February 28, 2008

Angry Ex-Journalist

By now you may have seen the site Angry Journalist -- Is that a hacked Wordpress install? Pretty clever if so! -- where anonymous journalists rant about why they hate journalism.

While things aren't exactly going all that smoothly in the industry right now, journalists have been complaining since Johan Gutenberg said, "Fluch! Bewegliche gedruckte Art ist ein Ausfall." (According to Babelfish, "Damn! Movable printed type is a failure." I translated that from English, so the German translation is no doubt wrong.)

Anyway, a co-worker of mine (thanks, Alli!) came across a possible recent anonymous post that really fits well with a certain former editor of a local alternative weekly.

Oh, now, come on, Hickey! I can't speak for everybody, but I never trusted you -- to soil our youth by mocking a man trying to show them the evils of 4:20... becoming Johnny Doc's campaign manager was really your only option.

Update, 2/29: Aw, Hickey says it wasn't him. Which is what I knew, which is why I didn't ask, because then I'd have to make a new joke. If you need me, I'll be circling around a dying man somewhere in Arizona.

Posted by D-Mac at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2007

Alycia Lane: Just Friends With Rich Eisen

It turns out Alycia Lane isn't nearly as cool as we all thought.

Today, she talks with the Inquirer's Michael Klein and insisted she was not a home-wrecker. (The Inquirer's interview is "exclusive," since last time Lane talked with Dan Gross she screamed at him or something. Gross still has a cover story, though.)

Lane tells Klein the emails were part of friendly banter between friends, and the photos contained photos of her and several friends on the beach.

Holy shit. The photos are even better than anyone thought.

"I don't want to hurt his marriage," said Lane, 34, whose second divorce was recently final. "I hope love comes to me. I'm not looking for it with a married man. I have been the married girl who was cheated on."

Considering the emails I got yesterday essentially proposing to Lane (more on this later), I can only assume Lane's CBS3 inbox -- ha ha, in box!... sorry, I'm apparently 15 years old -- will be filled with the ramblings of stupid twentysomethings later today, especially since she said "I hope love comes to me."

Continue reading "Alycia Lane: Just Friends With Rich Eisen"

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March 07, 2007

A Freelancer's Taste Of Anger

You may have read ex-WHYY staffer Rachel Buchman's pieceabout being a freelance writer in Sunday's Inquirer. I didn't, because I have a rule that if the third paragraph of a newspaper article is something like this --

As I thumb through the dog-eared and underlined pages, I think of a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem

-- I don't read it. (Sorry, Rachel! Sorry, Lawrence!) I've heard the piece painted life as a freelancer as all pajamas and money and high-speed car chases and excitement. Which is silly. That's the life of a professional blogger. Well, that and crying yourself to sleep.

I learned this from Philadelphia Will Do Freelance Correspondent Mike Benner's retelling of the essay to me. And then he offered to write something for me. You can tell he's a good freelancer because he knew how to get me to publish -- "publish" -- something.

• Puppy reference in second sentence
• Use of the phrase "Are you fucking kidding me?"
• Mentioned "slinging crack", a popular activity near my apartment
• One space after a period
• Made fun of a poem
• Offered to write something so I don't have to

Okay, I'm apparently pretty easy to please.

After the jump, Mike's essay. Any mistakes in the essay were probably put in by me.

Continue reading "A Freelancer's Taste Of Anger"

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February 05, 2007

Reason #48 To Love Philadelphia: Our Commitment To Journalistic Standards

You may remember the uproar a few years ago over a Mitch Albom column allegedly written from the Final Four. His column described two ex-Michigan State players courtside cheering on their alma mater at the Final Four. Of course, they were never there.

Albom based the column on what they said they were going to do; he had to turn in his column for the Sunday paper before the game was played. And when they didn't attend the game, he looked foolish, etc., etc.

One could imagine our own local scribe, Dan Gross, feeling the same temptation in this article about Wing Bowl winner Joey Chestnut in today's paper. He most likely interviewed Chestnut after the Wing Bowl Friday morning, and got some information on what Chestnut was going to do over the weekend.

But instead of pulling an Albom, our boy Dan Gross used this instead:

While in town over the weekend, Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif., was hoping to catch the Franklin Institute's King Tut exhibit - and to get his first glimpse of snow.

Excellent! Strong journalistic standards, especially in stories relating to something as important as chicken wings.

As to why the citizens of Philadelphia would be interested in what the Wing Bowl champion would be doing in town over the weekend, well, that's a question to be left to the philosophers.

