Friend sends me a sports-journalist Web site with an interesting, sorta, discussion of the Advocate's situation. Go here and browse through it, as shop talk is always interesting. The thing here is that the Vicad sports editor job just came open for the third or fourth time in a year. That's a hell of a burn rate on sports guys. Some say that a micromanaging editor makes life unbearable for newsroom help such as the sports editor.
We went to Goliad Saturday for Market Days and had a fine time looking at all the flatland touristers, even bought three canisters of spices from the guy who sells there. I can recommend the spice guy as one of life's great bargains, as he sells about a kajillion different spices for $2.50/good-sized container and makes acceptable jokes in the process. Met an former colleague and his smart and pretty wife for lunch. Said former colleague bailed from Vicad for a weekly paper and is making more money and suffering less misery.
Earlier this week the paper ran a piece on some old rancher gal. It could have been entertaining and interesting; let me show you why it wasn't: Kid who wrote it said, 'Her father gave her age-suitable jobs.' That sounds like it was written by a school administrator. Think of the possibilities there for a little life in the writing. "Her father sent her out to toss corn to the chickens in the yard' or 'Her father put her in the garden to pick hornworms off the tomatoes' or whatever he sent her out to do. She would have remembered that first job vividly and given some immediacy to the story, and a good writer would have asked for the details and any good editor would have asked for some specificity.
We can beat this holiday thing. I've only heard the wretched 'Drummer Boy" song once this year.
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3 comments:
Well, that was mighty interesting, wasn't it? Do you suppose that anyone interested in the job would feel cheated when they got here and found things not exactly as described?
Does your former colleague still sport a ponytail? I miss Jason if that is who you are referencing.
You know id we keep reading long enough, the Advocaate will have dumbed us down, and we won't notice the poor quality of work.
How sad.
That would be the guy. Still pony-tailed and unrepentant. [I sidled up behind him and said,'Get a haircut, hippie.'] The paper felt his loss, given his sources and good rapport w/law enforcement. Reports that some Atzenhoffer car advertising has gone to the weeklies. Very interesting. Not much advertising in today's paper.
Glad to hear he hasn't changed.
I really worry that one by one the good ones are going to be all forced out and I just hate that.
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