Error, the credits for that Monkeees episode lists the landlord as Henry Corden, and IMDB sez he's done lots of Fred Flinstone work. So I guess there have been multiple Freds just like "Bewitched" had multiple Darrens.

:-)

And Corden's Canuckian, too! *L*

What a brilliant column. I wonder how many times we will make the same mistakes before we learn from them.

As long as I'm AchenHogging...

Here's a Sunday Arts tease concerning Mrs. Parton that indicates either extreme clevrness with double entendre or sheer blockheadedness:

"Dolly's down-home heart underpins her ample talent."

:-)

I am fine, I was just a little shaken, the window sort of exploded so it was the sound more than anything that bothered me.

Perhaps we could hire Yoki and Ivansmom, they seem way too organized.

Joel, I'd like to think we could keep 1812 as the low point in war history, it was not exactly a shining moment in our miltary history either, nor did it seem to have much of a point. Although up until recently it did result in the undefended border.

And for more fine columns, see the Post magazine 20th anniversary section:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901171.html

Thanks for pointing this out yesterday, RD. There is a column by Joel on the OJ trial, a couple by Dave Barry and Gene Weingarten (including The Great Zucchini) - I spent quite awhile there last night. And Tom fan, Tom Schroder is doing a chat Monday!

MoDowd the Goddess interviews Stewart and Colbert. I'm sure Joel's piece will be very nice too.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/jon_stewart_stephen_colbert_americas_anchors

From the Dowd piece, concerning her tape recorder:

"'I thought it was a chaise,' Stewart says. 'I was going to lie down on it. I suppose there are two gerbils in there slowly paddling, and that's moving the wheel.' He asks if I also brought a calligrapher."

'Mudge wasn't available?

:-)

>Error, the credits for that Monkeees episode

Thanks for the update Scotty. Apparently given multiple glasses of wine last night I ordered the whole series. (sheepish grin)

I was looking for an excuse anyway. :-)

Blast that Amazon 1-Click!

S'nuke, obviously the former. "Looking Swell?" Read the article and um, yeah definitely lots of references.

I gotta show you the sign for Dolly Parton. She's one of the few famous people (very few-- we're talking Lincoln, Shakespeare, Washington, Van Gogh and maybe 10 more people) that has earned her own name sign by pretty much universal agreement.

Of course, it could have been the War of 1807 if the fracas between the sailors of the USS Chesapeake and HMS Leopard had escalated. When did the war with Iraq really begin, when was the provocation so great? On 9/11? Or the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center in '93? Or on the high seas, in port in Yemen, with the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole?

Was the start of the War of 1812 really about free trade, sailors' rights (for American citizens not to be impressed into service in the British navy), and a Canadian landgrab--and was this the same reason for the conflict at war's end?

Or perhaps we should compare our contemporary war management not to the fledging 20 states and fragile union involved in the War of 1812, but our superpower role today compared with the role of superpower Britain in 1812, which was fighting a war on two fronts--against Napoleon and against the United States. It wasn't until after Leipzig that the Brits were able to focus the war efforts on their distant cousins. Yet, our main effort has been to put more energy on our second front, on Iraq, than to fight our true foe, Usama bin Laden.

And, as much as Joel would like to please his local readers by focusing on the mistakes made in the District of Columbia and the area, the War of 1814 saw Britain assualting the United States from three directions:into the middle of America via Chesapeake Bay, from Canada via Niagara Falls and Lake Champlain, and from the south, the portal to half a continent from New Orleans. A fairly significant Loomis, historically, was involved on our northern front in the War of 1812 as an army chaplain. He then proceeded to Alton, Ill., where his children were involved in the Elijah Lovejoy saga, whose story segued into John Brown and Abe Lincoln and the Great American Conflict.

And the list of players today is just as expansive as it was in 1812: Shia, Sunni, Kurds, Iran Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Europe, United States, China. Then, it was Britain, Spain, France, Natives, Russia.

And wouldn't it be nice to have a comtemporary Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve this year? And will our greatest achievement in our current war lie not on the battlefield, but at the negotiating table?

And if anyone ever discussed the War of 1812 at a cocktail party in San Antonio, I think I'd fall over in a heap. Much more likely (not that it happens at any cocktail parties I attend) is talk of Polk's infamous land grab to the south.

"... which will, in turn, make you the object of feverish sexual fantasies."

Wouldn't it make the *subject* of fantasies, rather than the object?

//the War of 1814 saw Britain assualting the United States //
Hey, you started it.

No.. subject to FSF, or object of FSF.

Grammar:
I blew up at a stranger
(Stranger is object, I is the subject)

I had major frustration when this woman took her little dog no leash, no collar, only a pink bow in a hardware store where anybody could grab that dog, and basically just being the kind of careless that makes life hard for real service dog users everywhere.

I wrote her a note and she threw it in my face saying (I think) that she doesn't bite.

Even Petsmart prefers all dogs leashed, so I don't really see why she thinks it is one hundred percent okay to have even a little dog in a store w/o any kind of basic safeguard such as a leash.

I'm tired of the idea that little dogs are somehow exempt from the laws for big dogs. Dogs that piddle or otherwise misbehave in stores are very common and make life harder for others, too.

A chihuahua bit a cashier in a Home Depot and made the store change their policy towards all pet dogs and service dog users wound up being harrassed as a result.

Nobody can 100% know or predict everything that might happen in a store.

I'm not proud of myself, but dammit, I wanted to give her an earful and shame her in public so badly I could taste it.

I'm evil.

And to clarify, this was a pet dog, not a service dog of any sort that I could tell. A fine dog, too.

Clarifying Card

--------------------------------
Wilbrod is NOT evil

Wilbrod is rather good, actually
--------------------------------

I like my paraphrase of key speech in the movie _Sixth Sense_.

I see stupid people.
They don't know they are stupid people.
The walk around like regular people.

***
Sorry for the nice little battery-powered dog to have a crappy-person-mommy.

Made me think of the silliness of Brittany S. and Paris H., whose accessory dogs are the least offensive item about them SAVE when you feel sorry (concern for?) said chica-dogs.

