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(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) The Whole World is Watching The Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago on August 26. For months, anti-war groups had petitioned the city to get space to carry out demonstrations while the convention was ongoing. The Youth International Party (YIPees) had decided to hold their own national convention, a five-day "Festival of Life" the same week as the democrats, nominating a pig as their presidential candidate. Mayor Daley had responded by denying permits, calling out the national guard and barricading the convention sites. The city was crippled by taxi and bus strikes. The weather was hot and humid and air conditioning was erratic. The television networks and party insiders had encouraged the Democrats to move their convention to another city, maybe Miami Beach (which President Johnson had rejected, saying 'Miami Beach is not an American city'). Yippee flyers posted around Chicago in the weekend leading up ...

After a slow week, a couple interesting new research blogs: Paper Trail Blog from Center for Public Integrity, links to useful and interesting public records background to stories in the news. Lisa Gold: Research Maven : she lists great tips for finding research resources, writing, and more. A couple research resources: Sports Illustrated's Vault gives access to 50 years of fulltext stories, covers, and images. State Digital Resources: Memory Projects, Online Encyclopedias, Historical & Cultural Materials Collections . The Library of Congress compiles a list of state resources. This is great. I know of a few states' encyclopedias but knew there had to be more. They're all listed here. And this: 5 ways newspapers botched the web , from Valleywag. Interesting recap of several of Knight-Ridder's online initiatives like Viewtron, Real Cities and New Century Network, along with The New York Times' Abuzz and newspaper consortium's Classified Ventures. On Knight...

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower remained in Walter Reed Army hospital, after being moved there in May to recover from a spring heart attack. He had another in June and two more on the 6th and 16th of August. Doctors were trying several new therapies to try to relieve the situation, but nothing was working. One day that month, on a day off, I accompanied a Post reporter to the hospital to sit on watch. The situation was dire enough that Post reporters were staying round the clock there, just in case. The reporter who asked me to go with him was bored with the assignment and at least with me there we could play cards, probably whist, which I'd learned seemed to be the most popular card game among Washingtonians. I remember little of the hospital except that we sat along a gallery overlooking a large room. Eisenhower would survive August, but die, still in Walter Reed, the next spring. That month, ‘ Cheap Thrills ,’ by Big B...

Via Boing Boing , a link to a Times Online story, Just right for the garden: a mini-cow . Irish Dexter cows are small, about 40 inches high, and can produce a couple gallons of milk a day, containing up to a quart of cream per gallon. Enough to share with all the neighbors! Fresh ice cream every day. No need to pasteurize! It's perfect! (Wonder if our little acre-and-a-half or so pasture would be big enough.....)

Over at the Nieman Watchdog, George Lardner wonders, in Spreading Lies, Rather Than Debunking Them , about a recent Washington Post story that he calls a 'front page ad' for a couple of new books about Barack Obama. ...why did the Post put a so-called news story about the book (and incidentally, for the sake of “fairness” no doubt, a pro-Obama book) on Page 1? And why did it fail to cite its lies instead of just saying that the main-stream media had pointed some out. ...The Post couldn’t bring itself to do what a newspaper should do and tell its readers what was true and what was false. It has been unable to do this in its presidential campaign coverage for many years, but most often in the last two decades. Interesting reaction from Lardner, who wrote for the Post for many years. But what if the paper made the story more even-handed? It would be accused of 'liberal bias'.

This is just too good to pass by. Question: How many presidents (or candidates) have gone by different surnames? From David Weigel at Reason Magazine: More fun with the stupidest people on the Internet .

After a long respite, some new research links, and a couple more references to what's going on in the world of laid-off journalists: We Were Print a blog from several "Former and Soon-to-Be Former Print Journalists". Includes a body count, and links to job listings. 42 Things I know from William Lobdell, recently bought out at LA Times, about the current state of newspapers (and the Times). The research links: News : The Newsfilm Online Digitisation Project offers selected newsfilm from ITN/Reuters archives , by subscription or free browsing. PopURLs , shows the most popular links on the Web today. Beijing Olympics News from NewsNow. Reference : A Chronology of Data Breaches , from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. I've used this in the past but don't think I linked it. Very helpful when searching for past hacking or theft incidents. A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff from ReadWriteWeb. Public Records : Criminalsearches.com : this beta from People...

