Grumpy Editor

Children can continue driving tractors on family farms

Credit the Labor Department’s withdrawal of a dopey 85-page proposed rule that would have affected children doing routine duties on family farms to a report by The Daily Caller’s Paul Conner, mentions Grumpy Editor.

 The planned regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on family farms and learn valuable skills.

Editorial writers on major city newspapers --- far from rural farms --- were quiet on the development, apparently unaware of the planned rule.

As Conner explained it:  “The rule would have dramatically changed what types of chores children under the age of 16 could perform on and around American farms. It would have prohibited them from working with tobacco, operating almost all types of power-driven equipment and being employed to work with raw farm materials.”

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) said the proposal would “ultimately undermine the very fabric of rural America.”

The Labor Department said the decision to withdraw the rule “was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms.”

Appearing Friday on Fox News, Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) said “farming is a family operation” and that’s where “kids learn the work ethic.”  He said 18,000 comments went to the Labor Department last week.

In a statement from his office, Moran said, “If this proposal had gone into effect, not only would the shrinking rural work force have been further reduced, and our nation’s youth deprived of valuable career training opportunities, but a way of life would have begun to disappear.”

 

Bennington (Vt.) Banner columnist marks 86 years writing

 

We don’t stop writing when we get old…

We get old when we stop writing.

That variation of a George Bernard Shaw line comes to mind with word that Bennington (Vt.) Banner columnist Harriette Leidich, who celebrated her 100^th birthday last week, continues to produce copy --- via typewriter --- for “Senior Moments,” notes Grumpy Editor. 

Recognized as the oldest active newspaper columnist in the U.S., she started her writing career at 14 with her father’s Iowa newspaper. 

Over the years she knew her way around newspaper production, too, including operating a Linotype that set type from hot lead.  It was an important back-shop machine from the late 1800s before fading in use during the 1970s. 

Leidich has been writing her column, a collection of mostly small town matters, since 1995 in the Bennington Banner one of MediaNews Group’s 57 daily newspapers in the U.S. 

Her July 17, 2006 column explained the background for her column. 

“Sometimes one needs to step back and take a closer look at what they write for publication,” she pointed out.

“This has been the case with my Senior Moments columns. Seems that as I grow older and as the world changes its many patterns and modes of living, one gets a bit jaded. When friends called to inquire if I had passed on, I decided to tell you that I am quite alive and always interested in what is going on in this world.”

 

Century-old Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call stops presses

With the final press run yesterday of the century-old Laurel Leader-Call, Laurel, Miss., another small-town is left without a newspaper, observes Grumpy Editor.

The publication covered Laurel, population about 20,000, and Jones County.

Founded in August, 1911, as the Laurel Daily Argus, the Laurel Leader-Call was owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., publisher of about 90 daily newspapers and more than 200 non-daily newspapers in 22 states, mainly in the eastern part of the country. 

The Laurel Leader-Call, which operated with a slim staff of 18, saw tough publishing times ahead last September when the daily went to a four-day schedule:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. 

It bowed out with a front page “Special Commemorative Final Edition” with a headline reading:  “Thank you for welcoming us into your lives and sharing your memories.” 

The farewell opening page reproduced 30 front pages from its century of providing news to the community.

 

Details from 1940 U.S. census go on Internet April 2

Not as speedy as the monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment figures currently released for the previous month, the U.S. Census Bureau on April 2 makes available --- via the Internet --- details of the 1940 census from the National Archives, notes Grumpy Editor.

Why the extra long delay?

Official reason:  “Strict confidentiality laws ensure that census records are only unsealed after 72 years have passed."

The 1940 census involved more than 120,000 enumerators who tallied information on 132 million people of which an estimated 21 million are alive today.

Compilation was done the old-fashioned way --- without computers.

