Gov. Moonbeam

WORDistas: This is not specifically WORDish, since the WORD is off at the sanitarium. But there is WORD-stuff in here — about truth-telling, politics and our role in the world. Now that I am a Californian, I can finally be proud of my governor.

Check it out: This Jerry Brown address on climate and politics to 25,000 geophysicists in SF on Thursday is absolutely inspirational. Watch it. And read Jim Fallow’s commentary. At 30, Jerry Brown was California's youngest governor. At 70, he came back and became our oldest. He is great. Seriously. Watch it. And I love his eyebrows.

https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/12/this-is-what-the-resistance-sounds-like/510899/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JamesFallows+%28The+Atlantic+-+James+Fallows%29

Lazy Bastard

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Today’s WORD on Journalism 
Afflicting the comfortable since 1995
Monday,  December 12, 2015 

Hiatus

Dear WORDistas:

You know, I have always checked out of the WORD when classes are over for Christmas Break. And even though I am retired, and really have no actual excuses, my wife reminds me that I should take some time off. She is trying to save me from a heart attack. God love her. In this time of Trumpification and other obscenities that raise my blood pressure, I think she has a good point.

So I have sent the WORD off to St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose and Insanely Fixated on Politics for the “holidays.” We’ll be back and renewed in January.

Maybe February.

Or, you know, don’t hold your breath.

— Dr. Ted, Professor of Formerly Interesting But Now Totally Disgusting Stuff, Trinidad, California

“It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.” —Luther Burbank

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Pop-Ups

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Toasty

“Television is like the American toaster, you push the button and the same thing pops up every time.”

  —Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), filmmaker

• Editorial Comment: Pop Tarts?






PeezPix by Ted Pease

Yum







Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to [email protected]. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Miracle Nylons

WORDmeister Note: The Pearl Harbor attack that started the Pacific war in WWII occurred on this day in 1941.
 
Those Were the Days, My Friend

“That December, Americans were reading Edna Ferber’s best-seller, ‘Saratoga Trunk,’ at $2.50 a copy. For 55 cents, they could get a matinee seat on Broadway to see Lillian Hellman’s anti-Nazi play, ‘Watch on the Rhine.’ For $38 you could buy an expensive suit at Rogers Peet in New York. Or ‘miracle’ nylons for $1.65.”

—Associated Press, “‘This means war’ — New AP book draws on Pearl Harbor reports,’” Dec. 3, 2016.

• Editorial Comment: I want one of those suits. Or nylons.




PeezPix by Ted Pease

At the Float










Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to [email protected]. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Disturbing Times

Make Waves. Or Bark Loudly