Boy Wilbrod has a temper, glad it wasn't anything I did. When the situation was explained, I certainly understood-- I don't like the idea of being leash free in a store, anybody could grab my collar and I couldn't alert Wilbrod.

Sigh... oh boy, what a good walk gone to waste. I'm gonna finagle a better one out of Wilbrod soon.

CP, thanks for the paraphrase quote! Too funny.

That reminds me of Weird Al...

"Dare To Be Stupid"

Put down that chain saw and listen to me.
It's time for us to join in the fight.
It's time to let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
It's time to let the bedbugs bite
You better put all your eggs in one basket.
You better count your chickens before they hatch.
You better sell some wine before its time.
You better find yourself an itch to scratch.

You better squeeze all the Charmin you can,
When Mr. Whipple's not around.
Stick your head in the microwave, and get yourself a tan.
Talk with your mouth full.
Bite the hand that feeds you.
Bite off more than you can chew.
What can you do?
Dare to be stupid.......

http://www.yankovic.org/WeirdAl/c_Dare_To_Be_Stupid/index.php#02

Imagine a President and his family taking to the road in the form of running. Not a pretty picture, in history's view or in my mind's eye.

When I left this morning for church, the sun was shinning so bright, and it was cold. When I came out of church the sky is gray in every hue one can think of, and it's raining, and very cold.

It is looking like snow. Very much so.

Scotty, that was funny about Flintstone's voice (although you still haven't explained how it came to be that you were watching The Monkees).

On a similar note, I find it very distracting that Jonathon on the current Survivor is a voice double for Alan Alda.

The War of 1812 should be a bigger part of history up here. People that I know that went through school in Ontario seem to usually know the basics, but out west it's effectively skipped.

Is Jonathan anything like Alan Alda in appearance or is he freakishly opposite? The latter would be funny.

SonofCarl, "Disturbing" is the perfect word to describe Jonathan's Alda-esque voice. It's actually hard to pay attention to what he's saying.

He doesn't look just like Alan Alda, but he's not a polar opposite, either. And he's no Hawkeye Pierce.

I enjoyed Joel's pithy exposition of the War of 1812, for I never really knew a lot about that war except for the burning of the White House bit. I do recall that Dolley Madison was reported as being a great Hostess, although I believe that she is still more closely associated with Zingers.

You may have had some incompetents running that Revolutionary War epilogue down in DC, but come up to Bawlmer and we'll school you in how to turn back redcoats.

I was discussing the war with a good friend today and she reminded me that a hurricane hit Washington the day that the British occupied the Capital,complete with a tornado right in town.That must have scared the heck out of the British.Like a message from god not to mess with the U.S.

i guess they were not watching the weather channel that day.

My high school history teacher taught the War of 1812 in SONG:

In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip,
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a-coming
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they begin a running,
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Ole Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets 'till we look 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire 'til we seen their faces well
Then we opened up our squirrel guns and really gave 'em, Well..

[ chorus ]

They ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where the rabbits couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

[ chorus ]

We fired our canons 'til the barrel melted down
Then we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We stuffed his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
And when we shot the fire off the gator lost his mind.

-----
We had to SING to earn an A or B. He now fronts a Cowboy Band called "Sons of the Pioneers."

And, I remember this part of US History.

He also sang several songs from the Civil War, including the haunting "Lorena."

I don't know whether the War of 1812 assured the US wouldn't again try to seize Canada, or whether that was simply a matter of southern Members of Congress not wanting to annex a non-slave area. Or did they want to annex Canada to seize runaway slaves? What a dismal bunch of options. Anyway, I don't want to imagine a North America without Canada.

Well I guess the war of 1812 did result in some tasty sweets, Laura Secord chocolates up here, Dolly Madison cakes? down there. Pretty much sums up the importance of the battle, even though I have grown up so close to many of the battle sites and in the town of won of our heros (Joseph Brant), I have always had a hard time taking the NA part of the war of 1812 seriously.

Article about Wikipedia getting rid of "non-notables" - ruh-roh:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/02/AR2006120201111.html

I checked - the entry for Joel is still there.

Thanks to the magic of Tivo, we're watching SNL's 1990 Christmas episode, which includes Mike Meyers as Carl Sagan in...

The Global Warming Christmas Special!

Carl Sagan: Good evening, and welcome to my first Global Warming Christmas Special. It's a tradition which I fear will continue for years to come, because, the way things are going, global warming will be around for a long time. Now, here's someone else who's been around for a long time, a man who's hosted many a Christmas show himself - Mr. Dean Martin.

[ Dean Martin enters with a glass of vodka and a lit cigarette ]

Carl Sagan: Welcome, Dean. I hope this special will prove to be enlightening and entertaining.

Dean Martin: Hello there, Carl. You just show me where the cue cards and we'll take care of this whole thing.

Carl Sagan: Okay, Dean, because after all..

[ singing ]

"The Earth's atmosphere operates
as a greenhouse, if you will."

Dean Martin:
"When there's too much carbon dioxide
it blocks out all the.."

Carl Sagan:
"Our CO2 concentration
has risen to 350 parts per million
mostly due to the fossil fuel,
consumption and horizon other trace gases."

Dean Martin:
"Methane, nitrogen oxide
and cho-based molecules.."

Carl Sagan: [ interrupting ] Excuse me, Dean. Dean, that's not "cho", that's "C-H-O-H", a base molecule for all chlorofloral carbons. I wish you'd shown up for rehearsal.

Dean Martin: Well, it sure looks like "cho" to me, Professor! [ laughs ]

Carl Sagan: Well, perhaps we should simply proceed to the final refrain.

Dean Martin: Oh, lead the way!

Together: "'Cause you just can't tell it's Christmas anywhere!!"

Carl Sagan: Thank you. Dean, join me as we examine Christmas in an artificially-warmed envorimnoent.

Dean Martin: Oh now, hold on there, Einstein! Where's all the snow?

Carl Sagan: Well, Dean, if you'd paid attention to the lyrics you just sang, you'd realize that in a greenhouse climate, the chief precipitant would be rain.

Dean Martin: Ooh, that ain't right!