Dan Gross | Wing King talking trash [Daily News]
Mitch Albom - Controversy [Wikipedia]

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November 27, 2006

Go Ask Suzy, Jane, Mary And Alice

The above photo is from the Binghamton University Pipe Dream -- which pretty much has a giant bong as a logo -- accompanying a story about "menacing" phone calls on campus.

It just goes to show that, well, when there's not a photo opportunity for a story, you just need to use your imagination. It helps if Commissioner Gordon is on staff, too.

Students receive menacing calls [Pipe Dream]

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September 11, 2006

Even Recently Freed Journalists Have Only One Thing On The Mind

Over the weekend, journalist Paul Salopek was freed from jail in Sudan -- where he was arrested for writing "false news" and other offenses -- and returned to the United States.

Hooray! Paul, what are you going to do next:

Salopek said that after he visits Columbus, he plans to "make rounds in Chicago and Washington to rack up an enormous beer tab."

Is it any surprise this man's a two-time Pulitzer winner?

Jailed reporter passed time with chess, goat porridge [AP/CNN.com]

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August 04, 2006

Leftovers: Half A Billion Dollars For This Crap

• WIP reports that Comcast's asking price for the 76ers is $500 mil, Comcast Spectacor prez says, "Uh, no." Is Comcast lying? Or is WIP? We think that, somehow, both are. [Daily News]

• Have a dog? Well, there are some places where dogs can play! Aww. [Inquirer]

• You might think a story about where dogs can romp and play would not attract negative feedback. You might be an idiot. Comment on Philly.com: "RE: Haverford Colleges- What your article NEGLECTS to mention is that YES pets are welcome at Haverford College, BUT ONLY IF YOUR DOG IS LEASHED. Ditto for Valley Forge Park WHAT IS WITH THE POOR RESEARCH? ¶ See, that is what your article NEGLECTS to mention, and that is why even if you want to take your pooch to the park, that each place has specific RULES. Haverford College is a private instituion where access is a PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT." But of course. [Philly.com Comments]

• A bus driver from Bucks County has won his fifth international bus driving title. "The pressure is on all the time. I never take it for granted, because I know that it's just as tough next time,” said the victorious Larry Hannon, a legend in bus safety. Next, he's going to take it one game at a time and give it 110 percent. [Bucks County Courier Times]

• Teenager steals necklace; teenager gets run over, shot and killed by senior citizen who wanted his necklace back in Khan Park. [6 ABC]

• Whoa, wait. The culture war isn't an actual war? TMYK. [Reuters/Yahoo!]

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July 18, 2006

Leftovers: Keeping You Cool

• We'll note this again tomorrow, but for now a brief update on the Jim Gardner/Wikipedia snafu: The NYPD has no record of any arrests. So, uh, who the hell would do that? Like, Photoshop an image of Jim Gardner being arrested, then insert a fake line about an arrest on Wikipedia. And why would a local blog pick it up? (Oh, wait, I know the answer to that one.) It's kind of too strange. These Internets are dangerous things.

• Now that the Inquirer and Daily News are under local ownership, it's time to take a look at the tale of The Santa Barbara News-Press, which was acquired by a local owner in 2000. And, the results: "Staffers have been marching out the door, accusing her of interfering with their editorial independence. When she published her explanation of the departures as an expression of bias in the reporting staff on Thursday, even more quit. On Friday, her staff — or what remained of it — held a rally outside the newspaper building, where some 30 reporters and editors, dressed in black, put duct tape over their mouths, to represent the owner’s gag order issued last week." Oh. Brian Tierney suddenly looks awesome. [New York Times]

• The Philadelphia Business Journal has news of a tour of Philadelphia. Of course, by "Philadelphia" here, we mean "A Small Stretch Of The North End of the Boulevard." Here's the itinerary: Best Western Hotel (on the Boulevard), Palace Roller Skating Rink (right next to Best Western), Franklin Mills (off Woodhaven) and Dave and Buster's (at Franklin Mills). And, of course, no Liberty Bell. [Philebrity/PBJ]

• A Rehobeth man braved Jellyfish and cold water temperatures (?) and swam across the Delaware Bay today, claiming to be the first man to ever swim across the entire bay. [AP/Philly.com]

• And, finally, Bobby Abreu is hustling. This might be stranger than that Jim Gardner thing. [Daily News]

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April 26, 2006

Talk About Hot News

In what is most certainly be the best crime ever so far this year, on Sunday a man stole six newsstands.

