Categories
American Culture

Fingerholds on a Slippery Slope

It’s a business meeting with two 30-something women I’ve never met, the wrong place to bring up anything personal. I know that. The hour is nearing an end. Nearly all the serious stuff is done. This is actually a delicate moment. Things can be screwed up moments before all is said and done. One of […]

Categories
The Course of Words

Tall Lady Short but Sound

It’s unfair to say one feels let down by a free program. It’s more unreasonable to feel let down by a non-performer’s performance. Alas, several of us did; I asked around afterward. Writer Joyce Carol Oates, 75, still teaching at Princeton and other campuses, was fascinating for her 45 minutes onstage at the Fayetteville Town […]

Categories
Bake Holiday Cuisine

Tasty Homemade Matzo

This matzo recipe tastes way better than a box. That’s the joke about storebought matzo, the unleavened bread eaten instead of conventional yeast or baking soda/powder loaves or other baked goods during the Jewish holiday of Passover. Yet I’ve always liked matzo, and factory-made does taste far better than cardboard. Homemade isn’t difficult and doesn’t […]

Categories
News, Spin

Ethos Ethics Ethicker Ethicist

Spring for journalists marks the end of contest entry season and the beginning of conferences and workshops. Heavy thinking threatens the daffodils. Ethics committees of two groups, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association, are marking this climate change with proposals. SPJ’s is revising its Code of Ethics, last dolled up in […]

Categories
News, Spin

Two Tales, or Maybe One

Ethics Presentation for “News Reporting II” (This is not a blog post per se but an outline for a talk I’m giving to a class. It’s not a PowerPoint-like slide show, although a short video is included. It’s both for my use and for students if they wish to check links etc.) I. The slaying […]

Categories
Condiments

Creamy Vegan Herb Dip

Nothing can truly replace the taste or mouth-feel of sour cream or cream cheese. We vegans should just honor our memories of dairy dip by improving on it. If you’re too full after the game on TV for a real meal, at least you haven’t messed up as badly, having gorged on the protein and […]