The rest is here (including a duet with Crystal Gayle and Isaac Asimov--and an "appearance" by everyone's favorite Beatle)...

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90hglobal.phtml

The point is?

The sharp bit at the end.

The Americans took York (to become Toronto later on) early on, some historian think that the destruction of Washington was in retaliation of this American victory. York was just a fort and a post at the time though; it is unlikely that this small victory would have upset the Brits that much. The merkins were stopped in their march toward Montreal by Charles Michel de Salaberry and his Voltigeurs at the battle of Chateaugay. The Canadiens (no such things as Canadians back then, just loyal British subjects) further problems at Chrysler farms and other locations made the US command concentrate their effort inside the US. As dmd stated the result of it all was the 3000 miles undefended border.

I envy you Yoki, having a lazy day inside the house, doing some cooking, petting the old dog and watching football would have been a treat. I'm beat. It was a beautiful winter day here, sunny with 25-30F temperature. I cleared up most of the big old tree but the sheer bulk of the thing defeated me. The small arborist's chain saw and my weak wrists were not up to the task, there are 4 6-foot sections left for further dismemberment. I'll borrow a real manly chainsaw for that task, enough with the girly one I say.
I'm having a coffee spiked with some Armagnac so I am mellowing pretty quickly here watching the late game (Seattle-Denver still scoreless).

Miracle on 34th St. is on.

Pisser. I cry through the whole movie.

Ooops 3-zip Denver. I' boodle hoarding.

A recipe that is NOT for the Edible Boodle Book:

Commercial suet block as Winter food for the birds barely contain any suet, this is cheap birdseed binded together with a little suet. Suet is a very valuable high-caloric food in winter.
Here is my recipe (good for cold weather climate only say October-April in Ottawa or August-June in Edmonton Ha!). Milder climate birder should omit the lard, it makes the mix too soft in warm weather.
(For 8 commercial size blocks)
- 1 kg (2 lbs) beef fat for a butcher shop, usually for free. Lamb fat is OK. Mutton fat would stink up the house.
- 1 kg (2 lbs) peanut butter
- 1 kg (2 lbs) lard (tenderflake)
- 1 kg (2 lbs) peanuts for birds
- 2-3 cups raisins

Cut up the the beef fat in small cubes and render it with a little lard in a large pot at low-or medium-low setting. It may take a while. Turn the fan on, the smell may be a little strong some times.
Press the bits through a fine mesh colander. Melt the lard, then the peanut butter into the hot tallow. It should be barely warm by now. Add the peanuts and raisins, pour in moulds of appropriate size for your block holder. 16 oz./500ml disposable plastic tubs works fine. Some aluminium cake moulds are even better. The stuff keeps all winter easily (maybe not for LindaLoo, but this is WINTER food).
Chickadees, sapsuckers, hairy woodpeckers, nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, etc love the stuff. Keeping the squirrels away is a challenge.

Well, all the decorations are up, the twelve trees lining the walk, the two on the front porch, the live tree in the living room, and the little tree in the den. I even helped hubby put up the Snow Village, which takes up about half of the sunroom.

But we're not in the holiday mood yet. We got a call Friday evening at dinner, saying that one of our firefighters had died on duty. He died while he was out on his daily jog in front of the station. He leaves a 15 year old stepchild, a four year old, and a baby who will be a year old this coming Wednesday. The death certificate says heart disease, of which he had had no symptoms. He was 44. Hubby considered what the family faces and decided that the inconvenience to him was inconsequential.

So, another funeral tomorrow. Thank heavens, the death benefits mean the family will be taken care of, including tuition to any university in the NC system.

We had a great weekend. Took a day trip to Provincetown Saturday to do some browsing in the shops. Picked up a few stocking stuffer gifts and soaked up the atomosphere, which at times, if one took a deep breath, could clear up ones glaucoma. It's a great little town, friendly people, great scenery and food.

Today we got two trees up and decorated, the living room tree and one for the porch. I already have a very small one on the kitchen island. We weren't going to do any outside lights but we broke down and put the lighted wreath on the front door. It's not much, but at least we did something. Don't usually decorate this soon but the next few weekends are going to be busy.

I'm job hunting, which is going slowly due to the time of year, but as I have Christmas baking to do and and few more gifts to get, I'll be busy enough to defer worrying. Come January 1st I'll be panicking as the bills arrive and I have no income.

How sad, Slyness, it certainly puts all our petty worries and concerns in perspective.

Slyness - how very sad, and horribly ironic. He survives all those fires only to pass away doing something intended to improve his health. You never can tell about life.

Yes, it's very sad when sudden deaths come to fathers of young children-- for the family ooh.

Unfortunately, cold weather can spike blood pressure and trigger heart attacks, so people who already have high blood pressure are at particular risk.

http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/article_991.shtml

This kind of snap when temps here were 75 for Dec 1st and then yesterday 49 degrees, then today down to freezing-- thats a very bad temperature ride.

13-7 Broncs
Have you noted than no less than 3 opinion columns (Brinkly, Foner and this Achenbach guy.) debate if the current administration is the worst ever ? Cannato in defence argues that taxes were cut, there was no major attack on American soil (altough almost 3000 Americans died in Iraq and Afghanistan) and things may improve anyway. I would take that as a bad sign.

Gee Slyness, that hurts. My best to you and your hubby. I never like to learn of the death of a man younger than myself. Selfish but true. A young base commander I knew quite well died like that just before his fortieth birthday. He was a slim and trim man and a regular runner to boot so his massive coronary came as a surprise. He collapsed in a gym filled with army and navy guys, of which one out of three is trained in first aid and CPR by regulations. They tried their best but he was dead by the time he hit the deck. Autopsy revealed he had some minor heart attacks before, but with the military tough-it-out and keep a stiff upper lip thing he probably ignored the signs. Just don't ignore the signs of cardiac problems; it is just to serious to turn a blind eye.

Yes, SD, it's really tough. Hubby talked to his supervisor, who said he had noticed nothing out of the ordinary at all. He was down ten minutes or less before a passerby notified the firefighters in the station, and there was an ambulance in the station, so the aid was immediate and the best available. They couldn't bring him back, but he was an organ donor and they were able to take at least some of them.

