GRAND RAPIDS- Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, did not disappoint the thousands of shoppers at 4 a.m. in front of the Target store at 5120 28th St SE in Grand Rapids.
“I just can’t resist the sales!” exclaimed early bird Connie Ritsema, 44. “I get just about everybody’s gifts today. The prices are just awesome.”
While Target sells most items on anybody’s wish list, electronics were the hottest department for shoppers waiting in the 30 degree weather outside, with great deals on the Nintendo Wii, the new Xbox 360 Kinect console and Garmin GPS systems.
“I’ve seen a lot of kids’ clothes and games come through,” said cashier Tanya Molendyk. “This is my third time working Black Friday, and it’s always the same: crazy.”
While hundreds of customers filled all aisles of every department, Target employees were still able to keep their cool in the chaos and help many find specific items on their gift lists.
“It’s like this every year, so yeah, we know what to expect,” said Target security guard of 8 years, Tom Gill.
Employees scheduled to work on Black Friday plan for weeks in advance, with special store set-ups and sales layouts done the day before in preparation for the crowds.
Extra security is also scheduled for the shopping day as well.
“We always get extra guys out here for the Black Friday. This store’s never had a problem, but you never know what could happen; there’s so many people who come out,” said Gill.
By 6:30 a.m., the shoppers still file into store to stock up on $5 pajama sets and $2 t-shirts, but without the added hysteria of being there as the store opened.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
fire story, class draft
Today in class we had a "news conference" with Prof. Reisner acting as a fire chief, then a neighbor, about a house fire. Then we had to do a story on it. This is what I wrote in class, the rest of which is to be completed for Monday.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla.- A house fire killed a woman and two children last night around 11:30 p.m.
Firefighters pronounced Cynthia Johnsen, 31, along with her son Edward, 7, and daughter Jessica, 5, dead on the scene in their Hollywood home by around 11:40 last night.
A neighbor called 911 after hearing screams and seeing smoke and flames from 4200 McKinley St. “I ran across the street and heard her open the door and tried to run in after her, but the smoke was too intense,” said neighbor Fred Smythe, 55, of house number 4205.
The fire is under investigation, but police believe the pool pump short-circuited and ignited a stack of wood and palm fronds nearby.
“The house was totally involved by the time we got there,” said Hollywood Fire Chief Jon Daly. “It took a lot of equipment and a lot of firefighters to get it under control.”
The children were found huddled together in their bedroom closet holding their pet dog and pet cat. The mother was found just inside the front door, apparently trying to get inside to her kids.
“It appears the family didn’t have a plan of what to do in case of a fire. The bodies were burned quite substantially,” said Fire Chief Daly.
The sides of the houses on either side were scorched.
Fire Captain Paul Hanson, a firefighter of 18 years, broke down after carrying out the children’s bodies. “He was leaning against the fire truck, sobbing,” said Fire Chief Daly.
Samuel Johnsen, the father, is currently at Memorial Regional Hospital on suicide watch after apparently trying to shoot himself after learning the news of his family.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla.- A house fire killed a woman and two children last night around 11:30 p.m.
Firefighters pronounced Cynthia Johnsen, 31, along with her son Edward, 7, and daughter Jessica, 5, dead on the scene in their Hollywood home by around 11:40 last night.
A neighbor called 911 after hearing screams and seeing smoke and flames from 4200 McKinley St. “I ran across the street and heard her open the door and tried to run in after her, but the smoke was too intense,” said neighbor Fred Smythe, 55, of house number 4205.
The fire is under investigation, but police believe the pool pump short-circuited and ignited a stack of wood and palm fronds nearby.
“The house was totally involved by the time we got there,” said Hollywood Fire Chief Jon Daly. “It took a lot of equipment and a lot of firefighters to get it under control.”
The children were found huddled together in their bedroom closet holding their pet dog and pet cat. The mother was found just inside the front door, apparently trying to get inside to her kids.
“It appears the family didn’t have a plan of what to do in case of a fire. The bodies were burned quite substantially,” said Fire Chief Daly.
