PLUTO REVISITED
posted by James Reel
David Hurwitz issues this dispatch on the musical to-do over the de-planetization of Pluto. Hint: Don’t take any of it seriously, except for the sentiment expressed in the last paragraph.
David Hurwitz issues this dispatch on the musical to-do over the de-planetization of Pluto. Hint: Don’t take any of it seriously, except for the sentiment expressed in the last paragraph.
Apropos of my recent post about the odd NPR funding credit, KUAT news guy Robert Rappaport has reactivated his own blog and revealed the identity of the voice of NPR underwriting. His name is Frank Tavares, and you can read about him here. Robert also provides a link to an audio interview with Tavares, but I'll let you find that yourself at Robert's blog.
English music critic Jessica Duchen, who is married to a London Philharmonic violinist, rightly decries the idiotic British prohibition of carrying one’s valuable musical instruments into the passenger cabin of an airplane. But she makes one curious statement:
If we are now going to turn into a xenophobic, paranoic, protectionist little island—as the USA appears to be doing its best to become—and our musician friends are forced to base themselves elsewhere, as may yet happen if this bloody mess is here to stay, then I just won't want to be here any more.What does she mean, “going to turn into”? If she’s stuck at home or in exile for a while, perhaps she should read up on British history, and think about why she’s buying history books with pounds rather than euros.
This morning, the guy who reads the underwriting credits for NPR newscasts has been promoting a TV show about a famous queen of England; he calls it "Elizabeth One." I suppose it could be the first in an unimaginatively titled series ("Elizabeth Two," "Elizabeth Three"), but really, shouldn't we be referring to the Virgin Queen as "Elizabeth the First"?
It reminds me of when the now defunct Catalina Theater was showing one of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations, and listed it on the marquee as "Henry the V."
One of the Lion King touring companies has come to town, and, surprise, even though it’s a commercial musical, I like it:
Everything you've heard about it for the past nine years is true: The Lion King is a tremendously inventive, visually arresting and often musically compelling stage show that can captivate adults as well as children. And the further it strays from the Disney animated movie, the better it gets. … The stage musical takes the movie only as a starting point; in the music hall, we still have to put up with fart jokes and Elton John, but we are introduced to new elements in every department that take the story's African setting and culture seriously. Experiencing this in the theater is a far richer experience than watching the Disney animation on a DVD.Read the rest here.
Arizona Daily Star reporters and their editors continue to parrot press releases instead of digging up facts independently. Example: Monday’s article announcing that “Animal care officials hope new rules will put an end to the breeding of wolf-dog hybrids in Pima County.”
The proposed rules—at this writing, the Star hasn’t bothered to follow up this story with a report on the Board of Supervisors’ action—arise from ignorant hysteria about the nature of wolf hybrids. The problems with these animals have more to do with bad owners than with animal nature, but attach the word “wolf” to anything and people grab their rifles. (Note: There has never been a properly documented wolf attack on a human being in North America.) The excuse for banning wolf hybrids is that the rabies vaccine has not been proven to be effective on them. Well, actually, it has been proven effective, but the USDA has refused to approve the vaccine for political reasons. Furthermore, rabies vaccines have been used successfully in wild wolf reintroduction projects in North America and Africa, so what’s the problem with hybrids?
You won’t learn any of this background from the Star article. Instead, reporter Erica Meltzer relies on three sources with very narrow perspective: Pima Animal “Care” Center veterinarian Bonnie Lilley, local Humane Society director of operations Pat Hubbard, and Linda Searles of the Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Foundation. Searles deals with wild wolves, hardly any hybrids, and so isn’t really qualified to speak on this subject. Hubbard can talk about wolf hybrids being abandoned at her shelter, but her remarks have to do with owner malfeasance, not problems with the animals themselves.
Then there’s Lilley, the primary source, who gets to state her case without the reporter providing background or finding an opposing source (which would not be difficult). Had reporter Meltzer dug into her own newspaper’s archive, she would have noticed an article from Aug. 28, 2005, reporting that “Problems at Pima Animal Care Center involving animal care and customer service have prompted officials to replace the facility's manager. Veterinarian Bonnie Lilley was hired as manager last winter, but she has been criticized by animal rescue groups that said she is thwarting adoptions and failing to properly care for animals. … Rescue-group leaders said that when they are being offered animals, they were often very sick and have languished untreated at the center for days.”
In other words, Lilley was removed from her administrative post for incompetence and obstructionism. Presumably she is also the person who recently withheld treatment from Clay, the dog found stuck up to his neck in a muddy wash, during the pound’s standard three-day countdown to euthanasia. Perhaps Lilley was too busy masterminding her wolf-hybrid witch hunt to tend to the animals in her care.
Oh, and here’s an interesting tidbit: “There have been at least three cases nationwide in which vaccinated wolf-dog hybrids contracted rabies, Lilley said.” Three cases over how many years? Which vaccine was used? Are there any cases during the same period in which vaccinated domestic dogs contracted rabies? Without any of that information, Lilley’s “three cases” are statistically meaningless.
Why does Meltzer allow this source, with her unscientific agenda and questionable integrity, to go unchallenged? Because the Star lets its reporters get away with repeating, rather than reporting.
James Reel's cranky consideration of the fine arts and public radio in Tucson and beyond.
