Sign of the Times

In the Dark Ages, it was considered poor form for employees to write letters to the editor. Such a practice raised objectivity questions, and besides, the letters column was for "regular folks." If you wanted to express an opinion -- that's what the editorials and columns were for.

I guess that taboo has been lifted. Now we cross-promote everywhere, not just in house ads and the usual fluff pieces about QNI-sponsored events down at the QNI Center, but in "letters to the editor" as well.

Blogging is for old people, Pew report finds

From the San Francisco Chronicle:


Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 4, 2010


(02-03) 13:00 PST -- Teenagers and young adults spent less time blogging during the past three years as social networks like Facebook became more popular, according to a Pew Research Center study released Wednesday.

Full article is here.

Wise words from the creator of Calvin & Hobbes

Bill Watterson, creator of the beloved "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip, recently gave his first interview since 1989, to a reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, thus avoiding becoming the next J.D. Salinger, at least for now.

One exchange:

Q: Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved -- and are still grieving -- when the strip ended. What would you like to tell them?

A: This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say.

It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.

I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.

I've never regretted stopping when I did.

May editors across the country think about what Mr. Watterson said here, and ask themselves, "Why am I still running old 'Peanuts' strips, more than ten years after Charles Schulz retired it? Or 'Blondie,' nearly 30 years after the death of Chic Young?" And on and on and on.