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Jul
31
Current TV anyone?
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
Anybody know anybody who’s going to be able to watch Al Gore’s Current TV, set to launch tomorrow evening? Website says Joel Hyatt is the CEO. So many things I don’t know (didn’t know).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:15 pm July 31st, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
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Jul
31
Current TV anyone?
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
Anybody know anybody who’s going to be able to watch Al Gore’s Current TV, set to launch tomorrow evening? Website says Joel Hyatt is the CEO. So many things I don’t know (didn’t know).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:15 pm July 31st, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
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Jul
31
Sunday on Saturday
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
I know there must be a simple answer to this question, but I don’t know what it is: Why is it that in Connecticut, certain portions of the New York Times Sunday edition arrive on Saturday, and the rest arrives on Sunday? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled. Breaking up that behemoth makes it easier for me to read more of it. But still - how do they choose? Sunday Arts and Leisure came yesterday, but not Sunday Styles. No Week in Review either - will one more day really change the whole week? Anyone know?
Thanks to this time warp experience (in addition to the time warp I’m already experiencing by not wearing a watch and being on vacation), I read all of Richard Posner’s lengthy essay in the book review, “Bad News.” In it, he offers his description of the state of conventional news media and everything else that isn’t conventional - basically, blogs. And yet, after over 4500 words of text, Judge Posner concludes,
So when all the pluses and minuses of the impact of technological and economic change on the news media are toted up and compared, maybe there isn’t much to fret about.
Frankly, I agree. Not that change and shifts aren’t worrisome and stressful. Not that elements who feel shutdown shouldn’t fight back. Not that inequities don’t exist and cause the consumer (the people who should want to know what’s going on, in a - ugh - fair and balanced way) to be perplexed and not so well informed.
But rather, it’s the march of time, progress and our own ambitions and pursuits. I’m not sure what Judge Posner’s essay accomplishes except to air musings even I’ve had with myself, and most likely those bloggers who’ve been at it way longer than me (not too hard to find them) have been talking about for a long time too. I’m not sure that the Book Review’s audience is going to be anyone outside the choir or the falling asleep audience listening to the choir, but I’m not the kind of person who will outright say that the space was wasted either. (Unless some comments here suggest otherwise…)
Today, I have to say that I love the New Haven Register, not because I can fold up even the Sunday version and hide it in my purse - so slim is it, but because I love the Yale Child Study Center. I used to dream of working in a think tank or for an agency like the Child Study Center (partly because I monitored grants that came into it through the Yale Development Office and those grants were fascinating). I’m not doing either now, but following the small schools reform effort as a journalistic storyteller in Ohio comes close. If you’re interested in education, check out this article on Dr. James Comer and his work. He’s been trying to place child development at the top of the list of education concerns for 30 years now.
The negative pregnant (or is it the pregnant negative?) of reading news in other papers for more than a week is that when I return to Cleveland, I’m going to have missed the PD for seven days. But having the NE Ohio blogs at my fingertips through www.brewedfreshdaily.com and other sites helps keep me not quite so out of it. I’m sorry that the PD’s website can be so difficult to navigate, otherwise I’d spend some time on it’s front page, if it really had a semblance of a front page the way the Times or even the NH Register has. I hate dissing it like that - but most folks I know who’ve ever visited the PD site feels similar (let’s say, at least ten people). Can anyone point me to someone’s post somewhere that explains why it is that the PD’s web presence is what it is (or isn’t)? I just feel too far out and new to know. (Maybe I should just go ask the PD.)
My visits with friends old and new yesterday were lovely. Later today, I’ll be hosting, in Connecticut, some Cleveland area friends who’ve just moved here (yesterday to be exact). I figured that I had to offer up my parents home as a place of respite after a family of four moves from Ohio to CT in a day. When I moved from CT to Ohio, my U-Haul lost its power steering an hour into New York, I sheered off the carport-like top of a guest unloading area at a Cleveland hotel and, when I went to what was supposed to be my new abode in Coventry? I found no floors, no walls and no roommates.
