Angry Journalists, Part 2

Courtesy of the former Times Foreign Desk intern Adam, here's what copy editors have to put up with. And here's the editors' response.

WARNING: Not safe for work!

Easily Amused: Health Food Store Edition

One of the joys of living in Post-College Yuppieville is that there are lots of natural food stores. At least two large ones and a smaller produce store that calls itself a farmer's market within three blocks or so.

But the reason I like these places so much is not so much because of the healthy food, although that helps. It's because I spent the last four-and-a-half years grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, and even after six months I find actual variety to be utterly amazing, and thus if I'm not careful grocery shopping turns into recreational food shopping. Today I went to one of these stores looking for a bottle of vanilla extract and I came out with a $2.60-on-sale box of organic macaroni and cheese (Annie's, though. totally worth it) and a jar of marinara-and-zinfandel spaghetti sauce (which actually tastes like wine). Oh, and the vanilla was a) organic, b) fair-trade and c) cheaper than the bottle of pure vanilla extract I bought at Wal-Mart, used a teaspoon of and left in Eau Claire.

The best, though, is Trader Joe's. There's only one around and it's in union square, but it's totally worth the trip every now and then because most of it is random stuff that you can't find anywhere else. Also, it's relatively cheap.

While I'm usually lazy when it comes to cooking, I am in the process of baking cookies. From scratch. From a recipe in the Times that came with this article. I say "in the process" because the article says you should let the dough sit for awhile (upto 36 hours if you have the time. I'm settling with overnight.) So tomorrow I'll see if the wisdom of The New York Times makes for a better cookie or if I should have stuck with prepackaged refrigerator dough.

Intern Blog

My post is up.

Pictures

Wow. I just found this, from my freshman year of college. Apparently, even though the screen name has been defunct for 4 years plus, it's still floating around. Let that be a lesson to you kids: whatever you put on the internet is public record forever.

Dr. Trayes hasn't posted my blog entry yet, but he did post this lovely shot of us News Service interns, past and present.

Pathways

bloody hell again.
You'd think being tired from not sleeping much last night would make it easier to sleep tonight, but not so much.
Blogging did the trick for me last night, though, so maybe this will do it.
I think when you're a little sleep-deprived a neural pathway opens up in your brain that makes creativity flow a little more. It's good for getting writing done. (editing or reporting, not so much.) But there's only a very limited window of tiredness that it functions for; any more and you just start rambling, much like I am now.

Argh!

This is what happens when I work too many 6 p.m. shifts in a week ... eventually I become quasi-nocturnal. But even then I normally don't feel the need to stay up until 6 a.m. Not even the My Neighbors Suck Playlist (which worked without fail to drown out 4 a.m. rap parties in the old neighborhood) is doing the trick. I could watch TV until I fall asleep, but the roommate will be getting up soon. Naturally, today is the day I have to go in at 2 p.m. instead of 6.

My last semester of college when I couldn't sleep, I read from my class textbook on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. That always did the trick. I even learned a little about the Arab-Israeli conflict in the process.

The sun is completely up now. Bloody hell.

Wasting too much time on blogs so you don't have to: Angry journalist edition

(Otherwise known as links I stole from Gawker).

At Angryjournalist.com, you can rant anonymously about your co-workers, your recent layoff or how you feel your journalism degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on. For the views of laid-off journalists, the hopeful and the hopeless, on the future state of the news industry, there's Parting thoughts, recently started by the Columbia Journalism Review. (Sample thought: "I still want journalism. Journalism just doesn't seem to want me.")

On a less negative note, are you a reporter scrambling for a source? A publicity whore looking to get your name in the paper? Then check out Help a Reporter, the free site that links reporters and sources. Gets good reviews from Gawker commenters, for whatever that's worth.

But why am I wasting so much time on Gawker? Because I am taking a break from working on a blog post for the Temple University Editing Residency blog, started by Dr. Trayes and this year's crop of interns. So I'll let you know when that's posted.

My blog, as a word picture

With the words sized according to their frequency. And there's not a swear word on it! damn.

Places I've Been: Pier 66

Pier 66 is a bar on a boat docked on the Hudson River, around 26th Street. When I went last night, there was a pretty good DJ, but rumor has it the DJing won't last much longer. There's also food if you go early enough.

Downsides: It closes at 1 a.m., and it's a pretty good hike from the nearest train stop (the C,E at 23 st and 8th ave, although there's a crosstown bus too). But for the experience — and the view — it's definitely worth going out of your way.

Also, if you're sick of dropping $7 for a bottle of beer, there's Rudy's Bar & Grill on 9th Avenue at 45th Street (in Hells Kitchen), where you can get a $9 pitcher. And free (nasty) hot dogs.