What really hurts is that this is the second on duty death from heart disease in less than four years. We keep asking for funding for basic physicals, and we keep not getting it. IIRC, we could do all our firefighters for around $250,000 and the City won't spring for it. The rationale is that they would have to provide it for everybody if they did it for firefighters. And the problem with that is? Instead, we pay life insurance, a state death benefit, and a federal death benefit, to the tune of $500,000+. And that still doesn't bring the person back.

That's ridiculous, Slyness.

Firefighting is a very hazardous job with extreme strain on the cardiovascular system and I'd say it's a basic requirement, same as ear protection would be for factory workers in a noisy factory.

I'm smiling at what Cassandra wrote about Madison:

"Imagine a President and his family taking to the road in the form of running. Not a pretty picture, in history's view or in my mind's eye."

Madison, a Virginian short on stature and long on intellect, can truly be described as the reluctant war president in this case. On June 1, 1812, Madison's war message was submitted, finally after some dithering and vacillation, and read before both houses of Congress, meeting in secret session. Madison didn't have the cojones to come and present it to Congress himself, and his declaration, devoted primarily to maritime grievances, was, in the fashion of the times, read by an emotionless clerk.

On June 4, 1812, the House passed Madison's declaration of war by 79 to 49, a vote many considered hasty. It was then up to the Senate to move more slowly and pull the nation back from the brink of conflict.

There were three key failed communications in the war, New Orleans not being the only one, as slyness has already pointed out. Vermont's Senator Stephen Bradley was making his way slowly south to Washington by coach to express his anti-war sentiment. The Senate passed a motion--a watered-down version for issuing letters of marque and reprisal--to send the proposal to a senate select committee for further study. The motion passed 17-13. Once out of committee, the proposal for a limited naval war ended in a 16-16 tie in the Senate.

An additional proposed amendment outlined a plan to issue letters of marque and reprisal against both British and French ships. Since November 1807, the French had seized 558 American ships versus the Brits who had captured 389. Another senator wanted to table all discussion until November. But senators began to change their minds, while Bradley's coach was still making its way toward Washington from Vermont. On June 17, 1812, the Senate voted 19 to 13 to declare war, making it the closest war vote in American history.

The British Parliament wanted to offer an olive branch to its American cousins and it debated the repeal of the Orders of Council that would normalize trade relations with the United States. Two days after the British Parliament announced its plans to repeal the Orders of Council, Madison signed the war declaration on June 18, 1812.

Whenever the War of 1812 comes up there is always the discussion of capturing sailors.

The Royal Navy actually learned a lot from the War; mostly that you only have one chance to make a good impression.

Wow, I'm envious that so many have begun Christmas preparations and decorating!

I've spent the past few weeks working like an elf, making jewelry for the show I'd committed to. Lost a lot of sleep, but kept going. I did the show with 2 other silversmiths, both of them far better than I; all our work showed a definite theme by person, each of us had a unique style--one does interesting, art jewelry, another does powerful, intuitive pieces. Mine depends on nice gemstones and is *pretty*.

Saleswise, I made back my investment on the booth, electricity, etc. Yesterday was particularly slow, today there were more customers and some sales. I learned a lot, and was happy with the compatriots I'd chosen. We'll almost certainly do more shows together.

But the part that makes it so wonderful is another artisan, very well known, bought several things of mine, and we started talking. It became increasingly obvious that we thought in similar ways, piled ideas on top of ideas the other had had, and she asked me if we could do some joint pieces, could she put a link from her web page to mine, etc. Ummm, yeah!

And then, I can't go into a lot of detail, someone else wanted to talk to me about a big opportunity to do a joint project with them.

Did you ever have one of those moments when you think you're somewhere to do something, and that's good, but that's not why you're really there, you turn a corner and the Universe breathes, "Say yes"? . . . it's embarassing to write that this feels exactly like falling in love. Whether either of these works out or not, I'm taking them as a clear sign that I'm moving in the right direction. It feels great.

SoC, are you implying the HMS Leopard made a bad impression? I think that ship was commanded by a maroon, as Capt Mudge would say.

dbG,

That is wonderful! I know exactly what you mean. I have had some career experiences of late that can only be described as answers to prayers. Or maybe hard work. Or both.

On another note, Denver just tied it up. Their games are so nerve wracking.

Cassandra,

Stay warm! Until today, it thas been extremely cold and snowy out here. But very Christmas..y. Ho-Ho-Ho

Seattle 23, Denver 20. Ahem.

I did a little shopping at the mall today - Far Side calendars and socks. Nothing like the mall to get me out of the Christmas spirit. Tonight we went down to a park by Lake Washington to see the Christmas ships - boats all decked out in lights, with a choir singing carols, and really cheesy recorded music as they go from place to place. We haven't done that for years, so it was fun, and the weather cooperated - dry, not too cold or windy.

Slyness, that's a shame about the firefighter. We had a cop killed yesterday who was about the same age, with a young child. So, so sad.

Today we found out that my husband's niece's husband has been deployed to Iraq. She's at Fort Hood, TX now - they had been at Fort Belvoir because he had been at the Pentagon for a bit. He's assigned to a general, so we're hoping he can stay safe in the Green Zone.

Slyness, sad to hear about your friend. Leaving the kids behind makes me feel especially sorrowful since I have kids myself, and even though my 4 year old jumps up and down and runs around the house in celebration when I get home from work, just like a puppy, I wunder how much he will remember me if I was gone tomorrow.

On a lighter note... So that's the history of the War of 1812? here I thought we got an overture written by some well-known composer, and a poem written by a guy called Francis Scott Key that when put to the tune of a British drinking song, became our national antham. I think the public school history books are definately slanted towards maintaining a sense of patriotic respect rather than explaining history, of all things.

I like the gator cannon story much better.

time for the trampoline! I've got a doctor's appointment Friday.

