Back when I worked at a small paper in a mountain town, July and August were particularly frustrating months. Literally, nothing happened. From what I could tell, the entire town packed up and left for some other clime, leaving reporters behind to marvel at, well, the emptiness.
But even if there's nothing going on, you still have to bring readers to advertisers. Sometimes, that means running a front-page story about Mrs. Kravitz's apple patch. The newsless doldrums have hit the national media, methinks. Aside from the Supreme Court fight, which is still in preseason exhibition games, there's not much going on ... so don't go in the water, 'cuz the sharks are coming to get you.
Don't pay too much attention to the accounts of shark attacks; it's just the summer doldrums. That said, I wouldn't recommend watching Jaws just before your trip to the beach ...
Pennywit is extremely masculine, yet has a soft, sensitive side. When he's not opening mayonnaise jars or petting bunnies, he blogs at Pennywit.com.
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Comments (10)
Ah, but it's early and litt... (Below threshold)1. Posted by mesablue | July 2, 2005 5:55 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Ah, but it's early and little boy Dean has been quiet lately -- what's up with that?
Have to say though, penny, you've given me faith that the other side is not a complete loss. Glad you decided to grace us...
I live in the middle of moonbat land and after being "outed" as a conservative I was looked at like I must be an alien, but after a while most folks have grown to accept me. Even like me.
As we discuss life, the world and politics and realize that we agree about 90% of the time. They thought that I must be some evil being, now they are beginning to know better.
Same with your presence here -- I hope.
1. Posted by mesablue | July 2, 2005 5:55 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 05:55
2. Posted by fatman | July 2, 2005 9:06 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Shhh. Be vewy,vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits! Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.
(Like you said, newsless doldrums. And I just couldn't resist.)
2. Posted by fatman | July 2, 2005 9:06 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 09:06
3. Posted by Gizmo | July 2, 2005 10:03 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
OT - Ah, those wacky Euroweenie Socialists are at it again. You can't make this stuff up. This weekend a French "anti-consumerism" socialist group will attempt to distrupt the French Formula 1 Grand Prix by marching a donkey convoy from Lyon to the site of the race at Magny-Cours. Their hope is to disrupt the flow of traffic to the track. (I wonder what PETA thinks of them placing the beasts of burden in harms way?) The group complains: "(F1 is an) anachronistic leisure reserved for a score of spoiled rich brats." They are also view the sport as a waste of the world's resources (all of the money in the sport is just ripe for income redistribution!) and pollutes the environment.
http://www.planet-f1.com/news/story_20108.shtml
3. Posted by Gizmo | July 2, 2005 10:03 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 10:03
4. Posted by gordon | July 2, 2005 10:14 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
You mean Karl Rove possibly being outed as the Plame leaker isn't news? Drudge
Compromising the national security, perjury, woooohooooo!!!!
4. Posted by gordon | July 2, 2005 10:14 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 10:14
5. Posted by McGehee | July 2, 2005 10:34 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
You mean Karl Rove possibly being outed as the Plame leaker isn't news?
Get back to us when that's more than the wet dream of a BDS sufferer like O'Donnell.
5. Posted by McGehee | July 2, 2005 10:34 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 10:34
6. Posted by McGehee | July 2, 2005 10:38 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
He means Lawrence O'Donnell having a wet dream about Rove "possibly being outed" isn't news. And neither is Gordon making a fool of himself over mere speculation.
6. Posted by McGehee | July 2, 2005 10:38 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 10:38
7. Posted by Norden | July 2, 2005 11:03 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
What we need is more shark-killin stories, where are the crusty freelance shark hunters when we need them?
7. Posted by Norden | July 2, 2005 11:03 AM |
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Posted on July 2, 2005 11:03
8. Posted by Ben Lange | July 2, 2005 11:04 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July and August were dead months? What, no county and state fairs?
8. Posted by Ben Lange | July 2, 2005 11:04 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 11:04
9. Posted by pennywit | July 2, 2005 12:24 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I worked a local paper that stuck to a relatively smal geographic area; the "county fair" was good for maybe one week of news, while the state fair was outside our purview ... and, again, good for one week of news.
Of course, I'm a bir more creative now ... if I had the "newsless doldrums" again at a newspaper, I know a few tecniques to make the stories at hand more interesting; the "county fair" becomes a long feature series about a local man with championship petunias, and so on and so forth.
--|PW|--
9. Posted by pennywit | July 2, 2005 12:24 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 12:24
10. Posted by Cletus | July 2, 2005 7:14 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Last time we had a summer where the news reported shark attacks all the time, the newslessness ended on 11 September. Hopefully that doesn't indicate that this is another calm before the storm...
10. Posted by Cletus | July 2, 2005 7:14 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 2, 2005 19:14