( An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) On August 5, the Republican National Convention opened its sessions at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Norman Mailer on attending that event in Miami Beach in August: The vegetal memories of that excised jungle haunted Miami Beach in a steam-pot of miasmas. Ghosts of expunged flora, the never-born groaning in vegetative chancery beneath the asphalt came up with a tropical curse, an equatorial leaden wet sweat of air which rose from the earth itself, rose right up through the baked asphalt and into the heated air which entered the lungs like a hand slipping into a rubber glove....Of course it could have been the air conditioning: natural climate transmogrified by technological climate. They say that in Miami Beach the air conditioning is pushed to that icy point where women may wear fur coats over their diamonds in the tropics. (It's no wonder for years after 1968 I considered Miami a place I would never go.) Nixon entered th...

Seven years later, whenever the anthrax story comes to mind I remember the several weeks spent trying to learn everything there is to know about anthrax and compiling the information for reporters trying to understand the terrible death of National Enquirer photo editor Robert Stevens (whose widow is holding a news conference this morning to explain her reaction, and her suit against the government). Now The Smoking Gun has made available lots of the documents summarizing the case against army researcher Bruce Ivins: Inside the Anthrax Probe . What a strange, strange story (Washington Post profile of Ivins).

Hmmm. Just tried to read a Joan Fleischman column in the Miami Herald, and a screen came up asking me to participate in a survey. A readership survey, I thought, so why not answer a few questions? Turns out the survey was a detailed list of questions about my perception of several 'casual dining' restaurants like Outback and Applebee's. I had absolutely no interest in this, since I never eat in such places. Why do newspapers allow such things on their websites? I know I had the option to opt out of the survey, but thought it would be useful. I am going back and trying again on Joan's column, but how many readers will just leave the site disgusted?

( An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) Somehow July slipped by me, so, a bit late, here's what we were doing that month in 1968: On July 1, President Johnson signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, an agreement with 58 other countries in efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Also that day, customs stops ended between European Common Market countries. (But the UK's admission was still being thwarted by deGaulle). Early in the month, Intel Corp. was founded. Gen. Creighton Abrams took over command in Vietnam. Congress passed a 10 percent federal income tax surcharge to help finance the cost of the war. Early in the month, North Vietnam released 3 American pilots shot down over Hanoi. Later, President Johnson met with Vietnamese president Thieu in Hawaii. In France, a new government was formed July 13. Two days later, France detonated a nuclear bomb in the Pacific. Later in July, a fight between two Mexico city schools led to a police/miliitary att...

Is there a place for 'former' journalists in this new world? You bet there is. Here's a wonderful example, from American Journalism Review: Voice in the Wilderness . James Gannon, former editor of the Des Moines Register and Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief, took a buyout a few years back and moved to rural Virginia. With only a weekly paper in the area, he decided there was a need for more updated news, so he started an online news service, The Rappahanock Voice . What does this old newsman think about the new media? It's kind of made a believer of me, Gannon says. I'm an old print guy. I love newspapers, and I still love picking up newspapers and turning the page reading, but that's happening less and less. This is where journalism is going whether we like it or not, and you have to get with it.

Since we moved to far western North Carolina, where we can get the daily paper from Asheville delivered by mail only, we began buying the Sunday Chattanooga Times Free Press (even though we have to drive 5 miles to get it). I fell in love with this paper immediately. Founded by Adolph Ochs and carrying national and international stories from the NY Times, McClatchy and more, it gives me more news than some other papers I've read regularly. The local coverage is good and the features and sports often interesting. When the war started it was one of the first small city papers to send an embedded correspondent who came up with great stories. For in-depth coverage of big stories like Chattanooga's successful bid to get a VW plant, it's incomparable. I like the Web site, too: even though I can't get the daily paper without driving at least 15 miles, I can catch up on the news during the week online. So I'm thrilled to see Mindy McAdams' review of the paper, on her T...

Sorry for lack of posting. Went in for an outpatient procedure last week and ended up spending 5 nights in hospital. A new experience for me, haven't been hospitalized since I was six years old, with tonsillectomy and then polio. Interesting. And very different. Waiting to go home now.