Uh-oh.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/03/AR2006120301037.html

In Fort Myers: "Next spring, the paper plans to run a large story on a topic it would not identify. It did, however, say that the reporter on the article will accompany News-Press ad salespeople on trips to advertisers as the paper seeks a sponsor for the article. The logic: The reporter understands the project and can explain it best to potential advertisers. Though the reporter will be in sales meetings, he or she will not be part of the sales pitch. Nevertheless, the practice violates one of journalism's fundamentals -- maintaining a leakproof wall between the news and business sides of a newspaper."

Joel... there goes the neighborhood.

I found this bit just as disturbing: "Keeping reporters away from the business side is 'old-school snobbery,' he said."

I had to laugh at the one idea where they recruit a group of civilian "experts" to weigh in on complex issues. How innovative. I suppose the word "source" must have polled badly. While they're at it, they should come up with a new moniker for "editor" (oh, wait... they have: "marketing director").

I woke up to our first snowfall of the season. Big, theatrical flakes drifting down and sticking to the trees and lawns but not the pavement. It's very pretty and puts me in a holiday mood, especially because it's not supposed to last long or accumulate at all.

Applied for what sounds like a perfect job for me, and it's less than a mile away. Wish me luck.

I love this column Joel. Very funny but sadly familiar theme.

Slyness;

This seems to be the season where losses hit hardest. My supervisor's sister died Friday, a couple weeks after being diagnosed w/cancer... *SIGH*

Wilbrod;

One would think the sign for Ms. Parton cannot possibly be mistaken for anything else. One would also think she approves of said sign. And self-centered pet owners are perhaps the worst pet owners around.

SoC;

In the earlier Boodle I'd said I was watching the 1st DVD of the Monkees' 1st season.

The streetcar is going up the hill...

:-)

Good luck, Sneaks!! :-)

JA, the Fort Myers publication should remove any reference to "news" and replace it with "sponsored content." *SIGH*

I take solace in the hope that the Achenblog will always be a beacon of news and information untarnished in any way by the corrosive influences of profit.

Joel, that is a great photo of the Fort Myers mobile journalist: All Carbucks, all the time, eh? I hope it makes you grateful for your little corner under the stairs or whatever it is, at least you don't have to plug your computer into your car cigarette lighter. But on the other hand "mojo" makes for a pretty cool business card.

The sentence that stood out to me was this:

The News-Press is nonunion.

Seriously, though, these changes don't have to be disastrous; but it's important for people to stand up for the ethics and best practices in a logical way--there was a reason those practices were developed. Don't just moan about the passing of traditions--encourage the discussion. The problem I see is that when people are threatened with the loss of their jobs, they are much less likely to stand up for principles. So it falls to people who are more secure in their jobs--I nominate Bob Woodward.

The managment of the Fort Myers paper will be able to judge the performance of their reporters by counting the number of hits a particular story generates. This will force the staff to become proficient in the most important of all the journalistic arts; headline writing. No longer will the reading public be subjected to boring headlines like, "Small Earhtquake in Chile, Not Many Killed" (G.Green).

Once upon a time retailers had these quaint people called "buyers" who selected merchandise based upon subjective notions of quality and value. Now inventory control is largely done by accountants with the sole criterion being profit.

I would hate to see the same fate befall those quaint people known as "editors."

Shankar Vedantam has an article on the process of psychological entrapment that is very a propos: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/03/AR2006120300932.html

This is what RD Padouk was describing on Friday -- exmining your current strategic options as if a situation like Iraq were freshly presented to you, trying to set aside the sense of investment from dwelling on how we got into this situation. The past three years in Iraq are a guide to how we WON'T get out with a satisfactory conclusion. We will need fresh thinking to imagine a strategy that can get us out of Iraq with the most satisfactory conclusion that can be achieved (which may be a lot worse than what we could hope, but possibly better than what we most fear).

Bolton will not seek re appointment as US UN Ambassador

Despair not, SonofCarl, if the War of 1812 passed you by in school. The U.S. Army Center of Military History, the U.S. National Park Service, and Parks Canada are among the organizations that are planning a variety of celebrations, reenactments, and exhibits to commemorte the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

Beginning in 2012, commemorations will include events at Queenston Heights, Fort George, Horseshoe Bend, Lundy's Lane, and Fort McHenry, culminating with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 2015.

And who were the war hawks in favor of the War of 1812? Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky, Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky, Felix Grundy of Tennessee, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, George M. Troup of Georgia, and Peter B. Porter of New York.

After Googling a bit further on the Porter name this morning, I disovered that Porter's middle name is Buell, the name of a founding family of ancient Windsor, Conn. I have an extremely strong hunch that Peter is on the Porter branch of our family tree. (So Joel pushes me in the nicest of ways to learn.)

http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/h/porter/porter.html

Re. Ahrens' article: This is pretty much what I've been saying is going to happen (and why I kid JA about finding sponsors for the A-blog), overtly sponsored infomercialesque features and hyper-local news.

The enthusiast magazine industry (cars, guns, health, boats, sprorts, aircraft, etc.) has been working on the sponsored feature/marketing model for decades, and is a proven method for moneymaking if managed correctly, though it typically depends on those magazines having a national market penetration.

Now, when local newspapers decide they want to follow this model, they need to play to their strong suit - local/Metro news and features. Obviously they can't compete with the larger news organizations for national and international news stories, so you can see why they're willing to throw in the towel on that.

And here's the wall I think they're going to run into: The first couple of times people see their name or their picture on the local Web site and in their local paper (hey, everybody wants the hardcopy, right?) they'll drive up the hits on the site a bit, but I don't think many folks are going to care to look at it on a regular basis, and the novelty of seeing oneself on the Web will wear off. As the sense of local community is declining here in America (and worldwide, I think), Web publishers who pursue the hyper-local model will be chasing fewer and fewer eyeballs, which will limit the amount of ad revenue they can pull in. Sure, eyeballs and ad sales will go up for awhile, but when the market is completely pentrated it's likely go right back down when the novelty wears off.

If the "crowdsourcing"/blogger model pays off, it'll only be for wielding power and managing the government, and there's not much money in *that* unless you've got ambitions for wielding power yourself for business or political gain...

