the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Referrals

Traffic to the smedley log has dwindled over the past few months. This hasn’t surprised me in the least, especially considering how little attention I’ve been paying to it since I moved in September. I’ve come to accept my dwindling share of the blogosphere since then.

All of which made a small spike in visits all the more obvious the past couple days. Two factors went into the aforementioned spike. One was Troy Worman’s generous outstanding blogs meme, which happened to include this site. While I don’t have the energy or time to create a similar list (I’m not quite sure who would have that kind of time), I did want to acknowledge the effort Troy put into it. Check out his exhaustive list, if you can. There are a bunch of good reads on it. Troy is also currently blogging at Process Geek.

The second source of increased traffic was from an even more unexpected entity. I was actually getting hits from the Wall Street Journal website, specifically the page pictured below:

Can you see it yet? Look a little closer:

While it’s kind of cool to be getting referrals from the Wall Street Journal, it’s cheapened a little when the post they link to doesn’t really have much to do with the article on their site.

At least they’re not bragging about the copy-editing

From the text of an ad touting Philadelphia Media Holdings’ improved circulation numbers in last Sunday’s Inquirer special business section:

“Critics had said ‘pigs will fly’ before the Inquirer and the Daily News gain circulation. Well, they flew earlier this year and they’re flying again. The Philadelphia Inquirer had it’s largest circulation gain in five years and ranks #1 in daily circulation growth among the top 50 U.S. newspapers. The Daily News has had it’s first circulation gain in nine years. And not to be outdone, philly.com experienced a dramatic 42% growth in pageviews.” [emphasis added]

I’m one of those folks who’s genuinely rooting for the local newspapers to do well, so I should at least commend the Philly papers for improving circulation in a climate increasingly unsympathetic to dead tree journalism. Being familiar with a few of the faces behind the Inquirer and Daily News, I’m truly happy for them.

That said, here’s a brief grammar refresher:

its = possessive form of “it”
it’s = “it is”

Just so you know…

I support the WGA. This is partly because I’m a union member myself, partly because I believe people who play a large role in corporate success shouldn’t be excluded from a significant segment of the profits and, yes, partly because I like TV that doesn’t suck.

For the writers’ perspective, check out United Hollywood.

For a video explanation of why the strike is happening, click here.

“Will from Langhorne”

I was driving home shortly before 2 a.m. when I heard a vaguely familiar voice on the radio. The man on the radio was soliciting opinions on a couple of topics, not the least of which was newspapers. As the host went on I realized I was hearing the launch of Will Bunch’s next career as a talk radio host. That’s when I picked up the phone and made my first call to the “Big Talker” in ages. [Read more →]

Going back to the well

I’ve been cringing over the past couple days at the glut of reporting done on the manufactured controversy regarding Aquafina’s tap water origins. Apparently there are a lot of folks out there who have been operating under the assumption that all bottled water is spring water, whether or not it’s touted as such.

Maybe I’m just that much more attentive to detail than the average consumer, but I already assumed bottled waters like Dasani and Aquafina were from the same sources as public tap water. In fact, I’ve long been under the impression that any bottled water not specifically labeled as “spring water” flows from public water sources. The operative verbiage on non-spring waters for me has always been “purified.”

Having been reared on actual well water, I’ve always chafed at public source tap water. It’s always tasted a bit off to me. So I’ve long enjoyed various kinds of bottled water, whether purified or from springs. Lately I’ve been more conscientious about the environmental impact of the bottled water I drink (thanks to the prodding of someone I respect), but I’m still not at ease with public tap water.

I am working on it, but decent tasting water can be a hard habit to break.

Mastering the media

First Scott shows up on CNBC’s Fast Money (regarding his expertise as “the Apple blogger“), then Marisa gets her own feature in Philadelphia Weekly (regarding her Reading Terminal Market project).

There must be something in the water over at Fork You studios that helps people get noticed.

Happy Monday (letters to the editor edition)

I wrote a letter to the editor this morning. I haven’t done that in a while, but I just couldn’t help myself. It was about politics, which I’ve been avoiding lately (at least in terms of my writing habit). I just shot off an email to the local paper regarding a “guest opinion” in this morning’s edition.

The reason I felt a need to respond was that if the editors of a newspaper are going to just hand out free space to any nut with half a clue, why shouldn’t I get in on the action too?

Not that there’s any real suspense involved, but I might divulge more details if they print my response. Or even if they don’t.

Almost like having my own waiting room

I’d like to think my taste in periodicals is this eclectic, but it isn’t quite. Two of these are on my regular reading list. One was a free sample copy I signed up for online and the other had an article that intrigued me, so I bought a single copy.

