Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Turkey Day

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Grateful
In observance of the National Day of Sloth & Overindulgence, the WORD will take a little break for Thanksgiving, to . . . well . . . reflect with thanks on all that we have, and to kick back with loved ones. There will be no tryptophan in our house, but we will find other excuses to lounge on the couch in deep gratitude. May you all do the same, with or without the excuse of overeating. The WORD will return Monday. Oh, and this Bloom County classic is for our vegetative friends . . .



War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Fall Bounty








Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Camera Obscura

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Photos Not Permitted 
“As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government.” 

—White House Correspondents Association protests Obama administration’s policy limiting press photographers’ access to the president. NYTimes story. Text of 3-pp. letter.  Nov. 21, 2013
  
• Editorial Comment: C’mon. Smile, Barry.

War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Fall Bounty







Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

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Monday, November 25, 2013

Comfort Zone, Duh

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News Note: Know your time commitment: Slate lists reading time for its stories.


Overtaxing



“The reason I stopped reading the New York Times is that it persists in printing stories whose subjects I have not previously familiarized myself with. . . . Why would I want to be confronted with that? The tech geniuses at Slate, by contrast, can fill me to bursting with what I’m already interested in.
“I mean, come on, you presumptuous MSM editors, I don’t consume media for ‘discovery’ or ‘scope.’ The last thing I need is your intellectual breadth or judgment. I consume media to stay in my comfort zone and validate my worldview on everything I already know, duh.”

—Bob Garfield, columnist, “Slate’s ‘minutes to read’ feature dumbs down journalism,” The Guardian, Nov. 23, 2013


• Editorial Comment: That’s assuming I already have a worldview...

• SeeStephen Colbert Really Likes This New Slate Feature” 

War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Fall Bounty







Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Camelot Remembered

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Innocence Ends


“[I]n the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”


—John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th U.S. president in 1953 speech, American University



• Editorial Comment: Lessons yet unlearned.

“America wept tonight, not alone for its dead young president, but for itself.” —James “Scotty” Reston, reporting JFK’s assassination for The New York Times, Nov. 22, 1963

• Recommended: Jill Abramson, J.F.K. Through the Pages of The Times, The New York Times


War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Sunrise Pier












Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Abrasive

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Editorial Sanding


“There is a terrific disadvantage in not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn't write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn't any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.”


—John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th U.S. president


• Editorial Comment: Hear that, news hounds? Wake up!


War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 
Plaza People












Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Bookish

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Abe Idling



“The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”


—Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th U.S. president and voracious reader
 




• Editorial Comment: Yup, that’s a good friend.

• Related: Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Pastels on the Plaza











Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Ted Says We’re . . .

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Doomed


“We need to understand people that are like us and are different from us.... That’s one of the reasons I started CNN and did my best to get them to concentrate on serious international news so that people would be better informed. If we don’t have the right information today, we’re doomed.”

 Ted Turner, former media mogul and founder of CNN

 




• Editorial Comment: What’s international news?



War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.



PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Pastels on the Plaza












Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Doris Lessing, RIP

. 
Love a Library



“With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one — but no one at all — can tell you what to read and when and how.”

—Doris Lessing (1919-2013), author (The Golden Notebook, 1962) and 2007 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, died this weekend. Great NPR story on Lessing here. NYTimes obit.

Above: Informed by a reporter that she'd been named a Nobel laureate, Lessing responded, “Oh, Christ.”

• Editorial Comment: Read a book. Any book. Betcha can’t read just one.

War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Gull








Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Elder Advice

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Gin Before Breakfast


“Young poets are advised by their elders to avoid the practice of journalism as they would wet socks and gin before breakfast.” 

—Archibald MacLeish (1892-1992), poet, writer and Librarian of Congress, from “The Poet and the Press,” Atlantic Monthly, 1941


• Editorial Comment: Parallel construction requires, I suppose, that we advise young journalists to avoid iambic pentameter as they would gin-soaked socks for brunch.

War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ernie_pyle.html#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3K.
PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Gull









Original PeezPix for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Blank Sheet

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Keep It Clean

“So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.” 

 —Harold Acton (1904-1994), British scholar and author, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948









• Editorial Comment: A not uncommon sentiment when grading student work.




PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Hydrangea






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The Trouble with the World

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Stupid Doubters


“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are so confident while the intelligent are full of doubt.” 
 
—Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British historian and social critic 



• Editorial Comment: Which are you, Bertie? 










PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Hydrangea






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com.
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

.