Bill Simmons is the most important … well, journalist isn’t quite the right word, because he is a fan first, second and third … Bill Simmons is the most important writer on sports topics (yes, that’s it) in America today. I can’t tell you how many hits he generates for espn.com … but I am […]

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Let me take you back to 1987. I was in Rome at the track and field World Championships, covering the event for Gannett News Service. A great assignment. No question. Great event, and a great venue. Rome and Italy? Can’t beat it. Anyway, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis were the great rivals, back then, in […]

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We’re taking the “funemployment” thing to the next level. A couple of months ago we were sitting in the Long Beach apartment, and I had a sudden inspiration. “Hey! Why can’t we sit around and do nothing … somewhere else … as well as we can here? Like, say, in Paris?” And I picked Paris, […]

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I was at a soccer practice not long ago, and the subject turned (as it so often does in any spare moment at any sports venue), to the print journalism implosion. And all the people who have been fired or will be soon. We were talking about those still getting paid, and how nerve-racking it […]

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I’ve never tried this. But I will today. Just because. To see if it is possible. Or sensible. Or useful. Running commentary! I am going to watch the Confederations Cup soccer match between the United States and Spain, which begins at 11:30-ish … and bang in entries every few minutes. Now, it seems to me […]

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I live near the ocean, in Long Beach, and for decades now the shoreline area has been served by a nice little weekly. Then another. The Grunion Gazette and then the Downtown Gazette. Same company. (A grunion, fyi, is a small, silvery fish that a few nights each year hurls itself up on the sands […]

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A curious case, this one. A former journalism colleague of mine has been born again. But not in a religious sense. This person has turned back the hands of time … by inventing a birthday in 1970. Or 15-16 years after the real one.

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A major component of journalism is asking questions. We want to know. We have a source or an authority or a witness in front of us, and we need information from that person to improve our stories, or even to make them possible. Generally, journalists are in a hurry. Often, their time is limited. The […]

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“Ha!” you say. What does he know about this? He just got fired! Got me there. Actually, I believe I DO know something about this topic, after nearly 32 years in the business, 23 of them as a departmental manager — and at least three years watching the slow-moving train known as the Unemployment Local […]

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