Press Pass

 

“Ever since I started working as a journalist nine years ago, I have been under constant pressure from my family, my tribe, and my community to give up journalism. . . . Freedom of expression is on the brink of extinction.” 

—Guhdar Zebari, freelance journalist, in “Press freedom ‘on brink of extinction’ in Iraqi Kurdistan, journalists say,” Committee to Protect Journalists, Sept. 9, 2019.

 

• Editorial Comment: Following the other dinosaurs.

• BONUS FEATURE From the World of Punctuation Milestones (sort of), this news: This is the U.N.’s International Year of the Periodic Table, marking the 150th anniversary of Dmitry Mendeleev’s creation of the periodic table of chemical elements (1869), “one of the most significant achievements in science, capturing the essence not only of chemistry, but also of physics, medicine, earth sciences and biology.” It is immortalized here by Tom Lehrer in Copenhagen in 1967.

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Running Dog

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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