Possum Rage

A couple days ago, The New York Times ran a story about Brasstown, N.C., which celebrates New Year’s Eve with a possum drop. No blood sacrifice involved: just the lowering of a marsupial from a gas-station roof in a Plexiglas box; after said event, the marsupial is set free to resume its life of dodging cars. But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals saw this as an exercise in cruelty, called the organizer and threatened to sue. The designated New Year’s possum was set free, and an unlively substitute starred instead. Not all is lost, though: While you ponder whether there really is any way to interact ethically with a possum, you can shop for possum drop merchandise.

Belatedly: J. Scott Schmidt, 1937-2003

Former managing editor at Chicago Today and the Chicago Tribune, he died in his sleep a couple weeks ago. The obits focus mostly on the work he did in Southern California from 1975 on, when he moved west to take charge of a paper the Trib had just bought (the Green Sheet, which he turned into the Los Angeles Daily News). I remember him for his generosity and willingness to listen to a hot-headed copyboy — me — when he was Today’s managing editor.

The anecdote, in brief: Shortly before the 1972 election, Nixon declared a temporary halt to  bombing above the 20th Parallel in North Vietnam. Chicago Today was an afternoon paper, and our second edition (as I recall it) bannered the news with a headline saying something like, “Nixon halts N. Viet bombing” or something like that. I was convinced the headline was wrong to make such a flat statement; bombing would continue in North Vietnam, though the country’s two largest cities would be off-limits for awhile.

One of my jobs as a copyboy was to distribute copies of the latest edition through the newsroom. When I handed out the edition to the news and copy editors, I brought up the headline, said I thought it was wrong and should be changed. I got a polite hearing, but no one agreed. (Looking back at what an excited, long-haired, cock-sure kid I looked like, and looking at things from the perspective of an editor — me, again — who’s not always immediately receptive to such entreaties from others, it’s not so surprising no one jumped to do anything about the headline.)

The very last stop on my newspaper run, I think, was Scott Schmidt’s office. I generally didn’t say more than “hi” to him when I dropped off the paper, but this time I told him my what I thought about our banner headline. He didn’t brush me off. He asked me to explain.  I did, referring both to the wire-service story we had published and the accompanying map. He asked me a few questions about details, I remember, then got up and walked down the hall to the newsroom. He ordered the headline changed (though I honestly can’t remember whether we replated the front page, which would have been a big deal, or just fixed it in the next edition).

In the vernacular of today, that was huge for me: I was 18, so it was partly personal vindication; but also a demonstration first of patient listening and second that our main job was to get the facts right.

Courtroom Barbie …

… or Heavily Litigated Barbie. Either way, she’s an American legal icon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has released two decisions on the perfect plastic model woman in the past week.

The first (fair warning: 24-page PDF file) concerns a  dispute between Mattel and a German company that alleged patent infringement decades ago; the Germans lost their case in 1961, but are coming back and looking for royalties now (thanks to Trademark Blog for that item).

The second (43-page PDF file) centers on Mattel’s attempts to stop a Utah photographer from selling his pictures of Barbie in a variety of compromising poses with kitchen appliances. A lower court granted the artist summary judgment — finding that his work did not infringe Mattel’s patents or trademarks. The appeals court affirmed that judgment and said Mattel might owe court costs in the case.

Just the Facts

Guess what trivia freaks, research addicts, editors, writers, diligent students, aimless procrastinators and The Evil Ones have in common? They all find almanacs — yes, almanacs — indispensable to furthering their passions, work and studies — or hastening Death to the Great Satan. The source of this revelation: The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which according to a story in the Washington Post (and other sources), sent out an intelligence bulletin last week warning ” ‘terrorist operatives may rely on almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning’ because they include detailed information on bridges, tunnels and other U.S. landmarks. Further, the bulletin reportedly asks your local police to be on the alert for suspects carrying almanacs, especially almanacs with notations in them, because such well-used reference works might be a tipoff to something really bad about to happen.

Two Temblors

A week ago (Dec. 22) in Central California shook the hell out of Paso Robles (my friend Pete says his brother, who lives there, told him that just about everything in his house that could have fallen and broken did). But his house itself was fine, and there was little damage, relatively speaking. Overall death toll: 2.

Then you have the event of Friday, Dec. 26, in Bam, Iran. There, just about everything that could have fallen did — walls, roofs, entire buildings. Death toll — what? at least 25,000? A story tonight says 40,000.

Why the difference (and does the answer go any deeper than the obvious difference in building materials, standards, etc.)? Haven’t seen anyone put the two events together yet.

Good Satire, Wasted

A new Internet satire site in Indiana published a funny piece about a mistaken Purdue basketball scholarship. Reporters noticed the story, perhaps when it was posted earlier this week on fark.com. Then the story showed up, word for word, as a piece of “real” news in the San Diego Union Tribune; an editor or rewrite guy there apparently was fooled and lifted the piece for a column of colorful sports tidbits. Amazing to me, the guy still has a job today. Decent discussion of the whole episode, including a letter attempting to explain what happened and what the paper’s going to do about it going on from the Union Tribune sports editor, in one of the Fark forums.

Prison: Their Home Away from…

I see that Illinois’s last governor, George Ryan, has been indicted. Quite a record for the last half-century of Prairie State governors:

William G. Stratton: Indicted for income-tax evasion (acquitted).

Otto Kerner: Indicted and convicted (bribery and other charges).

Sam Shapiro: Never charged with anything, but then he only had eight months in office.

Richard Ogilvie: Clean, so far as we know. Probably why he only served one term.

Dan Walker: Indicted and convicted–in his post-politics career–as an S&L thief.

Jim Thompson: His career was about indicting other people, for a change.

Jim Edgar: No dirt so far.

George Ryan: Indicted.

Score:

Seven governors.

Four indicted; three unindicted.

Two convicted.

One acquitted.

One with charges pending.

Corrections Department

One hundred years after the fact, the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk is correcting a few facts in its first-day story on the Wright Brothers flight. For instance:

“… The plane flew 120 feet, 8 to 10 feet off the ground in a straight line on the first of four flights. It did not soar 60 feet in the air. It did not circle and fly 3 miles over breakers and dunes. It did not tack to port, then to starboard. …”

And lots more! The Virginian-Pilot also supplies a long and somewhat self-congratulatory explanation of the error-filled scoop.



 

Paul Simon, 1928-2003

Paul Simon, who represented Illinois in the Senate back in from 1985 until 1997, died today. With our usual attention to substance, we in the media remember he wore a bow tie, had big ears, big glasses and a deep voice. He started as a crusading newspaperman, spent nearly two decades in the state Legislature and won recognition for his independence from the Daley machine, then lost a run for a governor to a Democratic primary opponent who not only turned out to be a charlatan but eventually was sent to prison. Anyway, he eventually made it to the House, then the Senate and onto the presidential campaign trail. He was a practical liberal who wanted to do something about schools and jobs and health care and open government (and budget deficits and violence in the media, too). And he seemed like a decent and honest guy, too — almost too decent and honest to have thrived in his chosen profession. A sad passing.