Hmm. I dont' think I've used the word "journalism" in this comment. Kinda sad, actually.

bc

I think the most discouraging thing (although there were a ton of them) in the Fort Myers story was this person's title: "The paper also has a managing editor for information collection." I'd love to see the look on Ben Bradlee's face if someone told him this was his new job title.

The Gannett experiement is doomed to failure. It will take a while, but it will ultimately crash and burn. There will be no mourners.

Cassandra, I found that whole comment insightful for a reason.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been watching an old Michael McLear documentary called Timelines. McLear was a journalist who came to prominence during the Vietnam war, and the Timelines series is about that war. Friday morning, the program was talking with prisoners of war and soldiers and was describing the soldiers experience in 69-70, and a little about those same soldiers experience when they came home (interviews circa mid 80's by the hair and mustache styles). One of the comments was how different Vietnam was for African American Soldiers, in part because of their historical roots, in part because of racism, but also because while many soldiers were African Americans, there were few officers who were African Americans. So many of the things you talk about, were things echoed by the voices in those interviews.

It made me wonder if returning African American vets experienced something subtly different that the rest of the returning soldiers, because of the war experience, because of the African experience in America, different because of poverty and a lack of economic advantages for a great many people. Did their families experience something very different from families of other vets? Did their communities experience something different? Of course it was different. It had to be different because the cultural roots were so different, the starting points were so different.

On my part one of those Homer Simpson 'Doh' moments to be sure, but it felt like I was a little closer to understanding that powerful force in the lives of all young people. My very rural yesterdays, and suburban today don't provide me much knowledge of things urban, my increasing age and avoidance of young peoples music provide me little, but for an instant, in a small way, I had a flash of understanding. I called it insight, but it was probably more a momentary clearing of my internal fog.

10:49 was me. Oops.

SD, my 10:37 of yesterday was a play on the verb "impress" (to force into military service).

Speaking of crowdsourcing, here's another term to watch: "citizen journalism":

http://www.insidethecbc.com/policies/news/localnews/

In reading SonofCarl's 10:53, somehow "citizen journalism" got tangled in my head to become "citizen gerbilism." It is not clear to me what this term might mean, but it couldn't be anything good.

SoC, if the comments are any judge - I won't hold much hope for the "citizen journalists".

dmd, I agree. It takes a lot of experience and training to find the cheese. Oh wait, that's gerbils again.

I'll post a kit on "Are newspapers doomed?" a bit later today, fyi.

Slyness, I passed on a bit of the issue as you describe it, "no paid cardio checkups for local firefighters" to a local editor of the main paper, a sibling of mine.

RD Padouk, I was such a "buyer editor". What you described is exactly what occured to me, and I was half glad to be laid off anyway. In the IT age, bulk sells over quality.

But people do want quality. They just don't know how to market it as anything other than quantity or expanded bells and whistles; that's the problem.

Sometimes what is most useful is not the bell and whistle part.

If this post website could be downloaded to a PDA in simplified format for a couple bucks a month, that's nice. Heck, I'd read this on an etch-a-sketch. But I'm hoping the Post lasts long enough for E-newspapers to be real.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/10/991012112154.htm

I will also say that this may be a temporary dip and that remarketing and trends will make newspapers in new format popular.

I mean, the movie industry looked on the outs due to videotapes, with theatres closing all over, but Hollywood is churning out more movies than ever and still profitable with DVD, game, and theatre deals, and new theatres have been built all over in the last 15 years.

And Bollywood is making its minor dent into America, too.

Sorry to hear of your loss, slyness. I hope you can find a way to put pressure on the County in order that the required health tests are free. It simply makes sense for your line of work.

JA: Yikes is right. At least you have your mojo workin'. Nothing like having a leg up on the competiton.

A short jaunt to Wikipedia, trying to find out exactly how the U.S. PAID for the Louisiana Purchase, and whether Britain was trying to stop those payments to Napoleon. We offered him U.S. bonds in payment, and he accepted, early on. But Napoleon apparently sold the whole debt to Barings, at a big discount. Wheels in wheels...

Mudge, Yahoo already runs a few different headlines for AP press stories.

I think more through key wording would also be helpful on an internet site; as well as an dummy's guide to searching the site.

The Post scatters its science articles a bit. I like that guy who writes on social psychology, and then there's the nutrition bits,and so on.

I'm not completely sure I know where all the articles of interest to me are at Post.com (would include animal stories as well).

Headlines are very important, but not enough people look at the byline and go "hey this guy may write more interesting stuff on the same sorta stuff later on."

Unless they have a blog. So I would also want to see an indexed work profile of the journalist with a quick list of keywords as an alt description of the name.

Joel Achenbach : Published in National Geographic, Science writer, kidnapped by aliens, Achenblog , Rough Draft, Post Magazine columnist for a short instance.

Heck, I'd love to see more hypertext on the on-line version--

"George W. Bush"
(42nd president of United States: click here to see most recent 20 stories on him on the Post)

"Donald Rumsfeld" (Ex-CEO of company that marked Nutrasweet; Ex-Defense Secretary. Click here to see more ex-current news on him here.)

SCC: Marketed, not marked.

Flexible computer screens:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/03/980327140301.htm

I'm hoping eventually there'll be tactile computer screens where photos etc. can be translated into bas-relief. That'd be nice for the blind.

Of course, it'd also be used for the number one Internet surf topic, leading to these screens selling like hot chicks. Uh, cakes. Yeah, definitely hotcakes.

Are newspapers doomed? Is there some level of reporting that should be politically correct?

I cringe (similar instance in my past with similar wording) at the following, below, from Howie's chat, now ongoing. Should I forego Kurtz and concentrate exclusively on Froomkin for simliar reporting? Should reporters undergo sensitivity training? Would Sally Quinn like being called a babe, or would she laugh it off--comfortably or uncomfortably?:

San Francisco, Calif.: Hello, Mr. Kurtz, thanks for chatting today. Do you think The Washington Post has a special responsibility to avoid sexist characterizations of the incoming Speaker of the House, her decisions and personnel choices, and her rivalries with fellow lawmakers, especially other women? There's been quite a bit of "mysogyny creep" in the Beltway Media lately, and I think The Post should take the lead in policing it. Your thoughts, sir?