The man, Ofatai King, hired a crane to take six newstands that weren't his and move them to locations where he had applied for newsstand permits but hadn't gotten approval.

And it's not just that: In addition to just stealing newsstands from hard-working people, he didn't even move them in any way that made sense: A stand from Cottman and Bustleton was moved to 52nd and Chestnut, while a stand from 13th and Market went to Bridge and Pratt.

He actually had hired the crane company to do it to additional newsstands on Monday night, but it was stopped before more stands were moved.

You don't even need to write any jokes about this. It's just too confusing. And already funny enough.

Extra! Extra! Stands stolen! [Daily News]

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April 24, 2006

Blogging May Suck, But It's Not THAT Bad, Or: Quick, Get This Post Up So I Can Do A Gross More

There was an essay in yesterday's Inquirer about how blogs aren't the future of media and how the blogoverse values speed over quality writing and it's angry and blah blah blog blog blog.

It's funny that the article -- by Weekly Standard online editor Jonathan Last -- downplaying the significance of blogs was in the Inky, which has approximately 4500 blogs and seems to view them as a panacea for the paper's future. But I digress. I need to pump out this post so I can do a dozen more by day's end.

Last's essay generalizes the following about blogs: They lead to navel-gazing, they don't value good writing, they are ultimately pointless. Because the media never naval-gazed before blogs.

Does Last make some good points? Certainly. I'm as skeptical about blogging as anyone. But to pigeonhole blogging, the medium, as simply a nothing but little meta-media commentary is just silly.

At its core, blogging is nothing more than an easy way to create and update your own webpage, to publish your thoughts for the world to see. The importance of blogs isn't that they allow Citizen Joe the opportunity to tear down the "mainstream media," they allow Citizen Joe to write his thoughts, his views, his fears, whatever. Citizen Joe could do this before, too, by standing on a soapbox, or publishing his own newsletter, or even making his own hard-coded HTML page. Blogging just made it easier. Or he can post photos of cute puppies, write recipes for applesauce or self-publish his poetry.

So what if there are 20 blogs posting about their problems with the Sudanese New York Times story? In 1955, maybe there were 20 people sitting around, complaining about a Times' story on Sudan. They couldn't get their unfiltered words out there very easily. Some may have valid points, some may say that the Times screws up its Sudan reporting because it's biased toward the Kraft Corporation. Some may have confused the article with one about sedans and is really confused. Sure, the signal-to-noise ratio may be small. But how does that make the Times' story any less important? Hell, some writing online may expand on the story, may add to it.

I know: Nothing on a blog is fact-checked or vetted and could even intentionally try to bend the facts to support a point of view. It's a danger, and it's not perfect. I tend to think that if you write something wrong, especially intentionally wrong, you'll be corrected by your audience -- but even if not, the danger in unchecked writing is not a reason to dismiss everything right away.

Complaining that a commentary blog -- and, yes, there are other kinds of blogs -- doesn't do much or any original reporting is like complaining that Donovan McNabb didn't kick any field goals this year. It's not the aim of said blog. And since it's easier and quicker to sit at your computer and tap tap tap instead of going out there, most popular blogs are at this point simply commentary, often meta-commentary.

But why do only the popular blogs count? Sure, right not it seems lots of popular blogs have shitty writing. But to say that all blogs don't value writing is silly -- there are blogs out there that are simply about the craft of writing, that post fiction and personal essays and I even know one blogger whose writing got him a big ol' job blogging for Philadelphia Weekly. (Gee, I wonder who?) Should I discount all fiction simply because The Da Vinci Code is a piece of crap? Or the work of Jonathan V. Last in the Inquirer because the Weekly Standard blows? (There's that vitriol again! Dang it!)

Look, if you're a good writer and a good reporter in the year 2006, right now you're most likely employed by, say, a major news organization, one that has been around for years and years. Oh, really, recent Pulitzer winners James Risen and Eric Lichtblau are employed by the New York Times instead of blogging on their own? What a shocker! By virtue of being a largely self-published medium, people with other jobs, other things to do, are going to be blogging. But that doesn't mean we should discount the whole general populace of it.

Sure, blogs aren't the giant-killer of old-style media as we know it. We should temper our love of this whole blogging world, this whole giant mess that is the realm of online publishing, most of it self-published. But simply because a large portion of the relatively new medium has gone the way of slapdash meta commentary so far doesn't mean it's not going to change in the future. It's just a publishing tool. It's just the Internet.

On the other hand, I wish somebody would have edited this before I sent it out to the world. Or at least looked it over.