The sides of the houses on either side were scorched.
Fire Captain Paul Hanson, a firefighter of 18 years, broke down after carrying out the children’s bodies. “He was leaning against the fire truck, sobbing,” said Fire Chief Daly.
Samuel Johnsen, the father, is currently at Memorial Regional Hospital on suicide watch after apparently trying to shoot himself after learning the news of his family.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
the media's credibility
Keith Olbermann helps crush media's credibility!
I sent this article out to the listserv- here it is again!
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/10/1917701/the-medias-credibility-is-priceless.html
I sent this article out to the listserv- here it is again!
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/10/1917701/the-medias-credibility-is-priceless.html
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
OBITUARIES.
So we've been doing obituaries in class, and, writing about dead people is pretty stressful.
The other day we discussed what we would do if writing about a "controversial" person, like say, Ted Bundy. Do you write all the bad stuff they did? Try to make them sound like a good person?
How do you get that right balance between the facts of his life, and not be a total bitch about it? It's a fine line, my friend. But, that is the art of writing.
A funny coincidence is that I'm currently reading a book for another class, called Basket Case by Carl Hiassen, which is about an obituary writer! So apropos.
We also did an obit in class for Reisner's father. This is what I did.
Sam Benatan, a lock manufacturer for 69 years, died of congestive heart failure at home yesterday. He was 83.
Benatan worked in the lock and key industry since age 14 and was a lock manufacturer for major homebuilders nationwide.
He also played the “Holiday Elf” at the Boulder Chamber of Commerce holiday party for 20 years, until he was afraid that others might look down upon him having children on his knee.
He also served as the vice president for fundraising at the Temple Sinai of Boulder.
Bill Deahl, president of the Colorado Locksmith Association, of which Benatan was a member, said Benatan could pick locks better than anyone.
“He was always ready to take young locksmiths under his wing and teach them what he knew,” said Deahl.
Benatan also created and patented tools for locksmith and lock manufacturing.
“He was a good businessman, but he really should have been an artist. He loved to make things with his hands,” said his son Howard. “It’s kind of a shame that all his creativity went into his business.”
Benatan loved to draw and sculpt, and a grandfather who loved spending time with his granddaughters. He built them a swing in the garden, took them fishing and “to feed the duckies.”
Sam Benatan is survived by his wife, Elva Benatan, son Howard Benatan of Denver, daughter Marcy Troxell of Bangkok, Thailand, and two granddaughters.
Funeral arrangements are prepared for Hillside Memorial Park, 2 p.m., November 8, 2010. A graveside service led by Rabbi Aaron Halfon of Temple Sinai will follow.
The other day we discussed what we would do if writing about a "controversial" person, like say, Ted Bundy. Do you write all the bad stuff they did? Try to make them sound like a good person?
How do you get that right balance between the facts of his life, and not be a total bitch about it? It's a fine line, my friend. But, that is the art of writing.
A funny coincidence is that I'm currently reading a book for another class, called Basket Case by Carl Hiassen, which is about an obituary writer! So apropos.
We also did an obit in class for Reisner's father. This is what I did.
Sam Benatan, a lock manufacturer for 69 years, died of congestive heart failure at home yesterday. He was 83.
Benatan worked in the lock and key industry since age 14 and was a lock manufacturer for major homebuilders nationwide.
He also played the “Holiday Elf” at the Boulder Chamber of Commerce holiday party for 20 years, until he was afraid that others might look down upon him having children on his knee.
He also served as the vice president for fundraising at the Temple Sinai of Boulder.
Bill Deahl, president of the Colorado Locksmith Association, of which Benatan was a member, said Benatan could pick locks better than anyone.
“He was always ready to take young locksmiths under his wing and teach them what he knew,” said Deahl.
Benatan also created and patented tools for locksmith and lock manufacturing.
“He was a good businessman, but he really should have been an artist. He loved to make things with his hands,” said his son Howard. “It’s kind of a shame that all his creativity went into his business.”