You can guess that everything worked out because seventeen years later, I’m still in town.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:13 pm July 31st, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
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Jul
31
Current TV anyone?
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
Anybody know anybody who’s going to be able to watch Al Gore’s Current TV, set to launch tomorrow evening? Website says Joel Hyatt is the CEO. So many things I don’t know (didn’t know).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:15 pm July 31st, 2005 in Politics | Please comment
Print This Post
Jul
31
Sunday on Saturday
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
I know there must be a simple answer to this question, but I don’t know what it is: Why is it that in Connecticut, certain portions of the New York Times Sunday edition arrive on Saturday, and the rest arrives on Sunday? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled. Breaking up that behemoth makes it easier for me to read more of it. But still - how do they choose? Sunday Arts and Leisure came yesterday, but not Sunday Styles. No Week in Review either - will one more day really change the whole week? Anyone know?
Thanks to this time warp experience (in addition to the time warp I’m already experiencing by not wearing a watch and being on vacation), I read all of Richard Posner’s lengthy essay in the book review, “Bad News.” In it, he offers his description of the state of conventional news media and everything else that isn’t conventional - basically, blogs. And yet, after over 4500 words of text, Judge Posner concludes,
So when all the pluses and minuses of the impact of technological and economic change on the news media are toted up and compared, maybe there isn’t much to fret about.
Frankly, I agree. Not that change and shifts aren’t worrisome and stressful. Not that elements who feel shutdown shouldn’t fight back. Not that inequities don’t exist and cause the consumer (the people who should want to know what’s going on, in a - ugh - fair and balanced way) to be perplexed and not so well informed.
But rather, it’s the march of time, progress and our own ambitions and pursuits. I’m not sure what Judge Posner’s essay accomplishes except to air musings even I’ve had with myself, and most likely those bloggers who’ve been at it way longer than me (not too hard to find them) have been talking about for a long time too. I’m not sure that the Book Review’s audience is going to be anyone outside the choir or the falling asleep audience listening to the choir, but I’m not the kind of person who will outright say that the space was wasted either. (Unless some comments here suggest otherwise…)
Today, I have to say that I love the New Haven Register, not because I can fold up even the Sunday version and hide it in my purse - so slim is it, but because I love the Yale Child Study Center. I used to dream of working in a think tank or for an agency like the Child Study Center (partly because I monitored grants that came into it through the Yale Development Office and those grants were fascinating). I’m not doing either now, but following the small schools reform effort as a journalistic storyteller in Ohio comes close. If you’re interested in education, check out this article on Dr. James Comer and his work. He’s been trying to place child development at the top of the list of education concerns for 30 years now.
The negative pregnant (or is it the pregnant negative?) of reading news in other papers for more than a week is that when I return to Cleveland, I’m going to have missed the PD for seven days. But having the NE Ohio blogs at my fingertips through www.brewedfreshdaily.com and other sites helps keep me not quite so out of it. I’m sorry that the PD’s website can be so difficult to navigate, otherwise I’d spend some time on it’s front page, if it really had a semblance of a front page the way the Times or even the NH Register has. I hate dissing it like that - but most folks I know who’ve ever visited the PD site feels similar (let’s say, at least ten people). Can anyone point me to someone’s post somewhere that explains why it is that the PD’s web presence is what it is (or isn’t)? I just feel too far out and new to know. (Maybe I should just go ask the PD.)
My visits with friends old and new yesterday were lovely. Later today, I’ll be hosting, in Connecticut, some Cleveland area friends who’ve just moved here (yesterday to be exact). I figured that I had to offer up my parents home as a place of respite after a family of four moves from Ohio to CT in a day. When I moved from CT to Ohio, my U-Haul lost its power steering an hour into New York, I sheered off the carport-like top of a guest unloading area at a Cleveland hotel and, when I went to what was supposed to be my new abode in Coventry? I found no floors, no walls and no roommates.
