with dozens of exceptionally talented people working hard (and usually for insufficient compensation) to make the best case they can for some exceptional music. Shouldn’t audience members acknowledge what special occasions these are by fixing themselves up to the best of their abilities?