Samford


14
Apr 15

Notes from the third floor

The work on the campus cafeteria continues. The short version is they are renovating. And part of that renovation has involved gutting the center of the large room. So they had to erect an interior room, keeping the dust in and the food out. They built a dirty room, basically. They put in plexiglass windows so you can peer in and check out their work. I’m not sure if I’ve seen a lot of students doing that, but it is interesting to see what is happening inside on a weekly basis or so. On the outside, murals and other sanctioned graffiti are going up. Here’s some Seuss:

Seuss

I didn’t know there was such a thing as a drywall truck, but it makes sense if you think about it. Problem is, I never have. Nevertheless, here you go:

truck

Work, work, work. But it never seems enough, or finished. Hopefully it is good, at least.

I got in a fast 2,000 yards at the pool. Fast for me, that is. I was very pleased with myself because it took much less time in the aggregate. Let’s call that progress.

Pizza for dinner, a nice story involving a police officer around midday:

“I immediately started ripping apart the sink and the pipes. If you can only imagine losing your wedding ring – you can do anything with the adrenalin going through your body.”

The next thing she knew, other restaurant patrons joined her in the restroom. At one point, at least six people were in the bathroom trying to find the ring – in addition to those who just had to answer nature’s call.

They not only drew a crowd, they caught the attention of Hendrix who works an extra job at Al’s. Someone asked the kitchen staff for a long utensil, and Hendrix got curious. “The cop was like, ‘What the heck is going on?” Shannon said.

[…]

Hendrix may have sent Shannon on her way, but he certainly didn’t give up. He, along with the restaurant manager, called someone they thought could help. It was a small miracle, Hendrix said, when the trio heard the ring jingling somewhere deep down in the pipes.

But the officer’s work had only just begun. He didn’t know Shannon’s name, or the names of her friends. That’s when the detective work started.

One last thing, the man was an Alabama-native and a legend, and I thought he might live forever (mostly because, in my mind, he’s been about 70 for 25 years). But Percy Sledge’s passing should prompt you to check out at least a few of his live performances. The man was an incredible performer:

I saw him at a festival years ago, mostly because I remember a high school teacher of mine told me about the time she saw him in a blues bar in Mobile. He was singing that signature song, she said, and he did the chorus, “When a man loves a woman” 56 times. Always wanted to see something like that.


13
Apr 15

Things to read

Copeland Cookie Day in my Storytelling class:

cookies

There’s a great vintage photo at the bottom of the post. First, here are a bunch of great links for you to check out, some of them neatly arranged by category.

Social media platform pieces:

Snapchat is building a research team to do deep learning on images, videos
How college students use Snapchat
Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015
What USA Today learned covering the Final Four on Periscope and Snapchat
The most concerning element of Facebook’s potential new power

Next is the section for those here for journalism matters. But first, this, from our editor-in-chief:

I had her in a freshman class and you could tell, even then, how sharp and squared away she was. In the years since, she’s just begun to realize her great potential. It has been great fun to watch. (And, to her mother, I offer my joking apology and sincere congratulations.)

Some great pieces of a journalism nature:

Tips to make you a better storyteller
Washington Post Exec. Editor on journalism’s transition from print to digital
USA Today’s David Callaway on gaming the news
How smartphone video changes coverage of police abuse
Editor column: A reminder of journalism’s power to do the right thing
News media’s sloppy week: Column
Free Tools To Exploit Free Data
2014 IRE Award winners

And a few sign-of-the-time links:

LinkedIn, Lynda.com and the Skills You’ll Need for Your Next Job
In-Store Mobile Shopping: 61% Compare Prices, 52% Use Shopping Lists, 49% Take Product Photos

You might have seen her on ESPN, or if you’ve been in any of my classes or just like a great story, but the women’s college basketball player that captured our imagination last year has died. The local CBS affiliate produced a beautiful obit, which, really, was about how she lived: Lauren Hill (1995-2015). A beautiful young woman, a young life, well-lived, but far too briefly.

If you’re looking for something charming, Moxie is a therapy dog with a GoPro.

I’m just going to leave this headline right here and let it do the rest: Reduced sentence for 3-year-old girl’s rapist sparks outrage.

Changes coming to state policies on industrial recruitment … Old incentives brought big wins, but also big losses to Alabama.

