And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus

... that as someone who was ruled by deadlines for 36 years of newspapering, I still, out of habit I suppose, set deadlines for myself.
For example, I always write this column on Mondays if nothing serious intervenes. The newspaper would not mind if it was a day or even two late, because it would still be a week ahead of publication.
Generally, I have an idea what I am going to write about by noon Sunday, and make notes Sunday afternoon and evening. Well, this Monday morning, I wound up with no notes and no idea!
After listening to weather forecasts this morning, I suspect if I would wait until tomorrow, I could write about the terrible storm the forecasters say is coming tonight.
Instead, I will fall back on some notes I made last week, when we had a beautiful full moon. One source said the moon appeared larger than usual because it was not rising high above the horizon, and so was shining through more of the atmospheric trash that circles the earth. The source said in olden days it was sometimes referred to as a honey moon, not for romantic reasons, but because those same atmospheric conditions tended to give it a darker yellow color. Another name given was strawberry moon, because it occurs when the June berries, strawberries, are ripe.
I made a note last week to maybe comment on a news story decrying the amount of student debt recent college and university graduates incur. The story unbelievably credited the slow economy in large part to the fact that graduates, in debt, “can’t afford to buy that new car or first home.” Have things changed that much since I graduated? Are those items logical expectations for a new grad? How about a used car and a cheap apartment for starters! Or how about putting off attending college until having made enough money to afford enrollment? The president says he will, by executive order, cap the amount students have to pay on loans, or forgive some altogether. Is that fair? I knew a number of high school grads in past years who passed up college because their families could not afford to send them. Is it right to ask them and their parents to now assume higher taxes to pay for somebody else’s education? Doesn’t seem so!
Plus, some of the more financially successful folks I have known did not go to college, but relied on their entrepreneurial skills to advance.
Finally, presumably college educated “journalists” made the following errors I noted in print recently.
One wrote there would be an effort to faze out the program. Should be phase out.
Another said the pleased citizen upon completion of the task shouted “wahlah!” The real word is French, spelled voila, but pronounced with the “w” sound.
A third said the new building contained less doors. Should be fewer when speaking or writing about amounts.
One radio announcer reported that firemen “contained” the blaze to a certain area. He means confined. The damaged area may contain the fire, but only an outside source can confine it.
Their expensive college degrees have not served them well.
P.S. Look carefully for my errors in the above, won’t you?