Benediction

. 
Tim says

Today’s WORD on Journalism launched sometime in 1995, when an annoyingly enthusiastic journalism professor wanted to force his students to learn how to use something called "E-mail” on what was quaintly called “the World Wide Web.” 

Imagine: 20-year-olds being forced into e-communication. They hated it, but their #$%^&*(&^%$#@!! professor sent them quotes about journalism every morning, and chances were good that these would appear on the daily news quiz. Thoreau, Jefferson, Mary Poppins, Let There Be Light.

Today marks the mid-point of the WORD's 19th season. My math skills being approximate at best, let’s say this is 37 semesters X 5 days/week = 2,960.

Well, as my last high school math teacher, Nate Smith, would say, pulling out chunks of his red (buy fast-greying) beard, “That can't be right, Pease!” 

But however approximate, the WORD has foisted a bunch of—um—“wisdom” on the unprotected planet since 1995. The WORDmeister appreciates your tolerance, however ill-judged. As my mother always said, there’s no accounting for taste.

Anyway, the WORD and I will take the rest of the semester off to dash the hopes of innocent professors, and then to binge on fruitcake. So this is the —30— on the WORD’s 2013. See you on the flip side (“20-fourteen”? What the hell kind of year is *that*?!).

In the meantime, as that wise young man said, “God bless us, every one.”

Pease

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.99

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#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

December Sunset





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
.

Shit Storm . . .

. 
 . . . and fish wrapping

“[N]obody reads the papers any more, is that it? It’s just another story—a couple of days of shit storm and it’s wrapping paper? You know, in the middle of all this gossip and speculation that permeates people’s lives, I still think they know the difference between real news and bullshit. And they’re glad that somebody cares enough to get things on the record and print the truth.” 

—Cal McAffery, Russell Crowe’s “Washington Globe” journalist character in “State of Play” (2009) 

• Editorial Comment: Um, remind me: what *is* the difference between real news and bullshit?

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.99

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#Esc6vQCFKMUK3V3

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

December Sunset





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
.

Vanity

. 
 . . . and the fragrance of ego

“Vanity in a newspaperman is like perfume on a whore: they use it to fend off a dark whiff of themselves.”

—Julian Assange, Australian founder of WikiLeaks

• Editorial Comment: Was that you?

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.99

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 

Luffenholz Beach





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
.

Boobies

. 
I ♥ Boobies

“While teaching students civility and protecting them from possibly inappropriate messages are understandable goals, they come with serious costs. Punishing students for their speech robs our public debate of needed voices, and it teaches our children—who, of course, one day become adults—that censorship, even broad and sometimes arbitrary censorship, is acceptable.” 

—Sonja West, reporting on censorship of breast cancer wristbands worn by Easton, Pa., middle school students Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez, a case heading for the Supreme Court, “Censorship 101: What schools are really teaching students when we let them censor their speech,” Slate, Dec. 6, 2013. 

Background: “School battle over ‘I ♥ Boobies!’ bracelets may go to U.S. Supreme Court” 

• Editorial Comment: Oh, shut up, you kids.

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.99

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 

Egret Games







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
.

Punchy Sociopaths

. 
Twee-Tar

“Now, like most people these days, I have one source for news that I turn to more than any other—Twee-Tar. Because I likes my news like I likes my ladies: Short and punchy and delivered second-hand by anonymous sociopaths. . . . Without Twitter, how else would I learn about revolutions in Iran, or non-existent fights with angry ladies on airplanes?”  

—Jon Stewart, host, The Daily Show, “Parks and Recognition,” Dec. 3, 2013 Watch video here.  

• Editorial Comment: hmmm. Where to begin? Say “short, punchy, sociopathic ladies” out loud in public and see where that gets you.

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.99

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 

Crabpot Christmas






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
.

Rest Well, Troublemaker

. 
Madiba

“He was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, a tiny village of cows, corn and mud huts in the rolling hills of the Transkei, a former British protectorate in the south. His given name, he enjoyed pointing out, translates colloquially as ‘troublemaker.’” —New York Times obit New Yorker cover by Kadir Nelson.

