Correction to earlier post

I was unable to access "Flippin Channels" for a few days and thought it might have gone the way of all blogs. But I see now that it is up and running just fine. Glad of that.

Tuesday morning

Just sitting here in my undershirt in my house trailer, trying to pick off the cockroaches with my pellet gun (my lady hates that, but hell, I let her get a new tattoo), and noticing that the lead headline on yesterday's FYI section...."Controlling your kids video time".....is missing its apostrophe. Or should I say "it's apostrophe"?

Nah, even us ignorant trailer dwellers out here in Maywood ought to be able to remember the rules of apostrophe use. "Your kids' video time" would be correct.

Good work

The front-section story on the school tax issue covers both sides of the controversy well and objectively. At last a good simple explanation of the math involved. Nice use of sidebars and graphics boxes to help tell the story. Well done.

The commentary on the City Council container issue was also informative and in-depth. It extends our understanding of the issues in an objective but personal way.

In the people-look-like-their-occupations category, it's interesting that the only physician in the Quincy Medical Group's photos for whom the expression "What a babe!" is appropriate is.....the plastic surgeon.

Not that I'm suspicious or anything....

But when a local newspaper devotes 2/3 of its front page to a promo piece about a TV show, I do wonder who owns the local station that's running that show.

One hand washes the other, I guess.

Those poor kids in Wyaconda

They're not scoring high enough on their standardized tests. Thank goodness the state will send them somewhere else, where they can get more practice on standardized tests. There are a lot of careers and professions that involve sitting around and taking standardized tests all day.

GSQs for Sunday: Ohio house fire, 11.2; Alabama bridge thrower, 5 (I miscalculated it last time); Kentucky hillbilly shooter, 3.6; Pregnant Marine, 0.92.

The photo of the guy on the City/County page makes him look like a sci-fi serial killer.

One of the parts of the redesign that I am really starting to like is the obituaries. I think the new look is a big improvement.

It's nice to see the WGEM Sportscenter's Top Ten list get into the Whig. That has always been my favorite feature on Sportscenter....Tomlinson and Houchins can really get funny. It's not as hilarious in print as when you hear it delivered on the radio, but still, it's a good addition.

So we've stopped "Living" and are now in a "Lifestyle." Hmmmm..........purple "lifestyle" says "Tinky Winky" to me.

That last one was a joke, for all you humorless moralists out there.

Thursday

Man, I love a good sharp sports action photo. Especially a local one.

John Wood has announced that it will be bulk mailing its personal interest class schedule next week. This is news?

The Whig continues its tradition of combing the wires for gory stories from around the nation. There's more going on in the country that freaks killing each other, you know. Let's see.....Pennsylvania, teenager stabs three; New York, two idiots try to cash a dead man's Social Scurity check by rolling his corpse to a store in a chair; Alabama, guy throws his kids off a bridge; D.C., eviction servers find five bodies. Maybe they should impose a quota on themselves....no more than two faraway gross-out stories per day.

Or I know, come up with a formula! That's the answer: number of corpses divided by miles away, then multiplied by 1000 to get a positive number, = Gross Story Quotient. So let's see....

Pennsylvania: 0 corpses, 926 miles GSQ of 0.
New York: 1 corpse, 1035 miles, GSQ of 0.9.
Alabama, 4 corpses (probably), 832 miles, GSQ of 4.
D.C.: 5 corpses, 918 miles, GSQ of 5.

Probably needs to have an different intercontinental multiplier in there too, say 100 instead of 1000. So 1 New Yorker would equal 10 Scots or Somalis, although the added mileage would actually make it something more like 30 Somalis. Any story with a GSQ of less than 1 would be nixed. Hmmm, this formula is a little rough, but with work I envision a patented process to make taste decisions easier for wire editors everywhere. Maybe a logarithmic scale for distance instead of a straight multiplier.

The Redesign -- First Impressions

Interesting new look for the H-W. Overall, I like it. I have a feeling that it's not yet fully phased in, so I plan to suspend judgment for a few weeks. But a few first impressions:

Interesting, Wall-Street-Journaly, Baltimore-Sunny headline face. I don't quite recognize it, but then I got rid of my specimen books a while back.

Not too crazy about the condensed Helvetica or whatever it is on page 2. But the standing head is very classy looking. The drawback of having narrow headline typefaces shows up on p. 3, where the lack of a strong or airy headline face leads to a very dull, gray page.

The addition of e-mail and phone numbers to stories is an excellent idea and long overdue.

Someone needs to whack Jamie Busen and her copy editor with an AP Stylebook for saying that someone is going to "take over the reigns" at GREDF. On the other hand, since it's an Oakley she's talking about, the confusion is more understandable.

Holiday cleanup

Watched the Kennedy Center honors show over the holidays. The entire narration of the Diana Ross story managed to talk about her without ever using the word "Supremes," interestingly enough. Brian Wilson was honored, incredibly ravaged-looking, a walking "this is your brain on drugs" PSA.

I remember hearing Wilson interviewed on Fresh Air when Smile came out. He told Terry Gross that too many bad trips had left him with voices inside his head, and that he had to spend much of the day meditating to try to quiet them down. When Gross asked him what the voices said, he just replied, "You don't want to know. Terrible, terrible things."

Oh man, this is geeky

But I can see myself wasting many hours playing. You have been warned.

http://www.enigmasand.com/games/nphys/

A great idea for future caucuses

The Republican caucus in Riverside, Iowa, was held at Murphy's Bar & Grill.

Now there's a way to increase turnout!