Photo Op

I WENT to the Save Our Schools march in Washington last Saturday with my son, Matt Damon, and thousands of citizens who are worried about the harm corporate education reform is causing to children, teachers, and communities. The only reporting of this march in The Boston Globe was in the "Names" section in a trivial little item called "Damon loves teachers," that made no mention of the importance of this march and its goals. Not only did thousands of people pour into Washington to protest education policy, but the nation's leading education thinkers were all there speaking out. I would think you...

Peyton Manning stood next to John Elway, holding up a bright orange jersey with the No. 18 on it. Yes, that could take some getting used to. And now if Manning's surgically repaired neck cooperates, these two quarterbacks - one in the Hall of Fame, the other headed there - think they might be taking a similar photo together, only next time they'll be holding a Super Bowl trophy. Manning was introduced as the new quarterback of the Broncos Tuesday, the four-time MVP taking the spot once held by Elway, who as Broncos vice president engineered the deal to bring the NFL's most...

RE "Tim Thomas wrong to skip White House trip" by Kevin Paul Dupont (Sports, Jan. 24): Visits to the White House by championship sports teams are transparent political stunts, intended to exploit a team's popularity to the advantage of the president. Why isn't it OK for a sports figure to turn that cheap political stunt against a president with whom he disagrees? Indeed, didn't Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas err on the polite side, by making a statement that expressed his general distaste for our current policies?

RE "Tim Thomas wrong to skip White House trip" by Kevin Paul Dupont (Sports, Jan. 24): Visits to the White House by championship sports teams are transparent political stunts, intended to exploit a team's popularity to the advantage of the president. Why isn't it OK for a sports figure to turn that cheap political stunt against a president with whom he disagrees? Indeed, didn't Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas err on the polite side, by making a statement that expressed his general distaste for our current policies?

WASHINGTON - A top White House aide resigned yesterday for his role in Air Force One's photo-shoot flyover above New York City that sparked panic and flashbacks to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Louis Caldera said the controversy had made it impossible for him to effectively lead the White House Military Office. "Moreover, it has become a distraction in the important work you are doing as president," Caldera said in his resignation letter to President Obama. The sight of the Boeing 747 and an F-16 fighter plane flying past the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan financial district...

HARTFORD — Connecticut’s attorney general has issued a subpoena to Craigslist Inc., seeking proof from the website that it is fulfilling its promise to help stop advertisements for prostitution. Richard Blumenthal says he has found that thinly veiled prostitution ads continue to appear in Craigslist’s adult services section. He is seeking, among other things, documents that show Craigslist has lived up to a 2008 agreement with attorneys general from 40 states to try to block illegal ads and permanently bar the advertisers who post them.

NEW YORK - An airliner and supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the lower Manhattan skyline in a flash just as the workday was beginning yesterday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11. For a half-hour, the Boeing 747 and F-16 jet circled the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline near the World Trade Center site. Offices evacuated. Dispatchers were inundated with calls. Witnesses thought the planes were flying dangerously low. But the flyover was nothing but a photo op,...

New is better. We are bombarded with this message starting the day we are born. Babies come home to a new room, freshly painted, adorned with new stuff in every corner. From that point forward, advertisers pelt us with offers of "new and improved. " Every year there's a new car, new clothes, and new forms of entertainment gadgetry. This was the message at the New Garden last night. Fans were instructed to forget about what happened to the Boston Bruins in recent years (no playoffs in three of their last six seasons)

Peyton Manning stood next to John Elway, holding up a bright orange jersey with the No. 18 on it. Yes, that could take some getting used to. And now if Manning's surgically repaired neck cooperates, these two quarterbacks - one in the Hall of Fame, the other headed there - think they might be taking a similar photo together, only next time they'll be holding a Super Bowl trophy. Manning was introduced as the new quarterback of the Broncos Tuesday, the four-time MVP taking the spot once held by Elway, who as Broncos vice president engineered the...

A murky swim from Alcatraz, a wrong turn in the Golan Heights, a midnight heist in Spain. Misadventures make for travelers’ tales and the often heard: “I’ll never do that again.’’ A white-water plunge My mistake lay in my woefully misplaced self-confidence. Emerging unscathed from rafting Chile’s mighty Río Futaleufú, I was soaring on adrenaline and bravado. Now, paddling a single-seat kayak on the Río Espolón, a comparatively placid tributary, I grew distracted by the passing vista of Patagonia’s forested valleys and snowy peaks.