It wasn’t until 1951 that the first large-scale computer --- a UNIVAC 1101 with a price tag close to $1 million --- was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The UNIVAC, short for Universal Automatic Computer, was considered to be the first capable of storing and running a program from memory.  (UNIVAC became a division of Remington-Rand Inc.)

The census form in 1940, a year before the start of World War II, contained 34 questions directed at households plus 16 others aimed at 5 percent.

After the lengthy Great Depression (which started in 1929), one of the most sensitive questions in 1940 dealt with personal income.

So it was placed at the end of the survey.

 

Obama's image on U.S. flag irks veterans in Florida

Following a Florida television station report about a desecrated U.S. flag, a dozen veterans descended on Lake County Democratic headquarters, resulting in the flag --- bearing President Barack Obama’s image replacing the 50 stars --- being removed from a flagpole at the site, notes Grumpy Editor.

A number of Web sites jumped on the story aired Tuesday on WFTV, Orlando.

But, surprisingly, the report was missing from most newspapers yesterday --- and today. 

The TV station reported Korean War veteran Don Van Beck said his blood was boiling.  "I can't describe how upset I was because you just don't do that to the American flag," he declared.

Other veterans joined him in expressing outrage. 

Greeting them where the flag was flying, Lake County Democrat Party chairwoman Nancy Hulbert said, "This is private property. This is private property. You're not allowed to touch anything. I'll call the police." 

But she went online to look up the flag code --- which should have been done prior to raising the altered flag.  The flag then was taken down. 

"If you've been a veteran and fought --- and some died for this flag --- you don't want to see it desecrated,” emphasized Van Beck.  "That's how simple it is."

 

Lincoln’s birthday gets less attention as years go by

Few readers of Sunday newspapers were aware that yesterday marked Abraham Lincoln’s birthday ---  a sad reflection on modern editors who usually relish anniversaries as easy ways to fill up columns around ads throughout the year, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Just last week, much editorial space was filled with two lengthy Associated Press stories on English novelist Charles Dickens birthday --- three years after Lincoln’s in 1809. 

Marking Lincoln’s birthday, once widely celebrated on Feb. 12, is now combined with all other presidents on next Monday’s Presidents’ Day.

However, Illinois, in observance of the 16^th president's birthday, closes  government offices, courthouses and libraries today (since Lincoln’s birthday falls on Sunday this year).  Even there, though, honoring the occasion is limited.  A banquet, organized by the Abraham Lincoln Association, was held last night at the President Lincoln Hotel in Springfield.

In New York, the state designated Lincoln's birthday as a floating holiday in 2012 for state employees in certain bargaining units. 

Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., yesterday celebrated Lincoln’s birthday and the opening of the Center for Education and Leadership with a day of free programming and activities that started with the National Park Service commemorating the occasion with wreath-laying in front of the theater.

One of the noteworthy tributes to Lincoln came yesterday in a Christian Science Monitor story by Peter Grier, who reminded: 

“Abraham Lincoln may be the greatest of all U.S. presidents. He ended slavery, won the Civil War, and ensured that the United States would remain united in the modern world. His face is printed on the five-dollar bill and stamped on the penny. The Lincoln Memorial is one of the nation’s iconic sites. 

“But Lincoln’s Birthday on Feb. 12 is not a national holiday, and it never has been.”

In one of the few mentions on television, Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, greeted the host with “Happy Abraham Lincoln birthday.”  He responded by noting her birthday was the day prior (in 1964, at Sandpoint, Idaho).

 

Time magazine hails protesters as ‘Person of the Year’

According to Time magazine, the “Person of the Year” is not an actual, individual person at all, but groups summed up as “The Protester,” observes Grumpy Editor.

High-tech developers, scientists, politicians, sports figures, entertainers, military commanders, etc. all were shelved in favor of  a cover story spotlighting demonstrators, including the Occupy Wall Street crowd.

And some magazine editors wonder why circulation is slipping. 

Time said protesters were recognized for "redefining people power" around the world.

