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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Jan. 2, 2007
/ 12 Teves, 5767
DADBLAME IT, MISS PRICKETT!
By
Paul Greenberg
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It used to be easy to write a year-end column. The subject, the theme, the material … it was all there waiting for me in a great big fat file folder that I'd slowly filled with clips of my mistakes through the year.
The only thing I had to do was just write 'em up. I didn't even have to come up with a new headline; it was the same one year after year: Where I went wrong.
You can't beat a headline like that. Readers are natural critics, and what critic can ignore a phrase like that over some know-it-all pundit's piece?
Especially if said know-it-all is always criticizing others. It was surely my best-read column all year.
Of course some years were better than others. One absent-minded day I'd quoted one of the great all-time summations of history, politics, baseball and the human condition in general ("One never knows, do one?") and attributed it to the immortal Fats Domino.
Uh, oh.
Uhhh . . . OH!
I'd got my Fatses wrong. It was Fats Waller who'd said that, not Domino. Great balls of fire! I was in a whole heap of trouble. It was back when e-mail was still young, and my computer screen was filled the next morning with messages from polite folks, and some not so polite, who were more than happy to set me straight. With the verbal equivalent of a two-by-four. OOO-wee, that hurt.
Once that column went out on the wire, I must've heard from every jazz buff, swing aficionado, rhythm-'n'-blues fan, rock-'n'-roll critic, amateur musicologist and disc jockey from Eugene, Ore., to Mount Airy, N.C.
This new medium of correspondence called e-mail, I realized, (a) was here to stay, and (b) was going to be all over me. A columnist wouldn't be able to get away with anything any more.
But at least that slip-of-mind gave me an excuse to go into the difference between the two Fatses in my year-end column. I ain't misbehavin', I explained. I was just confused as usual.
It as an educational experience. After that screw-up, I would know from the start that poor Dan Rather and squirming CBS would never get away with peddling their dubious "scandal" and even more dubious document about George W. Bush's missing some drills with the Texas Air National Guard. Not in this in Age of the Blogger.
But this year I confidently reached for my Where I Went Wrong folder, and there it wasn't.
Huh? Not only were there no clips in it, there was no folder. I hadn't even had occasion to start one.
Had I become infallible this year, or just lucky? Or had my standards fallen so low that I didn't even notice my mistakes any more?
None of the above. It didn't take me long to figure out why this year was different from all other years. The answer came to me in a flash, and in two words: Sarah Prickett.
This has been our new copy editor's first full year on our editorial and op-ed pages, and by now she's saved us from ourselves so many times, she ought to get lifeguard points. But, dadblame it, Miss Prickett, this time you've gone too far! You've cost me a perfectly good year-end column.
What was I going to do now write a whole new, original one? (Columnists are notoriously lazy. We'd rather quote others, or even our own mistakes, than have to express an original thought.)
It's a truism in the newspaper business that there are plenty of good writers out there but a good editor is hard to find. Because copy editing the real kind that doesn't stop with correcting spelling and grammar requires more than just a technical knowledge of the language, which is rare enough. The good copy editor has got to be literate in the broader sense that is, have what used to be called a liberal education.
Of course that was before education was reduced to training and the student taught only what is "relevant," that is, transient. There is much to be said for an irrelevant education one that doesn't go out of style because it was never in. Does anyone study the classics any more? If so, what an advantage they must have!
The first indication Sarah Prickett was made for this job was her previous one as an editor of the Flannery O'Connor Review at Georgia College and State University. And she's lived up to her billing. Scarcely a workday goes by without her catching something on the page and saving our necks. And this is only her day job; at night she teaches, of course, English composition.
Here's my first New Year's Resolution; Hire more Sarah Pricketts!
But in a television-drenched, non-literate, word-deaf age, where do you find them?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.
Paul Greenberg Archives
© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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