As the calendar page turns, there is an interesting thread on Alex Brown's web site that considers the impact that Barbaro has had on his readers' lives. The entries are moving. Most mention the inspirational quality of Barbaro's journey. They write about his courage, grace under pressure, ability to make those that cared for him feel appreciated. They speak of his dignity and marvel that a horse that few of them ever met, had the ability to touch so many lives.
The Fans of Barbaro also appreciate and admire the people who made Barbaro's fight possible: Dean Richardson, his surgeon, Gretchen and Roy Jackson, his owners and Edgar Prado, his jockey. They recall the parties they sponsored for all the employees at New Bolton to express their appreciation for their care of Barbaro.
Most say that their lives were forever changed by meeting others who cared about Barbaro and by following the details of his journey.
I wonder what this says about us? That we, as a species, remain incredibly touched by animals, especially those who rely on us for their survival. That we need the company of others who share our beliefs. And that the Internet, often maligned as a tool for social isolation, is also a conduit of support and friendship to those who are physically isolated from others who share their beliefs. Surely all of the above and more.
For me, the Barbaro saga has given me access to some of the most dedicated, passionate and talented people I have ever met. It has also rekindled my childhood fascination with horses and introduced me to the the plight of those who are abandoned. Of course it has also opened doors in the publishing world that were hard to crack--and remain only partially open--and given me some pats on the back. I have made some lifelong friends and been a part of some great stories.
And so as 2007 winds down, I find myself curious about how my adventure plays out and surprisingly willing to hang in there, perhaps with less of my entire being invested than when I started, and more with a sense of invested detachment, if such a sentiment exists.
I hope you will hang in there with me. At the very least, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Happy 2008!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
My Year with Barbaro
We're approaching the end of the year so I thought I would look back at some of the memorable Barbaro-related moments that I covered as part of my research for this story.
High on the list would have to be going to the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, KY on the day after Barbaro was euthanized. I happened to be in Kentucky doing research and had scheduled a tour of Churchill Downs with Tony Terry, the PR guy in charge of the Derby before Barbaro's sudden turn for the worse. It turned out to be a fascinating place to be. Fans were streaming in leaving bouquets of flowers at the feet of the horse statue in the museum painted to replicate Barbaro, the current Derby winner. It was a freezing day and even more chilling standing in the paddock where Barbaro's name joined the names of all the other Derby winners that are painted on the proscenium around the area. There was also a steady stream of visitors to the graves of those horses who are buried at the museum and great speculation as to where Barbaro would be buried. (To my knowledge, this has still not been determined.) Inside the museum, there is an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to view any Kentucky Derby race in history. I must have listened to the call of Barbaro's race over 100 times that day as fans lined up to replay his victory. I took special note of the sign the museum staffers had added to the neon display outside the theater that showed the Derby movie: Barbaro, Thanks for the dream.
On April 29, 2006, over 600 Fans of Barbaro gathered at Delaware park to celebrate what would have been Barbaro's fourth birthday. These were all people who had never met in person but who had forged strong relationships on the internet via Alex Brown's web site. Roy and Gretchen Jackson were in attendance as were representatives from both New Bolton Center and Fair Hill, including Barbaro;s groom Eduardo. I remember doing an interview with Eduardo, who speaks very little English, using the translation services of a Fan of Barbaro that I had just met, who happened to be from England and spoke fluent Spanish. It was a joyful day at which several movies about Barbaro were screened, including the NBC documentary that aired a week later. It is safe to say, there was not a dry eye in the tent when that video ended. These are amazing people, deeply committed to each other and to the legacy of a horse that brought them all together.
A few months later, I was invited by New Bolton Center to attend the screening of the HBO documentary about Barbaro. This was a fabulous event. All of the "luminaries" in the documentary were there, from the equine ambulance drivers to the doctors and nurses who treated Barbaro and it was great to put faces with names. Prior to this, I had been invited to New Bolton Center when Amy Gutman, Penn's president came to speak a few weeks after Barbaro's demise, and the grief was palpable. Anyone who ever thinks that the veterinary profession is not deeply connected to their patients had only to see and hear Dean Richardson break down during a slide show of Barbaro in happy times. It was clear that the experience of caring for this horse was emotionally wrenching for everyone connected with New Bolton Center. It may have been a pain for them to work around all the publicity but it was also a privilege. Some of that grief was still there at the HBO screening, but it was clear that the mood was improving.
Through all of the year, I kept in constant touch with Gretchen and Roy Jackson and my contacts at New Bolton Center. I only wanted to do enough research to be able to write the proposal from a position of authority--not enough to write the book. I think it will be extremely interesting to go back, if and when this proposal ever sells, and interview all these players now that even more time as passed. My guess is that stories that they might not have told me then may be more important now.
I'm heading to Florida for a week and will post from there. I hope to go to the races, ideally on a day when Michael Matz (Barbaro's trainer) is running a horse and catch up with him.
High on the list would have to be going to the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, KY on the day after Barbaro was euthanized. I happened to be in Kentucky doing research and had scheduled a tour of Churchill Downs with Tony Terry, the PR guy in charge of the Derby before Barbaro's sudden turn for the worse. It turned out to be a fascinating place to be. Fans were streaming in leaving bouquets of flowers at the feet of the horse statue in the museum painted to replicate Barbaro, the current Derby winner. It was a freezing day and even more chilling standing in the paddock where Barbaro's name joined the names of all the other Derby winners that are painted on the proscenium around the area. There was also a steady stream of visitors to the graves of those horses who are buried at the museum and great speculation as to where Barbaro would be buried. (To my knowledge, this has still not been determined.) Inside the museum, there is an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to view any Kentucky Derby race in history. I must have listened to the call of Barbaro's race over 100 times that day as fans lined up to replay his victory. I took special note of the sign the museum staffers had added to the neon display outside the theater that showed the Derby movie: Barbaro, Thanks for the dream.
On April 29, 2006, over 600 Fans of Barbaro gathered at Delaware park to celebrate what would have been Barbaro's fourth birthday. These were all people who had never met in person but who had forged strong relationships on the internet via Alex Brown's web site. Roy and Gretchen Jackson were in attendance as were representatives from both New Bolton Center and Fair Hill, including Barbaro;s groom Eduardo. I remember doing an interview with Eduardo, who speaks very little English, using the translation services of a Fan of Barbaro that I had just met, who happened to be from England and spoke fluent Spanish. It was a joyful day at which several movies about Barbaro were screened, including the NBC documentary that aired a week later. It is safe to say, there was not a dry eye in the tent when that video ended. These are amazing people, deeply committed to each other and to the legacy of a horse that brought them all together.
A few months later, I was invited by New Bolton Center to attend the screening of the HBO documentary about Barbaro. This was a fabulous event. All of the "luminaries" in the documentary were there, from the equine ambulance drivers to the doctors and nurses who treated Barbaro and it was great to put faces with names. Prior to this, I had been invited to New Bolton Center when Amy Gutman, Penn's president came to speak a few weeks after Barbaro's demise, and the grief was palpable. Anyone who ever thinks that the veterinary profession is not deeply connected to their patients had only to see and hear Dean Richardson break down during a slide show of Barbaro in happy times. It was clear that the experience of caring for this horse was emotionally wrenching for everyone connected with New Bolton Center. It may have been a pain for them to work around all the publicity but it was also a privilege. Some of that grief was still there at the HBO screening, but it was clear that the mood was improving.
Through all of the year, I kept in constant touch with Gretchen and Roy Jackson and my contacts at New Bolton Center. I only wanted to do enough research to be able to write the proposal from a position of authority--not enough to write the book. I think it will be extremely interesting to go back, if and when this proposal ever sells, and interview all these players now that even more time as passed. My guess is that stories that they might not have told me then may be more important now.
I'm heading to Florida for a week and will post from there. I hope to go to the races, ideally on a day when Michael Matz (Barbaro's trainer) is running a horse and catch up with him.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Teeth to the Grindstone
Every once in a while I consider all the inventions that have revolutionized my life. Cell phones, computers (word processing, in particular--remember typewriters?), the Internet are certainly right up there. But yesterday, after a long afternoon in the dentist's chair, I place Novocaine and the high speed dental drill pretty high on the list.
On Wednesday evening, I broke half a tooth eating salad of all things. The tooth had a huge filling and half of it broke right off--on the inside of my mouth which was lucky since it would have looked pretty awful. An emergency call to the dentist resulted in a late afternoon appointment yesterday where I knew I was in for a lot of drilling. I've done this before.
Suffice it to say the activity required three shots of Novocaine and a bit of emergency gum surgery since the tooth broke close to the gum line. All of which was painless, thanks to Novocaine. All things considered, it was fairly quick as well.
Today my mouth is very sore--as he promised it would be--but functional. I could not even imagine having these procedures performed without Novocaine.
Horses need dental attention as well. Their teeth have to be shaved down to accommodate the bit and an abscessed tooth in a horse needs prompt attention. In fact, horses have been known to lose races due to issues with their teeth and mouths that are usually only discovered after the fact. Veterinary dentistry is an important specialty. Its fair to say that teeth and feet are the cause of the majority of medical problems in horses and it is probably no coincidence that hoof and mouth disease is viewed as a major epidemic.
So as much of an annoyance as it is, dentistry in humans and animals has come a long way in doing what it does best--save teeth. For that, I, for one, am extremely grateful.
On Wednesday evening, I broke half a tooth eating salad of all things. The tooth had a huge filling and half of it broke right off--on the inside of my mouth which was lucky since it would have looked pretty awful. An emergency call to the dentist resulted in a late afternoon appointment yesterday where I knew I was in for a lot of drilling. I've done this before.
Suffice it to say the activity required three shots of Novocaine and a bit of emergency gum surgery since the tooth broke close to the gum line. All of which was painless, thanks to Novocaine. All things considered, it was fairly quick as well.
Today my mouth is very sore--as he promised it would be--but functional. I could not even imagine having these procedures performed without Novocaine.
Horses need dental attention as well. Their teeth have to be shaved down to accommodate the bit and an abscessed tooth in a horse needs prompt attention. In fact, horses have been known to lose races due to issues with their teeth and mouths that are usually only discovered after the fact. Veterinary dentistry is an important specialty. Its fair to say that teeth and feet are the cause of the majority of medical problems in horses and it is probably no coincidence that hoof and mouth disease is viewed as a major epidemic.
So as much of an annoyance as it is, dentistry in humans and animals has come a long way in doing what it does best--save teeth. For that, I, for one, am extremely grateful.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Retrospective
The recent issue of Blood Horse magazine, thoroughbred racing's trade magazine, recounts the top horse stories of the year. What is interesting is that nearly two years ago (2006), Barbaro was thoroughbred racing's top story (the Barbaro team won a special award for this at the Eclipse awards in January 2007. This year, 2007, Barbaro continued to dominate racing's headlines well into February.
As Blood Horse reports: "Though he was euthanized in January, the top story in the industry the following month was still Barbaro. The beloved winner of the Kentucky Derby......had broken down in the 2006 Preakness Stakes and fought valiantly until finally a battle with laminitis would claim his life. He was a national news story for months."
The timing of Barbaro's injury, surgery and ultimate demise transposed two calendar years and made him a national force as one year ended and the next began. Last year at this time, the news was still good--there was talk of moving Barbaro from New Bolton to a Kentucky Horse farm where he presumably would spend his days surrounded by bus tours of fans. The atmosphere was hopeful as all the major players in the story took off for various retreats during the week between Christmas and New Year.
It is hard to believe that I have been involved with this story for almost two years.
As Blood Horse reports: "Though he was euthanized in January, the top story in the industry the following month was still Barbaro. The beloved winner of the Kentucky Derby......had broken down in the 2006 Preakness Stakes and fought valiantly until finally a battle with laminitis would claim his life. He was a national news story for months."
The timing of Barbaro's injury, surgery and ultimate demise transposed two calendar years and made him a national force as one year ended and the next began. Last year at this time, the news was still good--there was talk of moving Barbaro from New Bolton to a Kentucky Horse farm where he presumably would spend his days surrounded by bus tours of fans. The atmosphere was hopeful as all the major players in the story took off for various retreats during the week between Christmas and New Year.
It is hard to believe that I have been involved with this story for almost two years.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
The Great Debaters
We saw another feel good movie last night; The Great Debaters. I'm a sucker for true stories with inspirational endings (gee, could this be what attracted me to the Barbaro saga?) and this one is right up there. Denzel Washington is the faculty advisor/coach of a debate team in the 1930s at an all black college in Marshall Texas. Needless to say the team takes on great obstacles and conquers all, proving that words can be great weapons.
A couple of interesting sidelights; our local news ran an interview with the woman who was on the team. She is 96 years old, remembers everything, and is, I believe, the only surviving member of the original team. Second, we in the Northeast of a certain age, did not experience the Jim Crow South in its hey day and this movie spares no punches. There is a lynching and a raid on a meeting of share croppers rumored to be organizing into a union. There is the requisite white sheriff and a brief appearance by the Texas rangers. It is not pretty; in fact it is very frightening.
The movie depicts the quiet presence of the intellectual African American tradition (whites, by the way, are referred to as "Anglo-Saxons"), that ultimately spawned the Civil Rights movement, led by one of the great orators of our time, Martin Luther King, Jr.
The power of words--a powerful message, especially in a time when it seems, like it must have then, that no one is listening.
A couple of interesting sidelights; our local news ran an interview with the woman who was on the team. She is 96 years old, remembers everything, and is, I believe, the only surviving member of the original team. Second, we in the Northeast of a certain age, did not experience the Jim Crow South in its hey day and this movie spares no punches. There is a lynching and a raid on a meeting of share croppers rumored to be organizing into a union. There is the requisite white sheriff and a brief appearance by the Texas rangers. It is not pretty; in fact it is very frightening.
The movie depicts the quiet presence of the intellectual African American tradition (whites, by the way, are referred to as "Anglo-Saxons"), that ultimately spawned the Civil Rights movement, led by one of the great orators of our time, Martin Luther King, Jr.
The power of words--a powerful message, especially in a time when it seems, like it must have then, that no one is listening.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Technical Difficulties
When I started this blog (well, actually about a week after I started), I also pasted a tracking code courtesy of Google Analytics into the html portion of the website. I should tell you that it took me quite a while to figure out exactly where to post this code and even longer to actually do it, but I did it, as the message "Receiving Data" indicated on my Google Analytics page. The idea was that by posting this code, I could track who was reading this blog, where they were from and how they were getting to the site. Very cool tools, all for free.
And indeed it was very cool because about 24 hours after I successfully pasted that code, I began receiving data. I checked in periodically to see how many hits the site was getting and soon had generated enough data for Google Analytics to even prepare nice little pie charts with my readership. Not that the numbers were earth shattering--maybe 50 or 60 hits a day at first which generally settled into about a dozen a day on a routine fairly routine basis. Some days more; some less, but always some.
Then a weird thing happened around the end of November: the data stopped. The Google Analytics info always revealed 0 hits. Well, I thought to myself, maybe they are a week or so behind, because the overall graph was still showing the data from the early weeks of the blog. In other words, it wasn't a flat line. Then I forgot to check for a while and when I did check in last week, I noticed that according to Google Analytics, the blog was dead and had been so for some time. A flat line with no hits through the entire month of December.
All of which really was mystifying to me because I had been receiving holiday cards from far flung friends with wonderful comments about the blog. Plus I knew I checked it once a day myself so there had to be at least one hit. And I knew some friends were fairly loyal readers because they sent me emails about it. So what was going on?
Enter my Mac tutorial on Monday, part of the one on one series of tutorials I had signed up for. I brought all my sheets of info from Google Analytics about installing tracking codes and decided to let them figure it out.
And they did. Apparently Google, unbeknown to me, had changed tracking codes at the end of November. The old one that I had installed simply stopped generating data (which was very strange because when I logged onto my Google Analytics page it still said, transmitting date but that is another story...),and so a few clicks later (theirs, not mine), I was back in business.
All of which is a very long way of saying, hang in there. I should know relatively soon how many of you are reading this blog, which seems to be the second question people ask me. I'm not sure I am going to be able to recapture the missing December days, but I'll keep you posted.
It's always good to know you are not alone.
And indeed it was very cool because about 24 hours after I successfully pasted that code, I began receiving data. I checked in periodically to see how many hits the site was getting and soon had generated enough data for Google Analytics to even prepare nice little pie charts with my readership. Not that the numbers were earth shattering--maybe 50 or 60 hits a day at first which generally settled into about a dozen a day on a routine fairly routine basis. Some days more; some less, but always some.