One Last Thing | Blog, humbug! [Inky]
Dec. 5, 2005: An introduction

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April 20, 2006

And They Said You Couldn't Make Money In Journalism

My favorite sporting event in the world is the Penn Relays. It's simply incredible. The three-day track and field carnival packs in runners from grade schools to the best athletes in the world, has Jamaicans dancing throughout the Franklin Field stands and thousands of vendors lining 33rd and Walnut streets. You don't really need to be an ex-track runner (like me) to enjoy it. It's more of a party than any sort of athletic event.

While I like the relays, I don't know if I like them this much: Former Bulletin and Inquirer sportswriter Frank Dolson has donated $1.25 million dollars to endow the directorship of the Relays. One-point-two-five million bucks!

Dolson, who now works for the Yankees, first began covering the Relays while a student at Penn in 1950. (Okay, so you can make money as a journalist if you do it for years and years and years and years and then leave to go work for George Steinbrenner. And if you work for a union paper.) And Dolson didn't even want his name to be put on the Directorship of the Relays, but was talked into it by Relays Director -- er, Frank Dolson Relays Director -- Dave Johnson and Penn AD Steve Bilsky.

But, hey, a guy giving back to an event he simply has covered for the past 50+ years? That's too impressive. The collective hat of Relays fans (and other journalists who have covered it) goes off to you, Frank.

Ex-writer repays Penn Relays with $1.25 million endowment [Inky]

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April 17, 2006

Leftovers: Prize Fighting

• The Pulitzer Prizes were announced, and Hurricane Katrina coverage dominated. The Washington Post won four, The New York Times, three. I did not win any, as there is not (yet) a category for "Cute Puppy Photos." Then again, I'd probably lose that to Cute Overload. [Pulitzer.org]

• With attendance dwindling, some baseball parks have draped curtains over the cheapest seats so people have to buy more expensive tickets. The Phillies used to do this at the Vet, kind of -- there were roped off sections in the outfield you couldn't sit in during sparsely-attended games. [Slate]

• The ugly piece of art at 40th and Locust in West Philly is now being used as a place to sit, instead of just art. I'm not really surprised: The place looks like a glorified bus stop, so why not chill there and enjoy the spring breeze? [Daily Pennsylvanian]

• Doctors are saying that adults can get ADD nowadays, too, meaning that, basically we all can't pay atten... hey a blue car! [Bucks County Courier Times]

• This weekend, suspended/disgraced/whatever New York Post staffer Jared Paul Stern guest edited NYC media blog Gawker, and craziness and deleting and editing of comments ensued. If any Philly journo is fired for plagarism/extortion/drugs/etc., I will gladly let them run this little space for a day. Now let's get to work, people! [Gawker]

• And, to end the day, a sufficiently strange letter to the editor, again from the Daily News, which is really racking up the loony letters recently. [DN, second letter]

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April 12, 2006

Double D Journalism

As you might know, I'm only 23. I haven't really been at this journalist/media/whatever game for very long. (And before you send an angry email, yes, I work for PW, yes, I do stories for the paper, yes, I'm a journalist.)

So, anyway, yeah, I spent four years writing for the school paper, and about a year and a half as a paid journalist out in the real world. And I'm still kind of unsure on the rules. I have all the basic details down, but I'm still learning on some of the minute details.

Today, Dan Gross fills me in on some of the details:

When we confessed to [Patti] LaBelle that while we were trying to be respectful, we couldn't help but steal a few glances at her ample, well-displayed chest, she was flattered and kissed our cheek.

Woah, woah, woah. Not only can you stare at an interviewee's big boobs, if you mention it to her you get a kiss?

I ain't gonna be writing much more on this blog today. There's some people I need to go interview.

Dan Gross | 'Philly girl' visits Lil' Kim [DN]

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March 31, 2006

Leftovers: The Hunt Is On

• The new Daily News blog is from MSNBC commentator Flavia Colgan (right), who lives in Wynnewood, and it's called Citizen Hunter. I was kind of hoping for some kind of place you could register your complaints about other citizens and then hunt them down, but apparently it's some sort of liberal online activism blog. Eh, that works, too. That leaves only one question: How is she not up for voting on this list? [Citizen Hunter]

• USA Today has declared that no team fits the surprising mold of a surprising World Series champ like the Philadelphia Phillies. But now that someone's saying it could happen, are they a surprise anymore? Why did you jinx us? [USA Today]

• Apparently, since I've left Penn, students are now not taking Friday classes. (This story comes from the same reporters who will one day churn out stories like the one about Justice Scalia possibly giving an obscene gesture.) This, though, is better than my collegiate plan, which was to schedule Friday classes and then not go to them. [Daily Pennsylvanian]

• Rumor alert: Prep grad and former 'It' indie music writer Nick Sylvester may have finally been fired from the Village Voice.

