Wanna See a Magic Trick?

A couple of days ago, I was waiting at a SEPTA train station. Two SEPTA workers walked past me, wearing their reflective orange vests. They looked tired, but chatted with each other in a friendly way. Elsewhere on the dock was a woman and her young girl, maybe 9 years old.

When one of the workers noticed the girl, he approached her and said "hey, wanna see a magic trick?" The girl, with the clarity of mind and certainty of action that typifies most kids under 14 years old, said yes - and a few other people on the dock craned their necks in order to see.

What followed surprised us all, including the girl. The guy pulled out a handkerchief, stuffed it into his fist, blew on his fist, opened his fist - and the hanky was gone. Gone!

It was magic.

The little girl was the first to recover from her shock, and demanded "do it again!" He laughed, and said he only shows a trick once. But then he showed another trick, this time with a coin. Similar storyline. Equally amazing. The guy was really good. AND he pulled the coin out of the girl's ear.

We were all happy: We got to see a good unexpected show, the girl got to experience some magic, the guy got to show off. But I couldn't help but thing: I bet he would not have approached me and said "Hey, wanna see a magic trick?"

And, if he had, would I have said "YES!" or would I have worried that he would've wanted something from me later on?

It’s official. There’s nobody in the chat rooms but pedophiles and undercover police.

The title of this post is taken from a strange little piece from Wired.com about how one unfortunate "aspiring sexual predator" chatted online with three undercover cops.

There are a couple of disturbing parts to this piece. First, the guy was soliciting 13-year olds to have sex with him. Wrong. Not good. Bad. Secondly, he chatted with 3 undercover cops, none of whom knew about the other's existence. That seems a bit... wasteful. I mean, strictly in terms of how our tax money is being used. Thirdly, he was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison. That's a long time for a crime that was never committed - and, once again, a long time also in terms of how long our tax money will be paying for this person's meals. On the flip side, Indiana (where this guy is from) has much longer/more severe penalties for murder, which I personally find comparable to rape - they recommend 55 years or death. Which makes 17.5 years look like a lot less.

Question and Answer: Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone

Lori, who's always thinking about me, brought me a copy of Newsweek from February 2009. There were a few articles in there that were relevant for my own work, and Lori thought I'd want to see them. She was right. Thanks, Lori. :-)

I found myself with a little more time to read than I expected, and so I ended up reading an interview with Geoffrey Canada, who is the president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone. He had some inspiring things to say. There were two things, in particular, that I would like to share with You. The first made me stop and think. The second made me a little teary-eyed.

You can read lots more about Geoffrey and the Harlem Children's Zone on this New York Times article from 2004.

Q. What do You look for when You hire people?
The person who says, "You know, I tried, I was young, I just wasn't smart enough to pull it off, but I knew I could do it; if I had just spent enough time to get the right technique I know it would've worked." That's the person that You feel like is still in search of the answer, who You want on your team.

Q. Can You recall the single most satisfying day in teh years Youv'e worked with the Harle Children's Zone?
One day... George Khaldun were walking to lunch. We were... in a kind of beat-up area. We're in suits and ties and we see these other two African-American men in suits and ties, which is very unusual over there. And so we're just walking and talking, and George says, "Geoff, those are our kids." They were two of our college kids who were heading to their jobs down in midtown. George looked at me and he said, "You know, this is what we dreamed about." And we just watched those two kids heading towards a good life and thought, what's what this is about. We've leveled the playing field.