Benatan loved to draw and sculpt, and a grandfather who loved spending time with his granddaughters. He built them a swing in the garden, took them fishing and “to feed the duckies.”
Sam Benatan is survived by his wife, Elva Benatan, son Howard Benatan of Denver, daughter Marcy Troxell of Bangkok, Thailand, and two granddaughters.
Funeral arrangements are prepared for Hillside Memorial Park, 2 p.m., November 8, 2010. A graveside service led by Rabbi Aaron Halfon of Temple Sinai will follow.
Monday, November 1, 2010
hilariousness from prof Reisner
> Goodbye, cruel words: English. It's dead to me.
The English language, which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people worldwide and the dominant lexicon of international discourse, is dead. It succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself.
> The end came quietly on Aug. 21 on the letters page of The Washington Post. A reader castigated the newspaper for having written that Sasha Obama was the "youngest" daughter of the president and first lady, rather than their "younger" daughter. In so doing, however, the letter writer called the first couple the "Obama's." This, too, was published, constituting an illiterate proofreading of an illiterate criticism of an illiteracy. Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame.
> The language's demise took few by surprise. Signs of its failing health had been evident for some time on the pages of America's daily newspapers, the flexible yet linguistically authoritative forums through which the day-to-day state of the language has traditionally been measured. Beset by the need to cut costs, and influenced by decreased public attention to grammar, punctuation and syntax in an era of unedited blogs and abbreviated instant communication, newspaper publishers have been cutting back on the use of copy editing, sometimes eliminating it entirely.
> In the past year alone, as the language lay imperiled, the ironically clueless misspelling "pronounciation" has been seen in the Boston Globe, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Deseret Morning News, Washington Jewish Week and the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, where it appeared in a correction that apologized for a previous mispronunciation.
> On Aug. 6, the very first word of an article in the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal was "Alot," which the newspaper employed to estimate the number of Winston-Salemites who would be vacationing that month.
> The Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal has written of "spading and neutering." The Miami Herald reported on someone who "eeks out a living" -- alas, not by running an amusement-park haunted house. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star described professional football as a "doggy dog world." The Vallejo (Calif.) Times-Herald and the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune were the two most recent papers, out of dozens, to report on the treatment of "prostrate cancer."
> Observers say, however, that no development contributed more dramatically to the death of the language than the sudden and startling ubiquity of the vomitous verbal construction "reach out to" as a synonym for "call on the phone," or "attempt to contact." A jargony phrase bloated with bogus compassion -- once the province only of 12-step programs and sensitivity training seminars -- "reach out to" is now commonplace in newspapers. In the last half-year, the New York Times alone has used it more than 20 times in a number of contextually indefensible ways, including to report that the Blagojevich jury had asked the judge a question.
> It was not immediately clear to what degree the English language will be mourned, or if it will be mourned at all. In the United States, English has become increasingly irrelevant, particularly among young adults. Once the most popular major at the nation's leading colleges and universities, it now often trails more pragmatic disciplines, such as economics, politics, government, and, ironically, "communications," which increasingly involves learning to write mobile-device-friendly ads for products like Cheez Doodles.
> Many people interviewed for this obituary appeared unmoved by the news, including Anthony Incognito of Crystal City, a typical man in the street.
> "Between you and I," he said, "I could care less."
>
> Below the Beltway
(Eric Shansby)
>
> By Gene Weingarten
> The Washington Post
>
The English language, which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people worldwide and the dominant lexicon of international discourse, is dead. It succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself.
> The end came quietly on Aug. 21 on the letters page of The Washington Post. A reader castigated the newspaper for having written that Sasha Obama was the "youngest" daughter of the president and first lady, rather than their "younger" daughter. In so doing, however, the letter writer called the first couple the "Obama's." This, too, was published, constituting an illiterate proofreading of an illiterate criticism of an illiteracy. Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame.
