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Archive for December, 2009
The Wait Continues
Monday, December 21st, 2009Reporting on the Reporters
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
I’ve wanted to be a writer all of my life, but the journalism bug bit later. I’m a born reporter and storyteller, but you could also say it was a bad experience with another young reporter that got me into this business.
Here’s what happened.
I was studying n Germany on a Fulbright in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks. It wasn’t my first sojourn in Munich, so I was well-connected to some of the other American study abroad programs in the city.
One day, a young undergraduate journalism student came knocking on my door, hoping to get my comments on what it was like to live abroad during a time of political upheaval at home. Thing was, my life hadn’t really changed that much. He asked me if my habits had changed. I told him I read the paper even more voraciously.
When the story finally appeared on some random Minnesota regional paper’s website, I was mortified.
He actually had me saying that I started reading the newspaper after the attacks. Minor misquote, you may say, but for a literate person it was like a kick in the gut.
Ever since, I have lived in fear that someone would read this misquote from me and imagine me to be some unconnected, unengaged idiot who didn’t even pick up a paper until she was 24 years old.
Years have past, and my web presence has pushed that little story way back into the farther reaches of the Google archives. Good riddance. You probably couldn’t find it if you were even looking for it. Seriously, I dare you to try.
Now I am a journalist and writer, one who pays especially close attention to how my sources are represented in print and online. No one wants to live down the embarrassment of a botched or misrepresented quote, least of all people whose names might appear once or twice in a news story in their lifetimes.
I’ve gotten a little cagey about other reporters. It’s a control thing, and it’s a quote-gone-bad baggage thing, but it wasn’t much of an issue until the Statesman Journal called me a few weeks back to get my comments on a story about feral rabbits a reporter was writing for the community pages.
You might remember I spoke of the “free-range bunnies” in my neighborhood on this blog a few weeks before that.
Well, the story, by Tarah Campi, has finally run in today’s print issue. It’s pretty good. As usual, the real stories are going on in the comments section. She neither misquoted or misrepresented me.
The other story that you can’t see is that some of the major players quoted in the story are bloggers. Have you ever read ThePollenation, a Salem blog by Brandy Kinch, whose anecdote about adopting a feral rabbit leads the story?
That got me thinking. Now I’m wondering how long it will be before every person quoted in a traditional print media outlet has a blog. At the very least, being a blogger gives you the chance to the coverage in a personal way — or refute it.
Could have used that in 2001.
Emily: Angry! So much to be angry about!
Monday, December 14th, 2009
You’d think that the holidays would make me happy — after all, I’ve never seen more people out and about in Salem.
But I’m feeling a regression of sorts, back to the days when I used to write long, scathing letters to corporations such as CVS when their employees wronged me in ways that were beyond the pale.
In the grand scheme of the universe, these may seem like minor infractions, piddly quibbles. But when you are 9.45 months pregnant, your patience tends to spread thin like cellophane.
So here’s some stuff to be angry about:
Imports adrift. In January, Tuesday Morning – is moving from the “zoning abortion” of Lancaster Drive, as a wise Willamette Valley winemaker once described it to me, to a space on S. Commercial near Wal-Mart. Chances are good that I’ll never again make the trip down there for a snuggie/imported Belgian chocolate/Limoges dishes/decent rug/cat-shaped lint remover. At least that zoning abortion is closer to home.
Keep Salem Lame. Someone in this town is actually making the argument on my column from November that Salem needs to stay lame. Months ago I thought about starting an ironic “Keep Salem Lame” movement, in which “lame” could be reappropriated to mean awesome — I know, a little too hipster for this town — but, there are actually too many people working actively as part of the real KEEP SALEM LAME movement. It would never work.
Instead, I would hope that someone would actually comment on the other end of the spectrum, since I can’t. Oh, poor, lonely Salem Monthly columnist… so alone in her hopes for cultural impulses…
Bad customer service. I’m into everyday superheroes. I’m into people who take pride in their work, people who fill their work days with actual work, people who understand that there is something noble and dignifed about doing what you do — whatever it is — best. I reward these people by not acting like an asshole in the public sphere and by generally being a dream customer.
So why do I keep running into salespeople who would rather talk to their work colleagues than sell me something? I’m talking about you, Patrick in the IKEA housewares department. When an adorable hippo asks you if you have a fir-scented candle, don’t say you don’t have one so you can keep talking to your fatty friend. I found that candle after waddling around for fifteen minutes. And no, I didn’t buy it.
Things to feel grappy about:
Always angry when a store fails, a little happy when it’s a concept I kind of hate.
Scrapbook Fever, on Hawthorne Ave, near Pietro’s pizza, is closing. My condolences to the owner’s, who I’m sure are kind and forthright people, but I just don’t think you need a bunch of doodads by Leeza Gibbons to make a decent scrapbook. Or to tell your personal story in any meaningful way.
Apparently, the market agrees. I wish them the best in their next venture.
Free Stumptown at Salem's Latte in December
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
It’s no secret that I’ve given up most of my favorite things by getting pregnant. Pinot, coffee, artisan cheeses, a graceful gait.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know that Salem’s Latte, my favorite drive-thru coffee place in Salem, is offering free Stumptown for the entire month of December. That’s a free coffee, just for checking out a PNW bean purveyor that has been called the best in the country.
We drove by on Tuesday to get some for my husband and ended up picking up three 3/4 lb. bags of whole beans to send to our friends and family.
In other words, this is a very good promotion.
Stop by and see barista Carrie, tell her I sent you.
Maybe We're Not Quite Ready to Have Kids
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
Thank you to Adam’s work colleagues, who threw him (well, us), a baby shower last night to welcome our little dude to the world. We’re overwhelmed with your generosity. And we really hope our kid isn’t allergic to cats.
Holiday Gift Guides and Eating Through Salem
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Happy Salemversary to me!
One year ago yesterday, my husband and I headed out of Idaho Falls, racing along 84 and down I-5 to make it to Salem at 3:43 p.m. on the afternoon of December 1.
We celebrated in true Salem fashion — we worked late, cooked at home, and watched Jon Stewart before collapsing in our bed.
I’ve been frantically putting together gift baskets based on Salem-area edibles for the past two days while trying to finish up the semester at the University of Oregon, finish some work projects, decorate the house, and not succumb to the nesting instinct that is taking over my mind more every day.
I wrote about these baskets, and the idea of exporting Salem, in my column this month, which lists a few of the area treasures I’ve scoured up over the past months, but it struck me that there aren’t any embedded links on my December column at Salem Monthly, so here’s the good stuff with links to the producers.
- A bag of Gnome Hazelnut Factory hazelnuts – with the hope that they might entice people to come walk with me among our area’s gorgeous hazelnut groves in the new year.
- A 3/4 pound bag of Hairbender coffee from Salem’s Latte, the only place in town that carries Stumptown coffee.
- Oregon White Truffle Oil for the foodies in the family, the only real American truffle oil in existence, hand-infused by Jack Czarnecki of the Joel Palmer House, who actually unearths all of those truffles himself.
- E.Z. Orchards Marionberry syrup, with a gift card carrying my favorite of Chris Rock’s jokes about former D.C. mayor Marion Berry.
- One resin wine stopper (pic above), designed to look like a 19th century Victorian doorbell, by AmericanAntiqueHardware.com, a preservation site run by my neighbor.
- Silver Falls Creamery Goat cheese, a chevre so mind-bogglingly good my husband and I have a song we sing about it.
- A bottle of Eola Hills 2008 pinot noir to tie it all together.
- To clean up afterward, one bar of S.L.A.B. soap with a holiday-friendly Douglas Fir or Frankincense Myrrh scent profile.
That’s just my list. What do you put in your local gift baskets? What is Salem’s most exportable good?
