[Newspoetry] good nooz

[gillespie william k]

Yeah, it's hard to make a distinction between good news, an improvement
in a bad situation, something that could have been worse, etc. 

Like: this is a great country because we freed the slaves and gave women
and minorities the right to vote. 

Even the story about the heroic woman marching for campaign finance reform
could be read as an attempt to improve something bad...

But a fun pome by Mr.K. nevertheless notwithstanding.

I heard a story on NPR - good news, I think - about a public
transportation system in Seymour, Indiana (?), where passengers can pay
their bus fare in recyclable materials. 

I think that's great, wish I could find the story on the internet.

I guess with both these news stories - woman, bus - there's something
good about them because they're kind of wacky and fun to think about, in
addition to being progressive. 

So the definition of good news is maybe close to:
whatever makes you feel good.

-W


On Wed, 7 Jul 1999, Joe Futrelle wrote:

> Re William's definition of truly good news:
> 
> On Wed, Jul 07, 1999 at 08:19:33PM -0500, Paul Kotheimer wrote:
> > ...the good news is
> > the number of pre-pubescents 
> > who sling the epithet "faggot"
> > on the american playground
> > has dropped since a generation ago.
> > also, fewer lesbian and gay teens
> > are committing suicide.
> 
> Not truly good news, since it's only good because it would have been
> even worse if more epithets were slung and suicides committed.
> 
> > ...the good news is 
> > Archer Daniels Midland
> > has not yet patented 
> > all food-bearing seeds.
> 
> Again, not truly good news, since it's only good because it would have
> been even worse if ADM had patented more plant varieties than it has.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Joe Futrelle                  | "Did you quarantine a driven
> Developer, NCSA/SDT/Emerge    | might-have-been?" -- Nelly Cape Town
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