> The language's demise took few by surprise. Signs of its failing health had been evident for some time on the pages of America's daily newspapers, the flexible yet linguistically authoritative forums through which the day-to-day state of the language has traditionally been measured. Beset by the need to cut costs, and influenced by decreased public attention to grammar, punctuation and syntax in an era of unedited blogs and abbreviated instant communication, newspaper publishers have been cutting back on the use of copy editing, sometimes eliminating it entirely.
> In the past year alone, as the language lay imperiled, the ironically clueless misspelling "pronounciation" has been seen in the Boston Globe, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Deseret Morning News, Washington Jewish Week and the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, where it appeared in a correction that apologized for a previous mispronunciation.
> On Aug. 6, the very first word of an article in the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal was "Alot," which the newspaper employed to estimate the number of Winston-Salemites who would be vacationing that month.
> The Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal has written of "spading and neutering." The Miami Herald reported on someone who "eeks out a living" -- alas, not by running an amusement-park haunted house. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star described professional football as a "doggy dog world." The Vallejo (Calif.) Times-Herald and the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune were the two most recent papers, out of dozens, to report on the treatment of "prostrate cancer."
> Observers say, however, that no development contributed more dramatically to the death of the language than the sudden and startling ubiquity of the vomitous verbal construction "reach out to" as a synonym for "call on the phone," or "attempt to contact." A jargony phrase bloated with bogus compassion -- once the province only of 12-step programs and sensitivity training seminars -- "reach out to" is now commonplace in newspapers. In the last half-year, the New York Times alone has used it more than 20 times in a number of contextually indefensible ways, including to report that the Blagojevich jury had asked the judge a question.
> It was not immediately clear to what degree the English language will be mourned, or if it will be mourned at all. In the United States, English has become increasingly irrelevant, particularly among young adults. Once the most popular major at the nation's leading colleges and universities, it now often trails more pragmatic disciplines, such as economics, politics, government, and, ironically, "communications," which increasingly involves learning to write mobile-device-friendly ads for products like Cheez Doodles.
> Many people interviewed for this obituary appeared unmoved by the news, including Anthony Incognito of Crystal City, a typical man in the street.
> "Between you and I," he said, "I could care less."
>
> Below the Beltway
(Eric Shansby)
>
> By Gene Weingarten
> The Washington Post
>
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
What's the point?
ARTICLE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130437287&sc=emaf
This "What's the point of Journalism School?" article is something that everyone at SJMC should read. We all talk about it in every class, and while we all agree that the industry is NOT dying (what the heck wold we all be doing here then??) it was nice to read about other people saying the same things.
It's impossible to deny that journalism has had setbacks and maybe become not as prominent or in-demand, but it's also true that the field is in transition and there will always be a need for news. Maybe not all in print, but there's still news on tv and all over the internet.
Sure, you don't necessarily need the degree to be a journalist, but I think it's very important that if you want to be a journalist, you should be professionally trained in order to be the best journalist you can be.
If I were thrown in a newsroom right now and told to writw a story for something I'd be like "whaa?" (0_o) I don't think I'd even know how to start. But like Professor Reisner says, here at J-school,we are still in the parking lot, we're here to learn, so that when we are thrown in a newsroom, we'll know what to do, and how to do it well. :)
This "What's the point of Journalism School?" article is something that everyone at SJMC should read. We all talk about it in every class, and while we all agree that the industry is NOT dying (what the heck wold we all be doing here then??) it was nice to read about other people saying the same things.
It's impossible to deny that journalism has had setbacks and maybe become not as prominent or in-demand, but it's also true that the field is in transition and there will always be a need for news. Maybe not all in print, but there's still news on tv and all over the internet.
Sure, you don't necessarily need the degree to be a journalist, but I think it's very important that if you want to be a journalist, you should be professionally trained in order to be the best journalist you can be.
If I were thrown in a newsroom right now and told to writw a story for something I'd be like "whaa?" (0_o) I don't think I'd even know how to start. But like Professor Reisner says, here at J-school,we are still in the parking lot, we're here to learn, so that when we are thrown in a newsroom, we'll know what to do, and how to do it well. :)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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