Tag Archives: newspapers

Newspapers

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sidelines-0011When I worked at my college newspaper some 30 years ago, we sidelines-002were in an office above one of the school cafeterias. We had rickety typewriters and iffy lighting and most days had to steal chairs from other rooms down the hall. Today, my university has a whole new building dedicated to the communication arts. I think I’m jealous. In a good way. Because if the next generation of  journalists is getting support, encouragement and quality training, then I feel better about the future of newspapers. Read more at my column today in the TimesDaily, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090206/ARTICLES/902060302

Newspapers

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Newspapers have always been a huge part of my life. I grew up watching my parents read the big-city daily that came to our driveway every evening and checking our small-town weekly for school lunch menus and ballgame wrap-ups. I met my husband while working at the college newspaper. My first jobs as a college graduate and later as a newly  divorced woman and single mom were as newspaper reporters. My husband is a newspaper sports editor, I’m a newspaper columnist and we pick up newspapers everywhere we go. Am I worried about the future of newspapers as the industry faces crisis and change? Hmm … maybe. Read my column today at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090130/ARTICLES/901300301

New Year Countdown

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christmas-2008-part-2-062Happy New Year! Hope everybody’s 2009 got off to a great start. It’s the seventh day of Cathy’s new-year-2009-004New Year Countdown and we’re going on to Jan. 6, or Twelfth Night, mainly because I have a real problem packing it all up and letting the holidays go. I mean, why not celebrate as long as possible? (Or at least, as long as your neighbors will tolerate your yard decor. ) My husband and I kept the party going with a rockin’ New Year’s Eve on Wednesday night. He’s a newspaper sports editor, and as usual, he was at the office until after midnight as the paper went to press, so like the good wife I am — no, really! — I hung out with him there. We watched the ball drop on the copy-desk TV and toasted each other and the New Year with sparkling grape juice. This was one of the first New Year’s Eve we didn’t go out or at least have a family party, but, strangely enough, our daughters (one married and a mom and the other a college senior) seemed to have better things to do than hang out with the old folks, so we were on our own. And I kind of liked it! Check back tomorrow for day no. 8 in Cathy’s New Year Countdown for a great tip on finding inspiration for 2009.

Sunday Puzzles

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Have you tried Numbrix yet? Marilyn vos Savant, who authors the “Ask Marilyn” column in the Sunday magazine Parade, invented this fun number game recently. New puzzles are in her Parade “Ask Marilyn” column and daily at http://www.parade.com/askmarilyn/numbrix. Here’s how it works: You fill in a partially complete grid with the missing numbers 1-81 so that the numbers are in numerical order without diagonals — only horizontally and vertically. It’s one of the rare puzzles that’s challenging yet simple at the same time. If you need to warm up for a five-star Sudoku or the Sunday New York Times crossword or you just need to rest your brain while giving it a gentle nudge, try Numbrix. A word of warning, though: It’s much easier to do online so you don’t have massive erasing. Unlike Sudoku, where a quick check can show you where you’re going wrong, you can work yourself into a Numbrix hole without realizing it until the very last square — much better to hit the “reset”  button than rub holes in the Sunday parade with your eraser. If a puzzle can be elegant, then this one is. When you’re — literally — on the right path, you get into a satisfying rhythm and everything falls into place. Good luck!

Choosing

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So many choices! So options! So many decisions! This is why fall is my favorite season. In summer’s heat and humidity, things sort of slow down and we (and by “we” I actually mean “me”) get lazy and bored and boring. But once September’s here and October’s only a calendar-page-flip away, we get re-energized. And we do need energy, because after weeks of not having anything to do, we suddenly have too much to do. Of course, by “anything,” I mean things that are fun and I want to do versus things that are not fun and I don’t want to do — think eating chocolate chip cookies versus cleaning out closets. Anyway, fall weekends mean choosing. Do I go to the concert or the football game? Do I visit the arts and crafts show or watch the homecoming parade? Do I hang out at the street festival or go hunt for the perfect pumpkin? Of course, money, time and gas availability are factors, but it’s still fun to have choices.

Friday night, I had to decide whether to be part of the debate crowd in Oxford, Miss., or watch on TV  — and the uncertainty of whether the debate would go on or not didn’t help. Anyway, I dilly-dallied around until it was too late — which is my usual way of making a decision — and so traded the excitement of downtown Oxford for the comfort of an indoor screen. Naturally, in my typical contrary way, I immediately wished I had made the effort to go! Oh, well. Anyway, you can feel as if you were there by reading the blogs at http://www.djournal.com — the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal newspaper in Tupelo, Miss. I’m not sure who “won” the debate, but I am sure it seemed more of the same big talk, vague promises and it’s-not-my-fault excuses. Oh, yeah, and the classic I-predicted-this-years-ago-if-you-all-would-have-only-listened. The closer we get to November, the surer I am that I’m choosing to take a pencil with me to the polls. I’m just saying.

Shopping of the Day

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Headed to Nashville for some shopping? Check out the Tennessean’s shopping Web site at nashvilleshopping.com to make sure you don’t waste your trip. This is a fun and useful look at deals, trends and what’s hot and what’s not in the Music City.

Wish more newspapers were as successful with print/online/real life integration. This is a perfect example of how to do it — and we readers end up with more shoes! It’s win-win!!!

College Journalists

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On Tuesday, my husband, John Pitts, and I led workshops at the Student Publications Boot Camp for the University of North Alabama’s student newspaper, the Flor-Ala. John did design and I did feature writing, although of course John equally could have done feature writing while design makes me throw up. (Who can handle all that stress and pressure???) Anyway, we had a great time. The world’s future is in great hands if these young people will be in charge. (Full disclosure: Older daughter, Liz, was the Flor-Ala lifestyles editor three/four years ago.) These kids are smart, engaged, enthusiatic, curious and a lot of fun — and are well on their way to making this semester of UNA student journalism a stellar one. Check it out at http://www.florala.net/home/.

On our way home, John and I wandered down Nostalgia Lane and talked about college newspapers today versus the olden days of the 1970s when we hung out in the Sidelines offices at the University of Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro. We noted differences: typewriters v. computers, drinking/smoking v. not drinking/smoking, diversity v. not much. And in the some-things-never-change category, we both agreed that college newspapers seem to attract the same motley crew of personalities no matter where or when: The free-spirit photographers, the creative art folks, the copy editor who just wants people to get their stories in on time, the writers who are serious about their jobs and the organized and determined editor who’s going to pull it all together. Aw, youth!

Anyway, thanks to the Flor-Ala adviser, MJ Jennings, for a great day. Hope we get invited back.