You can guess that everything worked out because seventeen years later, I’m still in town.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:13 am July 31st, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
Print This Post
Jul
31
Sunday on Saturday
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
I know there must be a simple answer to this question, but I don’t know what it is: Why is it that in Connecticut, certain portions of the New York Times Sunday edition arrive on Saturday, and the rest arrives on Sunday? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled. Breaking up that behemoth makes it easier for me to read more of it. But still - how do they choose? Sunday Arts and Leisure came yesterday, but not Sunday Styles. No Week in Review either - will one more day really change the whole week? Anyone know?
Thanks to this time warp experience (in addition to the time warp I’m already experiencing by not wearing a watch and being on vacation), I read all of Richard Posner’s lengthy essay in the book review, “Bad News.” In it, he offers his description of the state of conventional news media and everything else that isn’t conventional - basically, blogs. And yet, after over 4500 words of text, Judge Posner concludes,
So when all the pluses and minuses of the impact of technological and economic change on the news media are toted up and compared, maybe there isn’t much to fret about.
Frankly, I agree. Not that change and shifts aren’t worrisome and stressful. Not that elements who feel shutdown shouldn’t fight back. Not that inequities don’t exist and cause the consumer (the people who should want to know what’s going on, in a - ugh - fair and balanced way) to be perplexed and not so well informed.
But rather, it’s the march of time, progress and our own ambitions and pursuits. I’m not sure what Judge Posner’s essay accomplishes except to air musings even I’ve had with myself, and most likely those bloggers who’ve been at it way longer than me (not too hard to find them) have been talking about for a long time too. I’m not sure that the Book Review’s audience is going to be anyone outside the choir or the falling asleep audience listening to the choir, but I’m not the kind of person who will outright say that the space was wasted either. (Unless some comments here suggest otherwise…)
Today, I have to say that I love the New Haven Register, not because I can fold up even the Sunday version and hide it in my purse - so slim is it, but because I love the Yale Child Study Center. I used to dream of working in a think tank or for an agency like the Child Study Center (partly because I monitored grants that came into it through the Yale Development Office and those grants were fascinating). I’m not doing either now, but following the small schools reform effort as a journalistic storyteller in Ohio comes close. If you’re interested in education, check out this article on Dr. James Comer and his work. He’s been trying to place child development at the top of the list of education concerns for 30 years now.
The negative pregnant (or is it the pregnant negative?) of reading news in other papers for more than a week is that when I return to Cleveland, I’m going to have missed the PD for seven days. But having the NE Ohio blogs at my fingertips through www.brewedfreshdaily.com and other sites helps keep me not quite so out of it. I’m sorry that the PD’s website can be so difficult to navigate, otherwise I’d spend some time on it’s front page, if it really had a semblance of a front page the way the Times or even the NH Register has. I hate dissing it like that - but most folks I know who’ve ever visited the PD site feels similar (let’s say, at least ten people). Can anyone point me to someone’s post somewhere that explains why it is that the PD’s web presence is what it is (or isn’t)? I just feel too far out and new to know. (Maybe I should just go ask the PD.)
My visits with friends old and new yesterday were lovely. Later today, I’ll be hosting, in Connecticut, some Cleveland area friends who’ve just moved here (yesterday to be exact). I figured that I had to offer up my parents home as a place of respite after a family of four moves from Ohio to CT in a day. When I moved from CT to Ohio, my U-Haul lost its power steering an hour into New York, I sheered off the carport-like top of a guest unloading area at a Cleveland hotel and, when I went to what was supposed to be my new abode in Coventry? I found no floors, no walls and no roommates.
You can guess that everything worked out because seventeen years later, I’m still in town.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:13 am July 31st, 2005 in Politics | Please comment
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Jul
30
Lachlan and me
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I don’t know Lachlan Murdoch, or any of the Rupert Murdoch family. I need to disclaim them up front, so I don’t get accused of misleading anyone. Least of all myself.
