xcheck's hat tricks -- award winning journalist!

[JillStar]

Fantastic! I hope you can toss out the stress and get it done. That is one of the biggest issues I have with writing... I let other things creep in and distract me!

[xcheck24]

http://patch.com/wvzo

I need sleep. But not until this stupid video is done. and it's taking forever to do!

[xcheck24]

Big change in the AP Stylebook today. They've elected to change "Web site" to "website" as the preferred style. And the entire Web of journalists is freaking. haha

[timberline]

And last week, the New Yorker suffered first signs of Alzheimer's. It had to happen, that one of the New Yorker’s fabled proofreaders missed a diacritical mark. If you don’t know it, this magazine is the last hold-out for spelling co-op with an umlaut, but no hyphen. Coöp. And, actors who rôle play.

So I nearly coughed up my lunch when I read [Apr. 26, p. 20] “Obama’s terminally naive 'engagement' has achieved nothing but the loss or 15 months.” NO! It’s naïve with an umlaut—those two little German dots on a word that change the pronunciation.

But, the New Yorker can’t claim to have misplaced its pocketbook full of punctuation following an afternoon of sherry tippling, because in the next column we see Richard Perle, “the Reagan Administration’s über-hawk.” For a moment, I thought I saw the sun setting on the tidal flats of American civilization, but it really was a lapse caused by age. Don’t we all forget where we put our accent marks now and then?

But later today, a New Yorker proofreader admitted their mea culpa. She stated, "An interesting thing about the umlaut (we call it the diaeresis), is that in a word like reengagement, which would take the diaeresis, if the word is broken after the first syllable, we don't use the accent." Who knew? AP style book writers, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[xcheck24]

Sometimes stories can come in all forms, including video. One I did on a production of Peter Pan has received nearly 1,900 views on YouTube! Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFyEA_L1Zt4

[TheMudge]

Cool, X.

And Timber? Buddy, you may have too much time on your hands ...

[xcheck24]

Wrote a pretty lengthy feature article today about the school superintendent who retired:
http://patch.com/A-v58

[xcheck24]

Meh.

My job is sucking all of my life out of me, especially creatively. I have no inspiration any more.

[xcheck24]

I've got a new job!
I left my job today. It was my last day. I start the new one on Monday.

[xcheck24]

I'm working on something for my blog about 9/11, which is really hard since I don't talk about my experiences or write about them very often. I tend to run away from the whole thing and hide than confront it. I just get very emotional because I never was able to confront my own feelings back then while working as a reporter. So I've never really healed.

I can't imagine what it's like for the people who actually lost someone.

[JillStar]

I think it was three years ago that the "anniversary" really upset me. I suppose it's because my son had decided to join the Army and it worried me... or I'm just delayed in my reactions. It was an emotional year for me and, as you, I did not lose anyone personally but I was angry at those who felt it was okay to take away the lives of all those people.

I hope you can confront your feelings and heal through your blog entry!

[xcheck24]

http://jenconnic.wordpress.com/2011/09/ ... -from-911/

That's my Sept. 11 piece. It actually went through some rewrites and I had two people read it (one of my close writer friends and the guy I'm dating, who is a fellow journalist type) before I posted it. I rarely do that with blog posts. A tough one to write and post.

[xcheck24]

Do you read my blog? Because you should.
Today's edition: bad copy editing

http://jenconnic.wordpress.com/2011/12/ ... bad-story/

[timberline]

I do read it, I do. And I'm also reading Pete Hamill's "Tabloid City" with tears in my eyes for a world fast disappearing.

Per your more recent comments, Gannett's laid off 20,000 employees in the past five years, the CEO has retired with a $37 million package, and my friend there may shortly be docked a one-week unpaid furlough.

And, oddly, my Manchester (NJ) Patch has stopped coming through.