Great Moments in Journalism: Mechanic, Heal Thyself
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And now, a brief scheduling note: Gawker will be dark tomorrow as its editors return to the comforting bosoms of our families, where we will spend the day prevaricating about our careers, claiming to work in something more respectable, like elk porn. Posting will resume in somewhat half-assed fashion on Friday. Great Moments in Journalism will be wrapping up the week today, though, so expect a poll later in the day.
Your final Moment for the week comes from a Voice story about a Automotive High, a Brooklyn high school which inculcates the mechanics of tomorrow. A lot to choose from, so we're just going to pull a passage at random. Here ya go:
The halls fill with bobbing heads. The black and white tiles are covered with shuffling sneakers. Bodies cram the staircases. Through the cacophony of voices and mumbles of post-school plans, there's a complex aroma wafting—strawberry-flavored bubble gum mixed with a-spritz-too-much cologne—singeing nostrils with teenage smells. The bouncing heads, the majority anyway, all have closely cropped hair or braids, running back from shiny brows. That's when it happens, it registers, something's missing. Where are all the girls? A cackle. A giggle. A guttural shout echoing off the stuccoed walls. Faces without the slightest bit of peach fuzz have learned to be heard before they're seen. They make up for their low numbers with strong personalities. The girls of Automotive High School don't always know how to stoke an engine or change a spark plug by graduation time, but they know how to deal with the young men who come hollerin' and looking for a good time. The school teaches how to fix cars, but these teenage girls also learn in essence how to fix themselves. They shatter stereotypes as well as break through cultural and social barriers. The process gives them a tough exterior, which will help them overcome the challenges that await in the real world, a real world that is not always fair to women.
God, we are not even going to look at a newspaper over the next four days.