Then a weird thing happened around the end of November: the data stopped. The Google Analytics info always revealed 0 hits. Well, I thought to myself, maybe they are a week or so behind, because the overall graph was still showing the data from the early weeks of the blog. In other words, it wasn't a flat line. Then I forgot to check for a while and when I did check in last week, I noticed that according to Google Analytics, the blog was dead and had been so for some time. A flat line with no hits through the entire month of December.
All of which really was mystifying to me because I had been receiving holiday cards from far flung friends with wonderful comments about the blog. Plus I knew I checked it once a day myself so there had to be at least one hit. And I knew some friends were fairly loyal readers because they sent me emails about it. So what was going on?
Enter my Mac tutorial on Monday, part of the one on one series of tutorials I had signed up for. I brought all my sheets of info from Google Analytics about installing tracking codes and decided to let them figure it out.
And they did. Apparently Google, unbeknown to me, had changed tracking codes at the end of November. The old one that I had installed simply stopped generating data (which was very strange because when I logged onto my Google Analytics page it still said, transmitting date but that is another story...),and so a few clicks later (theirs, not mine), I was back in business.
All of which is a very long way of saying, hang in there. I should know relatively soon how many of you are reading this blog, which seems to be the second question people ask me. I'm not sure I am going to be able to recapture the missing December days, but I'll keep you posted.
It's always good to know you are not alone.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Alex Brown
Last year, Christmas Day was rainy, foggy and unseasonably warm. At about 1:00 PM, I got in my car and headed out to New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, PA, about a 45 minute drive. It was eerily quiet on the roads so I got there in record time. It was beginning to drizzle when I went into the reception area of the hospital.
Aside from the decorations, including a Christmas tree decorated in Barbaro colors (green and blue), the mounds of red and green peppermints and tables bursting with Christmas goodies, the hospital was fully operational. There were vans pulling up with nervous owners admitting sick horses, doctors bustling back and forth and one lone telephone operator on duty.
I checked in with her and settled in to wait for my interview. I was meeting Alex Brown, the web master of the Time Woolley Racing site that became the voice of the Fans of Barbaro and the source for all news about the celebrity patient who at that time was doing well. Alex had come in for the afternoon to walk Barbaro, hand graze him and groom him and we were scheduled to chat when he was finished. Although we had spoken many times on the phone, I had never met him in person and I was looking forward to meeting him. We chose Christmas Day because I knew he would be at New Bolton and it promised to be relatively quiet.
Alex Brown is a fascinating figure in the Barbaro tale. He is British and came over here about fifteen years ago to go to school. While earning an MBA at the University of Delaware, he also exercised race horses for his pal Tim Woolley who ran a modest training operation at Fair Hill. In between he worked at Wharton at the Univ. of Pa helping them set up their electronic admissions functions, linking alums and applicants from around the world. He is smart, quiet, insightful and loves horses--the essence of horses--and simply by being attentive and in the right place at the right time, launched what he calls a fascinating study of an internet based fan group, the Fans of Barbaro. To this group of Barbaro-maniacs, he is nothing short of God--no joke.
To me, Alex Brown is a wonderful friend and our friendship really took off last Christmas Day. He told me that Gretchen had told him about me--that I was the one she had chosen to write the book (this was before I had received a signed contract, so that was news to me)--and he pledged undying loyalty and access to all of his blogs archives, which are kept off site. He is incredibly sensitive and thoughtful and he does what he does out of nothing more than a love for a special horse, Barbaro and the sport of racing.
Today, Alex Brown is traveling around the country, gathering material for a book he plans to write about the Barbaro effect. He begins his story with Barbaro and then traces the origins of the grass roots movement that has become a political force in the anti-slaughter legislature. He still posts a blog that reads like a travelogue of his adventures racing across America. Yesterday he noted that the message board on his site had eclipsed 500,000 posts!!!! That is quite a fan base...(are you listening Madison Ave?)
So one year later, Alex and I are still plugging away, each determined in our own way to tell the story of this horse, and yet linked through the information network that he created. Dare I say, we both have books in us?
Aside from the decorations, including a Christmas tree decorated in Barbaro colors (green and blue), the mounds of red and green peppermints and tables bursting with Christmas goodies, the hospital was fully operational. There were vans pulling up with nervous owners admitting sick horses, doctors bustling back and forth and one lone telephone operator on duty.
I checked in with her and settled in to wait for my interview. I was meeting Alex Brown, the web master of the Time Woolley Racing site that became the voice of the Fans of Barbaro and the source for all news about the celebrity patient who at that time was doing well. Alex had come in for the afternoon to walk Barbaro, hand graze him and groom him and we were scheduled to chat when he was finished. Although we had spoken many times on the phone, I had never met him in person and I was looking forward to meeting him. We chose Christmas Day because I knew he would be at New Bolton and it promised to be relatively quiet.
Alex Brown is a fascinating figure in the Barbaro tale. He is British and came over here about fifteen years ago to go to school. While earning an MBA at the University of Delaware, he also exercised race horses for his pal Tim Woolley who ran a modest training operation at Fair Hill. In between he worked at Wharton at the Univ. of Pa helping them set up their electronic admissions functions, linking alums and applicants from around the world. He is smart, quiet, insightful and loves horses--the essence of horses--and simply by being attentive and in the right place at the right time, launched what he calls a fascinating study of an internet based fan group, the Fans of Barbaro. To this group of Barbaro-maniacs, he is nothing short of God--no joke.
To me, Alex Brown is a wonderful friend and our friendship really took off last Christmas Day. He told me that Gretchen had told him about me--that I was the one she had chosen to write the book (this was before I had received a signed contract, so that was news to me)--and he pledged undying loyalty and access to all of his blogs archives, which are kept off site. He is incredibly sensitive and thoughtful and he does what he does out of nothing more than a love for a special horse, Barbaro and the sport of racing.
Today, Alex Brown is traveling around the country, gathering material for a book he plans to write about the Barbaro effect. He begins his story with Barbaro and then traces the origins of the grass roots movement that has become a political force in the anti-slaughter legislature. He still posts a blog that reads like a travelogue of his adventures racing across America. Yesterday he noted that the message board on his site had eclipsed 500,000 posts!!!! That is quite a fan base...(are you listening Madison Ave?)
So one year later, Alex and I are still plugging away, each determined in our own way to tell the story of this horse, and yet linked through the information network that he created. Dare I say, we both have books in us?
Monday, December 24, 2007
The Zen Master's Message
It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here with all three kids home and everyone flying off in various directions to reconnect with family and friends, so forgive this post if it seems a bit sleep deprived.
We did manage to see a good movie Saturday night, Charlie Wilson's War (with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman), which I recommend. In particular, I was struck by one compelling vignette in which Hoffman, playing a CIA agent, recounts the "zen master's story." I would butcher it if I tried to paraphrase it, but the message is that things are not always what they seem. Or as the zen master says, "We'll see." Incidents that seem tragic at the outset sometimes turn out to be blessings in disguise and vice versa. Time is the determining factor in many outcomes and sometimes it takes a long time for the meaning to play out.
The point in question is the American intervention in Afghanistan which as we all know, came back to bite us, but at the time seemed like the right thing to do. The problem was that we didn't finish what we set out to do in the first place and our good intentions got lost in the shuffle.
And so how does this apply to the Barbaro story, one might ask facetiously? The moral may be to hang in there with the best of intentions and keep building the case for support. Or it may simply be that whatever happens will turn out to be for the best.
We did manage to see a good movie Saturday night, Charlie Wilson's War (with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman), which I recommend. In particular, I was struck by one compelling vignette in which Hoffman, playing a CIA agent, recounts the "zen master's story." I would butcher it if I tried to paraphrase it, but the message is that things are not always what they seem. Or as the zen master says, "We'll see." Incidents that seem tragic at the outset sometimes turn out to be blessings in disguise and vice versa. Time is the determining factor in many outcomes and sometimes it takes a long time for the meaning to play out.
The point in question is the American intervention in Afghanistan which as we all know, came back to bite us, but at the time seemed like the right thing to do. The problem was that we didn't finish what we set out to do in the first place and our good intentions got lost in the shuffle.
And so how does this apply to the Barbaro story, one might ask facetiously? The moral may be to hang in there with the best of intentions and keep building the case for support. Or it may simply be that whatever happens will turn out to be for the best.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
False Alarm
In case you couldn't tell, we are in the lull between Christmas and New Year's when not much work gets done. So I don't expect to hear anything from anyone regarding the fate of my proposal until mid-January.
That said, imagine my surprise when I opened my email yesterday to find a message from Dzanc Press, the independent, non-profit press to which I sent my proposal, on a lark, a while back. I do remember writing them to ask when I might be hearing from them, yea or nay, and they told me it would be about four weeks. I did the calculations in my head and thought it must be at least four weeks since I had heard from them.
Anyway, I opened the message only to find that it was a fund raising letter. What a bust! It seems that this independent press is a non-profit for a very good reason. They fund a lot of literacy and writer in residence programs in the public schools and while they were tooting their horn regarding the books they had published this year, they were also asking for support of their non-profit mission. Fair enough, but nonetheless a heart thumping moment for naught...
Which actually brings me to another piece of correspondence I received via regular mail yesterday from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Charities, specifically the Barbaro Memorial Fund. Signed by Roy and Gretchen Jackson, it noted that the fund has raised more than $300,000 to date and underwritten two promising laminitis research projects. Naturally, they too were asking for my support.
Both are very good causes and I don't mean to sound like the proverbial Scrooge, but they have joined the ranks of literally hundreds of pleas for money that I have received via all airwaves--mail, internet and phone--over the last month and I am feeling a bit over tapped.
Yes, I know all about the end of the year tax incentive, but I wonder if it is also an effective means of fund raising in the grand scheme of things. Shouldn't these organizations be making more of an effort to find donors all year round than prey on our holiday spirit? Better yet, shouldn't we be feeling charitable all year round rather than just for a tax break in December?
Or am I merely being a grinch?
That said, imagine my surprise when I opened my email yesterday to find a message from Dzanc Press, the independent, non-profit press to which I sent my proposal, on a lark, a while back. I do remember writing them to ask when I might be hearing from them, yea or nay, and they told me it would be about four weeks. I did the calculations in my head and thought it must be at least four weeks since I had heard from them.
Anyway, I opened the message only to find that it was a fund raising letter. What a bust! It seems that this independent press is a non-profit for a very good reason. They fund a lot of literacy and writer in residence programs in the public schools and while they were tooting their horn regarding the books they had published this year, they were also asking for support of their non-profit mission. Fair enough, but nonetheless a heart thumping moment for naught...
Which actually brings me to another piece of correspondence I received via regular mail yesterday from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Charities, specifically the Barbaro Memorial Fund. Signed by Roy and Gretchen Jackson, it noted that the fund has raised more than $300,000 to date and underwritten two promising laminitis research projects. Naturally, they too were asking for my support.
Both are very good causes and I don't mean to sound like the proverbial Scrooge, but they have joined the ranks of literally hundreds of pleas for money that I have received via all airwaves--mail, internet and phone--over the last month and I am feeling a bit over tapped.
Yes, I know all about the end of the year tax incentive, but I wonder if it is also an effective means of fund raising in the grand scheme of things. Shouldn't these organizations be making more of an effort to find donors all year round than prey on our holiday spirit? Better yet, shouldn't we be feeling charitable all year round rather than just for a tax break in December?
Or am I merely being a grinch?
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Brain Food
It's hard to argue with an activity that feeds your brain as well as the hungry people of the world. Check out the free rice web site and do both.
The premise is simple: play a multiple choice vocabulary game and for every correct answer, the organization donates grains of rice to a cyber bowl. You rack up bowls of rice as you improve your vocabulary. When you are finished the organization donates the rice you won, through the United Nations, to hungry people all over the world.
Be forewarned-some of these words are obscure (and this, coming from a crossword puzzle addict!) but there does not seem to be a penalty for getting the answers wrong, just an encouragement to try again.
I could see this as a great tool for classrooms of 10th and 11th graders trying to beef up their vocabularies before those standardized college tests. And who can argue with doing good for both body and soul?
The premise is simple: play a multiple choice vocabulary game and for every correct answer, the organization donates grains of rice to a cyber bowl. You rack up bowls of rice as you improve your vocabulary. When you are finished the organization donates the rice you won, through the United Nations, to hungry people all over the world.
Be forewarned-some of these words are obscure (and this, coming from a crossword puzzle addict!) but there does not seem to be a penalty for getting the answers wrong, just an encouragement to try again.
I could see this as a great tool for classrooms of 10th and 11th graders trying to beef up their vocabularies before those standardized college tests. And who can argue with doing good for both body and soul?
Friday, December 21, 2007
Mental Stimulation
For those of you who are looking to expand your mental horizons in 2008, my son has clued me into the world of i-Pod U, a series of lectures and courses from major universities that are available for free on the i-tunes music store.
You don't even need an i-pod, you can listen to the lectures right on your computer, but an i-pod makes them portable--great for plane rides or long walks. I perused the offerings a bit last night and was impressed. MIT and Cal Berkeley are in the forefront of offering entire courses, in keeping with their open coursework philosophy. These schools were among the first to file share among peers so it makes sense that they are course sharing with the world. Others like Penn and Yale offer lectures from dignitaries that visit campus, and the Writers House at Penn has an interesting selection of talks from some prominent writers.
Stanford also has a most intriguing selection, including one that I plan on downloading for an upcoming plane ride about Hannibal crossing the Alps. Apparently it explains ones of the great mysteries of history: how Hannibal actually crossed the alps on elephant. If you've ever flown over or skied the Alps, you have got to be amazed at this accomplishment.
It is probably only a matter of time before more universities jump on this bandwagon. I know Princeton offered an on-line course (for $30!) this semester devoted entirely to reading War and Peace. The culmination of the class was a trip to NYC to see the recent Met production of the mega-opera. I was intrigued but never actually signed up.
This is another way that technology is changing the way we gather information and I think it's important to keep all channels open.
You don't even need an i-pod, you can listen to the lectures right on your computer, but an i-pod makes them portable--great for plane rides or long walks. I perused the offerings a bit last night and was impressed. MIT and Cal Berkeley are in the forefront of offering entire courses, in keeping with their open coursework philosophy. These schools were among the first to file share among peers so it makes sense that they are course sharing with the world. Others like Penn and Yale offer lectures from dignitaries that visit campus, and the Writers House at Penn has an interesting selection of talks from some prominent writers.
Stanford also has a most intriguing selection, including one that I plan on downloading for an upcoming plane ride about Hannibal crossing the Alps. Apparently it explains ones of the great mysteries of history: how Hannibal actually crossed the alps on elephant. If you've ever flown over or skied the Alps, you have got to be amazed at this accomplishment.
It is probably only a matter of time before more universities jump on this bandwagon. I know Princeton offered an on-line course (for $30!) this semester devoted entirely to reading War and Peace. The culmination of the class was a trip to NYC to see the recent Met production of the mega-opera. I was intrigued but never actually signed up.
This is another way that technology is changing the way we gather information and I think it's important to keep all channels open.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Pet Care Extraordinary and Otherwise
I met with my program advisor yesterday at Penn to peruse the topic of veterinary ethics as it pertains to my thesis. It seems that everyone has a tale of extraordinary veterinary interventions and he is no exception.
It turns out that he has a relative who elected surgery for his hamster (yes, hamster!) for kidney disease. The surgery cost about $1000 and the hamster died a month later. An amazing story, to be sure, and perhaps one in which the vet should not have even offered such an option.
But then again, who am I to determine the "value" an individual places on their pet? Clearly this person's attachment to his hamster was far greater than the hamster's intrinsic cost or the person would not have brought the hamster to the vet to begin with. "Value," it seems, is clearly a subjective quality, and not tied to the animal's worth in the marketplace.
Which brings us to the topic of pet insurance, a commodity I don't hesitate to recommend to friends who are getting a pet. I learned the hard way--emergency surgery for one dog at 2:00 AM for which they wouldn't even call the vet until I wrote a check for $1250 on the spot; cancer for another and the various infirmities of old age for a third--that pet insurance eases the pain. For about $300 a year, you get covered for routine care, flea protection, heartworm meds. and a portion of major exploratory procedures. For me, it makes sense if only on a psychological level because I don't think twice about doing expensive procedures. I know I will get a portion of their cost reimbursed. The catch is to get the insurance when you get a puppy or kitten because there are no pre-existing conditions.
