Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Movie 'Obit,' a must for political junkies


Jeff Roth in Obit/Green Fuse Films, Inc.
Dear Junkies,

You'll love it.

As everyone knows (or, at least, the dwindling number who read newspapers), "obit" is short for "obituary," a place formerly reserved for neophytes at newspapers of yesteryear but, as portrayed in this clever documentary of the same title, a place where senior newspapermen go to produce their craft, turn out their stories, and capture the lives of notables in generally 800 words or less.

A handful of white male writers (okay, there is one white female writer) describe
individually "A Day in the Life of an Obituary Writer at the New York Times," how their subjects are chosen, how they find out details about the deceased, and how they put it all together before deadline.

They discuss reasons for choosing particular subjects. (Does the word "died" have to appear near the top of the story if the word is in the headline?)

They search the Times' morgue where 30 employees used to work, and now, there is one. (Sigh: technology.)

What was surprising in this era of "fact checking" was the lack of fact checking (unless I missed it, but Sheila says I didn't) by the writers who probe families for information about the deceased. They just accept everything that's handed off as the truth?

One writer says he presumed a dead man was a Democratic congressman from Illinois since the family was Democratic, however, the writer's presumption was wrong, which he learned the next day when the obit ran and he received a email notice of error. Which means a correction in the paper.

Also, I presumed that advances were prepared for all notables, but how could that possibly happen when there are so many?

They come and go, and what exactly defines a "notable"? (A Wikipedia writer I met a few months ago at Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's talk at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told me Wikipedia's writers and researchers frequently wrestle with this topic: Who are the notables? And where did they go?)

Anyway, I believe the NYT department head said they had about 1,500 advances done, with the oldest from 1931 and the person is still living! (Kirk Douglas? He's only 101.)

Advancing age and known illnesses (an editor picked up on an imminent death by a trailer running along the bottom of the television screen) mean an advance may be prepared, but the department is often surprised by "untimely" deaths, like Michael Jackson's and Prince's.

Moviegoers who are not political/news junkies will probably find Obit a bit dull, and even for a junkie like me, it dragged.

Nevertheless, it is a fascinating look inside the "old gray lady" whose large coterie of obit writers strike an outsider as chiefly down-to-earth types looking to write the best about life. 


An obit is not a story about death:  It's a celebration of life.

A film not to miss!

Congratulations to the female director, Vanessa Gould!

patricialesli@gmail.com

Monday, February 9, 2015

Dear Wall Street Journal,

I am having withdrawal pains, separated from you.  Every day, I agonize so much without you on my doorstep.  But, just like quitting cigarettes, the separation gets easier, day by day, especially since, during those last few days, you were a "no show" .833333 percent of the time.

It's now been about two months since we parted.  I miss your business pages, the art pages, Jason Gay, but most of all, the Saturday edition with the hilarious economist, whose name I have already forgotten. (I never could stand your editorials and always looked the other way.)

Wall Street Journal, you asked too much of me, to hang with you when you stood me up five of six dates of our last week together!  Please!  What's a girl to do?

Since you've been gone, I have begun a new relationship, just a "trial," with the Times, only on weekends, which I hope doesn't upend my planned resumption with you since it's you I long for, my first love.

Valentine's Day approacheth.

Yes, I am willing to give you another chance, Wall Street Journal (once my relationship ends with the Times).Your kind invitation came in the mail ($99 for six months!). Thank you very much! A much better price than your original offer of $150 per month!  (Wall Street Journal, get real!) It pays for a girl to hold firm to her principles and not succumb to wild pitches.

And when your trial ends, Wall Street Journal, if we are still a "twosome," if you haven't stood me up again, I'll end with you and pick up again where I left off with the Times and go back and forth.  It pays a girl to have suitors competing for attention! If only I had enough money and time to spend with both of you every day. With the Post we could have a menage a quatre!  For I especially like to compare your book reviews with the Post's and see who's copying whom. 

I haven't detected that yet in the Times, but we just started dating.

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Reuters is the fastest

 
This is a MD-83 aircraft like the one which crashed today in Mali/Reuters
 
When it comes to the story today about the Air Algerie tragedy in Africa, Reuters was the first news service I could find to confirm the crash.

Here is a headline timeline in EST:

10:22 a.m.  Reuters confirms the plane has crashed

10:38 a.m.  Bloomberg News reports the plane has vanished

10:39 a.m.  BBC reports the plane is missing

10:41 a.m.  CNN says the plane is "lost" and "off radar"

10:42 a.m.  Washington Post reports the plane has vanished

10:44 a.m.  New York Times has no mention of it on its website

10:50 a.m.  Wall Street Journal reports the crash

10:52 a.m.  Reuters was added to my "favorites"
The planned route of the Air Algerie flight/Chicago Tribune, NDN

EUMETSAT


patricialesli@gmail.com



 

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Book reviews: 'Kite Runner' and 'Water for Elephants'

I tried; I really tried.

Rita Faye thrust Kite Runner upon me, and I got to page 72 before declaring “terminus”!

Ditto Water, however, I did not progress that far.

What is it about contemporary fiction that it is so bloody awful? I mean, do you suppose it’s because the intended readership is illiterate and is unable to comprehend more than two syllables?

Kite Runner is especially offensive, and is an affront to anyone having an education beyond the sixth grade. (I am sorry, Rita Faye.)

Several years ago the New York Times recommended The Alienist 
by Caleb Carr as one of its Top Fiction Books for whatever year it was. The few pages I managed to read convinced me that the book review pages of the Times are nothing more than pages given over to friends of the reviewer/the newspaper/the publisher/whatever in exchange for what? Let your mind soar.

A recent case in point: Last year’s Denis Johnson's Smoke Tree, whoops, Tree of Smoke. Rave reviews! Everywhere. Two friends rushed out and bought it (“I like the author so much,” said one). “Sniff” they both said afterwards. Not finished. Discarded. “So boring,” they said. “Nothing to it.” Hhmmmmm, what relationship, pray tell, does the author have to the reviewers? Do the reviewers even read half the garbage about which they write?

These books are so terribly written; it is a reminder of just how far the U.S. has sunk in terms of writing and English skills. And how meaningless book reviews generally are, as far as quality of content.

When there are so many “good” (i.e., classic, you know, the ones which e n d u r e ) books, all of which few have read? (List? You want a list?)

Can you imagine anyone even remembering The Alienist or Smokebomb five years from now, other than the sheer mediocrity of both? And the wasted money spent on them?

The last really good “contemporary fiction” book I read which has e n d u r e d was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, published only 23 years ago.

Is it any wonder that advertising in book sections continues to fall, along with the number of pages, the number of readers of book review pages, the number of readers, and, the decline in quality of the written word? How low can we go?

Must we all become part of the mass?

Please let me know your recommendations for “good” contemporary fiction.