Megan Smith and Kara Swisher
Memories of Oz in a Solar Car
By Megan Smith
Posted Friday, Sept. 22, 2000, at 9:58 AM ETKara,
I have been following some of the energy and politics stories today; there's one on ABC News.com. I wish that we could get more money into alternative energy research to get ourselves out of this constant bind. It's not a total solution, but it would help. As you know, in 1987, a bunch of friends of mine and I raced a solar car across the continent of Australia in the "World Solar Challenge." Once you have been part of driving a solar car across a continent in about 80 hours (we came in nineth; the leader, GM, took about 48 hours), you know that our lagging behind in solar energy technologies is more about politics than about research limits!
I will finally catch up with you in NYC on Sunday. Yes, we are destined for a lot of flights this fall. I look forward to learning what people are saying around the United States about the Internet, as we get very isolated from many of those perspectives, I think, in San Francisco/SiValley.
I was just looking at MSNBC.com and am looking forward to the Olympic track and field events. I know the Olympics are so commercial now and overhyped, but I really love them. I'm looking forward to seeing if the "Three Ms" can meet their goals.
Miss you,
Megan
Memories of Oz in a Solar Car
By Megan Smith
Posted Friday, Sept. 22, 2000, at 9:58 AM ETMegan Smith is CEO of PlanetOut. Kara Swisher writes the "Boom Town" column for the Wall Street Journal
and is the author of aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web
(click here to buy the book). Reader Comments from The Fray:
Ms Smith writes on Monday:
When I lived in Japan it was nice to watch this kind of global news without the 'U.S. is the best' spin every five minutes that emanates from the announcers.
Well, I'm living in Japan now and the coverage is just as pro-Japan. And it doesn't irk me in the least. Of course the producers want to serve the main of their audience by focussing on home-grown athletes and revealing genuine excitement when the home team wins. Furthermore, U.S. coverage is more justifiable because the U.S. is the best, at the moment, by medal count, if that's how you want to measure these things. Isn't the Olympics all about a relatively healthy variety of patriotism, shallow though it may be?
--Mack
(To reply, click
here.)
Notes from the Fray Editor: Well first, JP says it was Dean Martin and not Frank Sinatra who sang "Ain't that a Kick in the Head". Nobody argued.
WillV and Kevin discussed in this thread how a gay sensibility might affect the Breakfast Table, but despite very differing initial positions in the end seemed not to find much to disagree about.
Jim was one of several readers interested in the WSJ view on gays and how it might affect Ms Swisher: Mike Gebert's take was "Don't like being fired for being gay? Then don't work for an anti-gay group of right-wingers like the WSJ". There were polite exchanges of views. Kara Swisher took up the question in Thursday's entry.
Fray poster Kara W. says she doesn't know many other Karas, but several are gay, and thanks for the informative article. Nothing to worry about there.
It's not clear how insulting Joe Q. Public meant to be--another reader was surprised that he could quote Dorothy Parker but not spell scum. Mr Public replied that he meant to spell it that way: skum. To see Kara's response to that, click here.
(9/19)
[Added later: At this point on Tuesday your Fray Editor said "And that's the nearest thing to controversy that we could find." We may have spoken too soon, and the Breakfast Table writers felt [Thursday] that some of the comments in The Fray were hard to take. Titles of posts included:
Illegal behavior/Illogical behavior
Lesbian sodomy (no, no link, if you're that interested go and find it)
Kara needs to get to work
Proof of thin skin
Vulgar favors
Though we hope Kara and Megan found some consolation from the many posters who came in to cheer the writers on:]
I have noticed, in the Fray postings and other public discourses, the use of the phrase "homosexual lifestyle". This locution is used almost exclusively by those who hate homosexuals. I am a middle-aged single father of 2, engaged to a middle-aged mother of 2. We share a house. I have a good job and am actively involved in my local youth baseball league. In all of this, I am utterly unable to come up with a label for my "lifestyle". I don't have a lifestyle. I have a life. And while my sexuality is a part of that life, I don't define myself by the gender of my partner. It is those who define people's lives by sexual orientation who are sick.
--Bob K
(To reply, click
here.)
And finally, we at The Fray say Thank you Michael Rebain: "Remember: On land, flags fly at half staff. At sea, they fly at half mast."
(9/22)
What did you think of this article?
Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum
SPONSORED CONTENT
PRINT
DISCUSS
E-MAIL
RSS
RECOMMEND...
Facebook
MySpace
Mixx
Digg
Reddit
del.icio.us
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Sphere
StumbleUpon
The Scariest Thing Gen. McChrystal Told Congress About Afghanistan
Is It Irresponsible To Give Your Kids Cell Phones in the Age of Sexting?
The Obama Administration Finally Gets Serious About Transparency
So Are We Done Cleaning Up the Exxon Valdez Spill Yet?
What, Exactly, Do You Do at a Climate-Change Conference?
The World's Greatest Boxer Is Running for Office. Don't Vote for Him.
Reader Comments from The Fray:
Ms Smith writes on Monday:
Well, I'm living in Japan now and the coverage is just as pro-Japan. And it doesn't irk me in the least. Of course the producers want to serve the main of their audience by focussing on home-grown athletes and revealing genuine excitement when the home team wins. Furthermore, U.S. coverage is more justifiable because the U.S. is the best, at the moment, by medal count, if that's how you want to measure these things. Isn't the Olympics all about a relatively healthy variety of patriotism, shallow though it may be?
--Mack
(To reply, click here.)
Notes from the Fray Editor: Well first, JP says it was Dean Martin and not Frank Sinatra who sang "Ain't that a Kick in the Head". Nobody argued.
WillV and Kevin discussed in this thread how a gay sensibility might affect the Breakfast Table, but despite very differing initial positions in the end seemed not to find much to disagree about.
Jim was one of several readers interested in the WSJ view on gays and how it might affect Ms Swisher: Mike Gebert's take was "Don't like being fired for being gay? Then don't work for an anti-gay group of right-wingers like the WSJ". There were polite exchanges of views. Kara Swisher took up the question in Thursday's entry.
Fray poster Kara W. says she doesn't know many other Karas, but several are gay, and thanks for the informative article. Nothing to worry about there.
It's not clear how insulting Joe Q. Public meant to be--another reader was surprised that he could quote Dorothy Parker but not spell scum. Mr Public replied that he meant to spell it that way: skum. To see Kara's response to that, click here.
(9/19)
[Added later: At this point on Tuesday your Fray Editor said "And that's the nearest thing to controversy that we could find." We may have spoken too soon, and the Breakfast Table writers felt [Thursday] that some of the comments in The Fray were hard to take. Titles of posts included:
Illegal behavior/Illogical behavior
Lesbian sodomy (no, no link, if you're that interested go and find it)
Kara needs to get to work
Proof of thin skin
Vulgar favors
Though we hope Kara and Megan found some consolation from the many posters who came in to cheer the writers on:]
I have noticed, in the Fray postings and other public discourses, the use of the phrase "homosexual lifestyle". This locution is used almost exclusively by those who hate homosexuals. I am a middle-aged single father of 2, engaged to a middle-aged mother of 2. We share a house. I have a good job and am actively involved in my local youth baseball league. In all of this, I am utterly unable to come up with a label for my "lifestyle". I don't have a lifestyle. I have a life. And while my sexuality is a part of that life, I don't define myself by the gender of my partner. It is those who define people's lives by sexual orientation who are sick.
--Bob K
(To reply, click here.)
And finally, we at The Fray say Thank you Michael Rebain: "Remember: On land, flags fly at half staff. At sea, they fly at half mast."
(9/22)