Does that mean I would do surgery on a hamster? I doubt it because I don't think my vet would recommend such a procedure. Which brings me to my second point: you need to develop a good relationship with your vet based on both of your reasonable expectations of care. I have known my vet for a quarter of a century and we have been through a lot together. She knows my limits and I think I know hers, but it has taken a while to develop this kind of shorthand. She has currently recommended a more aggressive treatment plan for my collie's limping (I think he pulled a muscle) than I would have pursued (acupuncture and referral to a specialist) because he is only 4. If he had been 14, I think we would have gone with medication. I am listening because she is right--it is one thing to be limping at 4 and another at 14, but there have been times when I haven't agreed and that seems to be OK with her.
So if you are getting or giving a pet this holiday season get and/or give pet insurance and a referral to a good veterinary hospital. Because little animals can generate big bills very quickly.
It turns out that he has a relative who elected surgery for his hamster (yes, hamster!) for kidney disease. The surgery cost about $1000 and the hamster died a month later. An amazing story, to be sure, and perhaps one in which the vet should not have even offered such an option.
But then again, who am I to determine the "value" an individual places on their pet? Clearly this person's attachment to his hamster was far greater than the hamster's intrinsic cost or the person would not have brought the hamster to the vet to begin with. "Value," it seems, is clearly a subjective quality, and not tied to the animal's worth in the marketplace.
Which brings us to the topic of pet insurance, a commodity I don't hesitate to recommend to friends who are getting a pet. I learned the hard way--emergency surgery for one dog at 2:00 AM for which they wouldn't even call the vet until I wrote a check for $1250 on the spot; cancer for another and the various infirmities of old age for a third--that pet insurance eases the pain. For about $300 a year, you get covered for routine care, flea protection, heartworm meds. and a portion of major exploratory procedures. For me, it makes sense if only on a psychological level because I don't think twice about doing expensive procedures. I know I will get a portion of their cost reimbursed. The catch is to get the insurance when you get a puppy or kitten because there are no pre-existing conditions.
Does that mean I would do surgery on a hamster? I doubt it because I don't think my vet would recommend such a procedure. Which brings me to my second point: you need to develop a good relationship with your vet based on both of your reasonable expectations of care. I have known my vet for a quarter of a century and we have been through a lot together. She knows my limits and I think I know hers, but it has taken a while to develop this kind of shorthand. She has currently recommended a more aggressive treatment plan for my collie's limping (I think he pulled a muscle) than I would have pursued (acupuncture and referral to a specialist) because he is only 4. If he had been 14, I think we would have gone with medication. I am listening because she is right--it is one thing to be limping at 4 and another at 14, but there have been times when I haven't agreed and that seems to be OK with her.
So if you are getting or giving a pet this holiday season get and/or give pet insurance and a referral to a good veterinary hospital. Because little animals can generate big bills very quickly.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
La Belle Patti
Patti La Belle has done more for Philadelphia than Ben Franklin, its favorite son! In her two nights on NBC leading the Philadelphia-based choir in the reality show, Clash of the Choirs, La Belle has turned into an icon before our eyes. Of course, she may have been a Diva before this, but she has now shown herself to be a Diva with Extreme Class.
The show, for those of you who have not channeled surfed recently is based on the audience voting premise. This time America votes for whichever choir they think has performed the best. There were six choirs to start--all made up of ordinary people from five cities, Houston, Cincinnati, New Haven, Philadelphia and Oklahoma City. Each choir is led by a celebrity (La Belle leads Philly; Michael Bolton leads New Haven, Nick LaChey leads Cincinnati, etc) and each is amazingly good in its own way.
LaBelle's choir, however, is easily in another league--they are that good. The clips show La Belle really teaching these people how to sing, enunciate and perform and boy do they deliver. Now who knows how much time LaBelle really devoted to this project and how much coaching was actually done by her music director, but regardless, these people are amazing.
LaBelle has gotten some bad press over the years in Philly, some of it for keeping a kennel full of dogs whose barking has drawn the wrath of neighbors, but she has never denied her roots. She is immortalized on a mural in North Philly; she performs at the 4th of July extravaganza on the Parkway and if her choir wins, the city gets $25,000 for charitable endeavors.
I'm a sucker for feel-good shows and this one really is mushy so if you don't like warm and fuzzy don't bother. But if good music, big dreams and encouragement are your thing, tune in tonight at 8:00 on NBC. The promos promise that the Divine Miss P is going to sing with her choir and, in my book, that is worth watching.
The show, for those of you who have not channeled surfed recently is based on the audience voting premise. This time America votes for whichever choir they think has performed the best. There were six choirs to start--all made up of ordinary people from five cities, Houston, Cincinnati, New Haven, Philadelphia and Oklahoma City. Each choir is led by a celebrity (La Belle leads Philly; Michael Bolton leads New Haven, Nick LaChey leads Cincinnati, etc) and each is amazingly good in its own way.
LaBelle's choir, however, is easily in another league--they are that good. The clips show La Belle really teaching these people how to sing, enunciate and perform and boy do they deliver. Now who knows how much time LaBelle really devoted to this project and how much coaching was actually done by her music director, but regardless, these people are amazing.
LaBelle has gotten some bad press over the years in Philly, some of it for keeping a kennel full of dogs whose barking has drawn the wrath of neighbors, but she has never denied her roots. She is immortalized on a mural in North Philly; she performs at the 4th of July extravaganza on the Parkway and if her choir wins, the city gets $25,000 for charitable endeavors.
I'm a sucker for feel-good shows and this one really is mushy so if you don't like warm and fuzzy don't bother. But if good music, big dreams and encouragement are your thing, tune in tonight at 8:00 on NBC. The promos promise that the Divine Miss P is going to sing with her choir and, in my book, that is worth watching.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Fans of Barbaro
It is the time of year for reflection and the Fans of Barbaro (FOBs) are already beginning the countdown to the anniversary of their hero's death, January 29. The Director of Communications at the Vet School told me she had received numerous inquiries about what the school was planning to commemorate the event.
"Nothing," was what she told them. The Vet School is following the lead of the Jacksons who are trying to move on.
Not so the FOBs. So far, they are planning a cyber-vigil on the 29th and already dreading the day. Yesterday, which was week 46 since Barbaro's death (yes, they are most definitely counting), the postings were already up noting the sorrow that was still deep within many of them. Since Barbaro died on a Monday, each week begins with a remembrance. I think it is safe to say that many of these fans, who never met the horse or even saw him in person, are NOT moving on just yet.
They are, however, moving on with Barbaro's legacy, which is to save horses who are destined for slaughter. To date, the Fans of Barbaro have rescued 1500 horses, which is a truly amazing legacy. Many have made the trip to the New Holland, PA auction where the horses sold routinely end up being transported to slaughter houses in Canada and Mexico (I believe the ones in Texas are still shut down due, in part, to the continued efforts of the anti-slaughter groups). They rescue the healthiest ones with contributions from FOBs in response to cyber-pleas. It is truly a commendable and impressive undertaking.
The FOBs may still be mourning but they are also mobilizing. Their continued saga is one of the most fascinating parts of the ongoing Barbaro story.
"Nothing," was what she told them. The Vet School is following the lead of the Jacksons who are trying to move on.
Not so the FOBs. So far, they are planning a cyber-vigil on the 29th and already dreading the day. Yesterday, which was week 46 since Barbaro's death (yes, they are most definitely counting), the postings were already up noting the sorrow that was still deep within many of them. Since Barbaro died on a Monday, each week begins with a remembrance. I think it is safe to say that many of these fans, who never met the horse or even saw him in person, are NOT moving on just yet.
They are, however, moving on with Barbaro's legacy, which is to save horses who are destined for slaughter. To date, the Fans of Barbaro have rescued 1500 horses, which is a truly amazing legacy. Many have made the trip to the New Holland, PA auction where the horses sold routinely end up being transported to slaughter houses in Canada and Mexico (I believe the ones in Texas are still shut down due, in part, to the continued efforts of the anti-slaughter groups). They rescue the healthiest ones with contributions from FOBs in response to cyber-pleas. It is truly a commendable and impressive undertaking.
The FOBs may still be mourning but they are also mobilizing. Their continued saga is one of the most fascinating parts of the ongoing Barbaro story.
Monday, December 17, 2007
A Good Death?
The lectures at Penn last week explored the concept of the human-animal bond in greater depth. While the previous week had been all about quality of life, this topic was more about the impact of the animal's quality of life on its owner. As an illustration of the depth of this bond, the professor had the students write an obituary for one of their pets.
I could have written a small novel about my most recent dogs who have died, but these students were succinct and very touching. It was clear that most of them went into the field of veterinary medicine because they truly do love animals, large or small. Over time, I have to believe that the emotional impact of caring for sick animals becomes a challenge and I hope they remember the comforting words of these teachers. It is not an easy burden that they carry, especially when you figure in the topic of euthanasia. As many times as they hear that euthanasia translates from the Greek as "good death," it is nonetheless a tremendous responsibility to be able to deliver that death.
I believe that Dean Richardson is still feeling the effects of administering Barbaro's fatal cocktail. I know he believes it was the right and humane thing to do (there is no doubt in my mind that vets operate from the principle of ending suffering), but I also believe that he truly thought he could save the horse. I'm not sure what the moral of the story is: that we should or shouldn't play God, but I do know that the psychological implications of being able to end life, human or otherwise, are complicated and ones with which every vet has to grapple.
There is no other medical profession that literally has the power of life or death at its disposal and I wonder what it says about the way in which we view animals and the professionals who care for them.
I could have written a small novel about my most recent dogs who have died, but these students were succinct and very touching. It was clear that most of them went into the field of veterinary medicine because they truly do love animals, large or small. Over time, I have to believe that the emotional impact of caring for sick animals becomes a challenge and I hope they remember the comforting words of these teachers. It is not an easy burden that they carry, especially when you figure in the topic of euthanasia. As many times as they hear that euthanasia translates from the Greek as "good death," it is nonetheless a tremendous responsibility to be able to deliver that death.
I believe that Dean Richardson is still feeling the effects of administering Barbaro's fatal cocktail. I know he believes it was the right and humane thing to do (there is no doubt in my mind that vets operate from the principle of ending suffering), but I also believe that he truly thought he could save the horse. I'm not sure what the moral of the story is: that we should or shouldn't play God, but I do know that the psychological implications of being able to end life, human or otherwise, are complicated and ones with which every vet has to grapple.
There is no other medical profession that literally has the power of life or death at its disposal and I wonder what it says about the way in which we view animals and the professionals who care for them.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Vanity Presses
I heard a very interesting story on NPR this week about Wallace Stegner, the acclaimed novelist and first Dean of Stanford's Journalism School. It seems that academia did not pay the young Stegner all that much and with a wife and young child to support, he supplemented his income with freelance projects.
One such project was writing corporate biographies, usually commissioned by the corporation. I'm not sure what year it was, but Stegner wrote once such biography for Aramco, the oil company. Apparently there were some disagreements about what kind of story he was to tell: a PR fluff piece or the inside story of oil deals, and while he was willing to do either (for his fee), the company never made a decision. As a result, Stegner wrote the book and the company shelved it for some fifteen years.
Recently an enterprising corporate communications person found the tome in some files and began printing it in excerpts in the company newsletter. It was such a success, (you'd have to believe this was the PR fluff version), that the company recently printed the book, much to the chagrin of the Stegner family, especially since Stegner went on to become one of the great environmentalists of his time.
Anyway, I tell you all this to point out that corporate biographies (which I too write) have been around forever and usually pay pretty well. It made me feel better to know that one of the great historian/novelists of our time did not find such work demeaning. I don't either, although the ones I write are most definitely client driven. That's not to say, they are not interesting stories--just that they are rarely objective.
Who knows? One day, those volumes on the history of Southern New Hampshire Medical Center or Staten Island University Hospital may become collector's items?!
One such project was writing corporate biographies, usually commissioned by the corporation. I'm not sure what year it was, but Stegner wrote once such biography for Aramco, the oil company. Apparently there were some disagreements about what kind of story he was to tell: a PR fluff piece or the inside story of oil deals, and while he was willing to do either (for his fee), the company never made a decision. As a result, Stegner wrote the book and the company shelved it for some fifteen years.
Recently an enterprising corporate communications person found the tome in some files and began printing it in excerpts in the company newsletter. It was such a success, (you'd have to believe this was the PR fluff version), that the company recently printed the book, much to the chagrin of the Stegner family, especially since Stegner went on to become one of the great environmentalists of his time.
Anyway, I tell you all this to point out that corporate biographies (which I too write) have been around forever and usually pay pretty well. It made me feel better to know that one of the great historian/novelists of our time did not find such work demeaning. I don't either, although the ones I write are most definitely client driven. That's not to say, they are not interesting stories--just that they are rarely objective.
Who knows? One day, those volumes on the history of Southern New Hampshire Medical Center or Staten Island University Hospital may become collector's items?!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Tis the Season
If you are looking for a charitable endeavor this holiday season, the organization Reach Out and Read just might appeal to you. Since 1989, Reach Out and Read programs across the country have been promoting reading as a standard part of pediatric primary care.
The premise is simple: pediatricians, nurse practitioners and family physicians write a "prescription" for reading. They give books to their patients and tell parents that reading aloud is one of the most important things they can do for their children.
There are approximately 3500 Reach Out and Read organizations across the country and they are always in need of books, volunteers in waiting rooms and financial support. You can find out more at their website.
Another cause that might appeal to horse lovers is the Laminitis Fund at New Bolton Center. Barbaro died of laminitis, a deadly disease of the hoof that is very common among horses of all types. Roy and Gretchen Jackson endowed a Chair at Penn Vet to fund a national initiative to find a cure for this disease. You can support it at the Penn Vet School's web site where you could also make a contribution in memory of Barbaro.
The premise is simple: pediatricians, nurse practitioners and family physicians write a "prescription" for reading. They give books to their patients and tell parents that reading aloud is one of the most important things they can do for their children.
There are approximately 3500 Reach Out and Read organizations across the country and they are always in need of books, volunteers in waiting rooms and financial support. You can find out more at their website.
Another cause that might appeal to horse lovers is the Laminitis Fund at New Bolton Center. Barbaro died of laminitis, a deadly disease of the hoof that is very common among horses of all types. Roy and Gretchen Jackson endowed a Chair at Penn Vet to fund a national initiative to find a cure for this disease. You can support it at the Penn Vet School's web site where you could also make a contribution in memory of Barbaro.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Batting 1000?
One of the nicest things about being a writer is seeing your work in print. The nature of the industry is such that, unless you write for a newspaper, the lag time between handing in a story and seeing it in print is usually a few months. So it is always a nice surprise when I receive a bunch of "overs" (leftover copies) in the mail.
Yesterday I received the current edition of Family Business magazine. I wrote the cover story as well as a another feature inside and both look great, if I do say so myself. An unexpected pat on the back and a nice boost on an otherwise rainy, damp, cold day when I navigated some icy patches both en route to and returning from Penn.
The Penn lectures were once again extremely fruitful and I actually sat next to a reporter who is writing a book about dogs, One Nation Under Dogs, due out next year. He is a former newspaper reporter who landed a good book deal and was glad to get out while the getting was good. We struck up a nice friendship--another unexpected bonus of venturing out on a miserable day.
And in another twist of fate, my proposal has been sent off to Michael Smerconish's publisher, Globe Pequoit Press, a leading publisher of travel guides and pet books with a loyal following among horse lovers.
Perhaps three for three? Who knows?
Yesterday I received the current edition of Family Business magazine. I wrote the cover story as well as a another feature inside and both look great, if I do say so myself. An unexpected pat on the back and a nice boost on an otherwise rainy, damp, cold day when I navigated some icy patches both en route to and returning from Penn.
The Penn lectures were once again extremely fruitful and I actually sat next to a reporter who is writing a book about dogs, One Nation Under Dogs, due out next year. He is a former newspaper reporter who landed a good book deal and was glad to get out while the getting was good. We struck up a nice friendship--another unexpected bonus of venturing out on a miserable day.
And in another twist of fate, my proposal has been sent off to Michael Smerconish's publisher, Globe Pequoit Press, a leading publisher of travel guides and pet books with a loyal following among horse lovers.
Perhaps three for three? Who knows?
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Out of My Shell?
A few thoughts before I head back to Penn for my second series of lectures on veterinary ethics. Once again, ice and snow seem to be complicating the commute.
My return to the Genius Bar was a relative breeze. My life is now in sync--all machines are speaking to me and to each other and everything is backing itself up once a day in case of trouble down the line. In addition, I signed up for one-to one tutorials, once a week with the Mac creative Geniuses, as opposed to the techno whizzes, so look for some bells and whistles on this blog in coming weeks. At the very least I want to learn how these devices can make my life easier rather than more complicated, which is what seems to happen when they malfunction.