But I know a few things about family run businesses led by fathers and I can tell you, as a child of a father who created a successful business, don’t get involved. My father knows I love him (see this essay in the June Cleveland Family magazine) but he’s also known, since I was old enough to earn money at McDonald’s, that if I had to choose between the drive-thru and the family business, I’d take the smell of french fry oil every time.
It’s true, some kids embrace participation in the family business. Or so it appears (think the Bass family of Texas, the Waltons and apparently James Murdoch, the youngest of Rupert’s sons at 32). But I’m not one of them. I respect and admire my dad’s “from nothing” accomplishments. It’s book-worthy, even. But I never desired to become an employee or owner. And he’s respected me even though I lack that desire (thanks, Dad).
Pinging back at myself: One of the problems with the NYT’s girth is that it results in too many torn out pages or lengthy lists of all the news I want to read and refer to. It’s so big (how big is it?) that two articles started on the very front page continue onto pages in other sections. What a concept. But then, an article I wanted to finish reading was continued from section A in Section C, and for some reason Section C was behind Section D.
I will never understand how newspapers are collated.
Back to pinging myself: Yesterday, I started off the entry with a reference to the fact that I never wear a watch. Well, I’ve never read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point either (about how trends start, or don’t) and I’ve often said, I could never be a trendspotter - I rarely notice trends and my kids are going to suffer for that, I know.
But today, I opened up the Education Life supplement of the Times (I’m still on vacation getting the daily edition, sweet), and ha! right there, on page 7, was the following tidbit on a page of tidbits entitled, BLACKBOARD:
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:27 pm July 30th, 2005 in Politics | Please comment
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Jul
30
Lachlan and me
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
I don’t know Lachlan Murdoch, or any of the Rupert Murdoch family. I need to disclaim them up front, so I don’t get accused of misleading anyone. Least of all myself.
But I know a few things about family run businesses led by fathers and I can tell you, as a child of a father who created a successful business, don’t get involved. My father knows I love him (see this essay in the June Cleveland Family magazine) but he’s also known, since I was old enough to earn money at McDonald’s, that if I had to choose between the drive-thru and the family business, I’d take the smell of french fry oil every time.
It’s true, some kids embrace participation in the family business. Or so it appears (think the Bass family of Texas, the Waltons and apparently James Murdoch, the youngest of Rupert’s sons at 32). But I’m not one of them. I respect and admire my dad’s “from nothing” accomplishments. It’s book-worthy, even. But I never desired to become an employee or owner. And he’s respected me even though I lack that desire (thanks, Dad).
Pinging back at myself: One of the problems with the NYT’s girth is that it results in too many torn out pages or lengthy lists of all the news I want to read and refer to. It’s so big (how big is it?) that two articles started on the very front page continue onto pages in other sections. What a concept. But then, an article I wanted to finish reading was continued from section A in Section C, and for some reason Section C was behind Section D.
I will never understand how newspapers are collated.
Back to pinging myself: Yesterday, I started off the entry with a reference to the fact that I never wear a watch. Well, I’ve never read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point either (about how trends start, or don’t) and I’ve often said, I could never be a trendspotter - I rarely notice trends and my kids are going to suffer for that, I know.
But today, I opened up the Education Life supplement of the Times (I’m still on vacation getting the daily edition, sweet), and ha! right there, on page 7, was the following tidbit on a page of tidbits entitled, BLACKBOARD:
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:27 am July 30th, 2005 in Politics | Please comment
Print This Post
Jul
30
Lachlan and me
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
I don’t know Lachlan Murdoch, or any of the Rupert Murdoch family. I need to disclaim them up front, so I don’t get accused of misleading anyone. Least of all myself.
But I know a few things about family run businesses led by fathers and I can tell you, as a child of a father who created a successful business, don’t get involved. My father knows I love him (see this essay in the June Cleveland Family magazine) but he’s also known, since I was old enough to earn money at McDonald’s, that if I had to choose between the drive-thru and the family business, I’d take the smell of french fry oil every time.
