Good
evening, 919 Gang. I hauled two piled-high truck loads of green cuttings to the
dump last week. The truck is half full again, and we have 20 bags of clippings
waiting for the trash man. So, Mary and I are taking a break. I will return
Wednesday (Sept. 5), and I plan to file that night.
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DENNIS FOLEY writes:
The two dozen openings at the Orange
County Register are showing up a few at a time on the Freedom Communications
website. Here's the next one to be posted:
"The Orange County Register is
looking for an energetic, passionate and thoughtful reporter to cover higher
education in one of the most diverse and dynamic regions of the country. The
reporter would be part of a team that goes in-depth on education issues,
celebrates student and faculty achievements, and tracks change at local schools
– all while keeping a wary eye on institutional challenges, from finances and
enrollment to research and employment. This is a fast-paced post that requires
the ability to quickly post breaking news online as well as produce deeply
reported, nuanced articles for our Sunday paper and magazine readers.
Applicants should have five years experience covering higher education or other
topical beat for a print or online news agency, and demonstrable skill at using
variety of tools to tell stories. Provide at least five links/clips for
coverage demonstrating your versatility and reporting strengths to"
Here's how to get to the job postings:
-- Go to www.freedom.com
-- On the left rail click Careers
-- From the dropdown choose Positions
-- From the Entity dropdown choose
Orange County Register Communications
-- From the Department dropdown choose
Content
-- Click Search Jobs
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JERRY McCORMICK writes:
Wanted to share some good news with
the 919 gang.
I've been promoted to producer at NBC
7 (KNSD).
I start in this new role on Tuesday
and I'll be handling the 6 a.m. broadcast for a while.
I'm very lucky and I realize it after
being laid off in May 2009 from the U-T.
I quickly got a part-time job as a
part-time writer at KNSD.
In January, I was hired full time as
an associate producer and during the past two years it's been a learning
experience. I'm so proud of my work and the wonderful co-workers who have
supported me along the way.
And I work with the best morning team
in the market so I'm blessed!
REBER:
Congratulations, Jerry. Talent will out.
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PRESTON TUREGANO writes:
Did you mean crack instead of crank?
BRIAN
CLARK writes:
The "crank" of dawn???
Is that some kinda Missoura thang?
REBER: Sigh. I followed the words "crack of
dawn" with a parenthetical "to borrow a phrase." I stole from
Walt Kelly, who used that phrase often in his Pogo comic strips which were
wildly popular in the 1950s. Kelly's humor sometimes poked fun at public
figures. His strips included animals who looked, talked and acted a lot like J.
Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy and Nikita Khrushchev. Kelly also coined the
phrase "We has met the enemy," etc. That one has been so overused I
wish he had skipped it. And who can forget one of his Christmas carols which
starts "Deck us all with Boston Charley?"
If you don't appreciate my sense of
humor, you are entitled to say Reber "has all the good taste and finer
sensibilities of a can of warm bait."
----------------------------------------
MARK MONDAY writes:
Tom Gable -- a man of integrity --
surprised me by asking to see a reprise the Year End Awards program. I can
agree with his observation that the "awards would give an HR department catatonic
seizures today."
But I cannot agree that "they were pretty funny at the
time." I saw the "awards list" and the balloting send grown men
and women to the rest room with tears streaming down their faces. Because the
Year End Awards caused some fellow staff members pain, shortly after I arrived
at the Tribune I declined to participate in the voting that was more to be
expected from an eighth grade clique than from a group of professional adults.
Hours after I just passed the list on without acting on it, a member of
management -- one of that group that could usually be found across the street
at the bar -- waved the ballot paper under my nose and told me to vote. I
quietly told that person I would not because I felt the "awards
program" was mean-spirited, demeaning and unprofessional. At that point I
was informed that I had better vote or there would be repercussions. And yes,
the management of the hour carried out their threats to me within weeks.
My two proudest moments at the Tribune
were writing my part of the story when the PSA plane crashed, and telling the
management lackey that I wouldn't vote in the Year End Awards -- no matter what
the effect would be. Give a dog a bad name.... My refusal, despite the effect
such initial "uncooperativeness" would have on my career over the
next two decades, was one of the best I ever made.
Today, as Tom says, the awards voting
would give an HR department catatonic seizures. Republication today of the
sometimes-false and often-scurrilous claims and implications made in the
year-end "ballot" would hardly be wise. The man of the year being a
woman, and the woman of the year being a man, would probably, and rightfully,
get someone a week's suspension in the journalism world today.