Which brings me to a question. How easy should it be for someone who is looking for me to find me? In our Google world, where every one's bio is just a click a way, should my contact info also be that accessible?
I have always been a bit of a turtle on this front, preferring to hide within the shell of protection offered by the editorial staffs of the magazines that employ me. It seems that if people are bent on finding me, they contact places where my articles have appeared and those people contact me. So far it has been a good arrangement and the "hunt" seems to dissuade those who are not genuinely interested in finding me.
Now I am not so sure. Since I am indeed, out here in cyber space on a regular basis, should I add my contact info to this blog? Its non-existence has been a deliberate oversight on my part to date.
What do you think?
My return to the Genius Bar was a relative breeze. My life is now in sync--all machines are speaking to me and to each other and everything is backing itself up once a day in case of trouble down the line. In addition, I signed up for one-to one tutorials, once a week with the Mac creative Geniuses, as opposed to the techno whizzes, so look for some bells and whistles on this blog in coming weeks. At the very least I want to learn how these devices can make my life easier rather than more complicated, which is what seems to happen when they malfunction.
Which brings me to a question. How easy should it be for someone who is looking for me to find me? In our Google world, where every one's bio is just a click a way, should my contact info also be that accessible?
I have always been a bit of a turtle on this front, preferring to hide within the shell of protection offered by the editorial staffs of the magazines that employ me. It seems that if people are bent on finding me, they contact places where my articles have appeared and those people contact me. So far it has been a good arrangement and the "hunt" seems to dissuade those who are not genuinely interested in finding me.
Now I am not so sure. Since I am indeed, out here in cyber space on a regular basis, should I add my contact info to this blog? Its non-existence has been a deliberate oversight on my part to date.
What do you think?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Power of Talk Radio
I started reading Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner's book, Murdered by Mumia, last night. We actually went to a local book signing for him and it was packed. Smerconish is certainly a master of public relations, a title he bestows upon himself in the Introduction. He acknowledges that it was too difficult for Maureen to write the story about her husband's murder by herself. Once he knew all the facts of the case, and how the media had distorted these facts, he volunteered to help tell her story. He knew it would sell, based on his previous track record--his last book, Muzzled, was a New York Times bestseller.
And how right he was--at least from what I have seen on a local level. Although I am not a devotee of his daily radio show where he has talked about this case for years and promoted this book for months, it certainly generates sales. Many people in line last night had already been to another Smerconish book-related event and were there to continue to lend their support to this project. It seems as if you either love Michael Smerconish or don't care for him. And if you love him, you do whatever he says.
I'm not that far along but I can tell you that he makes a convincing argument. The facts of the case are all in the book, including excerpts from the trial transcripts which Smerconish actually had posted on the web with the help of some of his listeners. It's easy to see why he was attracted to this story and why he felt compelled to get involved. Maureen Faulkner, an incredibly strong,principled woman was up against the world and was losing the battle. Smerconish is an equally principled person and when he stood up for decency and truth in the form of Maureen Faulkner he was also standing up for himself.
No wonder the guy is a public relations guru--how can you argue with truth and by extension how can you argue with him when he comes to represent truth?
Now, here's the $64 million question: how can I get him behind the Barbaro story? Because if he feels a story is worth telling, this guy never gives up.
And how right he was--at least from what I have seen on a local level. Although I am not a devotee of his daily radio show where he has talked about this case for years and promoted this book for months, it certainly generates sales. Many people in line last night had already been to another Smerconish book-related event and were there to continue to lend their support to this project. It seems as if you either love Michael Smerconish or don't care for him. And if you love him, you do whatever he says.
I'm not that far along but I can tell you that he makes a convincing argument. The facts of the case are all in the book, including excerpts from the trial transcripts which Smerconish actually had posted on the web with the help of some of his listeners. It's easy to see why he was attracted to this story and why he felt compelled to get involved. Maureen Faulkner, an incredibly strong,principled woman was up against the world and was losing the battle. Smerconish is an equally principled person and when he stood up for decency and truth in the form of Maureen Faulkner he was also standing up for himself.
No wonder the guy is a public relations guru--how can you argue with truth and by extension how can you argue with him when he comes to represent truth?
Now, here's the $64 million question: how can I get him behind the Barbaro story? Because if he feels a story is worth telling, this guy never gives up.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
A Geat Story
I did a fascinating interview yesterday with Peter Prichard, the President of the Newseum, a 250,000 square foot new museum on the Mall in Washington, devoted to the news. It is one of a new generation of museums, devoted to ideas (the Constitution Center in Philadelphia is another example) and its largest funder is the Freedom Foundation, a non partisan group that is dedicated to free speech, free press and free spirit for all people. Prichard is a Dartmouth grad which is where the profile will ultimately run.
The Newseum is scheduled to open this spring and promises to be an amazing place to visit. The collection includes five decades of front page newspapers, television archives of great newscasts and events and internet reporting. This is actually the second Newseum, the first having existed in Arlington, Virgina for five years (1997-2001). They moved to have a greater impact, which I predict will be accomplished rapidly. I think it will be a place I will have a hard time leaving.
Prichard is a career journalist, having tried just about all forms of newspaper reporting from sports to editorials as well as television production. He was the third editor in chief of USA Today, which is where he met the Newseum's visionary, Al Neuharth, the founder of the Freedom Foundation. Proving that life is once again about connections, Prichard told me his big career break came when he worked as a speechwriter for Neuharth during his term as president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. They traveled to every state together since Neuharth had pledged he would speak in all fifty of them and Prichard drafted those speeches. The two formed a working relationship that remains to this day.
Toward the end of our conversation, Prichard asked me my story, which I told him in a nutshell. He didn't sound surprised about my current roller coaster ride through the publishing world--he is the author of a book about the founding of USA Today, but of course he had the credentials to write it--but he was surprised about the lukewarm reception to the Barbaro story itself. "It's a great story," he told me with all the conviction of a well-seasoned reporter. "Someone is going to grab it because great stories always sell."
I'd like to believe he's right.
The Newseum is scheduled to open this spring and promises to be an amazing place to visit. The collection includes five decades of front page newspapers, television archives of great newscasts and events and internet reporting. This is actually the second Newseum, the first having existed in Arlington, Virgina for five years (1997-2001). They moved to have a greater impact, which I predict will be accomplished rapidly. I think it will be a place I will have a hard time leaving.
Prichard is a career journalist, having tried just about all forms of newspaper reporting from sports to editorials as well as television production. He was the third editor in chief of USA Today, which is where he met the Newseum's visionary, Al Neuharth, the founder of the Freedom Foundation. Proving that life is once again about connections, Prichard told me his big career break came when he worked as a speechwriter for Neuharth during his term as president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. They traveled to every state together since Neuharth had pledged he would speak in all fifty of them and Prichard drafted those speeches. The two formed a working relationship that remains to this day.
Toward the end of our conversation, Prichard asked me my story, which I told him in a nutshell. He didn't sound surprised about my current roller coaster ride through the publishing world--he is the author of a book about the founding of USA Today, but of course he had the credentials to write it--but he was surprised about the lukewarm reception to the Barbaro story itself. "It's a great story," he told me with all the conviction of a well-seasoned reporter. "Someone is going to grab it because great stories always sell."
I'd like to believe he's right.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Return to the Genius Bar
I now have my own personal Genius, John, who is only a phone call away. Small consolation when you discover that you can't open your documents, as I did yesterday. A voice on the other end of the phone who knows exactly what the issues are, is still reassuring, even when he can't solve them. (Note: Geniuses even work on Sunday). It seems that that my laptop and my desktop each have issues of their own and fixing one doesn't seem to help the other.
He basically got me up and running, although it is not ideal, and we scheduled an appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
The more I think about this Genius Bar, the more I believe it is a model for reform for the US Health Care System. The concept is based on affordable insurance with upgrades available for a price (Apple Care and Pro Care), knowledgeable practitioners who are trained, above all in customer service, collaboration and technical know how. They are dedicated to solving your problems because that is what they do. Ills are not equated with money--no money changes hands at the Genius Bar. The Geniuses seem to genuinely feel your pain and treat you and your machines with respect, dare I even say, tenderness?
I'm beginning to think someone should give each of the presidential candidates a malfunctioning Apple computer that requires them to spend a few hours at a Genius Bar. Whomever gets the message that people can be treated with competence and dignity, regardless of their circumstances, gets my vote.
He basically got me up and running, although it is not ideal, and we scheduled an appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
The more I think about this Genius Bar, the more I believe it is a model for reform for the US Health Care System. The concept is based on affordable insurance with upgrades available for a price (Apple Care and Pro Care), knowledgeable practitioners who are trained, above all in customer service, collaboration and technical know how. They are dedicated to solving your problems because that is what they do. Ills are not equated with money--no money changes hands at the Genius Bar. The Geniuses seem to genuinely feel your pain and treat you and your machines with respect, dare I even say, tenderness?
I'm beginning to think someone should give each of the presidential candidates a malfunctioning Apple computer that requires them to spend a few hours at a Genius Bar. Whomever gets the message that people can be treated with competence and dignity, regardless of their circumstances, gets my vote.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Up and Running
In case you ever lose a cell phone you should remember this tidbit: technology has reached the point where missing cell phones, especially those with GPS built in, can indeed be located. There is something called triangulation, that requires the use of three cell phone towers. What was lost can be found but, of course, at the present time, there is a catch. Right now, triangulation requires a court order unless the missing phone is a matter of national security.
Mine clearly was not, so after canceling the original service so the lost phone would not be of any use to anyone else, except for its parts, which presumably could be sold on e-bay, I bit the bullet and bought a new one. An expensive bullet to be sure, but once you have embraced what's possible in terms of the i-phone, it really is hard to go backwards and settle for a phone (which I did contemplate when I found out I was eligible for a free upgrade that does not, of course, apply to i-phones).
Anyway, the point is I'm back in business and all is right with the world.
The moral of the story? Actually it's a pretty scary one in terms of how dependent I am on technology to hold all the pieces of my life together. But it turns out that I am not the one to whom this cell phone mattered the most.
In fact, once I got past the original "Oh, my God, I've lost an appendage," mode (which took about 12 hours), I was sort of getting used to not being "on call" 24/7. It turns out those who place those calls were not.
As I was literally setting up the new phone, syncing it with the mercifully saved data on the computer, it rang twice. The first call was from my husband, relieved to find me "back in business." The second was my son, delighted he could once again call me on my cell phone.
The moral may in fact be my husband's comments that my loss of cell phone had less to do with worry on my family's part that I was OK and more to do with their ability to find me when they needed something.
Hmmmmm.....I could always forget to turn it on.
Mine clearly was not, so after canceling the original service so the lost phone would not be of any use to anyone else, except for its parts, which presumably could be sold on e-bay, I bit the bullet and bought a new one. An expensive bullet to be sure, but once you have embraced what's possible in terms of the i-phone, it really is hard to go backwards and settle for a phone (which I did contemplate when I found out I was eligible for a free upgrade that does not, of course, apply to i-phones).
Anyway, the point is I'm back in business and all is right with the world.
The moral of the story? Actually it's a pretty scary one in terms of how dependent I am on technology to hold all the pieces of my life together. But it turns out that I am not the one to whom this cell phone mattered the most.
In fact, once I got past the original "Oh, my God, I've lost an appendage," mode (which took about 12 hours), I was sort of getting used to not being "on call" 24/7. It turns out those who place those calls were not.
As I was literally setting up the new phone, syncing it with the mercifully saved data on the computer, it rang twice. The first call was from my husband, relieved to find me "back in business." The second was my son, delighted he could once again call me on my cell phone.
The moral may in fact be my husband's comments that my loss of cell phone had less to do with worry on my family's part that I was OK and more to do with their ability to find me when they needed something.
Hmmmmm.....I could always forget to turn it on.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Return to the Genius Bar
Yesterday I dutifully lugged my i-mac desktop to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store for my 20 minute appointment that was supposed to determine why the computer would not sync with the phone. At 4:15 PM, I left the store only to return 15 minutes later with my laptop to see if that would sync. At 6:00 PM., I went back only to be told to return at 8:00; they were getting close. At 8:30 PM I left the store with my two computers and went home.
Somewhere along the way, I managed to lose my i-phone (this was not a good day all around), made about ten new friends, earned new respect for the geniuses behind the bar and at the helm of Apple and moaned, cursed and cried about the technology that is supposed to hold all the pieces of my life together and was suddenly falling apart before my eyes, through no fault of my own.
There is indeed safety in numbers and the assorted other technology challenged bearers of laptops, i-pods, desktops and i-phones who came and went through the day for their scheduled appointments became my instant comrades, bemoaning my situation even as they rectified theirs. There were many dead or dying hard drives, some simple connection issues, one set of headphones that mysteriously worked in the store but not at home; a replacement for the i-pod that only played in one ear and yes, the ongoing case of my missing phone--which had mysteriously vanished somewhere between my car and the Apple store.
In the face of it all, the on-call geniuses (I actually went through 4 of them) were calm, understanding, helpful, supportive and never once condescending. They resurrected the files of the harried high school college advisor who had misplaced 70 of her advisees' college applications that mysteriously vanished when she tried to install a software update. They restored the files of a woman whose backup drive had quit, mid-backup. They even fixed my issues, patiently transferring data from one computer to the next until they could find the source of the problem.
And so I have wonderfully, clean well-functioning machines but no phone with which to test their new found powers.
One would think, said John, my new best friend, Genius Number 4, that if someone found it in this holiday season, they would call one of the numbers on it and try and track you down. Just the same, advised Andy, Genius Number 3, call AT&T and suspend your service in case they decided to call Nigeria.
So I'm holding out for another day-- feeling naked, missing an appendage and longing for my wonderful phone that did indeed change my life--once for the better and perhaps now, for the worse.
Somewhere along the way, I managed to lose my i-phone (this was not a good day all around), made about ten new friends, earned new respect for the geniuses behind the bar and at the helm of Apple and moaned, cursed and cried about the technology that is supposed to hold all the pieces of my life together and was suddenly falling apart before my eyes, through no fault of my own.
There is indeed safety in numbers and the assorted other technology challenged bearers of laptops, i-pods, desktops and i-phones who came and went through the day for their scheduled appointments became my instant comrades, bemoaning my situation even as they rectified theirs. There were many dead or dying hard drives, some simple connection issues, one set of headphones that mysteriously worked in the store but not at home; a replacement for the i-pod that only played in one ear and yes, the ongoing case of my missing phone--which had mysteriously vanished somewhere between my car and the Apple store.
In the face of it all, the on-call geniuses (I actually went through 4 of them) were calm, understanding, helpful, supportive and never once condescending. They resurrected the files of the harried high school college advisor who had misplaced 70 of her advisees' college applications that mysteriously vanished when she tried to install a software update. They restored the files of a woman whose backup drive had quit, mid-backup. They even fixed my issues, patiently transferring data from one computer to the next until they could find the source of the problem.
And so I have wonderfully, clean well-functioning machines but no phone with which to test their new found powers.
One would think, said John, my new best friend, Genius Number 4, that if someone found it in this holiday season, they would call one of the numbers on it and try and track you down. Just the same, advised Andy, Genius Number 3, call AT&T and suspend your service in case they decided to call Nigeria.
So I'm holding out for another day-- feeling naked, missing an appendage and longing for my wonderful phone that did indeed change my life--once for the better and perhaps now, for the worse.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Veterinary Ethics 101
Yesterday was an eye opening, brain-stimulating day--the best kind. Frank McMillan's lectures on quality of life issue for animals were thought-provoking and informative. It was hard for me to believe that he spoke for over three hours--the time truly did fly by. The case studies he presented at the end with sample ethical dilemmas that the vet students would assuredly face in practice, were challenging and often heart-breaking. The students seemed to take it all in stride, often coming up with very creative solutions to complicated medical issues, always being careful to include the family of the pet in their decision making processes.
I was amazed at how much of the medical "lingo" I actually understood--perhaps a result of a lifetime of caring for dogs perhaps or just immersion in this veterinary world due to research.
I caught up with the Director of Communications at the Vet School for a quick lunch. Of course she wanted to know about the book's progress (or lack thereof?)and we explored a couple of options I have been kicking around in my head for pushing the material in a new direction.
One of the most interesting things she told me was that she still cannot make it through her presentation on Barbaro that she often delivers to other communication professionals without breaking down at the end. In fact, she got choked up talking about it--nearly a year later. That plus the fact that she realized that she will be forever branded by being the "one who handled the Barbaro story for Penn."
