Focus

 

“You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.” 

—Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), poet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: These days are kind of fuzzy.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

The Wild Coast

 

 

 

 

 

  

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

Faux Fig Leaves

“Talents such as [Brett] Baier and [Chris] Wallace work at Fox News in the capacity of fig leaves. They provide cover — righteous distractions — from the horror that goes down on the opinion hours. This is a dichotomy hatched by [Roger] Ailes, who realized that he could get away with lunacy at night if he balanced it with something approaching sanity during the day. Baier and Wallace, accordingly, serve as highly paid enablers whose silence allows Fox News to flit from one crisis to the next.”

—Eric Wemple, media critic, “Speak up, Bret Baier. Speak up, Chris Wallace,” Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2021. Image: Wallace (left) and Baier with Martha MacCullum. Sept. 2020.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: “Lunacy at Night” is a great slogan.

 

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Emilio & Rus

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

‘Malignant’ Facebook

“Facebook is a monopoly. It controls over 50% of newsgathering, and they are reckless as hell. There is no accountability. And they are destroying not just American democracy, they’re destroying democracy across the globe. They are actually working with tyrannical governments to help chase out freedom fighters in certain countries. They are a malignant force across the globe.” 

—Joe Scarborough, MSNBC host, “Joe Scarborough: Facebook Is ‘A Malignant Force On Democracy Across The Globe,’” Huffington Post, Jan. 29, 2021.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: 👍 But don’t let the Zuck hear you.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Strings

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

Camera Angles for Writers

“Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned. All I know about grammar is its infinite power. To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed.”

 

 —Joan Didion, writer, “Why I Write,” NYTimes, Dec. 5, 1976. Image: Julian Wasser, 1970

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: My grammar is often out of focus.

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Hollyhock

 

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

Inquiring Trolls

 

“Commenting on Inquirer.com was long ago hijacked by a small group of trolls who traffic in racism, misogyny, and homophobia. This group comprises a tiny fraction of the Inquirer.com audience. But its impact is disproportionate and enduring. 

 “It’s not just Inquirer staff who are disaffected by the comments on many stories. We routinely hear from members of our community that the comments are alienating and detract from the journalism we publish.” . . .  

 

“We’d rather invest in vital local journalism than an endless and expensive game of comment whack-a-mole.’” 

 

—The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Why we’re removing comments on most of Inquirer.com,” Feb. 1, 2021. (Thanks to alert WORDster Tony Seton)

 

 

• Editorial Comment: No comment.

 

 

PeezPIX

Froth

 

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

Twain Teachings

“What [Twain] has taught me is he’s the only one I know who really tells the truth about who we are, how we behave and all the disruptions we practice as people.

“I don’t know anybody I’ve ever read — and I read a lot — who tells the truth as simply and directly and as understandably as he does. We live in a world today which is riddled with lies. The act of lying, the habit of lying, I could say, has become acceptable.” 

—Hal Holbrook (1925-2021), actor, “Hal Holbrook Has Been Portraying Mark Twain for Over 60 Years, and He’s Still Going Strong,” LAMagazine, Feb. 10, 2016.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: I’d love to hear the conversation when he runs into Twain.

• Obit: “Hal Holbrook, Actor Who Channeled Mark Twain, Is Dead at 95,” NYTimes

 

 

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Native Plants

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

Faux Fears

“The sacking of the Capitol is proof positive that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very much so. Those [news] outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years.” 

—James Murdoch, the son who quit Fox, in Margaret Sullivan, “Fox News is a hazard to our democracy. It’s time to take the fight to the Murdochs. Here’s how.” The Washington Post, Jan. 24, 2021. Image: Lachlan Murdoch, left, is co-chair of News Corp and CEO of Fox. James quit the Fox Board in August.

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: The staying power of alternative news.

 

 

PeezPIX

Crab Season

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In February’s Senior News . . . “All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 

Goodbye, Larry

“To be sitting at the table on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ — just you, him and the big old mic — was proof that one had truly arrived. The suspenders. The odd questions. Why, King wanted to know. His favorite question, because that’s all any of us ever really want to know: Why?” 

—Hank Stuever, Style editor, “Larry King’s long run made the case that there’s no such thing as a dumb question,” The Washington Post, Jan. 24, 2021. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: That’s a wrap, Mr. King.

 

• Obit: “Larry King, Breezy Interviewer of the Famous and Infamous, Dies at 87,” NYTimes.

 

 

PeezPIX

February in Senior News.

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