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photo by P. A. Jensen
Sports

Like Soccer Played by Giants

  • November 23, 2022November 23, 2022

It’s World Cup season, when a young man’s fancy turns to… hatred of soccer, apparently. It’s the season when American politicos and bloggers and people who typically don’t write about sports take license to wax vitriolic about a game they

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Sports

Inequity for Other Reasons

  • September 19, 2022October 6, 2022

My latest sports-related opinion column in the Duluth News Tribune details how some inequities between men’s and women’s sports aren’t due to lack of support, or even to money generally. Case in point: imagine if the Big Ten created a women’s

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Sports

Lockout or Not, Take Yourself out to the Ballgame

  • March 10, 2022October 6, 2022

No professional baseball? There’s still enough baseball to go around. It’s cheaper, too, and maybe more fun to watch in person — your seats will be better, guaranteed. My latest opinion column at the Duluth News Tribune.      

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Politics & PolicyData-Driven

When Equity Looks Inequitable: the Base-Rate Fallacy

  • March 7, 2022October 6, 2022

My latest article (or “story,” or “piece” – I can’t figure out the vernacular to save my life) is at FEE. This one is about a common error in our discussions of gender and race, and uses a local/Minnesota example

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Sports

I Read the Comments. Yikes.

  • December 25, 2021October 6, 2022

They say not to read the comments. Well, I read the comments. And a letter to the editor. And yikes – in a disappointing way. I wrote an opinion column in the Star Tribune that made a simple argument, albeit

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Sports

For Social Justice, Team USA’s Coach Should Give Up One of Her Jobs

  • December 11, 2021October 6, 2022

My latest opinion column, this time in the Star Tribune, asks whether a woman who has championed giving opportunities to women of color should keep two high-profile jobs instead of giving one to a woman of color. Or something.  

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Sports

In Coaching, ‘Diversity’ Is a Trick Play

  • April 28, 2021

My latest opinion column in the Duluth News Tribune asks why, if it’s so important to hire black coaches who resemble their players, we also celebrate hiring white women to coach in the NBA. From the article: “Why the confusion

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photo by P. A. Jensen
SportsData-Driven

Does Home-Ice Advantage Melt without Fans?

  • March 24, 2021

My latest data-driven article at College Hockey News asks whether fans actually contribute to home-ice advantage in college hockey. (A season of empty arenas has served as an unintentional experiment — one we’ll hopefully never repeat.)       P.

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Politics & PolicyData-Driven, Education

Teachers of Color: When More Is Never Enough

  • March 13, 2021

As nice as it sounds to spend millions of dollars to recruit more teachers of color, some pesky demographics and arithmetic get in the way. My latest in the Duluth News Tribune.     P. A. Jensen (@RuralityChecker) lives in

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Uncategorized

Cigarettes on Wheels

  • February 19, 2021February 19, 2021

She clutched two things with one arm. A Styrofoam coffee cup, already half-empty, apparently, was tucked between her elbow and her black jacket, its black lid somehow holding on for dear life, surviving the squeeze. “Holiday,” it smushedly said. The

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Politics & Policy

A Minimum-Median-Maximum Wage, or Something

  • February 14, 2021

A “minimum” wage is hard to define across a country as diverse as ours. A wage that’s truly “minimum” in South Dakota would be sub-minimal in California; a “minimum” wage on the coasts would approach the median in Mississippi. But

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Politics & Policy, Rural Life

Is affordable housing still a ‘human right’ in an unaffordable place?

  • January 8, 2021

My latest opinion column in the Duluth News Tribune raises the point that spending millions on “affordable housing” in unaffordable places is a slap in many rural Americans’ faces. Beware cheesy references to Aesop’s fable about the Country Mouse.  

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Politics & PolicyFor Fun

A Whopper of a Wage

  • December 4, 2020

My opinion article in the Duluth News Tribune considers the effects of a “living wage” on multi-earner vs. single-earner families. It also features a slew of bad Burger King puns.       P. A. Jensen (@RuralityChecker) lives in Minnesota

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Rural LifeFor Fun

For Fun: Liberal House on the Prairie

  • November 12, 2020November 12, 2020

“Well, Caroline, the world’s going to hell in a handbasket.” “Charles!” “But it’s true,” Pa said, stomping off his boots at the door. He handed her a rabbit by the back feet. “Did you know McSweeney’s isn’t carrying fresh produce

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photo by P. A. Jensen
SportsData-Driven

Do Teams that Lose More Also Lose by More?

  • August 12, 2020

Or, do teams that win more win by more? My latest data-driven article at College Hockey News answers both questions by examining game data from the last seven seasons of NCAA Division-I men’s hockey.       P. A. Jensen

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Uncategorized

Beware “The Million”

  • July 29, 2020July 29, 2020

She was squatting and lunging like a powerlifter, heaving, her neck straining, little ligamentendons popping under a blonde ponytail. A nursing-assistant MMA fighter in pink scrubs, locked in a death match with a super-heavyweight. Which was kind of true, except

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photo by P. A. Jensen
SportsData-Driven

Pattern Recognition: Trends in Goal-Scoring among College-Hockey Conferences

  • July 11, 2020July 12, 2020

Do some conferences in men’s college hockey score more goals than others? Have more lopsided margins of victory? More ties? My latest at College Hockey News crunches the numbers.   P. A. Jensen (@PrideOnIceCream) lives in Minnesota with his wife and

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photo by P. A. Jensen
SportsData-Driven

Not-So-Photo Finish: Competitive Balance within College-Hockey Conferences

  • July 5, 2020

I recently wrote a data-driven article for College Hockey News about whether some conferences’ championship races are routinely more competitive than others. As always, thanks for reading.       P. A. Jensen (@PrideOnIceCream) lives in Minnesota with his wife

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Rural Life, Sports

Do You Golf? A Case for Small-Town Generalism

  • July 2, 2020

“Alright—let ‘er rip.” That’s my friend Matt, kind enough to go golfing with me. He’s a good enough golfer to know how to help you, and a good enough teacher to make you feel like you’re learning instead of being

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photo by P. A. Jensen
Rural Life

Jensen Fawn Care: Man’s Struggle Against Nature, Kinda

  • June 12, 2020June 13, 2020

My captor is a fawn, young enough to have spots. It waits, watching sentinel over my backyard, nosing itself and panting in the sun, then lounging in the shade as the afternoon rotates around it. It waits diligently, probably just

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Older posts

More Rurality

Like Soccer Played by Giants

Inequity for Other Reasons

Lockout or Not, Take Yourself out to the Ballgame

When Equity Looks Inequitable: the Base-Rate Fallacy

I Read the Comments. Yikes.

For Social Justice, Team USA’s Coach Should Give Up One of Her Jobs

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