Proof once again that this story will be with those who participated in it for the rest of their lives--in different ways of course--but on some level, it is never going to go away.
Madison Avenue, are you listening?
I was amazed at how much of the medical "lingo" I actually understood--perhaps a result of a lifetime of caring for dogs perhaps or just immersion in this veterinary world due to research.
I caught up with the Director of Communications at the Vet School for a quick lunch. Of course she wanted to know about the book's progress (or lack thereof?)and we explored a couple of options I have been kicking around in my head for pushing the material in a new direction.
One of the most interesting things she told me was that she still cannot make it through her presentation on Barbaro that she often delivers to other communication professionals without breaking down at the end. In fact, she got choked up talking about it--nearly a year later. That plus the fact that she realized that she will be forever branded by being the "one who handled the Barbaro story for Penn."
Proof once again that this story will be with those who participated in it for the rest of their lives--in different ways of course--but on some level, it is never going to go away.
Madison Avenue, are you listening?
Thursday, December 6, 2007
26 Years and Counting
Just a quick thought before I dash off to Penn for a day of lectures by a vet who has "made a career" out of the emotions of animals." Do they feel pain? Do they understand trauma? When is enough enough? Should be fascinating although difficult to get to because I need to dig myself out of an icy driveway first....
A brief respite with the Today Show (and a cup of coffee) where Michael Smerconish, local radio guru and Maureen Faulkner, plug their new book about the murder of Maureen Faulkner's policeman husband, Danny Faulkner, by Mumia Abu Jamal, who has been sitting on death row for 26 YEARS!!!! Granted there are extenuating circumstances, but talk about a story that has more lives than a cat--26 YEARS--and people are protesting outside the Today Studios. Matt Lauer is all worked up. Clearly, there are people still interested in hearing her story.
26 YEARS. Does Barbaro have that kind of staying power?
I heard Maureen say that Michael has been with her for 15 years, listening and helping her tell her story. Did he have to put his name on the book to get it to sell? She also said that it was great therapy to get her life out in black and white.
26 YEARS. That's a long time to wait to publish your story and yet ironically, the 26 years has become a selling point.
Will anybody still care about Barbaro in 26 years and more importantly will I?
A brief respite with the Today Show (and a cup of coffee) where Michael Smerconish, local radio guru and Maureen Faulkner, plug their new book about the murder of Maureen Faulkner's policeman husband, Danny Faulkner, by Mumia Abu Jamal, who has been sitting on death row for 26 YEARS!!!! Granted there are extenuating circumstances, but talk about a story that has more lives than a cat--26 YEARS--and people are protesting outside the Today Studios. Matt Lauer is all worked up. Clearly, there are people still interested in hearing her story.
26 YEARS. Does Barbaro have that kind of staying power?
I heard Maureen say that Michael has been with her for 15 years, listening and helping her tell her story. Did he have to put his name on the book to get it to sell? She also said that it was great therapy to get her life out in black and white.
26 YEARS. That's a long time to wait to publish your story and yet ironically, the 26 years has become a selling point.
Will anybody still care about Barbaro in 26 years and more importantly will I?
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
A Woman Walks into a Genius Bar....
When I was contemplating the job market during my senior year in college, my father offered the helpful suggestion that I could be "at the editor's desk" at the local all news radio station.
"And what would I do at the editor's desk?" I asked him, knowing he envisioned some sort of open space with frenzied reporters wearing headphones running in circles, desks with microphones, ON AIR neon signs and me somehow directing traffic.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But you could be at a desk." Implied was the presumption that he could also tell people where I was.
Yesterday I came up with an even better alternative: at the Genius Bar. Issues with syncing my previously no-issue i-phone with my computer forced me to make an appointment with tech support at the local Apple Store and I discovered that is where these wizards reside.
What an amazing concept: a Genius Bar. Imagine, telling your friends that your offspring worked at the Genius Bar. Trumps that Editor's Desk any day.
Anyway, the resident genius determined that the issue was not with the phone, but must be with my computer. And so I made another appointment for him to diagnose my software.
Which of course requires a return to the Genius Bar--a concept even my father could love.
"And what would I do at the editor's desk?" I asked him, knowing he envisioned some sort of open space with frenzied reporters wearing headphones running in circles, desks with microphones, ON AIR neon signs and me somehow directing traffic.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But you could be at a desk." Implied was the presumption that he could also tell people where I was.
Yesterday I came up with an even better alternative: at the Genius Bar. Issues with syncing my previously no-issue i-phone with my computer forced me to make an appointment with tech support at the local Apple Store and I discovered that is where these wizards reside.
What an amazing concept: a Genius Bar. Imagine, telling your friends that your offspring worked at the Genius Bar. Trumps that Editor's Desk any day.
Anyway, the resident genius determined that the issue was not with the phone, but must be with my computer. And so I made another appointment for him to diagnose my software.
Which of course requires a return to the Genius Bar--a concept even my father could love.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Is there Still a Place for the Renaissance Woman?
I read an excerpt from a forthcoming article in The Writer about the benefits of being a generalist in the field of freelance writing. The article, which was written by a recent college grad, extolled the benefits of being able to write about anything, especially when breaking in to the business. You can, indeed, accumulate clips fairly quickly if you are willing to work for a local newspaper and write about everything from city council meetings, to girl scout cookie sales to high school sports.
It's funny. I wrote an essay on my college applications about the specialist versus generalist argument, (this was back in the dark ages, mind you, before the degree of specialization that we have today), coming out in favor of the generalist as well. My premise was that a too narrow focus limits you to the links between specialties that ultimately tie us all together. Call me naive; call me idealistic; call me hopelessly outdated. Regardless, the essay worked well enough to get me into a few high tier colleges from which I choose Princeton.
What's ironic is that in this era of globalization, when we are all more connected than ever before, my lack of specialization is actually one of the detriments to getting this book published. If I had accumulated a slew of clippings in the field of veterinary medicine, animal science or even human-animal connections, I probably would have more credibility to my name. And if those clippings had led to a column or website or blog about pets or horses or even racing, I would have opened a door that remains closed.
By being willing and able to write about almost anything, it seems I have precluded the possibility of becoming an expert in the one field that would have opened the door to incredible opportunities.
So to aspiring writers I would amend the advice about becoming a generalist. It's a great place to start but it shouldn't be where you finish, or you may never get past the first turn.
It's funny. I wrote an essay on my college applications about the specialist versus generalist argument, (this was back in the dark ages, mind you, before the degree of specialization that we have today), coming out in favor of the generalist as well. My premise was that a too narrow focus limits you to the links between specialties that ultimately tie us all together. Call me naive; call me idealistic; call me hopelessly outdated. Regardless, the essay worked well enough to get me into a few high tier colleges from which I choose Princeton.
What's ironic is that in this era of globalization, when we are all more connected than ever before, my lack of specialization is actually one of the detriments to getting this book published. If I had accumulated a slew of clippings in the field of veterinary medicine, animal science or even human-animal connections, I probably would have more credibility to my name. And if those clippings had led to a column or website or blog about pets or horses or even racing, I would have opened a door that remains closed.
By being willing and able to write about almost anything, it seems I have precluded the possibility of becoming an expert in the one field that would have opened the door to incredible opportunities.
So to aspiring writers I would amend the advice about becoming a generalist. It's a great place to start but it shouldn't be where you finish, or you may never get past the first turn.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Omens or not?
I must be on to something. When I emailed my advisor at Penn about the topic of veterinary ethics he replied with interesting news. On Thursday of this week , he is hosting an ethicist who is speaking to his class about just such a topic. He invited me to crash the class, which you can bet I will be doing.
Then I learned that Dean Richardson, Barbaro's doctor, addressed the opening session of his peers at their convention in Orlando by speaking abut, guess who, Barbaro. From reports, it seems as if he is still emotionally invested in the experience (he is not "over" it) and even goes into detail about specific techniques he would do differently if he had to do it all over again today. Perhaps hindsight is actually necessary in this instance to properly evaluate his treatment plan. Perhaps I am not too late after all...
So it goes. I try to bury this story and it seems to continually rise from the dead. The longer the limbo period goes on, the more the book changes and it certainly cannot be the same book that was originally proposed. But the more I suggest changes, the longer the process drags on.
Talk about a vicious cycle.
Then I learned that Dean Richardson, Barbaro's doctor, addressed the opening session of his peers at their convention in Orlando by speaking abut, guess who, Barbaro. From reports, it seems as if he is still emotionally invested in the experience (he is not "over" it) and even goes into detail about specific techniques he would do differently if he had to do it all over again today. Perhaps hindsight is actually necessary in this instance to properly evaluate his treatment plan. Perhaps I am not too late after all...
So it goes. I try to bury this story and it seems to continually rise from the dead. The longer the limbo period goes on, the more the book changes and it certainly cannot be the same book that was originally proposed. But the more I suggest changes, the longer the process drags on.
Talk about a vicious cycle.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Coincidence?
As I mentioned two days ago in my post, I have been pondering how to salvage my Barbaro research with regard to my Master's thesis. I talked about exploring the burden that pushing the limits of veterinary medicine plays on human owners who are forced to make all sorts of decisions for their pets that they may not be equipped to make.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when I read in one of my favorite blogs, Dolittler, a post on the very same topic. It seems that the vet who writes the blog (a Penn grad ironically), was in the process of treating an eleven month old black lab who had been hit by a car and was essentially fatally wounded. The owners brought the dog in and told the vet to do whatever it took to save the animal. The dog was in a drug induced coma and the vet was pondering the limits of her profession, in the face of owners who were willing to spare no expense.
Sound familiar? She actually compares the situation to Barbaro's and ponders whether or not there should be some sort of framework in place for animals, like there is for humans, to help owners make end of life decisions. And yet, who should establish these parameters and who should enforce them?
Sound like a veterinary ethics dilemma and one that seems to be making more and more vets think. It's reassuring to know that I am not crazy for exploring the topic and yet it is also eerie that as much as I want to move on from my Barbaro experience, it doesn't seem to want to let me go.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when I read in one of my favorite blogs, Dolittler, a post on the very same topic. It seems that the vet who writes the blog (a Penn grad ironically), was in the process of treating an eleven month old black lab who had been hit by a car and was essentially fatally wounded. The owners brought the dog in and told the vet to do whatever it took to save the animal. The dog was in a drug induced coma and the vet was pondering the limits of her profession, in the face of owners who were willing to spare no expense.
Sound familiar? She actually compares the situation to Barbaro's and ponders whether or not there should be some sort of framework in place for animals, like there is for humans, to help owners make end of life decisions. And yet, who should establish these parameters and who should enforce them?
Sound like a veterinary ethics dilemma and one that seems to be making more and more vets think. It's reassuring to know that I am not crazy for exploring the topic and yet it is also eerie that as much as I want to move on from my Barbaro experience, it doesn't seem to want to let me go.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Back in the Saddle
I officially went back to work yesterday. I did an interview and wrote a short piece for a client. I still need to fact check it but it actually felt good to do be back in the trenches, so to speak. I also set up some interviews for projects next week. It will feel even better, no doubt, to get the cycle of income moving again.
To be fair, I have been working all along, but haven't really initiated anything for some time. This is partly the nature of freelance work--deadlines are often far in advance--and partly the result of taking myself out of commission for a while. It always takes a while to generate new work--especially when you would like to do it tomorrow--but my experience has shown that when it rains, it usually pours. In other words, new projects seem to come at once, often when you are the busiest.
It's funny but December is often a busy time. People like to wrap things up before the end of the year and some actually begin thinking ahead. January is a bit slower but that is when I usually start my projects due in early Spring. It is often easier to interview people in January than it is when the weather starts getting warmer.
It's fair to say that Barbaro has been moved to the back burner, something I probably should have done a long time ago.
To be fair, I have been working all along, but haven't really initiated anything for some time. This is partly the nature of freelance work--deadlines are often far in advance--and partly the result of taking myself out of commission for a while. It always takes a while to generate new work--especially when you would like to do it tomorrow--but my experience has shown that when it rains, it usually pours. In other words, new projects seem to come at once, often when you are the busiest.
It's funny but December is often a busy time. People like to wrap things up before the end of the year and some actually begin thinking ahead. January is a bit slower but that is when I usually start my projects due in early Spring. It is often easier to interview people in January than it is when the weather starts getting warmer.
It's fair to say that Barbaro has been moved to the back burner, something I probably should have done a long time ago.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Academic thoughts
I am beginning to think of ways to salvage all this Barbaro research and at the very least turn it into my master's thesis. My program requires the thesis to be multi-disciplinary, that is, bridging two or more areas of academic study, and I have always had a hard time fitting my field of interest into two existing areas of study.
The courses that I have taken have an underlying theme of human-animal interaction, which falls somewhere between anthropology, folklore, bioethics, history and veterinary medicine. I am thinking that the thesis will deal with the impact on humans of treating animals like humans, that is, what are the effects on human caretakers of treating their animals with human medical protocols? Sort of, Barbaro and Beyond: Just Because We Can Do it, Does It Mean We Should?
I am thinking of all my prior research on pet owners whose animals have cancer and the emotional turmoil that they choose to endure for their pets as well as the obviously emotional roller coaster that not only the Jacksons but the medical staff at New Bolton and the public rode with regard to Barbaro. It can be clearly documented from web sites that both groups literally and figuratively "suffered" with the animals undergoing treatment.
I am not so much interested in whether or not it was "worth it," I am sure all involved would say "yes." I am more interested in knowing if they truly knew what they were getting themselves in for and once in, was it to late to reconsider. Should there be a more support for owners of animals undergoing these procedures and if so, what type?
Anyway, the brain cells are beginning to churn and that, for the moment, is a very good sign.
The courses that I have taken have an underlying theme of human-animal interaction, which falls somewhere between anthropology, folklore, bioethics, history and veterinary medicine. I am thinking that the thesis will deal with the impact on humans of treating animals like humans, that is, what are the effects on human caretakers of treating their animals with human medical protocols? Sort of, Barbaro and Beyond: Just Because We Can Do it, Does It Mean We Should?
I am thinking of all my prior research on pet owners whose animals have cancer and the emotional turmoil that they choose to endure for their pets as well as the obviously emotional roller coaster that not only the Jacksons but the medical staff at New Bolton and the public rode with regard to Barbaro. It can be clearly documented from web sites that both groups literally and figuratively "suffered" with the animals undergoing treatment.
I am not so much interested in whether or not it was "worth it," I am sure all involved would say "yes." I am more interested in knowing if they truly knew what they were getting themselves in for and once in, was it to late to reconsider. Should there be a more support for owners of animals undergoing these procedures and if so, what type?
Anyway, the brain cells are beginning to churn and that, for the moment, is a very good sign.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Back to School
I made the first official step toward moving on yesterday by registering for a second semester class at Penn. I did not take a class this semester because I was told to be prepared to drop it and I did not feel like losing money. I dropped the class I had signed up for on the first day of classes and was not charged.
The class I never took was an English class--the literature of end of life--that would have dove-tailed nicely with the Bioethics course I took last summer, but it was clear that it would have been a lot of work, especially a lot of reading. With so many variables up in the air, it just did not seem right to me to start something I could not finish to the best of my abilities. In retrospect, I clearly could have done it and probably would have enjoyed it, but who knew.
This class is a history course entitled What Is A Book? and the relevance of the title alone should give you an idea of where my head is. I am truly looking forward to returning to school. One thing I never realized was how much I would miss it.
I am approaching the end of my course of study. This class will make the seventh of 8 required classes plus a thesis, which actually counts as a course. My original plan was to sum bit a chapter of the book as my thesis. At this point, who knows if that will happen. I actually emailed my advisor yesterday to suggest I submit the proposal which clearly could be Exhibit A in what does not sell.
Clearly I'm trying on many levels to talk myself into accepting the outcome of this adventure as a learning experience.
The class I never took was an English class--the literature of end of life--that would have dove-tailed nicely with the Bioethics course I took last summer, but it was clear that it would have been a lot of work, especially a lot of reading. With so many variables up in the air, it just did not seem right to me to start something I could not finish to the best of my abilities. In retrospect, I clearly could have done it and probably would have enjoyed it, but who knew.
This class is a history course entitled What Is A Book? and the relevance of the title alone should give you an idea of where my head is. I am truly looking forward to returning to school. One thing I never realized was how much I would miss it.
I am approaching the end of my course of study. This class will make the seventh of 8 required classes plus a thesis, which actually counts as a course. My original plan was to sum bit a chapter of the book as my thesis. At this point, who knows if that will happen. I actually emailed my advisor yesterday to suggest I submit the proposal which clearly could be Exhibit A in what does not sell.