• Okay, weird alert: Scranton's old high school sports columnist apparently had a tying-young-girls-up fetish. But he says he never acted on it until the one time he got caught by the popo. [Delaware County Times via Deadspin]

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March 27, 2006

Remaking The 'Inquirer' (To Lose Lots Of Money)

One of the best things a newspaper can do is solicit reader input on what to do with the newspaper. I don't mean figuring out how to more involve the community for those who volunteer input or feedback or comments or whatever, I mean a thing like the Inquirer did recently: Ask readers what they'd do if they owned the paper.

Why is this such a good idea? Because the results are almost always hilarious, with ill-informed ideas, ridiculous rhetoric, and -- of course -- accusations of both liberal and conservative bias. Take the Inky article: It reported on the "more than 100" letters the paper got.

Here's how good it was: The suggestion to put a popcorn machine in the newsroom was the best one. My favorite suggestions happened to be the ones accusing the paper of liberal bias, not because the paper isn't biased liberally (I don't really know), but their ideas were amazing: "I would fire half the reporters and editors for news and sports, and hire a like number of conservatives." Yes, that Bob Brookover, always injecting liberal bias into his Eagles recaps! (The other good liberal bias letter was the one saying he'd replace the paper's staff with the Evening Bulletin staff. I'm not sure how their one staff reporter will put out five sections a day, though.)

But, the best suggestion by far attacks the one thing standard in most newspapers: Astrology. It comes form a worker at the Edelman Planetarium: "If I owned The Inquirer, the first thing I would do would be to remove the astrology column and replace it with the real thing: a column on the night sky and modern astronomical discoveries."

Oh, wait: "In the middle of the front page I would write a paragraph of 250 words, once a week, on jokes (clean jokes), gags, situation comedy. Everything would be clean and no filth."

There you have it, people. As much as asking for these suggestions is one of the best things a paper can do -- and, to be fair, some of the suggestions were fairly level-headed -- one of the worst things a paper can do: Actually implementing them.

If I were in charge of The Inquirer... [Inky]

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March 22, 2006

Leftovers: Sex, Lies & Videotape

• Story of, perhaps, the year, courtesy of Dan Gross: NBC 10 traffic reporter John Ogden was handcuffed and it was caught on video. (He ended up not being charged with anything -- "wrong place, wrong time" it seems.) But the actual best part of it was that CBS 3 bought the video without knowing Ogden was in it. They say they're not going to air it, which is good for the contest-winning traffic reporter, but bad for the other 1.4 million Philadelphians. [DN]

• I'm going to try to link this story about "city girl" speak without, like, writing some sort of city girl speak. Wait... d'oh! [New York Observer]

• An update: The meeting between John Street and James Kenney was not just them, it was a four-way with Bob Brady and Frank DiCicco. Ew, that's nasty. [DN]

• Rumor of the Day: Judy Miller is going to be writing for Atlantic Monthly. And Steve Glass has the cover in the next issue of, uh, N+1. [Gawker]

• This article in Slate about how drug testing doesn't deter students from drug usage is good, but I love the caption on the stock photograph even better: "A student smokes a joint." [Slate]

• People are so scared of peak oil -- the idea that, essentially, we're going to run out -- they're acquiring land in the desert to start new lives when the shit hits the fan. Uh, I'll continue being not stupid, thank you very much. [Salon]

• The prostitute/"real estate agent" who was allegedly murdered by a bouncer was dismembered after her death, according to testimony. And then a 17-year-old allegedly shot the bouncer. Wow. [NBC 10]

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As If Journalism Doesn't Have Enough Problems Already

Hottie ex-teacher Debra Lafave, who was convicted in one county in Florida of having sex with a 14-year-old student in 2004, had similar charges in another county dropped yesterday when the judge rejected a plea deal and prosecutors decided making the boy testify would be too much of a burden. (Some of the alleged sex happened in a different county, hence the double set of charges.)

Anyway, Lafave won't be serving any jail time, but is on house arrest for three years, probation for seven and will have to register as a sex offender. Now that the ordeal is finally over, she did what any God-fearing American would do: Hold a press conference.

