December 2010
14 posts
In your work, you have to believe in something →
In cleaning out my work inbox in June, I found this piece I’d written in late 2006. The network journalism project was in major swing at USAT, and I was working on several sections of it. My rank…
My Jonathan Safran Foer-less childhood →
Sometime this year, my mom told me how she worked with Jonathan Safran Foer’s mother, Esther Safran Foer, at Congressional Quarterly. This news was, as they say, illuminating. As people changed jobs…
Ride the carnival train (do it!) →
After the #ONA10 conference, I mentioned Miami grad student Lauren Santa Cruz’s super-promising “Just for Fun” multimedia thesis project, capturing the country’s last carnival train. Lauren’s since…
Australian sailor Patrick Cooper, where are you? →
In the spring of 2002, I received an e-mail from an Australian girl. Hey whats happening, i got your address from a navy site. Ar you involved with the navy? Iknow a “pat cooper” that has left for…
Don't forget the clay bananas →
Design something to sell on the street corner. Design something to sell to the government. Design something to put on a altar. Design something to put over a child’s bed. Design something to put over…
If you've ever seen the T-shirts piled in my... →
If you’ve ever seen the T-shirts piled in my dresser, this one’s for you. From the Post this fall, a story about a senior at Gonzaga who attends football games. He’s a fan, not a player. Which is…
Truck of the month →
There’s also a “Call the Guy on the Back of the Truck” Facebook video.
Top 5 things I loved about my first issue of The... →
How it took me so long to subscribe to The Oxford American, I have no idea. Well… I have some idea. You see, I couldn’t figure out for quite a while whether the magazine was still in business or not….
Jeff Tweedy will love you, baby →
The most intimate, large-scale musical moment I’ve ever experienced came late last night at Jeff Tweedy’s solo show at the Lincoln Theatre. After he opened with the four Wilco songs I’m most likely…
Talkin' beards with the man in red — and so much... →
With her boyfriend Edward Norton out of town, friend Lisa let me tag along to her office’s holiday party at a decked-out National Harbor… The decorations and synchronized fountains were nice and all,…
Appalling sentimentality →
More than the tickets to the last night of the Springsteen reunion tour, more than those tickets to Alcatraz and the top of the Statue of Liberty that aligned so well with trips, the tickets that got…
Yes, ma'am →
ME: [Taking four cans, one by one, from the shelf at Trader Joe’s.] ELDERLY WOMAN: “You must really love Parmesan cheese.” Among other things.
The ubiquitous station clock →
The late Tony Judt’s newly published essay on trains and modernity is beautiful. At least the first half of the essay is, in the recent New York Review of Books. The second half is due in the next…
The last week or so →
Got soaked on the way to work this morning as the temps turned and I never quite shook it. Forgot it for a good stretch here and there, but you know from this blog’s sporadic pace that this weather…