Clearly I'm trying on many levels to talk myself into accepting the outcome of this adventure as a learning experience.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Forty-Love
I used to play competitive tennis as a kid, although by today's standards it hardly seems competitive. Nonetheless, I dutifully signed up for enough USTA sanctioned tournaments to generate a ranking in my age group. And every summer the experience was the same. I usually lost in the first round.
You know the drill--I played one of the top seeds because my ranking was not high enough to guarantee me a good draw. Yet, there I was caught in a no-win cycle: always playing the top seeds, so virtually always guaranteed of losing and never moving beyond the current of losing in the first round.
I tell you this because that is what it feels like in this publishing vortex: stuck in the same cycle. It seems as if once you publish that first book, everything gets easier--you get a better draw. But breaking out of the pattern that locks you into playing against the top seeds seems, at times, like a no-win situation.
To be fair, this is the way most sports work. Come in off the bench in virtually impossible situations and prove yourself. Pinch hit with two outs and bases loaded. Even then, there's no guarantee you get the chance to move up in the rotation. In other words, perform under pressure.
Which I would be delighted to do but the top seed needs to have a very off day.
You know the drill--I played one of the top seeds because my ranking was not high enough to guarantee me a good draw. Yet, there I was caught in a no-win cycle: always playing the top seeds, so virtually always guaranteed of losing and never moving beyond the current of losing in the first round.
I tell you this because that is what it feels like in this publishing vortex: stuck in the same cycle. It seems as if once you publish that first book, everything gets easier--you get a better draw. But breaking out of the pattern that locks you into playing against the top seeds seems, at times, like a no-win situation.
To be fair, this is the way most sports work. Come in off the bench in virtually impossible situations and prove yourself. Pinch hit with two outs and bases loaded. Even then, there's no guarantee you get the chance to move up in the rotation. In other words, perform under pressure.
Which I would be delighted to do but the top seed needs to have a very off day.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Dear John
Yesterday's New York Times reported that the New York Public Library had purchased a huge collection of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s "letters," a collection that measures approximately "280 linear feet." It is a vast trove of every thing from travel journals to correspondence to drafts of speeches and it is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an accomplished historian.
According to the newspaper, about "400 boxes" in the collection contain Schlesinger's personal correspondence with such figures as Lauren Bacall, Art Buchwald and Truman Capote. He was meticulous in his record keeping. Apparently "Schlesinger stapled copies of his responses to letters that he had received."
All of which got me thinking about the lost art of letter writing. For better or worse, there was no Internet in Schlesinger's era and so reviews of plays and restaurants, travel ruminations, advice to peers (the stuff of blogs today) were all recorded in longhand and mailed off to the intended recipients. There was no delete key so things were permanent once they hit the mailbox and unless the recipient tossed the letter into the trash, preserved until the paper crumbled or the ink faded.
I wonder what kind of legacy we electronic writers are leaving behind. Computer disks? Hard drives? Memory sticks? Is the day not far off when the New York Public Library will bid for Philip Roth's computer? And will that computer contain access to all the emails he sent? For that matter are emails worthy of posterity? Are blogs? Does electronic publishing still require print to give it validity?
It's nice to think that blogging gives everyman or woman the opportunity to create a legacy but is that legacy more credible if it is actually printed?
What do you think?
According to the newspaper, about "400 boxes" in the collection contain Schlesinger's personal correspondence with such figures as Lauren Bacall, Art Buchwald and Truman Capote. He was meticulous in his record keeping. Apparently "Schlesinger stapled copies of his responses to letters that he had received."
All of which got me thinking about the lost art of letter writing. For better or worse, there was no Internet in Schlesinger's era and so reviews of plays and restaurants, travel ruminations, advice to peers (the stuff of blogs today) were all recorded in longhand and mailed off to the intended recipients. There was no delete key so things were permanent once they hit the mailbox and unless the recipient tossed the letter into the trash, preserved until the paper crumbled or the ink faded.
I wonder what kind of legacy we electronic writers are leaving behind. Computer disks? Hard drives? Memory sticks? Is the day not far off when the New York Public Library will bid for Philip Roth's computer? And will that computer contain access to all the emails he sent? For that matter are emails worthy of posterity? Are blogs? Does electronic publishing still require print to give it validity?
It's nice to think that blogging gives everyman or woman the opportunity to create a legacy but is that legacy more credible if it is actually printed?
What do you think?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Don't Judge a Book....
In case you missed it, the National Endowment for the Arts announced last week that Americans, in particular, teenagers and young adults, are reading less. A sobering but perhaps, not surprising statistic. All this in a week when Amazon launched its new electronic reader, Kindle, which is billed as an ipod for books.
Obviously books have a lot of competition these days from everything wired, from ipods to computers to television to cell phones. Why read a newspaper when you can get your news from the Daily Show? Why read a magazine when you can get the scoop from television? And why read a book when you can see the movie on your computer?
Why indeed? The romantic notion of escape through language to another place or time seems hopelessly outdated on many levels and the concept of finding the truth by turning pages, particularly in non-fiction, seems painfully slow in comparison with the Internet. We are clearly not spawning a new generation of readers in the old sense. They read, but only if we grab their attention and let them participate in the process.
I believe the future of publishing is very much tied to the digital age. Even as I try to get a book published by the antique method, I launch a blog to hopefully bring readers along on the journey and let them participate in the process through comments. With one foot in the way it's always been, I think I need to have another in the way it's going to have to be, to make both methods succeed.
It's complicated but I also think that baby boomers like us, the ones who grew up escaping through the pages of books, are too large a force to ignore. We may be aging, but we still like to read and there are simply too many of us to bury the hardback, just yet.
Ideally, we have spawned our children in our own images--surrounding them with books and encouraging them to read--but we may have been too busy learning the new methods of communication to have given it our best. Clearly they are going to reinvent the book just like we reinvented the way women work, and it will be better for all those who have a stake in the industry, to pay attention to their tinkerings.
Obviously books have a lot of competition these days from everything wired, from ipods to computers to television to cell phones. Why read a newspaper when you can get your news from the Daily Show? Why read a magazine when you can get the scoop from television? And why read a book when you can see the movie on your computer?
Why indeed? The romantic notion of escape through language to another place or time seems hopelessly outdated on many levels and the concept of finding the truth by turning pages, particularly in non-fiction, seems painfully slow in comparison with the Internet. We are clearly not spawning a new generation of readers in the old sense. They read, but only if we grab their attention and let them participate in the process.
I believe the future of publishing is very much tied to the digital age. Even as I try to get a book published by the antique method, I launch a blog to hopefully bring readers along on the journey and let them participate in the process through comments. With one foot in the way it's always been, I think I need to have another in the way it's going to have to be, to make both methods succeed.
It's complicated but I also think that baby boomers like us, the ones who grew up escaping through the pages of books, are too large a force to ignore. We may be aging, but we still like to read and there are simply too many of us to bury the hardback, just yet.
Ideally, we have spawned our children in our own images--surrounding them with books and encouraging them to read--but we may have been too busy learning the new methods of communication to have given it our best. Clearly they are going to reinvent the book just like we reinvented the way women work, and it will be better for all those who have a stake in the industry, to pay attention to their tinkerings.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Wired
My kids have come and, for the most part, gone, leaving in their wake a slew of discarded technology. One got a new laptop, and wondered whether or not I would like his cast off. Another informed me that his laptop was hopelessly outdated, so perhaps I would like his when he got a new one, but he was waiting for the new and improved model promised to arrive after the first of the year.
I seem to be the inheritor of all used gizmos, from computers, to digital cameras to i-pods. For some reason, I feel compelled to breathe life back into these rejected piles of circuitry, only to end up spending more money to upgrade, reconfigure and connect them to my wired world. If they still work, it is hard for me to justify tossing them.
The only time I trumped my kids was last summer when I snagged one of the new i-phones hot off the press. I had coveted this device since I had first read about it and held off buying a new cell phone even while mine was dying before my eyes. I did not wait in line, I might add. I made a civilized appointment with the APPLE store concierge and purchased the phone calmly and quietly about two days after the lines had disappeared.
I'm happy to report that the phone has changed my life. I really think I should do a commercial for it I love it so much and despite the warnings from my offspring's predictions of doom and gloom for the first generation of any APPLE product, I have had absolutely NO problems.
In fact, I just cashed in the rebate for some stocking stuffers for them. Dare I ask whose smiling now?
I'm not sure whether the answer is to make do or bite the bullet and go for the new, but I have a feeling I'll be upgrading that old laptop when I upgrade this cast-off desktop and somehow making everything work just fine, as long as they all talk to my phone!
There are some areas, however, where my expertise is still sought out. My daughter asked me just the other day, how to load staples in a stapler.
I seem to be the inheritor of all used gizmos, from computers, to digital cameras to i-pods. For some reason, I feel compelled to breathe life back into these rejected piles of circuitry, only to end up spending more money to upgrade, reconfigure and connect them to my wired world. If they still work, it is hard for me to justify tossing them.
The only time I trumped my kids was last summer when I snagged one of the new i-phones hot off the press. I had coveted this device since I had first read about it and held off buying a new cell phone even while mine was dying before my eyes. I did not wait in line, I might add. I made a civilized appointment with the APPLE store concierge and purchased the phone calmly and quietly about two days after the lines had disappeared.
I'm happy to report that the phone has changed my life. I really think I should do a commercial for it I love it so much and despite the warnings from my offspring's predictions of doom and gloom for the first generation of any APPLE product, I have had absolutely NO problems.
In fact, I just cashed in the rebate for some stocking stuffers for them. Dare I ask whose smiling now?
I'm not sure whether the answer is to make do or bite the bullet and go for the new, but I have a feeling I'll be upgrading that old laptop when I upgrade this cast-off desktop and somehow making everything work just fine, as long as they all talk to my phone!
There are some areas, however, where my expertise is still sought out. My daughter asked me just the other day, how to load staples in a stapler.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Enchanted
Here's my recommendation for the holiday movie season: beg, borrow or steal a 6-10 year old and go see Enchanted. I went yesterday afternoon with all five of my nieces and nephews and while the boys were not enthralled until an evil dragon appeared near the end, the girls and I were, well, enchanted.
The movie, which begins in animation and ends in Manhattan, is a tribute to all those glorious musical fairy tales of long ago when princesses waltzed through forests, trilling melodically to birds and beasts, and everything had a happy ending. The Disney film gently mocks itself and every big budget musical every made (even the Sound of Music is not exempt) but does it in such a way that you only wish there were more over the top production numbers.
I won't spoil the ending--but I am sure you can guess that the dragon does not triumph--but you will leave humming and dreaming of happily ever after.
The movie, which begins in animation and ends in Manhattan, is a tribute to all those glorious musical fairy tales of long ago when princesses waltzed through forests, trilling melodically to birds and beasts, and everything had a happy ending. The Disney film gently mocks itself and every big budget musical every made (even the Sound of Music is not exempt) but does it in such a way that you only wish there were more over the top production numbers.
I won't spoil the ending--but I am sure you can guess that the dragon does not triumph--but you will leave humming and dreaming of happily ever after.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Staying Power
Yesterday I had a moment to peruse some of my favorite blogs and discovered yet, again, the longevity of the Barbaro story. On Dolittler, an excellent animal blog (for those of you who have pets or care about them, it is written by a vet with an insider's view of the profession as well as pet owners), the author reports that number 7 on her list of things to be thankful for, is the Barbaro story.
Her thanks have to do with the spotlight that Barbaro's saga shone on the veterinary profession as well as the attention the beloved racehorse brought to the not always rosy picture of the sport and animal welfare in general.
It is true that Barbaro's story launched an entire grass-roots political movement that continues to this day, devoted to the cause of horse welfare, including rescuing retired racehorses from auctions (where they are often sold for slaughter), lobbying for safer racing surfaces and raising money and awareness for horse retirement facilities.
In fact, it is safe to say that it is highly unusual for an Internet-based fan group to spawn a grass-roots political movement.
Needless to say, I am grateful for all aspects of the Barbaro story as well, not the least of which has been the opportunity to meet some of the most kind, talented and caring people I have ever met.
Would it be greedy to ask for the opportunity to tell their story?
Her thanks have to do with the spotlight that Barbaro's saga shone on the veterinary profession as well as the attention the beloved racehorse brought to the not always rosy picture of the sport and animal welfare in general.
It is true that Barbaro's story launched an entire grass-roots political movement that continues to this day, devoted to the cause of horse welfare, including rescuing retired racehorses from auctions (where they are often sold for slaughter), lobbying for safer racing surfaces and raising money and awareness for horse retirement facilities.
In fact, it is safe to say that it is highly unusual for an Internet-based fan group to spawn a grass-roots political movement.
Needless to say, I am grateful for all aspects of the Barbaro story as well, not the least of which has been the opportunity to meet some of the most kind, talented and caring people I have ever met.
Would it be greedy to ask for the opportunity to tell their story?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Dessert
Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good feast!
For dessert check out the fabulous video at You Tube entitled Writer's Montage.
For dessert check out the fabulous video at You Tube entitled Writer's Montage.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Nip and Tuck
A snip here. A paragraph there. Cut and paste (one of the greatest tools of word processing) all around and Plan B.2 is ready for prime time. I got word back yesterday from Agent Number Two that the new and revised version was "good" and that they would substitute it for parts of the current version.
In short, I am feeling a slight surge of hope. I think by turning what was perceived as a detriment into an asset, we may have hit on something. Only time will tell of course, but for now, I'm content to drift on a cloud of renewed possibility. At least for a day or two.
The art of spin is fascinating. Clinton's mignons mastered it and so, to a certain extent, did the Jackson camp throughout the Barbaro saga. The truth is that people will believe what they are told (if it makes sense, even on some level) and the trick is to repeat your message early and often. I have a friend who says that you have to say everything three times in order for anyone to hear it. The spin doctors say it about thirty times--in different ways, to be sure, but never off message.
The topic of why we don't hear it the first time is another matter (perhaps we have become so programmed to hearing it more than once?) and actually one that concerns me. There is so much we miss by not listening--not only to words but to actions. It is a source of endless frustration to me that people simply do not pay attention to what is often blatantly obvious.
Anyway, it appears that playing in the big league requires repetition. So excuse me if you've heard this all before.
In short, I am feeling a slight surge of hope. I think by turning what was perceived as a detriment into an asset, we may have hit on something. Only time will tell of course, but for now, I'm content to drift on a cloud of renewed possibility. At least for a day or two.
The art of spin is fascinating. Clinton's mignons mastered it and so, to a certain extent, did the Jackson camp throughout the Barbaro saga. The truth is that people will believe what they are told (if it makes sense, even on some level) and the trick is to repeat your message early and often. I have a friend who says that you have to say everything three times in order for anyone to hear it. The spin doctors say it about thirty times--in different ways, to be sure, but never off message.
The topic of why we don't hear it the first time is another matter (perhaps we have become so programmed to hearing it more than once?) and actually one that concerns me. There is so much we miss by not listening--not only to words but to actions. It is a source of endless frustration to me that people simply do not pay attention to what is often blatantly obvious.
Anyway, it appears that playing in the big league requires repetition. So excuse me if you've heard this all before.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
School for Scandal
If the "high profile" aspect of Plan B falls through--and it looks as if it might (nothing like a few more dips in the roller coaster), then my sister suggested the tried and true "scandal" approach.
"Can't you find a scoop? Some kind of conspiracy or foul play that no one knew about?" she asked me. "That would sell in a second."
In other words, the tabloid approach which, it seems, no one is above. When Vanity Fair published Buzz Bissinger's article on Barbaro in August it touted "exclusive excerpts from Gretchen Jackson's diaries" on the cover even though she never gave those diaries to Bissinger and only read him brief entries (which she has also done for me, by the way).
The problem is that even if there is a scandal, unless I had undeniable truth of its existence, I would be extremely loathe to go on the record about it and even more importantly, no publisher is going to touch it because of liability issues. There was an entry on a media blog yesterday about a recently published book that actually lifted 6 paragraphs verbatim from Wikipedia (can you say major lawsuit?) and we all know about the James Frey fiasco (his memoir was in fact fiction). There is so much plagiarism and fictionalizing going on, that fact checkers are working overtime. Not to mention, there is the believability factor. Who am I to expose the big bad guys--assuming there even is such a thing. I haven;t exactly made a career out of investigative journalism.
The veterinary community and the racing community closed ranks incredibly tightly almost instantaneously after the Barbaro incident and if there is any scandal, I doubt anyone will ever find it. If anything, the story is just that they protect their own.
