A Hot Bath

I read the newspaper every chance I get, and not just any newspaper.  I prefer the New York Times.

The Times is difficult to get where I live.  The Washington Post is more available but not as satisfying.  Don’t get me wrong.  The Post will do, but it’s always with a sigh when I break down and buy one.  At least the post has the “Funnies” which is a charm in and of itself.  The local paper, The Daily Progress, will do in an absolute pinch, but I usually come away from a reading of it sorely dissatisfied.

This is not an advertisement for the NYT (although I wouldn’t mind a free subscription to it if they somehow were alerted to all my good words. )  This is a post about the art of getting the news.  It is a post supporting newspapers in general.

It is about taking a bath.

When I buy the Times it is most often when I know that I am going to have time to immerse myself in it.  I step into it as I would step into a warm, bubbly bath.

I try to make sure that I am relatively free of interruptions.  A good cigar is always a plus.  There is nothing quite as calming as a good Churchill Madura when I am being assaulted by death, chaos, and corruption.  Terrorists in Mumbai?  *puff*  Sleazy Mid-West governors?  *puff puff* 50 billion dollar Ponzi schemes?  *puff*  get the picture.  The world is softer through the blue haze of fine tobacco.

Marshall McLuhan said the medium is the message.  He was right.  Reading the newspaper is like taking a bath.  I relax into it and let what I read roll around in my head.  The Times gives me most, if not all, the details I crave.  I can go back and reread sections before I have even finished the article!

People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.

Marshall McLuhan

When I read the newspaper I take in the ideas, the facts and more importantly I take in the “Message” and the “Medium” is a distant secondary importance.  Sure it’s still there.  ADVERTISING!  A full page of Lord and Taylor’s jumps out at me.  McLuhan had a whole lot to say about advertising as well, but at the risk of digressing I’ll leave that for another time.

Television News is like taking a shower.  I quickly get what I need and realize that the distractions of my personal world prevent me from giving the experience what it truly deserves.

Internet News is like getting blasted with a waterhose.

(Did I stretch the analogy too thin?)

c.e.s.

Morticia From WordPress

Heather in her previous gig, sans spectacles.

 

 Considering that her previous gig was 40 years ago, don’t you think she’s held her looks remarkably well?  Me too.

Cara Mia!

Clown Pants

This is a post about how NOT to attract blog traffic.  Or more specifically how to discourage return traffic.  I am not going to go into a great deal of detail on all the strategies and styles to avoid but I will refer you to December Communications, Inc.  where you can find a lot of good information on web page development and design that can be applied to your blog.

Clown Pants is a term referring to haphazard and conflicting design and style on a web page.  Here we are referring of course to your blog front page and posts.  It can be extreme variation of header styles all withiin the same post, use of multiple color fonts, and jarring or inappropriately placed non-sequential media.  This names just a few of the ways to accomplish this undesirable effect.

And that effect is that it confuses the reader’s eye.  It buries your point in media.  And, overall, people will not return.  While it may be true that “The Medium is the Message,” this takes it to an illogical extreme.  The message that comes across in Clown Pants is that there either is NO message or that the message is indecipherable.

A lot of worry about that particular error is taken care of for us here at WordPress in that we choose “styles” to our blogs that have already gone through a design and approval process, but it still can be accomplished as I have witnessed on more than one occasion.  It most often happens with multiple header styles, font colors, and multi-media.

Check out the December Communications link given above for more on this and on other dos and don’ts as well.

c.e.s.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia does not suck as I maintained earlier.  But, it makes me feel a little dirty when I use it.

Why?  It’s a lazy person’s research tool.

I am now adding it to my blogroll.  You can also link to it here:

I was formally trained in research disciplines when I was getting my degree(s).  Wikipedia was NOT included in that training.  As a matter of fact it was verboten as a research tool.  It is true that I used it when I was doing my papers but not as a final source.  I used it as one would use a regular encyclopedia.  I used it for general outline knowledge but never as a cited source and I used it for “leads” to other sources which I would then seek in the university library in addition to source found in the library that were not inspired by the web.

The reason that I mention all this now is because I am getting ready to post some new and original essays here in the blog.  I doubt very seriously that I will be going to the library.  I will be using Wikipedia and other web resources.  So to keep from being a total hypocrite I will state this here and now so (unless specifically mentioned that Wiki will be my primary general knowledge source.

I will cite it as necessary.  I will also ask my readers to accept at face value that what I write will be based on more than just web resources.  I will ask my readers to accept from “Appeal to Authority” that I know from experience and prior knowledge and education whereof I speak.  I’m not going to go out of fields here.  What I am going to write is on subjects which I have considerable knowledge of and extensive experience in my writings and living experience.

I will in every case give the basis for my authority on my subjects as needed and as briefly as possible.  This is NOT a disclaimer.  This is me asking you to accept that what I say is what I know.  I do not expect anyone to have blind faith in anything I say.  I do hope that what I say will inspire people to THINK FOR THEMSELVES and to use their powers of discernment to judge the truth or falseness of what I say.

When I state an opinion I will state it as an opinion.  I will do the same when I state a fact.

O.K. I’m done.

c.e.s.