We’d like to thank the state of New York for creating an environment that prompted Remington to move south … Huntsville led state in 2014 job creation

A strange twist to the tale of that $800,000 painting ‘Antiques Roadshow’ discovered in Birmingham:

The story behind a Mountain Brook businessman’s prized Frederic Remington painting that has been appraised for $600,000 to $800,000 just got even more intriguing.

The director of the Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, N.Y, said Tuesday that she has discovered the nearly 120-year-old painting of Mountain Brook real-estate executive Ty Dodge’s great-grandfather was obtained by Dodge’s family in a 1938 exchange that left the museum with two forged Remington pieces in return.

You have to pay close attention to that story to follow it — or I did, at least — but it is a great story for those that like museums, family heirlooms, art or misidentified forgeries.

And finally, go Dogs:

basketball


3
Apr 15

I re-define spring

Happy Good Friday.

Productive morning. Reasonable lunch. Nice chat with the dean. Two classes this afternoon, talking feature story generation in one class and profile stories in the other.

And, then, this:

spring

So this is my current definition of spring: I am jealous of people noodling around on cruiser bikes in a cul-de-sac.

Sat with friends and had a grand time watching a baseball game this evening. Then The Yankee and I went to Mellow Mushroom for pizza and pretzels. They’ve been renovating and they moved the wacky, grinning, blinking, glowing cat:

curious

And that’s about enough. I feel like a nice long springtime nap. Probably I’ll dream about riding my bike.


2
Apr 15

Here’s a read that’s getting attention

Our editor-in-chief, Sydney Cromwell, wrote a great editorial about the conditions that her staff had to deal with in covering the former first lady last week. It has been noticed by the publisher of the Anniston Star, the Student Press Law Center, Alabama Media Pros and the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and the Alabama Media Group (which reprinted the editorial):

So, what did the reporters of the Crimson, Samford News Network, AL.com, the Homewood Star and others get within those precious few minutes? Generic statements about Bush’s enjoyment of Samford and an update on the Bush family. Oh, and #SamNotStan.

If they wanted to report any of her statements on life in the White House, 9/11 or education – the actual reason for her visit – they had to rely on their memory alone and hope they could remember everything they needed.

That, in itself, is galling. Laura Bush is a public figure and invited to speak as part of a lecture series to students and the public. After living in the White House, I’d think she would be familiar enough with the media that a few pencils scratching away at paper wouldn’t ruin her time on stage.

It’s also just ridiculous. If you’re there to speak on education, why not let reporters use your actual statements on education? That’s a chance to extend her words beyond the Wright Center, and she wasted it.

And Sydney says she can’t write opinion pieces.

Also, there’s a new Crimson photo feature on Instagram: Humans of Samford.

One of the first things I saw this morning: The Price is Right aired a great gag yesterday, guaranteed to make you smile:

Two class preps tonight. Two-thousand yards in the pool. Not bad since I felt rough and the swim felt fairly rough. Not sure why I’m sore, but there I was all day, wondering if this will be another motion that hurts. The true feeling-out process. And, in the final analysis, most everything hurts. No idea why.

But Bob Barker makes everything better, right?

The man is 91, and we should all be so lucky.

There are a lot of gameshow bloopers online.


1
Apr 15

Crimson goes Mirror Universe

As soon as the Crimson’s editorial staff put together their schedule for the year they noticed that April 1st fell on a Wednesday, their regular publication day. They dreamed and planned all fall and winter about what they would do.

They are good group. Sharp journalists. Funny. Clever. Diligent. And yet I was a bit hesitant. College papers get in trouble for April Fools jokes every year. (At least two have already this year.) But they are very careful and conscientious. They wrote up fun copy and then took great pains to make sure that they weren’t putting words into the mouths of real people on campus or libeling anyone.

The only real person in the April Fool’s section of the paper was Jameis Winston, and he’s a public figure and our manufactured quotes didn’t say anything bad. They did a nice job throughout, and it has been well-received on campus. Here’s a small version of the April Fool’s pages:

The hammock headline is my favorite. Always knew there was something sketchy about those things The squirrel story was a hit, as you might imagine.

The Mr. Beeson Twitter account was pleased:

Someone did ask me if they meant to run the masthead backward. I made a big production of it. “BACKWARD!?!?” with a big, panicked rustling of paper.

Yes, they did.