Howard Kurtz: Yes. I'll go out on a limb and say we must be fair to all female lawmakers, executives and other babes in important positions.

I'd kill to be referred to as a babe in the media. How about you, Mo?

But yes, we don't see enough time given to the hunkaliciousness of various male lawmakers, execs, etc.

Of course there's too handsome. I find Sen. Chris Van Hollen looks too much like a Ken doll with curly hair, and yes, I've seen him in person.

I nearly had "Gilderoy Lockhart" on my lips, but that's just me.

If the Post is gonna be obsessed with sexism and physical looks, hey, spread it around equally.

"Gingrich's gorilla arms hint how ape he's for the presidency..."

The War of 1812 ultimately generated the era of "Good Feelings." Somehow I don't see that happening this time.

http://intrepidliberaljournal.blogspot.com

Don't understand your reference to Yahoo, Wilbrod. But I hate all portals, starting with AOL and Yahoo. May they all go to hell.

Before we leave the War of 1812 altogether (I shall refrain from pointing out that not ALL of us have forgotten it, and SOME [well, one, anyway] of us even remember it vividly), let me just point out that whereas overall leadership and management of the war might have been bad, management of the Navy under John Rodgers was pretty good, we had some truly excellent ships (thanks to John Adams and an earlier generation who built the famous "Six Frigates" (I won't bore you by naming them from memory), and some outstanding fighting captains:

Isacc Hull, Constitution (Old Ironsides), captured Guerriere;

Stehepn Decatur, United States, captured Macedonian;

William Bainbridge, Constitution, captured Java;

James Lawrence, Hornet versus Peacock, but lost to Chesapeake to Shannon*

William Burrows, Enterprise, captured Boxer;

Oliver Hazard Perry, Battle of Lake Erie;

Commodore Thomas MacDonough, Battle of Lake Champlain;

Chalres Stewart, Constitution captured Levant and Cyane in one battle;

James Biddle, Hornet captured Penguin;

Adm. Josiah Barney, who fended off British attack up the Chesapeake long enough to allow defenders to bungle the defense;

Capt. Daniel Patterson, correctly predicted the Battle of New Orleans, and harassed and stalled the British long enough to allow Jackson to defend NOLA.

*Lawrence, a particular favorite of mine, deserves the asterisk, and the footnote: The Brits had him blocaded in Boston aboard USS Chesapeake, 36 guns, and he could have chosen to stay there and avoid battle (which is pretty much what I TOLD him to do, but would Jimbo, the Jimster, listen to me? Nooooooooooooo...). Blocading him was one of England's all-time best fighting captains, Phillip Vere Broke, aboard HMS Shannon, 38 guns. Broke sent a message in to Boston, challenging Jimmy to come out and play. Due to his advanced sense of chivalry and honor (and ignoring my advice, as well as the advice of many others), ol' Jimmy Boy thought the Brits weren't as tough as some people said (he was only 32 himself; a green kid, what did he know?). So he deliberately sails out of Boston, he and Broke start blasting away at each other, Lawrence is fatally wounded (and Broke nearly so). Lawrence's ship gets the short end, Broke being a fierce proponent of gunnery practice (see also Aubrey, James, in the Aubrey-Maturin series). Broke's crew board the Shannon and in 15 minutes it's all over. Lawrence utters the immortal words, "Don't give up the ship!" and dies. His crew immediately gives up the ship anyway.

Ah, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

Damn fool.

I was going to namecheck the Era of Good Feeling, but I had it a little confused with the Era of Feeling Good (17-25) which would have brought us right back to hand held love barometers.

Mudge, with some of the new revamps to yahoo I'm starting to agree with you.

I've NEVER liked aol.com or msn.com, and Yahoo had the benefit it was relatively low-graphic and easy to surf. Looks like it's changing along with the bell and whistle thinking coming up again.

BTW Yahoo has news.yahoo.com, they just take the AP newswire stories and headline it... maybe the headlines are from AP too. They don't write original stories at all.

Which is why the Post's focus on original content is not a bad idea. They're competing with AP (their news supplier) in many ways.

But, 'Mudge, for 100,000 dollars and the Mazda Miata in candy apple red, can you SING the song,

In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson
Down the mighty Mississip...

In Florida, "news" as defined by local TV stations tends to be an assortment of horrors. Pick any possible permutation of drugs, violence, alligators, Burmese pythons, and drowning. Gannett's new strategy seems perfectly suitable for this environment.

Real news does happen occasionally. There's the insurance mess (Joel Garreau did a fine job a few days ago) and locally, the Florida Institute of Technology is hoping to develop rowing facilities for a 2-mile-long stretch of tranquil canal.

Thank you Joel and subsequent Boodlers for the precis of the War of 1812 et al. I knew the song, of course, and the Flight from Washington, and the general ineptitude, but really hadn't recognized it as quite so painfully topical until it was all laid out.

A note on Dolly Parton's award: last year she received the Lindy Boggs award at the Southern Women in Public Service conference, sponsored by the Stennis Center for Public Service at Mississipi State University. Many of us at the conference were initially skeptical until we discovered that Dolly has done more than just be an astoundingly successful performer with her own theme park. She's essentially guaranteed a health care system in her home county in Tennessee, and done a lot of other good works. Most important, she pioneered a reading program, now in partnership with the state, where every kid born in a Tennessee hospital gets a book a month for the first year of its life, mailed to the home. Something like that. It is amazing in scope. In addition to her musical talent she is a good businesswoman and a good citizen. Who knew?

I'm sorry College Parkian, I always forget which stanza of that song includes the phrase "We took a little bacon and we took a little beans" and which stanza the phrase "up from the ground came a bubblin' crude."

>"up from the ground came a bubblin' crude."

"Oil that is. Black gold, Texas tea.

Well the first thing you know old Jed's a millionaire, kin folk said Jed move away from there!

They said California that's the place you oughta be!

So they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly.

Hills that is. Swimmin' pools, movie stars."

Wilbrod - Joel's book was "Captured by Aliens." I think "kidnapped by aliens" is just a popular theory around the newsroom.

Error, that DID have some nice banjo pickin'...