So we're back to the lack of high profile, which may prove a detriment to the fate of this proposal. At this point, I'm hoping that turning the concept of "too late"' on its head and making it an advantage rather than a disadvantage may help to break the "dam."
We'll see.
"Can't you find a scoop? Some kind of conspiracy or foul play that no one knew about?" she asked me. "That would sell in a second."
In other words, the tabloid approach which, it seems, no one is above. When Vanity Fair published Buzz Bissinger's article on Barbaro in August it touted "exclusive excerpts from Gretchen Jackson's diaries" on the cover even though she never gave those diaries to Bissinger and only read him brief entries (which she has also done for me, by the way).
The problem is that even if there is a scandal, unless I had undeniable truth of its existence, I would be extremely loathe to go on the record about it and even more importantly, no publisher is going to touch it because of liability issues. There was an entry on a media blog yesterday about a recently published book that actually lifted 6 paragraphs verbatim from Wikipedia (can you say major lawsuit?) and we all know about the James Frey fiasco (his memoir was in fact fiction). There is so much plagiarism and fictionalizing going on, that fact checkers are working overtime. Not to mention, there is the believability factor. Who am I to expose the big bad guys--assuming there even is such a thing. I haven;t exactly made a career out of investigative journalism.
The veterinary community and the racing community closed ranks incredibly tightly almost instantaneously after the Barbaro incident and if there is any scandal, I doubt anyone will ever find it. If anything, the story is just that they protect their own.
So we're back to the lack of high profile, which may prove a detriment to the fate of this proposal. At this point, I'm hoping that turning the concept of "too late"' on its head and making it an advantage rather than a disadvantage may help to break the "dam."
We'll see.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Upgrade
Is it just me or is it every time that Mac comes out with a new operating system, the old ones somehow start to slow down? Ever since they came out with Leopard, my old Operating System 10 point something is going at a snail's pace.
I love my Mac dearly and am a devoted lifelong customer but they do get you for being loyal. This has happened before. You hold on to the tried and true, and gradually, actually ever so gradually, it becomes obsolete right in front of your eyes.
Change is complicated especially for us baby boomer computer users. Mac does make everything easier but new systems come with new things I never use or need and more than anything else new challenges to get it to work the old way.
On the other hand, change keeps us young, keeps the brain cells functioning and lets us communicate with our kids. Sometimes though it just all feels like an expensive set-up.
I am going to call my computer guru this week and get his take on everything. Maybe I can hold on just a little bit longer....
I love my Mac dearly and am a devoted lifelong customer but they do get you for being loyal. This has happened before. You hold on to the tried and true, and gradually, actually ever so gradually, it becomes obsolete right in front of your eyes.
Change is complicated especially for us baby boomer computer users. Mac does make everything easier but new systems come with new things I never use or need and more than anything else new challenges to get it to work the old way.
On the other hand, change keeps us young, keeps the brain cells functioning and lets us communicate with our kids. Sometimes though it just all feels like an expensive set-up.
I am going to call my computer guru this week and get his take on everything. Maybe I can hold on just a little bit longer....
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Re-read
I am re-reading Joan Didion's masterpiece (and I don't use that term lightly), The Year of Magical Thinking, in conjunction with the development of Plan B. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it (actually I think it is better the second time around), not only for the content but for her magical style.
The book, which won every prize imaginable last year, is about Didion's recovery (if there is such a thing) from the sudden death of her husband John Dunne. (The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the couple's only child also died about a year after Dunne but the book was already out by then.) It chronicles in personal and objective terms the process of grief, the year of irrational or "magical" thinking in which the bereaved is literally incapable, on a certain level, of processing the reality that their loved one is gone, even as they go through the motions of acknowledging it. Heavy, perhaps, but also incredibly real, sometimes comical and amazingly well written.
I am re-reading it because Didion catalogues the process of grief in such personal terms that it becomes general. It is her story but it is also the story of anyone who has ever lost any living being, human or animal, that they loved. You see where I'm going here--it is also Gretchen Jackson's story, one which it may have taken her a year to be able to tell.
"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends," writes Didion. The simple truth on so many levels. How we adapt to the changes is what makes us turn the pages.
The book, which won every prize imaginable last year, is about Didion's recovery (if there is such a thing) from the sudden death of her husband John Dunne. (The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the couple's only child also died about a year after Dunne but the book was already out by then.) It chronicles in personal and objective terms the process of grief, the year of irrational or "magical" thinking in which the bereaved is literally incapable, on a certain level, of processing the reality that their loved one is gone, even as they go through the motions of acknowledging it. Heavy, perhaps, but also incredibly real, sometimes comical and amazingly well written.
I am re-reading it because Didion catalogues the process of grief in such personal terms that it becomes general. It is her story but it is also the story of anyone who has ever lost any living being, human or animal, that they loved. You see where I'm going here--it is also Gretchen Jackson's story, one which it may have taken her a year to be able to tell.
"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends," writes Didion. The simple truth on so many levels. How we adapt to the changes is what makes us turn the pages.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
This is a Test
I took a writing test yesterday for a potential client. This is the first time that I have ever had to do this--usually my work speaks for itself--but I figured I had nothing to lose. Besides, it was Friday afternoon.
The challenge was straightforward: write a 250 word arcticle for the organization's newsletter using the facts they provided me. The tricky part was that I had one hour to do this. I could use anything I found on the web or on their website about the subject; I could even make up quotes where I thought it would enhance the story. But I had to send it back within 60 minutes and the clock was ticking even as I read the assignment.
The story line was interesting but I needed a little background info as to why it might be important in the larger scheme of things. My first instinct was to peruse the web for 10 minutes. I found some factual nuggets I thought I could use and began to craft the piece. A title popped into my head but I waited until the end to make sure it would fit with the finished story.
I wrote a lead and then plunged in, only to realise that 250 words is not very much. So I erased the lead. Went with my second paragraph and concentrated on the facts--all of which were actually hard to fit in. With about ten minutes to go, I edited, added the title and pushed send one minute before the deadline.
Was it good? Absolutely no, but it wasn't bad. It had the facts, about two lines of clever prose, and virtually none of the info I had gleaned from the web--well, actually maybe one little nugget.
In retrospect, I realised that I had probably wasted ten minutes of time researching when I should have been writing. Yet I somehow needed to put the story into a larger frame of reference in order to tell it more convincingly. I'm not sure anyone else would have approached it the same way.
In the end, I wonder what the actual purpose of the exercise was--leveling the playing field between all the applicants is one thing but I would rather do a complete job on my terms than play beat the clock.
Regardless, it was a good exercise at figuring out what was really important in the grand scheme of relaying facts and if I ever teach nonfiction writing, you can bet I will use a similar one.
The challenge was straightforward: write a 250 word arcticle for the organization's newsletter using the facts they provided me. The tricky part was that I had one hour to do this. I could use anything I found on the web or on their website about the subject; I could even make up quotes where I thought it would enhance the story. But I had to send it back within 60 minutes and the clock was ticking even as I read the assignment.
The story line was interesting but I needed a little background info as to why it might be important in the larger scheme of things. My first instinct was to peruse the web for 10 minutes. I found some factual nuggets I thought I could use and began to craft the piece. A title popped into my head but I waited until the end to make sure it would fit with the finished story.
I wrote a lead and then plunged in, only to realise that 250 words is not very much. So I erased the lead. Went with my second paragraph and concentrated on the facts--all of which were actually hard to fit in. With about ten minutes to go, I edited, added the title and pushed send one minute before the deadline.
Was it good? Absolutely no, but it wasn't bad. It had the facts, about two lines of clever prose, and virtually none of the info I had gleaned from the web--well, actually maybe one little nugget.
In retrospect, I realised that I had probably wasted ten minutes of time researching when I should have been writing. Yet I somehow needed to put the story into a larger frame of reference in order to tell it more convincingly. I'm not sure anyone else would have approached it the same way.
In the end, I wonder what the actual purpose of the exercise was--leveling the playing field between all the applicants is one thing but I would rather do a complete job on my terms than play beat the clock.
Regardless, it was a good exercise at figuring out what was really important in the grand scheme of relaying facts and if I ever teach nonfiction writing, you can bet I will use a similar one.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Limbo Land
I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from another writer who was also "in limbo." A successful screen writer, he had decided to try his hand at writing novels (before the strike), and had submitted his manuscript to a bunch of agents on the East Coast. It seems that his "Hollywood" agent and told him to "go East."
He was calling to ask my opinion on Agent Number One.
I told him my story, did not burn any bridges (although I told him he might need more of a "full-service" agency since the little he told me about the novel sounded like it was headed straight for the silver screen), and then we commiserated.
It seems the waiting is torture for everyone--even those who are much more experienced than I. "I just want to get started already," he confessed. Believe me, I know exactly where he is coming from.
Our chat also reminded me that it is sometimes harder to get an agent than it is to sell your book and that everyone, even those who are starting with big-time credits, has to pitch and wait. There seems to be no way to move the process any faster than it wants to go.
I am indeed lucky to have had an agent "find" me which saved me additional waiting time and I am most certainly lucky that I didn't have to write the whole book before I submitted it, but regardless of how we got there, most of us still end up as neighbors in limbo land.
He was calling to ask my opinion on Agent Number One.
I told him my story, did not burn any bridges (although I told him he might need more of a "full-service" agency since the little he told me about the novel sounded like it was headed straight for the silver screen), and then we commiserated.
It seems the waiting is torture for everyone--even those who are much more experienced than I. "I just want to get started already," he confessed. Believe me, I know exactly where he is coming from.
Our chat also reminded me that it is sometimes harder to get an agent than it is to sell your book and that everyone, even those who are starting with big-time credits, has to pitch and wait. There seems to be no way to move the process any faster than it wants to go.
I am indeed lucky to have had an agent "find" me which saved me additional waiting time and I am most certainly lucky that I didn't have to write the whole book before I submitted it, but regardless of how we got there, most of us still end up as neighbors in limbo land.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Who's Walking Whom?
I walk my two dogs, a golden retriever and a collie, every day. Phoebe, the six year old golden retriever leads the parade. It is her walk and Amos, the collie, and I merely tag behind. She decides where we want to go and when we turn for home--within reason.
It seems that whenever I have an agenda in mind, usually due to a time constraint, I spend the better part of an hour fighting with a very strong and stubborn dog who simply plants her feet and refuses to move. It's much easier, although every dog trainer in the world would agree that I have lost control, to simply go with the flow. Eventually, we always get home, although it may not be by the route I would have chosen.
There is most definitely an analogy here to telling a story. The shortest distance between the beginning and the end is not always a straight path. In fact, that is usually a boring route. Instead, it is better to stop and sniff every bush, veer for squirrels and explore an alternative trail through the woods. There may be some unplanned diversions along the way and sometimes a startling moment of beauty, like when a deer bounds from the woods right across your path or a hidden tootsie roll, fallen from a child's trick or treat bag rolls across the sidewalk (we had an amazing fight over that one but I eventually wrestled the chewy delight out of her mouth before she broke through the wrapper).
You get the picture. Go with the flow and let the story meander a bit. As long as you end up where you want to be, it doesn't really matter how you get there--within reason.
I tell you all this because that is about where we are in the creation of Plan B--adding some diversions that change course but ultimately add to the richness of the tale.
Phoebe would approve.
It seems that whenever I have an agenda in mind, usually due to a time constraint, I spend the better part of an hour fighting with a very strong and stubborn dog who simply plants her feet and refuses to move. It's much easier, although every dog trainer in the world would agree that I have lost control, to simply go with the flow. Eventually, we always get home, although it may not be by the route I would have chosen.
There is most definitely an analogy here to telling a story. The shortest distance between the beginning and the end is not always a straight path. In fact, that is usually a boring route. Instead, it is better to stop and sniff every bush, veer for squirrels and explore an alternative trail through the woods. There may be some unplanned diversions along the way and sometimes a startling moment of beauty, like when a deer bounds from the woods right across your path or a hidden tootsie roll, fallen from a child's trick or treat bag rolls across the sidewalk (we had an amazing fight over that one but I eventually wrestled the chewy delight out of her mouth before she broke through the wrapper).
You get the picture. Go with the flow and let the story meander a bit. As long as you end up where you want to be, it doesn't really matter how you get there--within reason.
I tell you all this because that is about where we are in the creation of Plan B--adding some diversions that change course but ultimately add to the richness of the tale.
Phoebe would approve.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Playing with the Big Boys
What an industry! Today's New York Times reports that Judith Regan, former editor at HarperCollins, has filed a huge lawsuit against her former employee for, among other things, mounting what might be called a modern day witch hunt against her for attempting to publish a fictional account of the OJ Simpson murders called, If I Did It. In addition, the article recounts the details of her affair with a high ranking New York City official being vetted for Homeland Security Head (ultimately denied) and alleged instructions to her to lie to federal investigator to protect this candidate's relationship with Giuliani, one of HarperCollins' superstars.
Delightful. Regardless of whether or not any of this is true, we now know a little about the inner workings of the industry. Just the fact that one could allege some of these events took place indicates, at the very least, that all is not what it seems in the world of media giants. Of course, we all probably knew this--after all, everything at a certain level is all about the money--but perhaps being a little closer to it makes me all the more thankful that I am not A) a member of the New York publishing world and B) glad that I have an agent to distance me from some of this.
Scruples? Apparently there are few at a certain echelon of any money manufacturing empire, but that doesn't mean that I need to be close enough to see them all first hand. The trick will be to ultimately play the game enough to be able to benefit from it without getting trampled in the process.
It's no mystery why independent bookstores are a dying breed; independent presses are run on a shoe string and its harder and harder to get a foot in the door without having a media presence. First you create a web site, then you attract a following, then you do the lecture circuit, maybe get a few shots on local talk shows and THEN you write the book. The reverse process no longer exists, unless you are a friend of Oprah.
Forget about cowboys. Don't let your children grow up to be writers.
Delightful. Regardless of whether or not any of this is true, we now know a little about the inner workings of the industry. Just the fact that one could allege some of these events took place indicates, at the very least, that all is not what it seems in the world of media giants. Of course, we all probably knew this--after all, everything at a certain level is all about the money--but perhaps being a little closer to it makes me all the more thankful that I am not A) a member of the New York publishing world and B) glad that I have an agent to distance me from some of this.
Scruples? Apparently there are few at a certain echelon of any money manufacturing empire, but that doesn't mean that I need to be close enough to see them all first hand. The trick will be to ultimately play the game enough to be able to benefit from it without getting trampled in the process.
It's no mystery why independent bookstores are a dying breed; independent presses are run on a shoe string and its harder and harder to get a foot in the door without having a media presence. First you create a web site, then you attract a following, then you do the lecture circuit, maybe get a few shots on local talk shows and THEN you write the book. The reverse process no longer exists, unless you are a friend of Oprah.
Forget about cowboys. Don't let your children grow up to be writers.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Plan B
For those of you who are riding the giant coaster with me, we are now ascending after a huge dip. The car is slowly creeping upward, creaking toward the crest, the pit of your stomach still hollow from the last drop. It is slow going but it is also time to catch your breath and remember that this is supposed to be fun. And there is always the possibility that the final stretch is a fairly flat, fast ride straight into the station.
I hate roller coasters--actually I hate going too fast, anytime, in any endeavor, because at heart, I am a serious control freak. This ride for me is pure torture, especially the long lulls between the ups and downs, probably times I should indeed be relishing the relative calm. In any event, it seems after a long conversation with Agent Number Two that we are hatching Plan B, that is actually fairly extraordinary.
Of course I am not at liberty to discuss it because there are too many pieces that need to fall into place, but if it does work, it will be one of those, "Why didn't we think of this to begin with?" moments that makes you wonder what we were doing for three months during all those long stretches. Probably hitching our hopes to possibility and passion, all of which is fine and well, but may not, in the end, sell books.
So hang on. I know I have to switch into editing mode and begin contemplating how all these new pieces might fit into what I have already constructed.
I am thrilled to finally be moving once again.
I hate roller coasters--actually I hate going too fast, anytime, in any endeavor, because at heart, I am a serious control freak. This ride for me is pure torture, especially the long lulls between the ups and downs, probably times I should indeed be relishing the relative calm. In any event, it seems after a long conversation with Agent Number Two that we are hatching Plan B, that is actually fairly extraordinary.
Of course I am not at liberty to discuss it because there are too many pieces that need to fall into place, but if it does work, it will be one of those, "Why didn't we think of this to begin with?" moments that makes you wonder what we were doing for three months during all those long stretches. Probably hitching our hopes to possibility and passion, all of which is fine and well, but may not, in the end, sell books.