Lafave says she's sorry, says she regrets what she did and also -- of course! -- blames the media for focusing too much attention on the case. The irony that she said this at a press conference she was holding was apparently lost on her. And, well, she's not going to let that perceived journalistic sin go unpunished:

Lafave criticized the extensive media coverage her case received, accusing reporters of invading the privacy of her former student.

She said she was taking a journalism course online, adding, "God has given me a great outlet to write, and I would hope I could reach people through writing."

Well, at least she'll be a writer who's scandalous for something other than making shit up.

Prosecutors drop sex case against teacher [CNN.com]

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March 10, 2006

Leftovers: Reefer madness

• I've said before that all you need to do is make jokes about weed and people will go nuts. That being said, here's a story about Joey Sweeney and Adam Arcuragi high, and other related MP3s and goodies. [Philebrity]

• That being said, here's some more news: Upper Darby has been chosen as a "Weed and Seed" site. You take the EL westbound to get there, kids. [KYW 1060]

• Here's a riddle for you: What's more boring than Blinq? Give up? A 5,000-word feature on its editor! I kid, I kid. But, still, a rimshot, please? [Blue Plate Special]

• If you're ever down, just remember this: You don't root for a team known as Red Bull New York. [AP/ESPN.com]

• Want to know what the (ridiculously awful) Star & Buc Wild show is responsible for? Read this: "Want to know how to sell more junk food, sweatshop clothes and Mercedes? First, you make people feel bad about their lot in life, and then offer them relief through consumption. When people feel low, they consume to comfort themselves." I once bought a $100 pair of jeans. I blame Barsky. [Citypaper]

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February 22, 2006

Quickies: Much more important than the 'War on Christmas'

• Hey, you know Darfur? Sure you do! It's the war we're all really up in arms about and a multinational coalition is invading because there's a genocide and... er, wait. We don't all care about it and it's effing crazy. A former Marine who witnessed some of the atrocities speaks at the Free Library tonight. [KYW 1060]

• Hey, college kids! Don't have an independent student newspaper at your school? It turns out the administration can just censor anything they want! Especially if you print cartoons with Muhammad in them. [Reuters]

• If you have a gun lying around, you can turn it in for some Sixers tickets. Apparently nobody working this promotion has seen the Sixers play this year. [Inky]

• Just an update on the fate of The Platters, who have (apparently) 974 people claiming to once be a member: Gov. Rendell has signed legislation making it illegal to perform as a member of The Platters if you weren't. Phew. [KYW 1060]

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February 01, 2006

Blogicized: Eye of the tiger

• Calling all pseudo-outdoorsy types! Survivor auditions hit CBS 3 tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the studios at Fifth and Market streets. Just, if you get on the show and win, be sure to pay your taxes afterward. [Philly Future]

• Some people leaving this town in the art world: Thora Jacobson, Fleisher Art Memorial director, and Jeff Weinstein, Inquirer fine arts editor. [artblog]

• As usual, in the blog world, it's all about Ricky Ricky Ricky. He's flip-flopping, though, which is the first case ever of a politician ever changing his mind or being hypocritical. Right? [A Smoke-Filled Room]

• Newspapers, who've been giving away their content for years, fight back. Or something. I don't really know. It's the end of the day; leave me alone. [Blinq]

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January 24, 2006

I kid, I kid; I'll never leave you, writing

Shit! Why didn't anyone tell me this before I chose a career?

Intuition | Actually, money does buy happiness [Inky]

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January 17, 2006

Quickies: Second encore

• Okay, no Ben backlash here: This 1,200 photo montage of Ben Franklin by Tom Gralish is pretty damn cool. Especially when Franklin Mills (left) is included! [Inky]

• 89-year-old Walter Cronkite has a new 65-year-old girlfriend. Man, imagine the harem Ben Franklin would have if he were alive today! [Inky]

• Did youse all see the Sixers game Friday night? Ehm, maybe not. But the Sixers were down 16, rallied to tie it, hit a three at the buzzer of the second OT to send it into triple-overtime, then won it by a point. And, then, in a great encore, they lost by 28 yesterday! Whoo! When do the hockey playoffs start? [DN]

• And, in case you haven't seen it yet, Miss New Jersey has a blog. Miss New Jersey? Isn't that like being the funniest war movie? (Rimshot.) [Camden Courier-Post]

• The Washington Post's ombudsman gets something wrong, and Will Bunch lays the smack down. That's my boy! [Poynter Online via Eschaton]

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December 20, 2005

The most important story of the year

Eh, you don't have to read the article. The answer is Yes! Write your congressperson.

Are Journalists Underpaid? [Slate]

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