In my first newsroom, at a small town in central Pennsylvania, we had a slogan on the bulletin board: "Get it first, get it fast, get it right." All three parts were absolutely required. If you got something wrong, or late, not only did you get a dressing-down from the editor, but you also got the cold shoulder from your reporter pals: you'd let them down. Sloth on the job was unforgiveable: no matter how boring a small-town municipal meeting was, the thought of missing a story, and then having to explain why to your boss and peers, kept you in your seat. You got burned once misspelling Jon Smythe's name as John Smith, and forever more you learned to ask every single person how to spell his or her name, no matter how obvious it appeared.
We reporters griped constantly, we played hookey from staff meetings and we drank at lunch, but we had a sense of pride in our work far out of proportion to our $180-a-week salaries (perks: free coffee, notebooks and film).
I'm not sure that exists at any news organization except at the most local level anymore: this afternoon two of the major news outlets blundered by announcing that an arrest had been made in the Boston atrocities. I don't want to speculate about how that happened, but I can't help comparing such increasingly common sloppiness to our standards at a little 6-day-a-week paper in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, staffed by underpaid 20-somethings.
I remember one Friday night, one of my colleagues thought he'd give his editor a chuckle while typing up the birth announcements: he wrote that our sports editor, a bachelor, had had octuplets at the local hospital. The editor didn't read the birth announcements and just sent them through to be typeset. Monday morning, of course, we started fielding excited calls about the octuplets.
The hapless reporter was fired by lunchtime, no questions asked. Which is as it should have been.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Eating like a bird
Remember those baby chicks that arrived in the mail a few weeks ago? I went to visit them after lunch today at my friend's farm and was amazed how much they've grown: they're now the size of small crows. Their wings and tails have come in, and there's a weighted screen across the top of their trough because they've already started to fly.
My friend reports that the 28 birds are eating her out of house and home: they go through two large bowls of chick feed each day, and a full water container. They are still basking under a heat lamp, and they won't be transferred to the coop til they get considerably larger.
My friend reports that the 28 birds are eating her out of house and home: they go through two large bowls of chick feed each day, and a full water container. They are still basking under a heat lamp, and they won't be transferred to the coop til they get considerably larger.
Advertising fail
I've written about the deluge of junk mail I get from Verizon; you probably do, too. Well, Verizon now informs me that I am eligible to get FiOS TV "at a price that's too good to pass up."
This is not likely. I don't want FiOS TV, or any other TV service, at any price.
Nor am I enticed by their newest marketing tie-in with the Marvel comic-book character "Iron Man": "Let FiOS be the hero of your home," reads their slogan. No thanks; I think I'd rather have my garden trowel as the hero of my home.
Obviously I am not the demographic FiOS is targeting. In fact, I think the marketing people at Verizon should pay ME to review their campaigns: "Dude! Tilda called this one `stupid and offensive.' We've got a winner for sure!"
This is not likely. I don't want FiOS TV, or any other TV service, at any price.
Nor am I enticed by their newest marketing tie-in with the Marvel comic-book character "Iron Man": "Let FiOS be the hero of your home," reads their slogan. No thanks; I think I'd rather have my garden trowel as the hero of my home.
Obviously I am not the demographic FiOS is targeting. In fact, I think the marketing people at Verizon should pay ME to review their campaigns: "Dude! Tilda called this one `stupid and offensive.' We've got a winner for sure!"
Office calendar
My office calendar, courtesy of the Avondale firm of H.L. Yerkes & Sons Inc., Growers Supplies, has a page for each week. On the back of each page there's some statistical information, sometimes useful (recommended body weights, suggested baking temperatures) and others times not so much: the number of days between the same date of two months (excluding leap years). All I could think of was the poor intern who had to sit there in front of a calendar counting off the number of days between, say, Feb. 1 and Nov. 1. Welcome to the publishing world, kid!
Sharing
My mornings are pretty much devoted to work, but how could I say no when a friend asked if I wanted any mostly-sun perennials from her garden?
I finished editing the chapter I was working on, collected some boxes and drove over there. She has a huge, lovely, informal garden in her side yard and, while taking stock of what was coming up, realized that she really needed to get rid of some of the phlox, daisies, yarrow and strawberries that were escaping from their plots.
I happily took them off her hands, brought them home and dug them in later that afternoon.
She also tried to give me some mint, anise hyssop and lemon balm, but I've learned a thing or two over the years about how avidly they spread. No, thanks, my friend!
I finished editing the chapter I was working on, collected some boxes and drove over there. She has a huge, lovely, informal garden in her side yard and, while taking stock of what was coming up, realized that she really needed to get rid of some of the phlox, daisies, yarrow and strawberries that were escaping from their plots.
I happily took them off her hands, brought them home and dug them in later that afternoon.
She also tried to give me some mint, anise hyssop and lemon balm, but I've learned a thing or two over the years about how avidly they spread. No, thanks, my friend!
