Been a while since I had the nerve to hold myself to a ridiculous plan to report on a sports event, to spend X-number of hours on the road — or in the air, or both. This was back before I got old and my nerves frayed. I have written about several of my hare-brained […]

[Read more →]

It was four years ago that I confessed, on this site, to being an elections wonk. I watch them for fun. For entertainment. For my own edification. For belly laughs. To watch my countrymen at their best, or worst. Probably the main reason I watch them is that a big election — like, say, the […]

[Read more →]

First printed in the San Bernardino Sun, November 3, 2002. Twice in my life I have gone to a hospital emergency room as a patient. On both occasions it was after suffering a head injury on a kickoff at a high-school football game. And you thought freeway driving was dangerous. From where we sit, it’s […]

[Read more →]

The last time the Kansas City Chiefs appeared in the Super Bowl? It was 50 years ago, on January 11, 1970. And I saw that game — because I have never missed a Super Bowl. Seen ’em all, if not in person (about a dozen of those as a sports journalist), then on TV. So, […]

[Read more →]

A clever headline tells a story … with a twist. I prefer to think everyone likes a clever headline, but I fear only people in the publishing business really appreciate a good “hed”. Like this one, from the Los Angeles Times 40 years ago. “Arrivederci Aroma: Rams Stink Up the Coliseum”

[Read more →]

It seems a bit ludicrous now, given the carnage in print journalism, how important “beating” the local opposition was for us. When I wrote a long blog entry, in 2008, I declared an end to what was nearly a 100 Years War between two suburban newspapers in the Inland Empire of Southern California. I worked […]

[Read more →]

I grew up in Long Beach, California. My mother and siblings still live there. Several nieces, too. I haven’t lived in the city since 2009, and have not spent a lot of time in it since 1976, but it remains my hometown, and I have the Long Beach State baseball cap to prove it. Which […]

[Read more →]

When considering the industries and local businesses that mostly disappeared, ahead of the 21st century, I tend to focus on newspapers. That’s what I did for a living: Newspapering. Papers were important to readers, back in an era when not everyone was online, and they made a lot of money for their owners. Also, journalists […]

[Read more →]

It is a cool November night, and I don’t know it yet, but I am sprawled on my back at the Cal State Los Angeles football field. Above me, a rectangular patch of vision switches on inside my facemask. On the fringes, darkness broken up by banks of electric lights. In the center, dominating the […]

[Read more →]

Readers of a certain age — say, 30 years or more — will remember when major newspapers were big, colorful, information-packed marvels of news gathering. Before the Age of Great Newspapers ended, around the turn of the century, it had been observed by many subscribers that Sunday editions, in particular, with all their special sections […]

[Read more →]