Three interviews with David Halberstam on Fresh Air 

Halberstam, the reporter who was killed in a car crash this week, talks in archived interviews about reporting in Vietnam, and about sports. I didn't know that most of his books were about sports. Especially interesting to me were his ideas about racism and basketball. If he's right, we've come a long way from the late 70s when white folks and sponsors could live with Black football players because who could tell, but all that black skin in basketball, heaven preserve us. Everything started to change when Magic and Larry Bird started playing pro in 1979, then of course there was Michael Jordon, the subject of one of Halberstam's books.

When I lived in St. Louis most people I knew believed the city was too racist to support an NBA team. Having worked on school desegregation there in the 70s I couldn't disagree.

I'm not a huge fan of basketball but I always seem to end up living in places obsessed with it: Chicago, LA, Bloomington. I'm not following it, so I guess it must be following me. ;-)

MMPOEG 

Beth Kanter on BlogHer about The Horizon Project. She's a journalist-observer of the global learning project.

Here's the part I'd like to follow: massively multiplayer educational gaming. I see my little guy spend so many hours in WOW, and have a close bystander's view of the appeal. (Our computers are five feet from each other, something I recommend to parents; I think a lot of the nasty stuff happens when kids are squirreled away by themselves. For us, it replaces that revered dinner-table time you hear so much about.) Anyway, among other things I think MMPs can teach leadership. I hear this 18 year old commanding a raid, and he's so poised and decisive, I'm in awe.

Gosh, I'm going to miss having him around.

Another Canter 

Marc is in hospital (as they'd say in England) with kidney stones. Ouch. And best wishes.

Oh well, he's just another old fart crazy uncle. Might as well just throw us away anyway.