The Pulitzer Prize and the Transformers

Anyone who knows me, and specifically has lived with me knows my love of newspapers. I have always enjoyed the Washington Post and in the last five years where I “summer in DC”, I have grown to love it even more. Well today our group went to the offices of the Washington Post to meet with Dana Priest who won a Pulitzer Prize for her series on Walter Reed Medical Hospital last year, which we studied in class the previous day.

Her talk was informative and illuminating. She spoke of how she and her colleagues go about their research, establish contacts, and how release of the stories is sometimes negotiated with people all the way to the White House. It’s nice to hear from a reporter and newspaper that take their role as the “4th branch” of the government seriously. She spoke of the provisions that the US Constitution provides for the press.

She was passioned and the students asked great questions which makes me feel good as one of the teachers that prepped them for the meeting. She also spoke of the dedication of the Post’s staff, especially in times of crisis. She talked about the devastating crash that occurred on the Red Line of the Metro earlier this week and how those who were not even on the clock worked the story. I’ll include one of the stories from today that was both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

After returning to the Albans campus the students heard from Stuart Gerson prepped for their moot court case that they will be doing tomorrow. The case they are arguing is Safford Unified School District v. Redding(Click on the case for breakdown) which centers on the constitutionality of strip-searching a student at a public school in search of drugs. Every year the program picks a great case. The students really get into it.

I skipped dinner to meet up with Bill to continue a tradition started in high school. We went and saw Transformers 2: The Rise of the Fallen. Awesome, simply awesome. Although short on plot it was heavy on violence, special ops, and of course Megan Fox running. This makes the third Transformers Bill S. and I have seen together. Three? You say. Let’s not forget the first cartoon movie that came out in the late 80’s with the awesome theme song, “You’ve got the touch”. Well back in our Cathedral Prep days Billy, Phil K, and myself went to see the original in the theater. We were the only people there above 15 without children present. Two summers ago Bill and I saw the latest “Original” and tonight we completed the trilogy.

I am going to embed two YouTube clips for your enjoyment of the main them song from the true original movie and a scene from Boogie Nights, yes Boogie Nights. If you watch both you’ll see why.

The Stan Bush version fromt he original movie

Dirk Diggler's version