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Jul
31
Current TV anyone?
Filed Under Politics | 3 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 | 3 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 | Comments Off
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 | Comments Off
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 | Comments Off
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 | Comments Off
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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 | Comments Off
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Jul
30
Lachlan and me
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
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 | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
30
Lachlan and me
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
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 | Comments Off
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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 | Comments Off
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Jul
29
What’s it all mean
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
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 9:09 am July 29th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
29
What’s it all mean
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
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 6:09 am July 29th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
28
Why is it that
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Since my writing idea list includes many “Why is it that…” questions, I’m going to start including one in each blog entry. A few followers have e-mailed me similar queries, so I thought it might make for a fun feature.
My first example derives from a story I heard on NPR during a rainstorm-hampered drive through Danbury, CT and as I listened, I thought, how can this be?
A Quinnipiac University poll indicated that CT Governor Jodi Rell has a 79% approval rating. The previous poll, according to NPR, indicated that she had an 80% approval rating.
Since Ohio Governor Bob Taft’s approval rating was found to be as low as 17% earlier this year, Gov. Rell’s numbers surprised me. How does a governor earn such a good grade? What are the citizens liking so much?
The next day, the New Haven Register’s article about the poll results sought answers too, but the answers just don’t do it for me. They range from citizen’s relief that she isn’t former Governor John Rowland – who is now serving time in federal prison for corruption – to being unduly inflated due to a lack of dialogue on election-relevant issues such as “track record, future, vision for the state, and the plan for getting there.”
I’m completely unsatisfied. I want to hear from the people who responded. I want to know, what do they like so much? Why do they approve? What does “approval” really mean – in this context, when you’re talking about a possible candidate for an elected position, or in any poll that measures approval? You approve, compared to what?
But of course, even satisfactory answers won’t guarantee that a challenger – to Gov. Rell or for Ohio’s governorship – will get any better marks, or, in fact, do a better job. Sometimes, it really does seem to boil down to just being about the numbers, and little else.
More locally: I saw the PD’s invitation in yesterday’s Metro section to help pick out top stories weekdays at 4pm. New to me. Does anyone know if it’s worth going to, or how it works? Thanks.
Last bit: One thing I love about traveling is the opportunity to read other papers, like the weekday editions of the NYT (I only get Sundays) and other cities’ dailies. Why? Because it gives me perspective on what people find important – are they the same issues Clevelanders find important? And if they aren’t, is it because they’re regional issues, or we’re just not there yet? I’ve clipped a few and want to bring up a couple of the topics over the next few days.
Have a good one.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:44 pm July 28th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
28
Why is it that
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Since my writing idea list includes many “Why is it that…” questions, I’m going to start including one in each blog entry. A few followers have e-mailed me similar queries, so I thought it might make for a fun feature.
My first example derives from a story I heard on NPR during a rainstorm-hampered drive through Danbury, CT and as I listened, I thought, how can this be?
A Quinnipiac University poll indicated that CT Governor Jodi Rell has a 79% approval rating. The previous poll, according to NPR, indicated that she had an 80% approval rating.
Since Ohio Governor Bob Taft’s approval rating was found to be as low as 17% earlier this year, Gov. Rell’s numbers surprised me. How does a governor earn such a good grade? What are the citizens liking so much?
The next day, the New Haven Register’s article about the poll results sought answers too, but the answers just don’t do it for me. They range from citizen’s relief that she isn’t former Governor John Rowland – who is now serving time in federal prison for corruption – to being unduly inflated due to a lack of dialogue on election-relevant issues such as “track record, future, vision for the state, and the plan for getting there.”
I’m completely unsatisfied. I want to hear from the people who responded. I want to know, what do they like so much? Why do they approve? What does “approval” really mean – in this context, when you’re talking about a possible candidate for an elected position, or in any poll that measures approval? You approve, compared to what?
But of course, even satisfactory answers won’t guarantee that a challenger – to Gov. Rell or for Ohio’s governorship – will get any better marks, or, in fact, do a better job. Sometimes, it really does seem to boil down to just being about the numbers, and little else.
More locally: I saw the PD’s invitation in yesterday’s Metro section to help pick out top stories weekdays at 4pm. New to me. Does anyone know if it’s worth going to, or how it works? Thanks.
Last bit: One thing I love about traveling is the opportunity to read other papers, like the weekday editions of the NYT (I only get Sundays) and other cities’ dailies. Why? Because it gives me perspective on what people find important – are they the same issues Clevelanders find important? And if they aren’t, is it because they’re regional issues, or we’re just not there yet? I’ve clipped a few and want to bring up a couple of the topics over the next few days.
