New Direction

Dust off your books

Dust off your old literature books, it's time to celebrate Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday. I had read stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven" when I was in high school. I never took an in depth look at his life, but apparently he has lived and worked in quite a few places.
Anyhow, here is a link from The Bob Edwards Show about Poe and more links about upcoming celebration plans.

Mavericking

No, I'm not referring to a presidential candidate or a team from Texas that plays in the National Basketball Association. I am referring to Izzy Stone, who was an independent journalist who published his own four-page weekly in Washington, D.C. I'm just now getting into a book about him that a relative gave me for Christmas. It's actually quite fascinating. I haven't seen any mention of Stone talking about alternative story presentations. Heck, he didn't even take advertising. From the little bit I've read, he spent a lot of time getting good stories from the gems hidden inside government documents.
This makes me think about the time in high school when I put out my own periodical. I had reviews of the shows I had attended and a few other items. Unfortunately, my frequency was quite irregular. I cut and pasted the content and "printed" it by using a copying machine. I took it to the music store that was in downtown Wilmington, N.C. and they graciously let me leave a few copies. I never charged a cent and had a ton of fun doing it. I never once thought about how strong my opening paragraphs were, whether or not I had bumping headlines on the page, or if I could enter an issue in the general excellence category in the state press association's awards contest. I made my publication with passion. I wrote what I felt and I enjoyed it.