As a kid, two dates associated with U.S. military history were fairly well known and certainly noted, annually: D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Allies landed in France to open a second front against the Third Reich, and Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941. And it was the latter that was the bigger event, come […]

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Gather round, kids! The old newspaperman is going to tell you about the bad ol’ days way, way back in time. About 15, 20 years ago. Ancient history, that is. Back when Serious Editors thought this internet thing was never going to amount to much. Back when editors had to carefully consider what story he/she […]

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This is one of those “I wish I had thought of that!” situations. Well, aside from the fact that I am not a cartoonist, and all. Clark Kent quits the Daily Planet is the headline on the Jim Romenesko site, and includes the outline of an actual edition of the DC Comic.

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The National opened for business in April of 2008, and the newspaper had a website from the start. Of course. But in the past year or so, efforts to get readers to the site have intensified, and more people are involved on the web side of things, and page views have gone up dramatically. So, […]

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Two of the best barbecues I have enjoyed, in the past three years, have been in a leafy suburb of Paris. Didn’t see that coming. We Yanks don’t normally associate Paris with grilling large amounts of meat over a pile of glowing coals. A good reason for that: It’s apparently illegal to barbecue inside the […]

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Roy Hodgson was named coach of the England national soccer team yesterday, and it was not a popular choice. Most English fans seemed to prefer Harry Redknapp, a sort of lovable rogue of a coach, in English eyes, currently at Tottenham, who has occasional bouts with the tax man and other shady doings. But “Arry” […]

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The Pan-Arabia Enquirer could be a regional English-language newspaper. It actually is an online satire site of The Onion ilk. And it is quite amusing, in my considered opinion, and points up the silliness of various concepts and institutions — which is the point of satire. If some of it is a little too “inside” […]

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An advantage to working at a morning newspaper on the west coast of the United States: Pretty much the whole sports day was over by the time we reached our deadline. We had complete news packages. Not much terra firma is behind California in the time-zone map, aside from Alaska and Hawaii. So the total […]

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When you’re on the high side of the big five-oh, you get a little more stingy with the “I’ll never forget that!” declarations. At this age, you have a pretty good notion you’ve long since forgotten an awful lot of “unforgettable” stuff. But this setting, this game, this result … was so exotic, so unexpected […]

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The planet boasts several examples of a capital city that is so important to its nation, across the range of human activities, that it dwarfs all other cities in the country. Paris certainly is one of those, and perhaps the ultimate example (though London is in the running). When France’s “second city” is gritty Marseille […]

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