Sounds like turning news pages back to the 1960s.

The weekly news magazine put the focus on dissent in the Middle East and Europe that spread to the U.S.

Protesters had been the force behind the largest news stories of the year, claimed Time editor Rick Stengel.

"They dissented, they demanded, they did not despair, even when the answers came back in a cloud of tear gas or a hail of bullets," he trumpeted.  “They literally embodied the idea that individual action can bring collective, colossal change."

Grumpy Editor wonders how many protesters are scanning Time magazine to savor the “colossal change” they brought in 2011.

 

Christmas tree tax proposal quickly fizzles --- for now

After word got out yesterday about the Obama administration immediately imposing a 15-cent fee (that means a tax in Washington) on all fresh Christmas trees, the White House reacted quickly to an influx of complaints and decided to sideline the plan for now, notes Grumpy Editor. 

As outlined in the Nov. 8 Federal Register --- which major media missed:

Purpose of the Christmas tree tax was to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry.” 

The proposal called for the Secretary of Agriculture to appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board to oversee funds collected via the Yule tree tax. 

No mention was made on composition of the Christmas Tree Promotion Board, number of members and if they will be on the federal payroll. 

Live Christmas trees already have a promotion source:  The National Christmas Tree Association which represents more than 5,100 “Christmas tree professionals.” 

The Christmas tree tax was merely shelved at this time. 

With the delay in implementation of the tax, the U.S. Department of Agriculture promised it will “revisit this action."

 

Media focus on protesters, not N.Y. Columbus Day parade

With thousands of marchers, representing two widely different groups, in New York City on Monday, media focused on covering the third week of Occupy Wall Street protesters and gave less treatment to a three-hour-long Columbus Day parade, a Gotham attraction paying tribute to Christopher Columbus since 1929, observes Grumpy Editor. 

The annual parade is the world’s largest celebration of Italian-American heritage and culture, pointed out Columbus Citizens Foundation, the parade organizer. 

More than 35,000 people participate in the event each year, including more than 100 sports groups, floats and bands, it added. 

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, getting away from his desk on the holiday, joined the parade. 

Walking the route coatless and with a small Italian flag in hand, he waved to potential voters as he made his way along Fifth Avenue. 

(On the same day, Bloomberg also had something to say about the Occupy Wall Street protesters camped at Zuccotti Park.  “The bottom line is that people want to express themselves, and as long as they obey the laws, we will allow them to,” he told reporters.) 

No New York newspaper mentioned the Columbus Day parade on front pages yesterday.

To its credit, Associated Press did dispatch photographer Tina Fineberg.

Among her parade shots were members of the Connetquot High School color guard, from Bohemia, N.Y., carrying out a flag routine along Fifth Avenue; members of the Stony Brook University Seawolves performing another routine and, of course, the waving Mayor Bloomberg draped in the colors of Italy.

 

Who’s on first? AP emphasizes proper baseball terms

With postseason baseball games getting under way today, Associated Press produces a style guide of key terms and definitions relating to the sport so writers and editors can be on the same page, notes Grumpy Editor. 

First off, AP reminds that ballclub, ballgame, ballpark and ballplayer all are one word.  But with “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” the traditional song during the seventh-inning stretch, ballgame is split into two words. 

Among other terms so that baseball writers don’t strike out: 

No more fancy words when a player hits the baseball out of the park, cautions AP.  Words such as walloped, blasted, cracked, bombs, four baggers are frowned on.  It’s strictly hitting a home run. 

As for pitchers, sports writers are refrained from using words such as twirling, chucking or fireballing. 

Also with pitchers, AP points out that it takes two pitchers doing well for a duel.  So that means pitchers’ duel rather than pitcher’s duel. 

Forget the hyphens, says AP, when it comes to describing third base umpire, first base coach and left field line. 

Finally, a team that goes through division series, league championship series and wins the World Series (starting Oct. 19) is called World Series champions, not world champions.