“Today the world lost one of the true giants of the past century. Nelson Mandela was a man of incomparable honor, unconquerable strength, and unyielding resolve — a saint to many, a hero to all who treasure liberty, freedom and the dignity of humankind. . . . Madiba may no longer be with us, but his journey continues on with me and with all of us.” —Morgan Freeman, actor, played Mandela in the 2009 movie “Invictus”
 
“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again—so it falls to us as best we can to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love, to never discount the difference that one person can make, to strive for a future that is worthy of his sacrifice.” —President Barack Obama

  “He put his family, his country, his time, his life on the line, and he won most of these contests. Stubborn ’til the end for all the right reasons, it felt like he very nearly outstared his maker. Today, finally, he blinked. And some of us cry, knowing our eyes were opened to so much because of him.” —Bono, Irish singer and global activist

“History will remember Nelson Mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation. We will remember him as a man of uncommon grace and compassion, for whom abandoning bitterness and embracing adversaries was not just a  political strategy but a way of life.” —Bill Clinton, the first U.S. president to visit South Africa while in office, remembered Mandela as “a true friend.” 

“I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.” —Nelson Mandela, during his 1962 trial

“I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.” —Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), from Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

• Editorial Comment: Stand tall, Rolihlahla. Walk on.

• President Barack Obama’s statement (PBS video) 
• TIME magazine’s Mandela issue, by biographer Richard Stengel
• New York Times obit
• Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Turnley’s photo tribute
 

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.99

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 

Daybreak





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
.

Blinding

. 
Lighten Up

 

“In the digital age of communications, journalists need new metaphors. Shining a light works when information is scarce, and it still is, at times. But today news also can be abundant. When everything is already all lit up, a searchlight is just another thing you can’t see. Think of it: The Internet has become a perpetually open library of the human mind; social media, the new Messenger God of breaking news; more data produced every second than can be consumed in a lifetime. The glare is overwhelming. Truth hides in the open.”

 

—Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president of the Knight Foundation and author of “Searchlights and Sunglasses: Field notes from the digital age of journalism,” 2013 

• Editorial Comment: Stop! My brain is full.

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.99

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 

Amanita muscaria




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
.

The Watchdog’s Watchdog

. 
Taking the Heat

“Robert L. Kierstead wrote a column every other week as the Globe’s ombudsman, which he called his ‘favorite newspaper position,’ while acknowledging that it was ‘an important, challenging, and often thankless role.’” . . . 

“[He] estimated that he had fielded more than 30,000 calls and letters from readers. Based on those conversations and other research, Mr. Kierstead passed judgment in columns that established him as a watchdog for errors and missteps. If readers were upset when they called him, reporters, editors, and photographers could end up even angrier after being publicly chastised in the Globe’s pages by one of their own.”

—Robert Kierstead (1928-2013) obit by Bryan Marquand, The Boston Globe, Nov. 15, 2013 (Thanks to alert WORDster Javan Kienzle)

• Editorial Comment: Somebody’s gotta be right instead of popular.

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.99

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 

Christmas Morning 2012, Trinidad Fishermen’s Memorial






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
.

8-year-old Cat Lady

. 
Premonitions

“I started writing when I was seven or eight. I was very shy and strange-looking, loved reading above everything else, weighed about forty pounds at the time, and was so tense that I walked around with my shoulders up to my ears, like Richard Nixon. I saw a home movie once of a birthday party I went to in the first grade, with all these cute little boys and girls playing together like puppies, and all of a sudden I scuttled across the screen like Prufrock’s crab. I was very clearly the one who was going to grow up to be a serial killer, or keep dozens and dozens of cats.” 

—Anne Lamott, writer, from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, 1994

• Editorial Comment: Buck up, Annie. Those cute puppies are selling insurance today.

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.99

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 

Christmas Morning 2012, Trinidad Fishermen’s Memorial






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
.

The Boys in Advertising

. 
Office Feud

“Feuds did not threaten The New Yorker. The only feud I recall was the running battle between the editorial department and the advertising department. This was largely a one-sided affair, with the editorial department lobbing an occasional grenade into the enemy’s lines just on general principles, to help them remember to stay out of sight. [Editor Harold] Ross was determined not to allow his magazine to be swayed, in the slightest degree, by the boys in advertising. As far as I know, he succeeded.”

—E.B. White (1899-1985), author and longtime New Yorker contributor, in “E. B. White, The Art of the Essay No. 1,” interviewed by George Plimpton and Frank H. Crowther, The Paris Review, No. 48, Fall 1969

• Editorial Comment: Fusillades of thesari?

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.99

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 

Little River Morning








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
.