Have a good one.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:44 pm July 28th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
28
Why is it that
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
Since my writing idea list includes many “Why is it that…” questions, I’m going to start including one in each blog entry. A few followers have e-mailed me similar queries, so I thought it might make for a fun feature.
My first example derives from a story I heard on NPR during a rainstorm-hampered drive through Danbury, CT and as I listened, I thought, how can this be?
A Quinnipiac University poll indicated that CT Governor Jodi Rell has a 79% approval rating. The previous poll, according to NPR, indicated that she had an 80% approval rating.
Since Ohio Governor Bob Taft’s approval rating was found to be as low as 17% earlier this year, Gov. Rell’s numbers surprised me. How does a governor earn such a good grade? What are the citizens liking so much?
The next day, the New Haven Register’s article about the poll results sought answers too, but the answers just don’t do it for me. They range from citizen’s relief that she isn’t former Governor John Rowland – who is now serving time in federal prison for corruption – to being unduly inflated due to a lack of dialogue on election-relevant issues such as “track record, future, vision for the state, and the plan for getting there.”
I’m completely unsatisfied. I want to hear from the people who responded. I want to know, what do they like so much? Why do they approve? What does “approval” really mean – in this context, when you’re talking about a possible candidate for an elected position, or in any poll that measures approval? You approve, compared to what?
But of course, even satisfactory answers won’t guarantee that a challenger – to Gov. Rell or for Ohio’s governorship – will get any better marks, or, in fact, do a better job. Sometimes, it really does seem to boil down to just being about the numbers, and little else.
More locally: I saw the PD’s invitation in yesterday’s Metro section to help pick out top stories weekdays at 4pm. New to me. Does anyone know if it’s worth going to, or how it works? Thanks.
Last bit: One thing I love about traveling is the opportunity to read other papers, like the weekday editions of the NYT (I only get Sundays) and other cities’ dailies. Why? Because it gives me perspective on what people find important – are they the same issues Clevelanders find important? And if they aren’t, is it because they’re regional issues, or we’re just not there yet? I’ve clipped a few and want to bring up a couple of the topics over the next few days.
Have a good one.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:44 am July 28th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
27
1001 things to do before you sleep
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If this were the title of a book…
I tend to believe that what goes around comes around. So, if I procrastinate, what I’ve chosen not to do in favor of the procrastination activity comes back to bite me somehow when I do get to it. Paying late fees on credit cards, unable to get my kids’ into some program they wanted, paying hundreds of dollars more for airline tickets because I didn’t research the price when I should have.
But yesterday was one of those days that reminds me how sweet it is when you do everything you’ve decided you’re supposed to do, on time and in the right order: I was EARLY to events, I didn’t get stuck in any traffic jams, every store had everything I needed from it and the only things I didn’t get were the ones I forgot to write down on my lists.
At the end of the day, I proudly showed off my crossed off list to my husband. God, that felt good.
News today: Not time for too much but I hear the shuttle lost some tiles and a little foam. Here’s hoping that it’s nothing material, as lawyers say.
Comment about blog from friend: She said I only browsed one entry but I can’t figure out where you get the time to know this news and put it down. All those words – she was saying something positive about the level of sophistication of what I’m writing in here. Ha – I love that thought. But what I told her was that this feels like a repository for all the words and thoughts and ideas I otherwise never get to discuss or digest. It’s a relief to me to blog. How great a purpose is that?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:00 pm July 27th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
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Jul
27
1001 things to do before you sleep
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
If this were the title of a book…
I tend to believe that what goes around comes around. So, if I procrastinate, what I’ve chosen not to do in favor of the procrastination activity comes back to bite me somehow when I do get to it. Paying late fees on credit cards, unable to get my kids’ into some program they wanted, paying hundreds of dollars more for airline tickets because I didn’t research the price when I should have.
But yesterday was one of those days that reminds me how sweet it is when you do everything you’ve decided you’re supposed to do, on time and in the right order: I was EARLY to events, I didn’t get stuck in any traffic jams, every store had everything I needed from it and the only things I didn’t get were the ones I forgot to write down on my lists.
At the end of the day, I proudly showed off my crossed off list to my husband. God, that felt good.
News today: Not time for too much but I hear the shuttle lost some tiles and a little foam. Here’s hoping that it’s nothing material, as lawyers say.
Comment about blog from friend: She said I only browsed one entry but I can’t figure out where you get the time to know this news and put it down. All those words – she was saying something positive about the level of sophistication of what I’m writing in here. Ha – I love that thought. But what I told her was that this feels like a repository for all the words and thoughts and ideas I otherwise never get to discuss or digest. It’s a relief to me to blog. How great a purpose is that?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:00 am July 27th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
27
1001 things to do before you sleep
Filed Under Politics | Comments Off
If this were the title of a book…
I tend to believe that what goes around comes around. So, if I procrastinate, what I’ve chosen not to do in favor of the procrastination activity comes back to bite me somehow when I do get to it. Paying late fees on credit cards, unable to get my kids’ into some program they wanted, paying hundreds of dollars more for airline tickets because I didn’t research the price when I should have.
