Friday, October 10, 2008

Today's Word—Dump the Bag 'O Rocks

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Editor's Note: Today’s offering from E.B. White, one of my heroes, is not strictly about writing or journalism, although it could be taken that way. It does, however, describe the life of both the writer and the teacher—at least, on a good day when the bag o’ rocks we all carry isn’t too heavy.

On these days, writers whoop when words, thoughts and intent come together right; and teachers glow like the little flickering light bulbs that sometimes appear above that kid in the fourth row. This morning I found this glowworm in my email: “You may be interested to find that your class has made me think a little bit about working for the newspaper. It sounds like a fun job! but that would require knowing what was going on in the world, not one of my strengths (but I’m sure you already noticed that. haha). . . I prefer the logical to the illogical anyway, thus I’m an engineer. Your class has really caused me to question most everything in the news. I think you are succeeding in your task of teaching us to think about ‘How we know what we think we know?’”

Hmmm. Even as NPR reports a new 200-point slide in the Dow during a single newsbreak, if I heard that right, and nations crumble and slide into the sea, it’s going to be a good day. Once I get this sent, I think I’ll take the dogs up the mountain.


Good advice

“I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning the day difficult.”

—E.B. White (1899-1985), wise man and writer, who knew when to take a walk with the dogs
(Thanks to alert WORDster Louise Montgomery

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