Abrasive

. 

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.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 

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
.

Bookish

. 

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.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 

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
.

Ted Says We’re . . .

. 

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.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 

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
.

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.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 

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
.

Elder Advice

. 

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.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 

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
.

Blank Sheet

. 

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.

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.99

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
.

The Trouble with the World

. 

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? 

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.99

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
.

War Is Hell

. 

The Habit of Lies

“It took nine years, and a great depression, and two wars ending in defeat, and one surrender without war, to break my faith in the benign power of the press. Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.”

It took nine years, and a great depression, and two wars ending in defeat, and one surrender without war, to break my faith in the benign power of the press. Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/it_took_nine_years_and_a_great_depression#clSAXRqwDPU46dw4.99

It took nine years, and a great depression, and two wars ending in defeat, and one surrender without war, to break my faith in the benign power of the press. Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/it_took_nine_years_and_a_great_depression#OtQE4S66mMBPu1oS.99

  —Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), famed war correspondent and novelist, from her book, The Face of War (1959) New York Times obit

• Editorial Comment: Ernie Pyle: “War makes strange giant creatures out of us routine little men who inhabit the earth.”

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.99

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Sea Stacks. See?







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
.

Benediction

. 

Vatican TV

“The profound impact upon the mind of new vocabulary and . . . images, which the electronic media in particular so easily introduce into society, cannot be overestimated. Precisely because contemporary media shape popular culture, they themselves must overcome any temptation to manipulate, especially the young, and instead pursue the desire to [in]form and serve.”

  —Pope Benedictus XVI, message for the 40th World Communications Day, 2006

• Editorial Comment: Amen.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Sea Stacks. See?







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
.

Tea and Text

. 

Cuppa

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” 

—C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer

• Editorial Comment: Of course, there are a lot of bathroom runs.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Fang the Wonder Cat








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
.

Language

. 

To Be

“As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. ‘To be or not to be?’ asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story ‘Eveline’ is just this one: ‘She was tired.’ At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do.”

—Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), who knew his words.

• Editorial Comment: And there was light.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Fang the Wonder Cat








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
.

Public Relations 101

. 
A Sock in the Puss

“If you write for a living, it’s impossible not to adore certain words, and revile others. No sentient being can bear the flaccid, figurative use of the phrase ‘reach out,’ so beloved by public relations professionals. ‘Thank you for reaching out,’ they say in response to a routine phone inquiry. ‘When I reach out, it will be to sock you in the puss,’ was my customary reply. For the record, I am not contemplating a future in the glamorous world of PR.”  

—Alex Beam, writer, “Confessions of a Word Snob,” The New York Times, 2013 

• Editorial Comment: Have your peeps reach out to my peeps.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Bear Right








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
.