But yesterday was one of those days that reminds me how sweet it is when you do everything you’ve decided you’re supposed to do, on time and in the right order: I was EARLY to events, I didn’t get stuck in any traffic jams, every store had everything I needed from it and the only things I didn’t get were the ones I forgot to write down on my lists.
At the end of the day, I proudly showed off my crossed off list to my husband. God, that felt good.
News today: Not time for too much but I hear the shuttle lost some tiles and a little foam. Here’s hoping that it’s nothing material, as lawyers say.
Comment about blog from friend: She said I only browsed one entry but I can’t figure out where you get the time to know this news and put it down. All those words – she was saying something positive about the level of sophistication of what I’m writing in here. Ha – I love that thought. But what I told her was that this feels like a repository for all the words and thoughts and ideas I otherwise never get to discuss or digest. It’s a relief to me to blog. How great a purpose is that?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:00 am July 27th, 2005 in Politics | Comments Off
Print This Post
Jul
26
Earlier this morning, I thought I was going to write about how, a couple of years ago, I exchanged e-mails with staff from a media center in DC about how I could develop an interactive column. They asked me a lot of questions, I gave a lot of answers, but no one really had any answers that would get something started. I became discouraged and distracted and stopped that line of inquiry.
But, it’s hard to keep a good researcher down. And yesterday, while continuing to enrich my knowledge about blogs, I spent a lot of time around www.brewedfreshdaily.com (thank you George Nemeth and thank you John Ettorre of www.workingwithwords.blogspot.com for getting me to George Nemeth) and www.dailykos.com. It’s this last blog that reminded me that I had once wondered how a column writer could talk with his or her audience. Not that I define myself as a column writer – at least 50% of the time, I don’t. But, my idea had been to focus on a topic and provoke feedback from people who might not usually be inclined to do so.
I know this idea exposes (further exposes?) my naivete – people have to read the column, know it exists, care enough and feel composed enough or provoked enough to respond, through an easy, user-friendly, safe and perhaps anonymous method.
But now that I’m trying to tame the blogging beast, I might just try to go back to this idea. (I’m soliciting readers to tell me why I should, shouldn’t, can or can’t.)
In other news:
Thank you to whomever is reading the blog. I’ve gotten lovely, encouraging compliments and several folks have told me that they laugh at the title because they believe that I do, indeed write like I talk and that that is a good thing. I would like to single out Wendy Hoke, www.creativeink.blogspot.com, who provides me with support, information, a sense of not being alone and relief in the form of great stories and insights. Have a great vacation Wen.
Last news pieces:
As I learn more about blogging and what is acceptable as far as a link (like, all those sites that require registration and I want to send you there to read something but you have to register first? I know there’s a way to not have to register for everything, but I forget what the service is – anyone else know? Anyway – I too hate when I click on a link and I have to register before I can read it. So I’m very much not wanting to do that to readers. I promise to work on that.), I hope to expand the sites from which I gather news to pass on.
Here are a few items that struck me today:
-the heat – ugh
-a www.salon.com article about whether parents overdo it with monitoring their kids (my short answer is yes and no, depends on the age of the child, and the parent apparently, but I’m reserving judgement for a longer piece on the topic)
-another salon.com article discusses the Democratic contender, Paul Hackett, for Rob Portman’s Ohio congressional seat (2nd district); I don’t know anything about Hackett but I saw that he’s my age, a lawyer and was in Iraq and that background info grabbed my attention. Wouldn’t it be nice to change colors in that district?
-an NYT op-ed by Nicholas D. Kristoff (who I know of but don’t read regularly) about how the media should be spending at least as much time on Darfur as they are on Tom Cruise (NO argument from me here. I’ve been lobbied to pen an op-ed asking Tom Cruise to cease and desist on his diatribes about mental health interventions and stick to acting, and my response continues to be, A WASTE OF MY TIME – because I just don’t care enough about Tom Cruise, sorry, and folks who listen to Tom Cruise probably aren’t anywhere near a newspaper that would publish my op-ed about why he shouldn’t be dissing psychology.)
-this piece, also in the NYT, about the release of John Roberts’ early years in the Justice Department. Let me declare it here first: I cannot promise that my name won’t turn up in those records. I’m pretty sure it won’t, but I interned and then was employed during the same time frame in the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, from 1982-1984. I love to reminisce about how I went in on Sundays, worked the first IBMs and questioned Ken Starr, Rudolph Guiliani and others about their media trips to discuss the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration bill (did you know it took three swipes before it passed?).