So hang on. I know I have to switch into editing mode and begin contemplating how all these new pieces might fit into what I have already constructed.
I am thrilled to finally be moving once again.
Monday, November 12, 2007
All Aboard!
What a difference a day makes....
New communications from Agent Number Two indicate that he has NOT given up on my original proposal--which his office edited three times--but just wants to start thinking about a PLAN B, in the event PLAN A fizzles. PLAN B should involve a "high profile" which seems to be what PLAN A is lacking.
Whew. The bottom has not dropped out just yet, and as he reminds me, "It only takes one yes," but in the meantime the wheels are turning once again. My feeling is that if someone shows interest in the proposal as it now stands, I'd be willing to work with that party on any changes (within reason) that they feel would make it more marketable, but until that time, making changes blindly to satisfy some unknown entity seems pointless.
I need to pin down this agent of mine to see if there are some general trends that have emerged in the pile of rejection slips that he has been collecting, but some things are truly easier said that done. A man of few and often cryptic words, it is hard to get him on the phone. That said, he knows I'm after him so we'll see what transpires this week.
Welcome to my roller coaster ride and fasten your seat belt. I told you it was an adventure.
New communications from Agent Number Two indicate that he has NOT given up on my original proposal--which his office edited three times--but just wants to start thinking about a PLAN B, in the event PLAN A fizzles. PLAN B should involve a "high profile" which seems to be what PLAN A is lacking.
Whew. The bottom has not dropped out just yet, and as he reminds me, "It only takes one yes," but in the meantime the wheels are turning once again. My feeling is that if someone shows interest in the proposal as it now stands, I'd be willing to work with that party on any changes (within reason) that they feel would make it more marketable, but until that time, making changes blindly to satisfy some unknown entity seems pointless.
I need to pin down this agent of mine to see if there are some general trends that have emerged in the pile of rejection slips that he has been collecting, but some things are truly easier said that done. A man of few and often cryptic words, it is hard to get him on the phone. That said, he knows I'm after him so we'll see what transpires this week.
Welcome to my roller coaster ride and fasten your seat belt. I told you it was an adventure.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Thud!
What is the sound of hope changing course? Not a crash, bang or even whimper--just a loud, dull thud that hits you in the gut and attaches to your core. Yesterday I heard from agent Number Two that "due to competition, the best plan of attack might be to change course--to team up with Gretchen Jackson and write her story in her voice...."
Ouch. What happened to "this is one of the greatest stories of all time?" (another one of his direct quotes.) What happened to "we'll sell this in two weeks..."? What happened to the man who swooped in and put my life on hold for a year with his great plans to write the next Seabiscuit?
"Barbaro fatigue" is what he calls it...Competition from other players in the Barbaro story ("Take your time," he told me. "The best books aren't written overnight...")...Fear and uneasiness in the marketing departments....Perhaps the downward economy...Who knows? Publishing is any one's best guess.
So now what? I need to regroup, rethink and ponder the possibility that A) Gretchen would want to do this and B) I would. At stake is a lot of time, energy, and research on my part that somehow should not go to waste combined with her general reluctance to "go public." Also the question of her voice bugs me. Yes, some of it needs to be her voice, but perhaps some could be mine--the objective narrator who has the benefit of detachment, to a certain extent.
How to tell the story of someone else's euphoria, pain, self doubt and heartbreak in two voices....Perhaps a new kind of symphony; perhaps just her song; perhaps nothing in the end.
Ouch. What happened to "this is one of the greatest stories of all time?" (another one of his direct quotes.) What happened to "we'll sell this in two weeks..."? What happened to the man who swooped in and put my life on hold for a year with his great plans to write the next Seabiscuit?
"Barbaro fatigue" is what he calls it...Competition from other players in the Barbaro story ("Take your time," he told me. "The best books aren't written overnight...")...Fear and uneasiness in the marketing departments....Perhaps the downward economy...Who knows? Publishing is any one's best guess.
So now what? I need to regroup, rethink and ponder the possibility that A) Gretchen would want to do this and B) I would. At stake is a lot of time, energy, and research on my part that somehow should not go to waste combined with her general reluctance to "go public." Also the question of her voice bugs me. Yes, some of it needs to be her voice, but perhaps some could be mine--the objective narrator who has the benefit of detachment, to a certain extent.
How to tell the story of someone else's euphoria, pain, self doubt and heartbreak in two voices....Perhaps a new kind of symphony; perhaps just her song; perhaps nothing in the end.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Point of View
Yesterday afternoon I was invited to the orchestra by one of my friends. It was a lovely afternoon--beautiful music (an all French program with the subtle tone nuances of a Monet painting), great company and a special bonus: seats in the conductor's circle.
For those of you unfamiliar with Philadaelphia's Verizon Hall, these are the seats that face the conductor and look over the shoulders of the orchestra. In other words, you sit facing the audience. The sound is most definitely different from the stage looking out (the brass is fairly overpowering for one), but the visual feast is exceptional.
From that vantage point, you see the actual scores on the musicians' stands, watch the percussionists frantically changing mallets for different sounds and even see things that you would fail to see watching from the front. In the first piece, for example, a contemporary piece by a local composer, Jennifer Higdon entitled Blue Cathedral, the horn section did double duty by playing both the rims of crystal glasses filled with water and gentle Chinese bells that they rolled in their palms. Truly, you would be hard pressed to see the musicians both "warming" up their glass rubbing fingers (one even adjusted the level of water in his glass by adding some from a squirt bottle in his pocket) and fingering the delicate bells, all of which came packed in beautiful padded boxes that rested on their music stands. The result was a glorious mix of sounds that were all the more astounding when you saw their origins.
My point is that perspective is critical in perception, a skill most writers know innately but often struggle with when it comes to putting words on papers. Where you sit does matter, not only in how you tell the story but in what you see.
And changing seats is good for all of us to shake up our senses and to get a new handle on the big picture.
For those of you unfamiliar with Philadaelphia's Verizon Hall, these are the seats that face the conductor and look over the shoulders of the orchestra. In other words, you sit facing the audience. The sound is most definitely different from the stage looking out (the brass is fairly overpowering for one), but the visual feast is exceptional.
From that vantage point, you see the actual scores on the musicians' stands, watch the percussionists frantically changing mallets for different sounds and even see things that you would fail to see watching from the front. In the first piece, for example, a contemporary piece by a local composer, Jennifer Higdon entitled Blue Cathedral, the horn section did double duty by playing both the rims of crystal glasses filled with water and gentle Chinese bells that they rolled in their palms. Truly, you would be hard pressed to see the musicians both "warming" up their glass rubbing fingers (one even adjusted the level of water in his glass by adding some from a squirt bottle in his pocket) and fingering the delicate bells, all of which came packed in beautiful padded boxes that rested on their music stands. The result was a glorious mix of sounds that were all the more astounding when you saw their origins.
My point is that perspective is critical in perception, a skill most writers know innately but often struggle with when it comes to putting words on papers. Where you sit does matter, not only in how you tell the story but in what you see.
And changing seats is good for all of us to shake up our senses and to get a new handle on the big picture.
Friday, November 9, 2007
The Power of the Story
StoryCorps, a national oral history project, is visiting Philadelphia and reminding people of the power of the narrative. The brainchild of David Isay, a renowned radio documentarian, the mission of StoryCorps is to record the stories of "ordinary" people and archive them at the American Folk Life Center in Washington, DC.
If you listen to NPR, you may have heard some of these stories. They are spellbinding, both in their simplicity and in their depth. Ordinary people do extraordinary things every day and when they talk about them their accomplishments touch others in ways that are unexpected and powerful because they resonate deep in our souls.
If nothing else, the story of Barbaro is an incredibly powerful tale of people who try to do the right thing for the right reason and the obstacles that stand in their way, not the least of which are, at times, their own self-doubts. It is, at its heart, the story of trying to save a life, not because it is any more valuable than any other life, but simply because it is a life and that is what you do.
It needs to be told, preserved and recorded because it is what most of us try to do every day in different ways. I just hope I get the chance....
If you listen to NPR, you may have heard some of these stories. They are spellbinding, both in their simplicity and in their depth. Ordinary people do extraordinary things every day and when they talk about them their accomplishments touch others in ways that are unexpected and powerful because they resonate deep in our souls.
If nothing else, the story of Barbaro is an incredibly powerful tale of people who try to do the right thing for the right reason and the obstacles that stand in their way, not the least of which are, at times, their own self-doubts. It is, at its heart, the story of trying to save a life, not because it is any more valuable than any other life, but simply because it is a life and that is what you do.
It needs to be told, preserved and recorded because it is what most of us try to do every day in different ways. I just hope I get the chance....
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Strike a Balance
You might notice some visual changes to this blog--new colors, new links to some of my work and coming soon, links to other blogs that I read. I'm slowly getting the hang of the technology and beginning to stake my claim in the cyber-world of self-promotion.
It was in the process of developing the links to some of my work that I ran into the very same stumbling block over which television writers have taken to the picket line--the issue of internet rights and residual payments. You might notice that my links do not contain any to commercial magazines, for which I have indeed written. Those articles are available only to subscribers of those publications, usually for a fee.
So while the magazines pay me for printing my work one time, they earn the residuals every time any one clicks on my story via their website. In other words, they are getting paid many times over for my work and I am not.
It's a complicated issue of work for hire, in which the author usually gives away his/her rights to the work in order to get paid, versus retaining the rights to the story and earning money every time the story is reprinted. Truth be told it never was much of an issue until the proliferation of electronic publishing but now, as the television writers strike indicates, it is indeed very much an issue.
Compare the situation to songwriters who earn royalties EVERY TIME their song is played regardless of where--on the radio, on television, in a bar, and technically even every time a wedding band plays it. ASCAP is a huge and powerful force that has taken care of its own for a very long time. The Writers Guild is not quite as powerful but they are certainly trying to make their voices heard.
You can probably figure out where I stand on the issue--hoping that television writers will make an impact on the way the rest of us get paid--but realistic enough to understand it may take a very long time to trickle down.
It was in the process of developing the links to some of my work that I ran into the very same stumbling block over which television writers have taken to the picket line--the issue of internet rights and residual payments. You might notice that my links do not contain any to commercial magazines, for which I have indeed written. Those articles are available only to subscribers of those publications, usually for a fee.
So while the magazines pay me for printing my work one time, they earn the residuals every time any one clicks on my story via their website. In other words, they are getting paid many times over for my work and I am not.
It's a complicated issue of work for hire, in which the author usually gives away his/her rights to the work in order to get paid, versus retaining the rights to the story and earning money every time the story is reprinted. Truth be told it never was much of an issue until the proliferation of electronic publishing but now, as the television writers strike indicates, it is indeed very much an issue.
Compare the situation to songwriters who earn royalties EVERY TIME their song is played regardless of where--on the radio, on television, in a bar, and technically even every time a wedding band plays it. ASCAP is a huge and powerful force that has taken care of its own for a very long time. The Writers Guild is not quite as powerful but they are certainly trying to make their voices heard.
You can probably figure out where I stand on the issue--hoping that television writers will make an impact on the way the rest of us get paid--but realistic enough to understand it may take a very long time to trickle down.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Muscrat Love
The recent issue of Time magazine contains a story about the popular Animal Planet series, Meerkat Manor. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it is a nature show about a colony of meerkats, with all the drama of human life ("turf wars, sex, betrayal and cuddly pups"), minus the salaries of high paid actors.
The meerkats don't talk in Disney-esque voices (there is a running narrative), but they do have human names and lately, human tragedies. Two of the shows most popular meerkats, Flower and Mozart (Flower's daughter) recently died, the former of a snakebite while defending her pups, the later by an unknown predator.
Immediately, "grief stricken fans held on-line vigils, created Diana-style tributes, even suggested the deaths were faked. (Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance--they hit every stage)," reports Time. "On Animal Planet forums they mourned, eulogized and fantasized...On YouTube, they created dozens of video shrines, scored to power ballads."
Sound familiar? After Barbaro was injured, his fans staged similar vigils, complete with on-line candle lightings and shrines constructed along the entrance to New Bolton Center, where he was hospitalized. The gifts, cards, prayers came by the truck load and after the horse was euthanized the grief was palpable, through the cyberspace that linked the horse's fans around the world.
Animals' struggle for survival, regardless of the species, seems to strike a resilient chord deep in our hearts. Perhaps they put faces on our own suffering and the helplessness we all feel in the presence of circumstance beyond our control. Perhaps they remind us that we are all equally minute in the workings of a grander universe.
Or perhaps we just don't like to see anything die.
The meerkats don't talk in Disney-esque voices (there is a running narrative), but they do have human names and lately, human tragedies. Two of the shows most popular meerkats, Flower and Mozart (Flower's daughter) recently died, the former of a snakebite while defending her pups, the later by an unknown predator.
Immediately, "grief stricken fans held on-line vigils, created Diana-style tributes, even suggested the deaths were faked. (Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance--they hit every stage)," reports Time. "On Animal Planet forums they mourned, eulogized and fantasized...On YouTube, they created dozens of video shrines, scored to power ballads."
Sound familiar? After Barbaro was injured, his fans staged similar vigils, complete with on-line candle lightings and shrines constructed along the entrance to New Bolton Center, where he was hospitalized. The gifts, cards, prayers came by the truck load and after the horse was euthanized the grief was palpable, through the cyberspace that linked the horse's fans around the world.
Animals' struggle for survival, regardless of the species, seems to strike a resilient chord deep in our hearts. Perhaps they put faces on our own suffering and the helplessness we all feel in the presence of circumstance beyond our control. Perhaps they remind us that we are all equally minute in the workings of a grander universe.
Or perhaps we just don't like to see anything die.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
The Barbaro Bill
It is Election Day and while this is the farthest thing from a political blog, I thought I'd take the opportunity to bring up an important bill that is slowly making its way to the floors of the House and Senate, House Resolution 503 and Senate Resolution 311, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.
The bill, which I dub the Barbaro Bill, has been floating around the halls of government for about ten years (no joke), and made it through the House of Representatives in December of 2006, spurred on, in part, by the endorsement of Gretchen Jackson, Barbaro's owner. It never made it to the floor of the Senate before they adjourned for the year and so had to start all over again.
Currently, one of the Bill's sponsors is Senator John Ensign of Nevada who as recently as a few weeks ago, re-introduced the Bill on the Senate floor. What is interesting about Ensign is that he is a veterinarian and in backing the Bill, he is breaking with both the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine practitioners, groups opposed to the legislation.
The reasons for their opposition are complex and have to do primarily with the fear that, without the option of slaughter (and some income), unwanted horses will waste away in fields, uncared for and die even more inhumane deaths than the captive-bolt administers.
The legislation is supported by many groups including the National Horse Protection Coalition, the Humane Society of the United States and the Doris Day Animal League.
I should point out that all horses slaughtered in the United States are prohibited from being consumed in the US by decades old legislation. The slaughter plants are owned by European companies that, through loopholes, are permitted to operate slaughter plants in the US and ship the rendered meat overseas.
Slaughter is one of racing's dirty little secrets and one of the causes the the Fans of Barbaro have adopted in their equine hero's honor.
On this election day, if you are so inclined to lend your support, you can call, write or email your government representatives about your feelings.
The bill, which I dub the Barbaro Bill, has been floating around the halls of government for about ten years (no joke), and made it through the House of Representatives in December of 2006, spurred on, in part, by the endorsement of Gretchen Jackson, Barbaro's owner. It never made it to the floor of the Senate before they adjourned for the year and so had to start all over again.
Currently, one of the Bill's sponsors is Senator John Ensign of Nevada who as recently as a few weeks ago, re-introduced the Bill on the Senate floor. What is interesting about Ensign is that he is a veterinarian and in backing the Bill, he is breaking with both the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine practitioners, groups opposed to the legislation.
The reasons for their opposition are complex and have to do primarily with the fear that, without the option of slaughter (and some income), unwanted horses will waste away in fields, uncared for and die even more inhumane deaths than the captive-bolt administers.
The legislation is supported by many groups including the National Horse Protection Coalition, the Humane Society of the United States and the Doris Day Animal League.
I should point out that all horses slaughtered in the United States are prohibited from being consumed in the US by decades old legislation. The slaughter plants are owned by European companies that, through loopholes, are permitted to operate slaughter plants in the US and ship the rendered meat overseas.
Slaughter is one of racing's dirty little secrets and one of the causes the the Fans of Barbaro have adopted in their equine hero's honor.
On this election day, if you are so inclined to lend your support, you can call, write or email your government representatives about your feelings.
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