Like Soccer Played by Giants
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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Inequity for Other Reasons
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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Lockout or Not, Take Yourself out to the Ballgame
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.
Read MoreWhen Equity Looks Inequitable: the Base-Rate Fallacy
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
Read MoreI Read the Comments. Yikes.
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
Read MoreFor Social Justice, Team USA’s Coach Should Give Up One of Her Jobs
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.
Read MoreIn Coaching, ‘Diversity’ Is a Trick Play
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
Read MoreDoes Home-Ice Advantage Melt without Fans?
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.
Read MoreTeachers of Color: When More Is Never Enough
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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Cigarettes on Wheels
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
Read MoreA Minimum-Median-Maximum Wage, or Something
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
Read MoreIs affordable housing still a ‘human right’ in an unaffordable place?
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.
Read MoreA Whopper of a Wage
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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For Fun: Liberal House on the Prairie
“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
Read MoreDo Teams that Lose More Also Lose by More?
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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Beware “The Million”
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
Read MorePattern Recognition: Trends in Goal-Scoring among College-Hockey Conferences
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
Read MoreNot-So-Photo Finish: Competitive Balance within College-Hockey Conferences
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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Do You Golf? A Case for Small-Town Generalism
“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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Jensen Fawn Care: Man’s Struggle Against Nature, Kinda
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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