It’s true, some kids embrace participation in the family business. Or so it appears (think the Bass family of Texas, the Waltons and apparently James Murdoch, the youngest of Rupert’s sons at 32). But I’m not one of them. I respect and admire my dad’s “from nothing” accomplishments. It’s book-worthy, even. But I never desired to become an employee or owner. And he’s respected me even though I lack that desire (thanks, Dad).
Pinging back at myself: One of the problems with the NYT’s girth is that it results in too many torn out pages or lengthy lists of all the news I want to read and refer to. It’s so big (how big is it?) that two articles started on the very front page continue onto pages in other sections. What a concept. But then, an article I wanted to finish reading was continued from section A in Section C, and for some reason Section C was behind Section D.
I will never understand how newspapers are collated.
Back to pinging myself: Yesterday, I started off the entry with a reference to the fact that I never wear a watch. Well, I’ve never read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point either (about how trends start, or don’t) and I’ve often said, I could never be a trendspotter - I rarely notice trends and my kids are going to suffer for that, I know.
But today, I opened up the Education Life supplement of the Times (I’m still on vacation getting the daily edition, sweet), and ha! right there, on page 7, was the following tidbit on a page of tidbits entitled, BLACKBOARD:
By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:27 am July 30th, 2005 in Politics | Please comment
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Jul
29
What’s it all mean
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I never wear a watch. I can find the time on my cell phone, my Palm Pilot and on whomever I’m with. I know how to ask a question and my inner clock is amazingly accurate. If I worked in a carny stall, it would be the Guess What Time It Is booth, like the Guess Your Weight or Age booth because I can usually guess the time within five minutes.
Except when I’m on vacation. Then, the morning when I wake up and ask someone what day it is can’t come soon enough. And, although I know it’s Friday today, it doesn’t feel like Friday. I don’t know what day it does feel like, but I don’t have that “last day of the work week” or school week or camp week feeling.
So I must be on vacation. (Another sign that I’m on vacation? No one can suggest with any authority that I don’t have time to (fill in the blank with something that I like to do that I can’t usually take the time to do because of workaday obligations).)
News that caught my eye this morning included A.O. Scott’s review of The Aristocrats, the movie about the joke comedians tell one another. Can’t wait to see it, partly, I admit, because of the hype, but partly because I love most of the comedians involved. Also, I like the idea of getting to see something that until now had been seen only by those within the group. I will never be a comedienne, that is something about which I’m certain. And not just because a member of my family has told me repeatedly that I’m not funny. So this movie will be my only in.
(On a side note about movies - why is it that some papers publish reviews of movies before the movie comes out? I know it’s meant to be a service to the consumer, so I know what I’m getting into. But this happened to me yesterday regarding a kids’ movie. I read the review, it was good and I said, hey - that’s what I’ll do with the kids later today. The joke was on me - the movie didn’t open until today. I’m not usually so into immediate gratification, but I really had wished the darn thing was available when I needed it to be.)
It’s being reported that Senator Bill Frist will support the funding of embryonic stem cell research. I can’t quite bring myself to say God Bless Bill Frist, although I hope God blesses most people. But if his support will get us to where we should be with this work, I hope he has a lovely day today.
If you haven’t figured it out yet (or cared to figure it out yet), I’m in New Haven, CT for a few days, near where I grew up. And the downtown area, while smaller than Cleveland, shares several things. One of which is the decline of city department stores. The downtown Macy’s closed a decade or so ago and later, a Filene’s opened up outside of downtown. Now, the downtown Macy’s is being converted into a community college and the Filene’s that isn’t in the downtown? It’s being converted into, guess what? A Macy’s. Read all about it.