An imaginary prize for the first commenter to correctly identify which magazines fit which statement.

Echoes of past idols

It was late last week that Dan Rubin announced his Inquirer blog, Blinq, was about to go dormant. I was unplugged for most of the weekend, so my reaction to this news was initially delayed by a lack of knowledge. Then it was further delayed by a lack of eloquence.

Dan Rubin has been one of my favorite local bloggers for the past couple years. (Actually, remove the word “local” from the previous sentence and you still have an accurate statement.) Ever since a blogger meetup in the spring of 2005, when Dan set out on his mission to understand the blogosphere by rubbing elbows with real-life bloggers, he’s shown a remarkable aptitude for the way of the blog. His journalistic expertise probably served him well in that research effort, somehow allowing him to break through the barrier that keeps many traditional journalists from grasping what bloggers do, and why what they do is important.

Sure, most of us (the bloggers) are completely irrelevant, but ignoring us altogether would certainly not bode well for the dead tree dinosaurs who are finally starting to adapt (in what I hope are meaningful ways). Dan plugged right in to the social tendencies of the interactive web and managed to build an actual blog brand. And his style has one quality all too rare in both traditional journalism and the blogosphere:

It’s actually interesting.

While it’s sad that the Inquirer seems willing to let that brand languish, Dan’s silver lining is that he’ll be moving on to write a local column, which I have to think is a good thing for him. When I had dreams of professional journalism earlier in my life, the title “columnist” is what I often dreamed of as the pinnacle. It’s a dream you can blame squarely on my fascination with Mike Royko’s work.

Coincidentally, having grown acquainted with Dan Rubin’s literary style over the past couple years, I can envision his columns striking a similar tone to the one I came to expect from Royko. Conversely, I also could have imagined Royko (had he lasted about ten years longer) striking a similar blogospheric tone to what Dan has struck with Blinq.

We’ll never get to find out about the latter, but the possibility of the former is wide open. Good luck Dan!

(Click here for the Philly Future round up of reactions to Blinq’s hibernation)

Past is prologue: on button makers, music and movies

Techdirt explains how the RIAA is like 17th century French button-makers, and a couple other scary conclusions about continued efforts to keep consumers from owning what they buy. That is, if it wasn’t scary enough already.

(via Cziltang)

Don’t I know that guy?

Of course, a Scott McNulty sighting at Macworld wouldn’t be the rarest of things, would it?

Sunday’s child

Sprouted early this a.m. to scrounge up the Sunday Inquirer, mostly because a little bird told me there’d be a column of interest to a local blogger like myself.

Turns out, Chris Satullo, the Inqy editorial page editor, ran a nice piece on Above Average Jane’s quest for answers to the civics question, “What’s our part of the bargain?” A well-deserved kudos to Jane for being one of the voices in the wilderness of blogging actually trying to initiate a real dialogue. (I’d say that’s why she rises to the top of my local blogroll in the sidebar, but it’s actually just an alphabetic coincidence.)

Satullo’s piece only annoys on one level, in that he does not credit the excerpts he pulls from some of the responses Jane received (which probably only registers with me because he pulled a whopping four words from my response for use as a convenient segue). But it’s still worth a look. I also encourage you to browse the responses to Jane’s question.

And in an aside, kudos to Chris Satullo, for correctly noting in the opening of his column that today, not July 4, is the actual anniversary of the decision to declare independence. (July 4 was simply the day the paperwork got filed, so to speak.)

And why is that last bit important? -just vanity I suppose. Though while I’m on that subject, I should probably give props to my mother on the 34th anniversary of what must have been 28 of the most difficult hours she’s ever endured. Way to go mom!

At least they’re both fattening, right?

Apparently the WSJ has a slight case of culinary dyslexia.

Citizen Chris (more on our part of the bargain)

First, thanks to Cziltang for emailing a link to me. It’s the Change Agents page from the website of the Maxim Institute in New Zealand. Some worthwhile suggestions to consider.

Then there’s this Sunday address from Inquirer Editorial Page Editor, Chris Satullo, written as an exhortation to new graduates, and worthy of being read by everyone:

… Each citizen of America is invited to take part in a superb experiment in self-governance and liberty. This is a noble charge. Why do so many treat it as a burden, a trifle?

People will spend hours on a Web site researching which MP3 player or hybrid golf club to buy – but claim to have no time to read up on what their government is doing in their names.

