Archive for September, 2008
September 30th, 2008
In journalism, we’re told to look ahead in the stories we write and to write “conversationally.” We’re told to read a story aloud to hear how it sounds.
What I’m hearing about Monday’s failure in the House to approve the financial institution bailout in the two-word headlines that grabbed me most from the front pages published at newseum.org is this:
Anger from the headline writers and their bosses at the papers who plastered “Now what?” as their top headlines today. Those papers include The Columbus Dispatch, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, St. Petersburg Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Bakersfield Californian. You know what it feels like when someone like your mom or dad says to you, “Now what?!!??”
Looking forward without blame from the headline writers and their bosses at the papers who plastered “What now?” as their top headlines today. They include The Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Metro-New York Edition, Pioneer Press (St. Paul), Detroit Free Press, The Indianapolis Star, The Denver Post, The Advocate (Stamford, Conn.)
Which headline best captures where you’re coming from?
September 29th, 2008
Seems like over the weekend, our $700 billion ‘bailout’ of U.S. financial institutions turned into a $700 billion ‘rescue.’
Hmm.
Tell about your pet-peeve euphemisms, and vote in this poll.
Which word is a more truthful representation?
September 26th, 2008
Even with the sky-is-falling warning from President Bush about our economy and my meeting last week with my financial advisor to find my retirement savings are down 14 percent from a year ago, I still have yet to make big changes in my lifestyle.
I’d already cut down during summer driving across town to shop unless really necessary because of high gas costs. And I’ve been trimming the amount of money I’m giving/spending for gifts. I still eat out occasionally because I no longer have a houseful of people to feed.
But now I’m getting spooked again with yesterday’s news that unemployment in the Rockford metro area was the highest in 17 years at 9.5 percent.
Now this CBS news writer is telling me (and everyone else) some things we should do, just in case more shoes drop: “Prepare to Lose Your Job.”
Are you worried about losing your job?
September 25th, 2008
By now, we all know that Congress is in the midst of authorizing a $700 billion bailout of struggling financial institutions.
Slate’s Explainer puts that amount in perspective:
There are about 300 million men, women, and children currently living in the United States, so the bailout is equal to roughly $2,300 per person. That’s right around what we each paid, on average, for gas and oil in 2006 ($2,227).
Titanic, one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, raked in $1.8 billion from the worldwide box office, so James Cameron would have to make roughly 381 Titanic-sized blockbusters to settle Wall Street’s debts.
According to the Stern report (issued by U.K. economist Sir Nicholas Stern), global climate change could cost the planet $9 trillion (or 12.86 bailouts) if we don’t address the problem within the next decade or so.
Care to share any other comparisons?
September 23rd, 2008
Somebody better do something so the Wall Street Fat Cats don’t win big as they gingerly step out the door — the one that’s already hit us in the butt on our way out.
This MSNBC story paints a clear picture of the justified anger.
Because if somebody doesn’t do something, we’ll …, we’ll …, well, guess there’s not much we can do about it now, or is there?
Any ideas you think might work?
September 22nd, 2008
Went to the every-other-year Cheese Days last weekend in Monroe, Wis., an hour’s drive northwest of Rockford. What a bucolic Green County seat of about 10,000 people surrounded by gently rolling countryside and cows.
OK, now let’s get to the real point of this post: I should have known better.
Let me explain. Sure, Cheese Days includes sampling lots of cheeses and spreads for free, watching parades, drinking beer and enjoying small-town life and its people. But the big draw is the beer-battered cheese curds. 
(js online photo)
And I may have blown my opportunity to tell all those who watch video at discoverwisconsin.com how highly regarded and tasty these morsels are. Let me explain.
I had to stand in line for 20 minutes early Friday afternoon just to get a ticket to buy the curds. Then I had to stand in another line for another 20 minutes or so to actually buy the curds. I visited most of the time with a local woman who was on her lunch break getting curds for several coworkers at the insurance firm where they worked on the downtown square, where all the action for the weekend was taking place. She told me all about how these curds are better than the ones sold at bars around the downtown square, because they’re coated with beer batter. And she told me that the lines to buy the tickets for the curds and the lines to buy them would be four-deep Saturday night at the height of the festival. It could take 1.5 hours before a curd hit your mouth.
I’d seen a TV camera filming the people who were frying the curds. But all of a sudden, a woman with a microphone was interviewing the woman I’d been visiting with. She asked her a few questions, and I listened while still waiting for my curds. The local woman never offered the interviewer a curd, so after their interview ended, I asked the interviewer if she’d like one or two of mine.
Well, the interviewer thought that was so nice of me, that she told the cameraman to film me for a Discover Wisconsin video (to be posted next May) while she asked where I was from. “Loves Park, Illinois,” I said. And of course, she liked it that yet-another Illinoisan was coming to Wisconsin to spend money. Then she asked me if I go to lots of Cheese Days.
That’s where I may have blown it. I told her the last time was four years ago, the day my mom died. I remember I was at Cheese Days when I was called back home because her caregivers believed she wouldn’t have long to live. I returned to Belvidere, and she died early that evening when I was with her. I didn’t tell the interviewer all of that. And thank goodness, I didn’t make any other “Wisconsin Death Trip” analogies. But I could see by her look that she was wondering why in the heck she’d spent a minute interviewing me when I associated Cheese Days with death.
I’m not a seasoned TV personality, but I do go on WREX Thursday mornings to tell about fun things happening for the weekend. And here at the Register Star we are gung-ho on videotaping stories. So, I should have thought about the purpose of the interview before I opened my mouth. I could certainly understand the interviewer’s blank/quizzical look.
Recognizing the error of my ways, there was little I could do to make up for it, except offer her cheese curds on camera. She took a bite and grabbed the long hot string of cheese that she was trying to separate from the breading and marveled at its goodness. I did the same. To close the interview, the interviewer asked me to sum up Cheese Days. I said, ‘Say cheese … curds.’ She said, “A little cheesy humor,” into the microphone. Cute, even though not terribly original.
A second after the interview was over, I offered the camera man a cheese curd. She said, sure, you can offer him one, and we were back on film. My final question on tape, to the camera man: “So, how did you like it?” He said nothing but moved the camera up and down in a nodding motion.
Now, that’s a wrap.
I’m assuming they’ll edit my comments about my Wisc0nsin death trip out, if they use any of them at all.
Moral of my story: Think before you speak, especially with beloved cheese curds in your mouth.
September 17th, 2008
For the tens of thousands, if not millions, of you who are fans of Oprah’s Book Club, I’ve got a scoop for you.
A source who wishes to remain unnamed tells me that Oprah on Friday will announce the group’s next selection: “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.”
It’s a novel by David Wroblewski. Here’s the description from amazon.com:
Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar’s paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles’ once peaceful home. When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm–and into Edgar’s mother’s affections.
Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires–spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.
Do you read books recommended by Oprah’s Book Club?
September 17th, 2008
Jimmy Vitale 
is returning to Cliffbreakers.
What best describes your thoughts about Cliffbreakers without Jimmy Vitale?
September 16th, 2008
Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a Bill Tancer, a web guru, in this Reuters story.
His theory: “Young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites.”
Your thoughts?
September 15th, 2008
You know how you fall asleep on the couch watching TV and when you wake up you’re trying to figure out what’s going on on-screen?
Happened to me Saturday night, and when I looked at the screen, I really thought Sarah Palin was standing next to Amy Poehler. Took me a few seconds to realize that it was Tina Fey.
A Chicago Tribune poll asks who’d you rather watch on TV, Gov. Palin or Tina Fey as Gov. Palin. At my last look, 87 percent said Fey as Palin.
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