SENATOR SCOTT Brown got the pretty picture every politician covets as he read to a gaggle of cute kids at Horizons for Homeless Children in Roxbury. There was a serious message behind it. "We're depending on you," chief development officer Meryl Sheriden told Brown at the end of his recent visit to the facility, which serves homeless families. The children spend days at the center and nights at shelters, and Brown seemed touched by his interaction with them. But he was noncommittal when staff members reminded him that their program would be affected by the automatic spending cuts that federal...

I WENT to the Save Our Schools march in Washington last Saturday with my son, Matt Damon, and thousands of citizens who are worried about the harm corporate education reform is causing to children, teachers, and communities. The only reporting of this march in The Boston Globe was in the "Names" section in a trivial little item called "Damon loves teachers," that made no mention of the importance of this march and its goals. Not only did thousands of people pour into Washington to protest education policy, but the nation's leading education thinkers were all there...

A murky swim from Alcatraz, a wrong turn in the Golan Heights, a midnight heist in Spain. Misadventures make for travelers’ tales and the often heard: “I’ll never do that again.’’ A white-water plunge My mistake lay in my woefully misplaced self-confidence. Emerging unscathed from rafting Chile’s mighty Río Futaleufú, I was soaring on adrenaline and bravado. Now, paddling a single-seat kayak on the Río Espolón, a comparatively placid tributary, I grew distracted by the passing vista of Patagonia’s forested valleys and snowy peaks.

HARTFORD — Connecticut’s attorney general has issued a subpoena to Craigslist Inc., seeking proof from the website that it is fulfilling its promise to help stop advertisements for prostitution. Richard Blumenthal says he has found that thinly veiled prostitution ads continue to appear in Craigslist’s adult services section. He is seeking, among other things, documents that show Craigslist has lived up to a 2008 agreement with attorneys general from 40 states to try to block illegal ads and permanently bar the advertisers who post them.

WASHINGTON - A top White House aide resigned yesterday for his role in Air Force One's photo-shoot flyover above New York City that sparked panic and flashbacks to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Louis Caldera said the controversy had made it impossible for him to effectively lead the White House Military Office. "Moreover, it has become a distraction in the important work you are doing as president," Caldera said in his resignation letter to President Obama. The sight of the Boeing 747 and an F-16 fighter plane flying past the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan...

NEW YORK - An airliner and supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the lower Manhattan skyline in a flash just as the workday was beginning yesterday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11. For a half-hour, the Boeing 747 and F-16 jet circled the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline near the World Trade Center site. Offices evacuated. Dispatchers were inundated with calls. Witnesses thought the planes were flying dangerously low. But the flyover was nothing but a...

SENATOR SCOTT Brown got the pretty picture every politician covets as he read to a gaggle of cute kids at Horizons for Homeless Children in Roxbury. There was a serious message behind it. "We're depending on you," chief development officer Meryl Sheriden told Brown at the end of his recent visit to the facility, which serves homeless families. The children spend days at the center and nights at shelters, and Brown seemed touched by his interaction with them. But he was noncommittal when staff members reminded him that their program would be affected by the automatic spending cuts that federal...

It was all sunshine, smiles and celebratory speeches as officials marked the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable they promised would end Cuba's Internet isolation and boost web capacity 3,000-fold. Even a retired Fidel Castro had hailed the dawn of a new cyber-age on the island. More than a year after the February 2011 ceremony on Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba, and 10 months after the system was supposed to have gone online, the government never mentions the cable anymore, and Internet here remains the slowest in the hemisphere.

New is better. We are bombarded with this message starting the day we are born. Babies come home to a new room, freshly painted, adorned with new stuff in every corner. From that point forward, advertisers pelt us with offers of "new and improved. " Every year there's a new car, new clothes, and new forms of entertainment gadgetry. This was the message at the New Garden last night. Fans were instructed to forget about what happened to the Boston Bruins in recent years (no playoffs in three of their last six seasons)