Pungent

—Stephen King, amazing writer, posted Monday, Oct. 29, 2018 (2,800 pungent and specific comments by Tuesday p.m.)

• Editorial Comment: Have a pungent day.

PeezPix

November’s Senior News. Amazing. Online.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Handwriting

“I have a real aversion to machines. I write with a pen. Then I read it to someone who writes it onto the computer. What are those computer letters made of, anyway? Light? Too insubstantial. Paper, you can feel it. A pen. There’s a connection. A pen goes exactly at your speed, whereas that machine jumps. And then, that machine is waiting for you, just humming, ‘Uh-huh, yes?’” 

—Fran Lebowitz, humorist and writer, “A Humorist at Work,” The Paris Review, 1993.

• Editorial Comment: Writer’s Block: likely result of an impatient keyboard.

PeezPix _____________________________

Needs Some Work

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

We Disagree

“There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, ‘I disagree.’ We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect president.” 

—Natalie Merchant, singer-songwriter and poet. (Thanks to alert WORDster Christine Fairbanks)

• Editorial Comment: As American as baseball. Go BoSox!

PeezPix _____________________________

Who?











 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Shooting the Messenger. Again.

“On Thursday morning, Trump renewed his attacks on the press, taking to Twitter in an apparent attempt to blame the media for the spate of suspected bombs.

“‘A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,’ he tweeted. 

“‘It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!’”

—“Hundreds of journalists condemn Trump’s ‘sustained’ media attacks,” Al Jareeza, Oct. 25, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Good to have someone to blame.

PeezPix _____________________________

Yesterday's Fogbank











 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Smart Book Review

“This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book — it makes a very poor doorstop.”

—Albert Einstein (1879-1955), wise guy.

• Editorial Comment: It’s all relative.

PeezPix

Another Damn Sunset










 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Huddled Masses

“Over the past several days, the caravan story has received considerable coverage on Fox News and conservative radio shows, helping disseminate — and in some cases driving — Trump’s message. But coverage from other news organizations has also played into the narrative Trump and Republicans hope to push. The AP referred to ‘a ragged, growing army of migrants’ in a since-deleted tweet, and nearly all outlets are giving the story outsized attention, once again allowing Trump to act as the media’s assignment editor.” 

—Pete Vernon, editor, “Caravan coverage plays into Trump’s hands,” The Media Today, Columbia Journalism Review, Oct. 23, 2018. Image: Crossing from Guatemala into Mexico, Oct. 18, 2018/NBC.

• Editorial Comment: For press complaints, contact the White House fake news ombudsperson: KellyAnne Conway.

PeezPix

Split Rock, Trinidad, California






 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Byline

“I found out I was undocumented when I was a freshman in high school, and by then I was like, ‘I’m undocumented, so what’s the point of trying?’ Then, I learned that when you get a ‘byline,’ your name would be in the paper, and that’s literally the only reason I became a journalist — just so my name could be on a piece of paper.”  

—Jose Antonio Vargas, author*, journalist and undocumented immigrant, in Concepción de León, “3 Writers on the Emotional Toll of Being Undocumented,” New York Times, Oct. 16, 2018. *“Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen,” 2018)

• Editorial Comment: Remember my first byline? Affirmation.

PeezPix

Eureka Slough Trestle

 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

There's Got to Be a Morning After

“I believe that fake news is the cancer of our times and social media the vehicles for metastasis. Institutions like The [LA] Times and The [San Diego] Union-Tribune are more vital than ever. They must be bastions of editorial integrity and independence if they are to protect our democracy and provide an antidote to disinformation.” 

—Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, upon taking over as the 18th owner of the Los Angeles Times, “New L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong writes a note to readers,” LATimes, June 17, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Give it to me straight, Doc. What are our chances?

PeezPix

Watch Dog

 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Loudspeakers

“People sometimes imagine that just because they have access to so many newspapers, radio and TV channels, they will get an infinity of different opinions. Then they discover that things are just the opposite: the power of these loudspeakers only amplifies the opinion prevalent at a certain time, to the point where it covers any other opinion.” 

—Amin Maalouf, author, The First Century After Beatrice, 1994.

• Editorial Comment: The media speak with one voice?

PeezPix

Anemones

 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Truth

“I don’t try to be balanced. I try and tell the truth as I see it.”  

—Tony Auth (1942-2014), Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, 2012. Click here for his NYT obit.

• Editorial Comment: En garde.

PeezPix

Grandmother Rock
 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

It’s All Just Luck

“I have tried simply to write the best I can; sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”

—Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), pretty successful writer.

• Editorial Comment: Pretty good fisherman, too.

PeezPix

Bench People
 

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard