a blog by Jack Limpert, Editor of The Washingtonian for more than 40 years.
From a New York Times obit by Steven Kurutz headlined “Kathleen Duey, a Mentoring Children’s Author, Dies at 69: A prolific writer, she published more than 75 books, including a Best Seller and a National Book Award finalist, all while encouraging aspiring authors.”:
Ms. Duey wrote more than 75 books for children, middle-grade and young adult readers. “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” a novelization of the DreamWorks film of the same title, made the New York Times best-seller list in 2002.
From a Spectator/USA post by Christopher Buckley headlined “Are we living in the golden age of political satire?”:
My first novel was published 34 years ago under the title The White House Mess, a wordplay on its Navy-run dining rooms. I’d spent two years as vice president George H.W. Bush’s speechwriter and had read a number of White House memoirs, all of which had two themes: 1) it wasn’t my fault, and 2) it would have been much worse if I hadn’t been there. The novel was a satirical — in today’s terminology, a ‘fake’ — White House memoir by a clueless but loyal chief of staff of a future administration that would be sworn in on January 20, 1989.
From a New York Times story by Marc Tracy headlined “A Prominent News Media Critic Is Starting a News Outlet of His Own”:
Over the last 15 years, Ken Doctor has made his living as a critic of the news industry. A onetime media executive who started out as a publisher and editor of an alt weekly, Mr. Doctor regularly warns against hedge-fund ownership of news outlets in a column he writes for Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab. Media companies hire him as a consultant, and he is often quoted in articles on the dismal state of local news coverage in America.
From an obit by John Pope on New Orleans’s nola.com headlined “Shirley Ann Grau, author who won Pulitzer Prize in 1965, dies at 91”:
Shirley Ann Grau, a Metairie author who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for her novel “The Keepers of the House,” died Monday night of complications of a stroke. Her daughter Nora F. McAlister confirmed the death.
Race was a dominant theme in her novels and short stories – “The Keepers of the House” featured an interracial marriage – and that made some readers irate. There were threatening phone calls, and the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s burned a cross on the front lawn of her suburban home.
From a New York Times story by Marc Tracy headlined “Digital Revenue Exceeds Print for 1st Time for New York Times Company”:
Over a three-month period dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and a slowdown in advertising, The New York Times Company for the first time reported quarterly revenue that owed more to digital products than to the print newspaper. . . .
The company added 669,000 net new digital subscribers, making the second quarter its biggest ever for subscription growth. The Times has 6.5 million total subscriptions, a figure that includes 5.7 million digital-only subscriptions, putting it on a course to achieve its stated goal of 10 million subscriptions by 2025.
Gene McCarthy, once the U.S. senator from Minnesota and almost the Democratic nominee for President, wrote a Washingtonian piece titled “Let Us Prey.” The deck: “Why Journalism Is Becoming the New Religion, Complete With Inquisitions and Infallibility.”
These excerpts are a reminder that McCarthy was a professor at the College of St. Thomas, a Catholic college, before he was a politician:
“German philosopher Oswald Spengler said that there are only two estates—the civil and the religious—operating in a society at any given time. According to Spengler, when one estate loses power, that power is assumed by the other estate or by another institution.
The 1982 movie “Annie,” based on the Broadway musical, appeared this week on cable TV and in this grim and contentious time seemed especially nice to watch. Little Annie (Ann Reinking) is stuck in an orphanage run by the cruel Miss Hannigan (Carol Burnett) and pines for the day when she is reunited with her parents. Money-loving businessman Daddy Warbucks (Albert Finney) needs an orphan to live in his home for a week to improve his public image and Annie is picked to do it.
Okay, put your critical mind aside and just enjoy the movie, especially the many songs, some of which seem almost timely today.
Pete Hamill RIP.
Update: Also see the Pete Hamill obit by Robert D. McFadden in the New York Times. Plus the Pete Hamill obit by Larry McShane in the New York Daily News. And the Pete Hamill obit by Harrison Smith in the Washington Post.
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From a New York Post obit by Lia Eustachewich headlined “Pete Hamill, legendary Post columnist and author, dead at 85”:
From an essay by Arthur Bradford titled “The Dogs” in the book How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors:
They are excellent companions for a writer since they don’t speak and rarely interrupt me in a meaningful way. They provide just enough presence to ward off loneliness without hindering my ability to escape into a good solitary haze. Sometimes they will sigh and groan, especially if it is a nice day and they’d prefer to be out walking, but I don’t mind that. At night, when I like to write best, they lie at my feet and sleep soundly, often twitching their legs in reaction to their silly canine dreams.
Legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee once said that the main thing he learned from his time in the Navy was damage control. In a speech in Prague in 1990, he talked about how serving as the assistant damage control officer on the USS Philip during World War II had shaped him as a newspaperman.
“In that job, one is charged with thinking about trouble and how to handle trouble before it handles you. I’ve often thought that ability to control damage is one of the essential skills of an editor.”
