Another project

Under the prodding of a writer friend to quit complaining about my lack of serious journalistic output of late, and encouragement to start writing more, and more seriously, over last weekend I introduced a new department to my other website, Xnmp, the Christian News and Media Portal, in the hope of achieving those objectives. I launched Xnmp last February 1 and have been updating it daily, except for a 16-day vacation in August. The new venture, called NewsComment, is intended to be a combination weblog ("blog"), editorial page, and three-dot newspaper column.

I've found in most of the editorial positions I've had since becoming editor of the Nanty Glo Journal 40 years ago, that something like NewsComment is a normal development of the editorial process. You encounter certain issues that seem significant, you read more about them and edit articles concerning them, and in that process you gain some knowledge of the issues and form ideas of your own about them. If your calling is journalism, the next step is to develop a means of discussing those issues or share your ideas and understanding of what they mean to individuals and to our generation. That's what NewsComment is for.

During that first editorial hitch, at the Journal from 1962 to '64, a similar vehicle was launched and ran on the front page of the paper for several years under the heading Editor's Notes. I think I got the concept for that from the front page of the New York Herald-Tribune of that era, which my publisher, Herman Sedloff, received in the Nanty Glo office every day. I've been the editor of perhaps two dozen other newspapers and magazines since leaving the Valley, and at most of them I've done something similar.

There's nothing more challenging and rewarding to a working writer-editor than being able to develop your "mind," in such a column. The dynamics of your education, experience, values, and spirituality all come into play. Red Smith, who, coincidentally, was a sports writer for the same Herald-Tribune, is often quoted as saying "Writing is easy; you just open a vein and bleed all over the page." Metaphorically, that's what it is.

—Webmaster Jon Kennedy

New economic vocabulary - 2

BROKER — What my broker has made me.
STANDARD & POOR — Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST — Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT — When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.
FINANCIAL PLANNER — A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
MARKET CORRECTION — The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW — The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.
YAHOO — What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share. WINDOWS 2000 — What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo at $240 per share.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR — Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.
PROFIT — an archaic word no longer in use.

—Sent by Mike Harrison

Thought for today

The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.

—Vince Lombardi

The Nanty Glo Home Page and all its departments are for and by the whole Blacklick Valley community. Your feedback and written or artistic contributions, also notification about access problems, are welcomed. Click here to reply.

To send a reply to this email, to the whole list, click here.

To write to the webmaster/editor, click here.
For HELP: please send questions or requests about your list membership to
THIS address (click here), NOT to the whole list by hitting "reply."

To JOIN or REJOIN the list, click here.