What if we said our punctuation out loud?

Despite my emphasis on how busy I would be this afternoon editing your beat stories, Laura decided to interrupt me. And am I glad she did.

I had the best laugh of the afternoon (not that I was laughing at your stories, of course) while watching this video of Victor Borge reading a story with phonetic punctuation.

Take a break from whatever you are doing and enjoy it.

Thank you, Laura

Saving the Web from becoming a "cesspool"

At the beginning of class today some of us were discussing this article on the state of affairs in the world of journalism today, which a student in another class refer to as "bad news for us journalism students..."

It certainly is a time of transition in the industry, and you will face challenges that my generation never did -- like figuring out a new structure for the whole business to pay for itself and ensure it has a future.

But I take heart from the last couple of paragraphs in the story, that someone very important realizes that without "the trusted news sources readers have relied on . . . the Web itself would quickly become a 'cesspool' of useless information." Some how, somewhere and sometime soon (I hope), someone is going to figure out how to prevent that from happening.

"Depressing . . . but some good stuff"

Laura brought the Steve Smith interview on NPR to my attention. I think her assessment of it is very accurate: "depressing interview for me but he says some good stuff." Worth listening to.