“

American schools are more segregated by race and class today than they were on the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, 43 years ago. The average white child in America attends a school that is 77 percent white, and where just 32 percent of the student body lives in poverty. The average black child attends a school that is 59 percent poor but only 29 percent white. The typical Latino kid is similarly segregated; his school is 57 percent poor and 27 percent white.

Overall, a third of all black and Latino children sit every day in classrooms that are 90 to 100 percent black and Latino.

”

“As for Groupon — I just checked the site, which promptly offered me a coupon to the Penn State-Indiana football game that occurred two months ago. This is cutting-edge technology?”

“Stats of the Week No. 5: Versus Pittsburgh, Baltimore is on a 6-5 streak in the regular season and a 0-3 streak in the postseason.”

“Imagine if, when the telephone was just catching on, the only way you could use it is if you let some voice interrupt your conversation with “Drink Coca-Cola, it’s good!!” And then, what if the phone companies, in order to pay for this new medium, sold the contents of your conversation to companies so they could interrupt your conversation in “more targeted” ways?”

“Though replay review improves football by reducing officiating errors, nobody seems happy with the current system. Bill Barker of Lincoln, Neb., writes, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a replay official who isn’t viewing the game at all? Sitting in a central office somewhere, not even at the stadium. He could be buzzed when there is a play in question and only told what issue needs to be resolved — not how it was called on the field. If he thinks the result of the play is clear, he says what it should be. If he can’t make a clear decision either way based on what he sees, he tells the referee at the game to let the call on the field stand — however it was called. “By removing the replay official from the game and not allowing him to know how officials on the field called the play, you remove any bias he may feel from viewing the original play, knowing the momentum of the game, hearing the home crowd reaction and from his desire not to overrule his fellow officials working the game. If he feels he can make a definitive call based solely on what he sees, he does. If he can’t, the play stands. And no viewing over and over for several minutes — a quick look and it’s either obvious and he rules that way, or he tells the officials to let the call stand.”

“On Christmas Eve, The Wall Street Journal advised readers to give chocolates or wine for the holidays because they will be consumed and “won’t contribute to your recipient’s household clutter. Laura Leist, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, says dealing with extraneous gifts is one of her clients’ biggest organizing challenges. People often don’t have the space to store gift items but feel too guilty to give them away.” … What hit me over the head, though, was that in a nation where one person in eight lives in poverty — in a world where 900 million people live on $1.25 or less a day — “dealing with extraneous gifts” is such a problem for many Americans that a trade association exists to help them cope with this dreadful burden. While many suffer, others complain of receiving gifts they lack room to store. This is deeply messed up. Practically everyone believes Christmas has become excessively materialistic — too much focus on piles of junk recipients don’t even want, much less need, coupled with (for Christians) hardly any mention of the original spiritual significance of the day, and (for those who celebrate secular Christmas) hardly any mention of the less fortunate. … So here is TMQ’s suggestion for the 2011 holidays — give the gift of receipts for charitable donations. Give money in your recipient’s name to any charity, school or arts organization. Wrap the receipt in pretty foil paper. You’re not wasting dollars on some hunk of junk your aunt doesn’t even want, you are doing something good for the world. You can feel good, and the gift recipient can feel good.”