The "awards," a fun activity
that was dearest to some of the drinking crowd that was eventually dealt with
by Mrs. Copley in the Valentine's Day Massacre, hurt and demeaned members of
our staff rather than binding us together. The fact that a staff member would
be threatened with negative consequences for ignoring the voting demonstrates
that the process was never meant to be a "fun activity" designed to
improve morale.
Time changes perceptions -- decades
may have altered Tom's memories of the Year End Awards, or he may never have
seen the negative consequences that I saw of the Year End Awards. There are
real reasons, which he rightfully comments on, that should give any personnel
manager the sweats. And there are other
reasons, such as kindness to our fellow staff members, which should have guided
us during those days four decades ago.
REBER:
I agree. It wasn't just that people were named to each award; there was a graph
or two accompanying each entry. Yes, it was clever writing, but it definitely
was not funny -- far from it -- to some people.
JACK GREGG writes:
I recall that Bill Hagen won lover of
the year once. While romancing a young lady while full of sauce, he was told
"Even if you could, I wouldn't."
REBER: Which reminds me of my all-time favorite
name for a women's team in the Over-The-Line tournament: "Yes, We Do, But Not With You."
-----------------------------------------------
ERNIE COWAN writes:
I live on a hill north of Escondido
with a great view to the east and south. Here are a few images I took last
night during the lightning show.
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MICHAEL
KINSMAN writes:
Tagging onto Welton Jones' post of
silly and self-evident signs is this one Bob Hawkins -- the newest resident of
Fairfield, Calif. -- posted recently on Facebook. The city apparently has too much money.
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BOB LAURENCE writes:
For Sharon Reeves:
I do recall a line in Herb Caen's
column when ZIP codes were introduced:
Something like this: Anybody who needs
a number 9 to know that California is on the West Coast shouldn't be working
for the post office.
-----------------------------------------
DAN TREVAN writes:
In response to Bob Elledge's note
yesterday about Ed Asner being uncomfortable with the press, my contact was a
bit different as seen in these rare archival photos of me in my younger years
hassling good ol' Lou. I seem to recall him being the same teddy-bearlike
curmudgeon as depicted in the show. Unfortunately he never hired me to work for
him at the Los Angeles Tribune, so I could never hang with Rossi and Billie and
gang. Sigh.
REBER:
"Archival?" Hmmm.
-----------------------------------------
CHUCK BOYD writes:
I applaud Jamie Reno for resisting the
urge to call the new venture RENO 919.
Actually my blog started out as
simply recapping the exciting Sixties. This was an active decade worthy of a
personal blog: I had just finished my tour with the US Marines, had moved from
South Carolina to San Diego, started college at USD, became a staff
photographer at the Union-Tribune with its many exciting and zany moments, met
a lady who worked at the paper, married, had two children, divorced, left the
paper, moved to Los Angeles and worked for CBS television news.
The blog later expanded but always
involved my experiences and my photography. Chuck + Photography = Chuckography.
------------------------------------------
JIMMY THORNTON writes:
David Farmer, take note. Recently a
lot of readers of the 919 blog got bent out of shape when I referred to that
city up north where the sun doesn’t shine as Frisco. I bow in defeat. However,
I cannot resist adding a recent experience: This week I got a cell phone call
from my nephew and he was calling from Frisco. That’s Frisco, Texas. And the
sun was shining and it was hot. If Howard Welty were still producing a style
book, I’d insist that he include Frisco without
the san in front of the name. Ah, now I’ve left my heart in Frisco, Texas. Hit
it, Tony.
New
song for Tony Bennett.
REBER:
Jimmy, sometimes it pays to quit while you're behind.
-----------------------------------------
JACK REBER writes:
From
time to time, members mention the old wire room. Here's a photo of the U-T wire
room. I don't know the date but it has to be after 1958 when United Press and
International News Service were merged to form UPI. This photo was taken at the
downtown building.
--------------------------------------------
REBER: While I am gone, please wish Happy Birthday
to Lew Little (Sept. 1), Peggy Scott and Mike Sund (Sept. 2), Michele Breier
(Sept. 4) and Nick Canepa (Sept. 5).
-------------------------------------------
BILL
BIRCH forwards:
More jobs lost.
GENE
CIECHANOWSKI forwards:
This man lives on
an island that he made from plastic bottles. It's much nicer than it sounds!
P.O.
Box 2239
Ramona,
CA 92065
U.S.A.
