The reportage dichotomy keeps coming up. Who’s in charge: the people in the article or the people creating the article? How about a few terse examples, with questions we can consider over lunch. As noted yesterday, a school stopped what it called a gang initiation. In it local officials again say real gangs — just […]
Several Bentonville [Ark.] High School students were suspended last week after being caught on camera in what school officials believe was a gang initiation, according to Bentonville Superintendent Gary Compton. Compton described the incidents as a possible ‘gang jump-in’ that took place Jan. 22 and 23 at the high school. ‘We believe it was a […]
Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock One should know one’s surroundings well, or try to. In most of the U.S., where owning your house is expected, renting causes a different appreciation for the place (so I can’t speak for a place like Manhattan). Even if you’ve fully unpacked in a rental, the feeling of unsettledness always […]
The recently late Art Buchwald said something to the effect of that writing political humor meant he never ran out of ideas, he had five or six every morning (when I find that quote I’ll revise this). The even-more recently late Molly Ivins said something like she thanked the good Lord for giving her infinite […]
Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal had a great profile on McDonald’s chef, Dan Coudreaut. McDonald’s. Chef. Make that “director of culinary innovation.” McDonald’s. So you read along, and this being the Journal, the line of his career development and outlook all has a business or marketing focus, but it’s fascinating all the same. Mickey D’s grows […]
Earlier this century — hah! — I created a master’s thesis on how newspaper humor columns have changed. In figuring out how to tackle this, how to quantify the research to make it as solid as possible, I hit a problem: Not all humor writers are alike. Some seem to write with the intent of […]