The Awkward Strike
Time editor -- and Ricochet contributor -- Mike Duffy asked me to write a piece last week about the Chicago teachers' strike.
Which I did, happily, because liberal media or no, writing for Time is pretty cool.
It opens this way:
I know a thing or two about what it's like when the well paid go on strike, because as a member of the Writers Guild of America--the Hollywood scriptwriters' union--I went on strike a few years back. I recall an awful lot of shouting and dramatics and walking around in a circle back then too. But there were doughnuts, which made the whole experience easier. If you have to picket, it's best to picket with a chocolate glazed.
What there wasn't--and isn't, in the case of the Chicago teachers' strike--was a lot of sympathy from the general public.
Of course, as my luck would have it, some other stuff happened that day that pushed the strike from the nation's attention screen.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
If I were to go on strike, I'd like an apple danish or cinnamon roll--I think they'd give you more staying power than the chocolate glazed (not that I don't respect the chocolate glazed donut).
May '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
My question is this: If the Chicago teachers are on strike and stopped teaching, how can they tell? They weren't doing a whole lot of teaching in the classroom anyway.
And Rob, how is writing for Time cool? Writing for National Review is cool. Taking Time's money is cool.
Edited on September 17, 2012 at 8:54pmOct '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
Pay-wall!!! Rob is shilling for Time Magazine.
Have you no shame??
Jul '11
Re: The Awkward Strike
Funny as usual Rob, you should do this for a living.
Idiocracy "I like money" - YouTube
May '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
I might be persuaded to buy a physical copy of Time to read the piece... or better yet loiter at the newsstand. I am not ready to subscribe... at least not unless the give you a weekly column.
And yes, writing for Time is still cool. Newsweek? Not so much.
Sep '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
Is Time still being published?By the way, if you're taking orders, I prefer brioche. In fact, I say, "let them eat brioche!" Just don't lose your head over it.
Aug '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
Clearly Time is trying to get some of that Rob Long mojo which is blazing right now.
Taking nothing away from your white hotness, Rob, but it's going to take a lot more than even your mojo to save that rag. (Is it true that if you read every third word the article becomes a pro-Romney screed?)
Aug '12
Re: The Awkward Strike
I clicked on the link, but "the rest" wasn't there. There was yet another link; an expensive one.
Apr '11
Re: The Awkward Strike
So I should contribute to Time for the privledge of reading the rest of your piece? I will wait until I go for Chinese take-out next month. They always have Time in the waiting room area. I'll look for it.
Egg Fu Young and Rob...you want rice with that?
May '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
Watch Sullivan and Son... Hour later you need to laugh again!
Feb '12
Re: The Awkward Strike
I'd really like to read the rest, Rob; but, I wouldn't subscribe to TIME unless they paid me!
Re: The Awkward Strike
Agree on all counts! The only site to send your money to is....
Ricochet!
Sep '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
Writers going on strike at a time when reality TV was decreasing the demand for their services seemed silly, but I really didn't care.
Now, if we had taxpayer funded sitcoms, I would have slapped that donut out of your hand and said, "Put down that picket sign and make me laugh, Funnyman!"
So, if I lived in Chicago I would go down to the picket line and yell, "Put down those signs and give my kids the 27th best education in the industrialized world!"
Mar '11
Re: The Awkward Strike
The big danger with public sector strikes is that people will notice you were not doing anything particularly useful when you were "working".
From what I've seen, even the MSM has been realistic about the Chicago teachers strike. The consequence they seemed to stress was the danger of having 350,000 children wandering the streets.
Jul '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
The article is only readable by Time subscribers. As if there are any of those left.
Time to go to the dentist's office, I guess.
May '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
Mike Duffy playing the paywall game hoping that universal desperation for a Long Fix will bring in subscribers? Conservatives are too practical for that.
Oct '10
Re: The Awkward Strike
In the same way that, in the thirties, joining the Communist Party was pretty cool.