Gun violence
West Marlborough resident Starr Cummin Bright was the lead-off speaker at a gun violence forum sponsored by Oxford mayor Geoff Henry that was held at Oxford Presbyterian Church the evening of April 16.
Starr showed true guts by standing up in front of the large crowd and talking about how, back in 1991 in Landenberg, she was shot at point-blank range by a mentally ill gunman. In her riveting, emotional talk, she described the devastation that one .32-caliber bullet has caused in her body and her life.
"This guy never should've had a gun," she said simply.
Supporting Starr at the talk were her two daughters (who were ages 1 and 3 at the time of the shooting), her husband, sculptor Clayton Bright, and a host of friends.
"Unionville in the News" is not a forum for my political opinions, but I will say that listening to the ensuing discussion, I was struck by the vast cultural and ideological gulf between the extremists on both sides. I know a lot of avid gun-owners with well-defended homes -- hunters, target-shooters, crime victims, farmers -- who fall squarely into the middle camp. We need to hear more from them.
Starr showed true guts by standing up in front of the large crowd and talking about how, back in 1991 in Landenberg, she was shot at point-blank range by a mentally ill gunman. In her riveting, emotional talk, she described the devastation that one .32-caliber bullet has caused in her body and her life.
"This guy never should've had a gun," she said simply.
Supporting Starr at the talk were her two daughters (who were ages 1 and 3 at the time of the shooting), her husband, sculptor Clayton Bright, and a host of friends.
"Unionville in the News" is not a forum for my political opinions, but I will say that listening to the ensuing discussion, I was struck by the vast cultural and ideological gulf between the extremists on both sides. I know a lot of avid gun-owners with well-defended homes -- hunters, target-shooters, crime victims, farmers -- who fall squarely into the middle camp. We need to hear more from them.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
TT loves HP
Much to my surprise and relief, learning how to use my new computer has not been bad at all. In fact, I've actually enjoyed the learning curve.
My old Compaq 2003 laptop was still serviceable -- if the butt of jokes from friends and family -- but it was past its peak: it was getting a little slow, the sound card hadn't worked for years, and an increasing number of my files for work just didn't seem to like opening up in Word 97 anymore.
So while I had a week between projects, I went to Staples and bought an HP All-in-One PC with Windows 8 and Word 2013. As soon as they finished transferring over my old data, I took it home, set it up immediately and devoted the next two days to figuring out the various icons, "tiles" and "charms and learning the new Word functions (new to me, at least!).
With my learning style, I would have appreciated having a manual spelling out where to find things ("This is where your photos were on your old system. Here's where they are now"), but instead you have to just play around and experiment. That part gets a bit frustrating -- until you happen upon a shortcut or a new function that you realize will save you lots of time.
One problem that quickly cropped up was that the new version of Word I bought didn't have Outlook, which is what I used to use for email. Then I remembered that I didn't really need Outlook; I could just get my email directly from Verizon's website. Yes! OK, yes, I lost all my saved emails and email addresses while doing so, but the important people write to me all the time anyway, or I can get their contact information online. Spring cleaning!
I was almost certain my little Olympus camera wouldn't sync with the new computer. I envisioned trying to find the camera's instruction manual, circa 2002, and the software that came with it. No need: the camera linked automatically.
The new computer is so sharp-looking, with its big screen (I actually had to de-brighten it), and everything is so well organized. With my old computer, the space under my old Ikea desk was clogged with peripherals and power cords. Now, there's only a footstool. Amazing.
My old Compaq 2003 laptop was still serviceable -- if the butt of jokes from friends and family -- but it was past its peak: it was getting a little slow, the sound card hadn't worked for years, and an increasing number of my files for work just didn't seem to like opening up in Word 97 anymore.
So while I had a week between projects, I went to Staples and bought an HP All-in-One PC with Windows 8 and Word 2013. As soon as they finished transferring over my old data, I took it home, set it up immediately and devoted the next two days to figuring out the various icons, "tiles" and "charms and learning the new Word functions (new to me, at least!).
With my learning style, I would have appreciated having a manual spelling out where to find things ("This is where your photos were on your old system. Here's where they are now"), but instead you have to just play around and experiment. That part gets a bit frustrating -- until you happen upon a shortcut or a new function that you realize will save you lots of time.
One problem that quickly cropped up was that the new version of Word I bought didn't have Outlook, which is what I used to use for email. Then I remembered that I didn't really need Outlook; I could just get my email directly from Verizon's website. Yes! OK, yes, I lost all my saved emails and email addresses while doing so, but the important people write to me all the time anyway, or I can get their contact information online. Spring cleaning!
I was almost certain my little Olympus camera wouldn't sync with the new computer. I envisioned trying to find the camera's instruction manual, circa 2002, and the software that came with it. No need: the camera linked automatically.
The new computer is so sharp-looking, with its big screen (I actually had to de-brighten it), and everything is so well organized. With my old computer, the space under my old Ikea desk was clogged with peripherals and power cords. Now, there's only a footstool. Amazing.
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