I don’t get this.

Apparently, the concept of kids hugging as a greeting is some kind of new thing?

i guess the Times is finally coming out of it’s shell. Hell, all my close friends have been doing this for years. It was a Brotherhood staple that we helped spread wherever we went. It became more important as the years have gone on and we have moved farther and farther apart and see each other less and less often. If anything, I still give hugs to folks who are caught off guard because I forget they didn’t grow up the same way I did. But most of them catch on eventually.

And even that aside, most cultures celebrate greeting and departing in such a way. I can’t imagine going to Mexico to visit the family without hugs; much less seeing the neighbors.

Like the whole “pity the rich” thing they had going on, some of the Times reporters are really, really detached from reality. And you wonder why some newspapers are dying?

Finally! This article points out the additional burden of high costs (and occasional gouging) that the urban poor have to put up with. From a gallon of milk to a place to live, being poor is expensive.

My sister-in-law sent me this and within a few minutes it made me want to vomit.

Basically, the link takes you to a link that shows you that if you only count the part of Texas that has cities and universities you’d have a region with a really strong economy. Well sure, if you exclude poor western ranchers, the economically depressed border region that counts on trade (and a lack of drug violence and flu epidemics). Not to mention depressed East Texas and the entire Gulf region.

Come to think of it, my sister-in-law is conveniently leaving out her mother, who lives in still-hurricane battered Galveston. Nice.

Like any state with a few big cities, you can probably make up some stats to make you look fantastic. I imagine North Carolina’s tech zone looks pretty good by itself, or just San Francisco-San Jose, or maybe just Seattle, maybe Miami just looks good if you leave out the rest of Florida.

I honestly don’t know, but having lived in Illinois I’ve seen this whole “if we didn’t have to carry Chicago” or “if Downstate didn’t exist” argument all the time.

As for Texaplex? I imagine the place would be an infrastructure nightmare if not for the sales and property taxes paid by the rest of the state they refuse to admit exists.

Just for chuckles, I’ve seen this idiocy along to the guys at FiveThirtyEight to see if they want to prove/disprove the theory. I hope they take to it as I’m pretty sure this is a BS argument.

This was a pretty good series that NPR had on a few weeks ago. Check out some of the stories on the immigrant experience, particular those of their children.