Being a citizen involves more than voting. Voting, lamentably, has become the most consumerlike activity of citizenship. Too many people judge candidates the same way they pick a Toyota dealer: Who’s offering me the cheapest deal?

To be a citizen is to claim your place in a whole that transcends private interests. To be a citizen is to safeguard a legacy of liberty for which millions have dreamed, labored and risked lives. Citizens should never let partisan quarrels dwarf the bond they share with each fellow citizen.

To be a citizen, you must learn to pay attention, to listen, to count to 10. You must learn the value of things on which no dollar value can be fixed. …(Read the rest of Satullo’s column)

Philly Newspapers sold

for a bit over half a billion dollars.

Stories from the newly-purchased here, and here.

Also Dan and Will (both blogging from the inside out) have thoughts and lists of relevant links for the curious.

I’m still forming my thoughts on this, but here’s one thing: after reading (politically) conservative responses to the news, I’d like to point out that the op-ed pages are for opinion, so they don’t really make such a great basis for accusations of media bias.

Politicking and re-zoning to honor the dead

First, it’s worth noting to people who live in my Congressional district (PA-08) that the two Democratic challengers, Patrick Murphy and Andy Warren, were on Radio Times yesterday, in an hour-long semi-debate. (Listen via RealAudio)

I had an opinion on this race going in, but now that I’ve heard the debate, I’m not so sure. It’s not like I can vote in the primary anyway, but the likelihood is I’ll be voting for one of these guys in November, so my eye’s still on it.

Meanwhile, amidst a flurry of candidate denouncements of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, 8th district incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick had a guest opinion published in today’s Bucks County Courier Times. He claims some disagreement with Rumsfeld, but the gist of it is Rumsfeld and the President are the ones who have to decide if Rummy should go. (I wanted to link to it, but as of right now PhillyBurbs editor Karl Smith tells me that editorials and guest opinions are not available online.)

And in other items from the local paper…

there’s this article on the veterans cemetery/Toll Brothers re-zoning controversy:

UPPER MAKEFIELD - In a move to force Toll Brothers to the table — development plans in hand — the Upper Makefield supervisors Wednesday withdrew a land rezoning ordinance that would allow the veterans cemetery and a proposed 210 Toll homes to progress.

Applause from several dozen residents in attendance followed the 4-1 approval. Supervisor Vice Chairman Robert West cast the lone no vote. Before doing so, West urged the board and the residents to stay the course and said that by not doing so, individuals would “make ourselves look rather stupid.” Delaying the process jeopardized the cemetery, West said, because the Department of Veterans Affairs must spend its funding within the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. …(read the full article)

I understand the citizen opposition to the re-zoning deal Toll Brothers is trying to get. If you grew up here, you might understand it too.

If a tree falls in the forest without the MSM there to report it, does it make a sound?

Or more to the point, if your name is legally changed but the mainstream media fails to report it, is it still your name? Shelley Powers doesn’t quite ask that question, but it’s what I came away with after perusing the Wikipedia discussion concerning danah boyd. [Read more →]

How we think

Radio Times, one of my favorite diversions from the morning talk radio nut-o-sphere, had a great second hour this morning. Discussed were ideas about how humans “multi-task” (as well as if they can actually multi-task), and the ways in which technology may be affecting (enriching?) intellectual capabilities in younger people. Or something like that.

I have so many ideas spurred by this line of thought, but no time to put them down, so I’ll just link to the show in two formats: streaming audio or mp3

Philly IMC at the UnCon

The Independent Media Center of Philadelphia has posted a video report from the Norgs Uncon. A nice snapshot of what the day was about. View (or download) it here.

After the unconference

Having spent a day in the confines of the Annenberg School with forty or so other folks discussing the future of norgs, I’m impressed by the thought that there may be hope for organized journalism after all.

Industry types mixed suprisingly well with non-industry types. Ideologies were varied. The room was swarming with ideas from not only veteran journalists and editors, but also from bloggers, students and people simply passionate about the future of news delivery. It was pretty exciting.

I looked up early on in the give and take and realized Jeff Jarvis was going to have the jump on all of us, as he live-blogged the event. Meanwhile, the ubiquitously blogging Atrios went surprisingly low-tech for the day. And Dan Rubin, who was also present, has a post on the experience titled Blue Sky on a Gray Day.

You can read their posts for more of a “who” and “what” account of the day, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts too. The thread I took from most of the discussions was the need to make the news relevant to its audience. While some might argue for more flashy, entertaining content, what about stressing relevance not by compromising substance for style, but by giving it depth and context? [Read more →]