Fotos!

Today being my day off (yay!) I laid out in the park by the river and then took some pictures.

The only thing better than laying out in the sun when it's nice out is laying out in the sun when it's nice out and you have a panoramic view of Manhattan.

Here's downtown ...

and midtown.

Here's Hoboken along the riverfront. there's a walking and bike path that connects to another pier with its own park. (The rest of the city looks more packed-in East Coast townlike, but all the commuters were coming back so I couldn't get a very good picture.)

Some of the older buildings on Washington Street still have street signs on the sides. 

Some more things you may not know about Hoboken:

• The hipsters/artists/yuppies started coming here from Manhattan in the late 80s, before which it was pretty industrial and somewhat dangerous. Around 2000 they rezoned a bunch of old industrial space and turned it into condos and artist lofts (most of the artists have since moved on to Jersey City).
• Hoboken is a little over a mile square and has about 40,000 residents — including a concentration of immediately post-college people that borders on the ridiculous.
• Frank Sinatra was from here, but disowned Hoboken after facing nasty heckling here early in his career. Even though they named a street after him (there's also a store on Washington Street called Spreading the News.)
• Some people claim baseball originated here.
• Hoboken was most likely named after a city in Belgium. There is a story saying that that city was named when a little boy dropped a sandwich in the river and shouted "Ho, boken!" ("Stop, sandwich!" in some Dutch dialect). 
• Hoboken has the occasional chicken emergency.

More Police Blotter

Thanks again, mom! (via the Appleton Post-Crescent)

Brett Favre: Bigger than John McCain

Well, obviously. But it's true.

Favre’s interview—which was receiving top billing over an interview with presidential candidate John McCain in promos for Van Susteren’s show that aired during the day Monday—is the latest development in what is looking more and more like an irreparable schism between one of the NFL’s most storied franchises and perhaps its most beloved quarterback.

Personally, I think he should have just quit gracefully instead of coming back and being a damn diva about it. If I were Favre I'd quit playing the game while I was ahead and make the most of my OG status — assistant coaching, announcing, sitting on my bum and living off the pile of fat cash that I made by being an icon. But as I'm not Favre, I'll leave the analysis to more qualified commentators.

*Edit:* Barack Obama is bigger than Elvis. And, on big news days, Jesus.

Things I didn't know when I lived in Harlem

Governor Paterson has an apartment about 3 blocks from where I used to live. Sen. Chuck Rangel does too. Actually, he has four of them. In the same building. All rent stabilized. One gets used as an office, which you're not supposed to do in a rent-stabilized apartment. Interesting.

Police Blotter

From the Appleton Post-Crescent, courtesy of my mom:

I copy edit life

At the end of my hall there is a room with a sign on it for the garbage "shute." Seriously, who writes these things? Also, the New Jersey Transit buses warn me to walk "alertly." Which I guess is technically a word, but it just doesn't sound right.

Speaking of walking alertly, I had an incredible experience today ... I was at a crosswalk in Hoboken, and a car STOPPED for me so I could cross. I was starting to think those lines meant 'honk horn now.'

The Boys and the Subway

So here I am wasting time at work in the sanctioned way of reading the paper online (you know, as opposed to blogging) and I found this illustrated story. It might only be interesting if you live in New York, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Advices for the day

One of those lessons that gets presented to you over and over until it sticks:
Think about your relationship drama. If your best friend was in your place, would you tell her to stick by that person and work it out, or would you tell her to move on because she deserved better? If the latter, it's probably time to DTMFA.

News Service wisdom:
Every so often, you need to copy edit your household goods. As my editor at the Leader-Telegram would say after commanding a writer to cut a story to 12 inches, keep only the best stuff.

Become a more interesting person in a few minutes a day:
If you're looking for conversation starters, Slate is the place to go. Start out with this article, on the life cycle of a catchphrase. One they didn't mention: "I suck at life." I think it's jumped the shark, as they say. Can you think of any other ones? Leave 'em in comments.

Apartment Love

Welcome to Hoty Takes Manhattan ... live from New Jersey!

I'm finally in my new apartment. Actually, the movers are still unloading my stuff. I never know what to do with myself when movers come; I feel weird sitting around and watching them do all the work (of course, for $100 an hour plus tips I don't feel *that guilty.

I think this the best decision I made since I moved out here. Seriously. Come see my apartment. It's GORGEOUS.

I'm so happy right now I could almost cry — though that might have something to do with the 3 hours of sleep I got last night.

duct tape

So the movers are here and they just did something that totally blew my mind ... they used a roll of duct tape (with the tape rolled on the outside) as a door stop.

Didn't want to forget that one.