But no, I have no recollection of John Roberts. Though I bet the woman that hired me, who had worked in the White House before she came to the DOJ and was a few years older than me knew him. She’s a serious Republican from Michigan, from a serious Michigan family, and, last I knew, she worked in Virginia Senator George Allen’s office.
BTW, I became a Democrat the summer I interned on the Hill for Congressman Bruce Morrison of Connecticut.
Have a great day and watch out for the heat.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:32 am July 26th, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
Print This Post
Jul
26
Earlier this morning, I thought I was going to write about how, a couple of years ago, I exchanged e-mails with staff from a media center in DC about how I could develop an interactive column. They asked me a lot of questions, I gave a lot of answers, but no one really had any answers that would get something started. I became discouraged and distracted and stopped that line of inquiry.
But, it’s hard to keep a good researcher down. And yesterday, while continuing to enrich my knowledge about blogs, I spent a lot of time around www.brewedfreshdaily.com (thank you George Nemeth and thank you John Ettorre of www.workingwithwords.blogspot.com for getting me to George Nemeth) and www.dailykos.com. It’s this last blog that reminded me that I had once wondered how a column writer could talk with his or her audience. Not that I define myself as a column writer – at least 50% of the time, I don’t. But, my idea had been to focus on a topic and provoke feedback from people who might not usually be inclined to do so.
I know this idea exposes (further exposes?) my naivete – people have to read the column, know it exists, care enough and feel composed enough or provoked enough to respond, through an easy, user-friendly, safe and perhaps anonymous method.
But now that I’m trying to tame the blogging beast, I might just try to go back to this idea. (I’m soliciting readers to tell me why I should, shouldn’t, can or can’t.)
In other news:
Thank you to whomever is reading the blog. I’ve gotten lovely, encouraging compliments and several folks have told me that they laugh at the title because they believe that I do, indeed write like I talk and that that is a good thing. I would like to single out Wendy Hoke, www.creativeink.blogspot.com, who provides me with support, information, a sense of not being alone and relief in the form of great stories and insights. Have a great vacation Wen.
Last news pieces:
As I learn more about blogging and what is acceptable as far as a link (like, all those sites that require registration and I want to send you there to read something but you have to register first? I know there’s a way to not have to register for everything, but I forget what the service is – anyone else know? Anyway – I too hate when I click on a link and I have to register before I can read it. So I’m very much not wanting to do that to readers. I promise to work on that.), I hope to expand the sites from which I gather news to pass on.
Here are a few items that struck me today:
-the heat – ugh
-a www.salon.com article about whether parents overdo it with monitoring their kids (my short answer is yes and no, depends on the age of the child, and the parent apparently, but I’m reserving judgement for a longer piece on the topic)
-another salon.com article discusses the Democratic contender, Paul Hackett, for Rob Portman’s Ohio congressional seat (2nd district); I don’t know anything about Hackett but I saw that he’s my age, a lawyer and was in Iraq and that background info grabbed my attention. Wouldn’t it be nice to change colors in that district?
-an NYT op-ed by Nicholas D. Kristoff (who I know of but don’t read regularly) about how the media should be spending at least as much time on Darfur as they are on Tom Cruise (NO argument from me here. I’ve been lobbied to pen an op-ed asking Tom Cruise to cease and desist on his diatribes about mental health interventions and stick to acting, and my response continues to be, A WASTE OF MY TIME – because I just don’t care enough about Tom Cruise, sorry, and folks who listen to Tom Cruise probably aren’t anywhere near a newspaper that would publish my op-ed about why he shouldn’t be dissing psychology.)
-this piece, also in the NYT, about the release of John Roberts’ early years in the Justice Department. Let me declare it here first: I cannot promise that my name won’t turn up in those records. I’m pretty sure it won’t, but I interned and then was employed during the same time frame in the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, from 1982-1984. I love to reminisce about how I went in on Sundays, worked the first IBMs and questioned Ken Starr, Rudolph Guiliani and others about their media trips to discuss the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration bill (did you know it took three swipes before it passed?).
But no, I have no recollection of John Roberts. Though I bet the woman that hired me, who had worked in the White House before she came to the DOJ and was a few years older than me knew him. She’s a serious Republican from Michigan, from a serious Michigan family, and, last I knew, she worked in Virginia Senator George Allen’s office.
BTW, I became a Democrat the summer I interned on the Hill for Congressman Bruce Morrison of Connecticut.
Have a great day and watch out for the heat.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:32 am July 26th, 2005 in Politics | 2 Comments
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