Then I found this disturbing article about Miami Herald columnist, Jim DeFede. It seems he taped a phone conversation with someone just before that someone committed suicide. The someone was under investigation for several seamy things and was distraught during the phone call. I’d love to hear what journalists think about the situation. What would you have done if you were DeFede? If you were his boss? If you were Knight-Ridder?
Finally, why is it that newspaper only tears evenly when you tear it vertically, but not horizontally, thus shredding off the contact information or the last words of the bottom columns of whatever you wanted to rip out and requiring you to locate scissors and then cut and tape back together whatever it was you were trying to collect? I’m sure there is a technical answer related to the pulp and paper industry and newsprint and newspaper production. But as a reader and writer who, almost daily, tears out articles to save, I hate being interrupted by a bad tear to get up and get scissors, or gather the shred I have and take it to the computer with me and try to get a hard copy of the piece off of the Internet.
From the bird-call infested woods of my hometown, I wish you all a wonderful day.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:09 pm July 29th, 2005 in Politics | Please comment
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Jul
29
What’s it all mean
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I never wear a watch. I can find the time on my cell phone, my Palm Pilot and on whomever I’m with. I know how to ask a question and my inner clock is amazingly accurate. If I worked in a carny stall, it would be the Guess What Time It Is booth, like the Guess Your Weight or Age booth because I can usually guess the time within five minutes.
Except when I’m on vacation. Then, the morning when I wake up and ask someone what day it is can’t come soon enough. And, although I know it’s Friday today, it doesn’t feel like Friday. I don’t know what day it does feel like, but I don’t have that “last day of the work week” or school week or camp week feeling.
So I must be on vacation. (Another sign that I’m on vacation? No one can suggest with any authority that I don’t have time to (fill in the blank with something that I like to do that I can’t usually take the time to do because of workaday obligations).)
News that caught my eye this morning included A.O. Scott’s review of The Aristocrats, the movie about the joke comedians tell one another. Can’t wait to see it, partly, I admit, because of the hype, but partly because I love most of the comedians involved. Also, I like the idea of getting to see something that until now had been seen only by those within the group. I will never be a comedienne, that is something about which I’m certain. And not just because a member of my family has told me repeatedly that I’m not funny. So this movie will be my only in.
(On a side note about movies - why is it that some papers publish reviews of movies before the movie comes out? I know it’s meant to be a service to the consumer, so I know what I’m getting into. But this happened to me yesterday regarding a kids’ movie. I read the review, it was good and I said, hey - that’s what I’ll do with the kids later today. The joke was on me - the movie didn’t open until today. I’m not usually so into immediate gratification, but I really had wished the darn thing was available when I needed it to be.)
It’s being reported that Senator Bill Frist will support the funding of embryonic stem cell research. I can’t quite bring myself to say God Bless Bill Frist, although I hope God blesses most people. But if his support will get us to where we should be with this work, I hope he has a lovely day today.
If you haven’t figured it out yet (or cared to figure it out yet), I’m in New Haven, CT for a few days, near where I grew up. And the downtown area, while smaller than Cleveland, shares several things. One of which is the decline of city department stores. The downtown Macy’s closed a decade or so ago and later, a Filene’s opened up outside of downtown. Now, the downtown Macy’s is being converted into a community college and the Filene’s that isn’t in the downtown? It’s being converted into, guess what? A Macy’s. Read all about it.
Then I found this disturbing article about Miami Herald columnist, Jim DeFede. It seems he taped a phone conversation with someone just before that someone committed suicide. The someone was under investigation for several seamy things and was distraught during the phone call. I’d love to hear what journalists think about the situation. What would you have done if you were DeFede? If you were his boss? If you were Knight-Ridder?
Finally, why is it that newspaper only tears evenly when you tear it vertically, but not horizontally, thus shredding off the contact information or the last words of the bottom columns of whatever you wanted to rip out and requiring you to locate scissors and then cut and tape back together whatever it was you were trying to collect? I’m sure there is a technical answer related to the pulp and paper industry and newsprint and newspaper production. But as a reader