I still prefer the "Jetsons" theme music, tho.

:-)

Oh, CP, you should know better. Shall I email you my address, so you can personally deliver that Miata? You betcher bippy.

"We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British at the town of New Orleans." It won the 1960 Grammy for best C&W.

I loved Johnny Horton, and this was one of the first records (a .45, natch, and if I have to explain to any of you whippersnappers what a .45 was, there's gonna be trouble) I ever owned.

I was also a fan of his "Sink the Bismarck," which was a pretty good movie, and "North to Alaska," which sucked as a movie even though it had Ernie Kovacs in it.

Wilbrod, AP isn't the Post's "news supplier" (any more Starbucks is the Post's caffeine supplier), and they aren't very much in competition. Generally they do very different things for very different audiences.

Mojos and "citizen journalists" chasing very local news for the internet crowd. Humm. They will all be searching for visual/weird/scandalous stuff, I don't see any Watergate, Pentagon paper or AdScam story getting out of that.

Son of Carl,
I am the maroon, of course.

Mudge,
Oliver Hazard Perry, that would be the one everybody called the old FFG 7, right ? Lawrence would have his a$$ handed to him by a Martial court so fast today.

>I still prefer the "Jetsons" theme music, tho.

The Jetsons music had some awesome horns. Man those guys could swing. You what else is like that? Johnny Quest.

How about a palm pilot with a tactile display? That would be the bomb for hand held devices!

Th themes from both "Johnny Quest" and "The Jetsons" were very popular party songs when I was in college. I fear that when the latter theme was played it was traditional to yell something rather rude about poor Judy.

I agree, Shriek; a court-martial would have busted Lawrence ASAP, both for risking his ship AND for losing her. Had he won, of course, Madison would have had him at the White House wearing medals--that's the way these things go, alas.

And yup, that's who they named the Perry class frigates for (for you uninitiated, that's what FFG stands for). Good boats, from what I've heard, and we built 55 of 'em, 51 for us and for for the Aussies. These are basically devoted to undersea warfare, called USW, work. (During WWII, frigates were slightly smaller than destroyers, but did basically the same work. Nowadays they are a little bigger than destroyers, but not as big as cruisers, such as the AEGIS class of ships.) If I was in the Navy today, I'd be a frigate skipper in a heartbeat.

Right, I kow the Post will contribute stories to the AP as well. It's a co-op.

http://www.ap.org/newspapers/index.html

But you'll see a lot of local newspapers basically depending on stuff from other papers as filler and a few local stories, that's it. The Post has to produce news, not reprint it, and keep its distinctive voice, just make it non-sexist.

;).

SCC: KNOW... BTW, Lipton is my major caffeine supplier, and delivery hasn't been made yet.

Pat, that sure would be, but I also see a market for supersize tacile/visual displays as well, since bas relief etc. could increase the 3-D appearance of video even without actual pawing.

That reminds me, gotta blog sometime soon.

Hmph. I could sing a fair amount of that Horton tune, and happen to know that we still have a copy of it in the family 45 collection, along with a lot of Elvis, some Beatles, Bill Haley and the Comets, Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, and, inexplicably, Ray Stevens' "The Streak", and Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever."

Ya never can tell, in my family.

bc

What do Dolly Parton and the Louisiana Purchase have in common?

My interest of course is that it would really enhance learning for these growing up blind and allow them to map routes in advance using tactile maps and force more high-resolution maps with depths and irregularities modelled more clearly for legal issues of accessibility.

It'd just be the BOMB in making cheap, quick models of everything. People often understand spatial relations when they can move through it or hold it, not just see it.

I've posted that kit and feel free to re-post your Newspapers Doomed comments on the next boodle.

Speaking to Ivansmom: I read her biography and yes I did know she is a savvy businesswoman, and had a strong desire to help others, although the book she spoke mostly about helping her extended family get education, and so on, and didn't talk about her civic work. But what you tell me-- not too surprising.

I suspect she downplayed civic work in her bio to avoid people trying to scam her for money. Smart.

I realize this a dead Boodle, but what the heck...

I've been impressed by Dolly Parton's willingness in recent years to record the kind of music that wouldn't have fit-in with her commercially-successful oeuvre, but now she can afford to take a flier. She's got the money, she can afford to do it. Thus, she has done a couple bluegrass albums, and her distinctive voice can very clearly be heard as a backing vocal in a Norah Jones song (I can't recall the title).

It is possible that she is quiet about her civic work, not to avoid scammers, but out of a moral sense. In Jewish tradition, the form of charitable giving that is most highly esteemed is when the giver remains completely anonymous, and the recipient is completely unknown to the giver. It is charitable giving purely because you know it's the right thing to do, without any element of morally judging the recipient or making a claim to high moral status by the giver. I expect that Christian churches preach a similar standard.

bc;

"Cat Scratch Fever" was the basis for the only good one-liner I ever managed to fire off in high school. In my freshman year, no less...

I was in welding class, and we were discussing arc welding. One way to start an arc-welding pass is the tap/scratch method. I knew the Nugent melody in passing, so I busted out with "Tap Scratch Fever" and got a few laughs. Even avoided detention somehow...

:-)

In a pickle here, since 'Mudge WON the Mazda Miata and the other stuff behind the door where Carol Merril was standing.

Mudge -- working on it. Stay tuned. Parkian keeps her promises.

In the penultimate boodle (not sure it works but love that chance to type the word), several mentioned the musical theme to "Johnny Quest."

All I can say, is my first crush was on the assistant, Race Bannon.

Can I go back and name my son 'Race.'

Race was the cartoon version of Lyle, who wrestled alligators, etc., while Marlon Perkins of "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" looked on, Walt-Disney like.

Back to the active kit:

without newspapers, what will happen to early morning routines?

Wilbrod and Pat: when oh when are digital readers and ebooks coming? What do they look like? Will they be sensual at all? I don't mean porn, soft or otherwise, BUT, you know, paper in the hands, etc.

Also for Pat: crinkle sounds of paper.
For Wilbrod: the look of that little machine with levers of paper, each with the magic of words on 'em.

Miracle really: reading and books.

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