Mr. President

“For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community. For too long as a nation, we have been lulled by the anthem of self-interest.” . . . 

 

“We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society — for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference. 

 

“We must reclaim the tradition of community in our society. Only by recognizing that we share a common obligation to one another and to our country can we ever hope to maximize our national or personal potential. 

 

“We must reassert the oneness of America. America has been and must once again be the seamless web of caring and community.”

—Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., announcing his candidacy for president, June 10, 1987.

• Editorial Comment: Let's get on that, Mr. President.

 

 

PeezPIX

God Bless

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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

Doonesbury

 

“He brought the reality of war to the American people. And that’s a very important thing to do. Bringing the reality of the world through a cartoon, is his great contribution to our society.” 

—William Nash, retired U.S. Army major general, in Jon Kalish, “‘I Just Followed My Interests’: Garry Trudeau on 50 Years of ‘Doonesbury’,” NPR, Jan. 13, 2021.

 

• Editorial Comment: Roger that.

 

 

PeezPIX

Grandmother & Stella

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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

What Would MLK Say?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2021. Hmm. How to choose? Apply any or all of these to current events and people, as appropriate.

 

“If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, ‘There lived a great people — a black people — who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.” Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 31, 1955.

 

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” St. Louis, March 22, 1964.

 

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Strength to Love, 1963.

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” Nobel Peace Prize address, Oslo, Norway, 1964.

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

 

• Editorial Comment: Amen.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

. . . and there was light.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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

Forecast

“Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.”

―E.B. White (1899-1985), sailor and writer, in a letter to a Mr. Nadeau, who had lost faith in humanity, 1973. Image: Jill Krementz, 1976.

• Editorial Comment: Storm’s not over, Cap.

 

 

 

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The Old Pier, Trinidad, CA

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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

‘A Truth Reckoning’

Announcement: If you hire former Trump Administration press secretaries, “Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie.”

“In this time of transition — and pain — reinvigorating democracy requires a reckoning. A truth reckoning. Starting with the people paid by the People to inform the People.” . . .

“[W]e need to return to a standard of truth when it comes to how the government communicates with the governed.”

—Randall Lane, Forbes magazine chief content officer and editor, “A Truth Reckoning: Why We’re Holding Those Who Lied for Trump Accountable,” Forbes, Jan. 7, 2021.

 

• Editorial Comment: They were true alternative facts.

 

 

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CA commercial crab season opens this week

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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

Correction

 

“Our great political system needs information to be self-correcting. While excesses and imbalances will inevitably exist for a time, fortunately they tend not to last. Ultimately, truth prevails.” 

 

—Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. secretary of defense, 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Time for some correcting, Don.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Snowstream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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

On the Copy Desk

 

“It is a feeling that every copy editor knows. You bolt upright out of a deep sleep at 3 a.m., eyes wide open, and you say to yourself, Did I misspell “Kyrgyzstan” last night? And nine times out of 10, you can go back to sleep comfortably knowing . . . that you did.” 

—David Vecsey, copy editor, New York Times, “Because of an Editing Error,” NYTimes, Jan. 3, 2021.

 

 

  

 

• Editorial Comment: Get me rerite.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

January Daydream

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a New Day and a New Year. Get your January Senior News here. 

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