... and we're done!

Thanks to Chip for bringing us home.

So, 48 is good. But more is better. Keep checking back!

For now, I'm off to the airport. And to get some food. I think I lost a few pounds this weekend.

Later tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, I'll post audio from the interview I did with the Times' Bill McDonald. I'll also post audio from an interview I did with Denis Horgan Jr., a senior producer for "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." He runs The News Hole, the show's recently launched blog.

I also have some tips to post from John Sweeney's very engaging presentation on how newsrooms are changing.

All that and more in the next 24 hours.

Thanks to all of you who contributed. Whether you e-mailed, commented or called, you all rock. And special thanks to the few of you who visited me here in Hartford.

I hope some of what you find here helps you out with your writing. All the credit goes to the wonderful speakers who took a weekend out of their busy schedules to come teach. And, of course, to all the people who pitched in to run the event, especially Korky Vann and Denis Horgan.

Ciao!


E-mail this item | Add/View Feedback (2) | QuickLink this item: A121448


... but acts like an investigative reporter?

Lucy Ferris.

Chip Scanlan went to her presentation today and jotted down a few tips. These are his notes. Starting now...

She writes stories about herself, but digs like a journalist to discover -- and reveal in her writing -- truths about the world we all live in.

Ferris had several tips for those who want to turn their lives into a book.

But first, she made three assumptions about her audience:


With that out of the way, here are three of her tips for people who want to write memoir.

46 You need to start digging.

47 You need to assemble what you've learned.

48 You need to throw 90 percent of it away.

Some writers use timelines to help discover their story; others use outlines, either rough or detailed; and Ferris uses a wagon wheel. She showed us a rough drawing of the one she used as she was reporting "Unveiling the Prophet: The Misadventures of a Reluctant Debutante."

In the center was her subject. From there, spokes stretched out to the wheel rim. At the end of each spoke was a bubble, representative of a topic she needed to learn more about -- sources to interview, history to master, books to find and read.

I think light bulbs went off in a lot of heads, including my own. I could see the subject of the memoir I'm working on in the center of a wheel, linked by spokes to all the subjects I need to master. Thanks, Lucy, for practical and inspiring advice.

Coming soon >>> The end!


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121445


... is a lot like writing about death.

That's one of the things New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald told me this afternoon. I recorded our conversation and I'll pull some tips out of it when I edit the audio later on the plane. But for now, here are a few:

43 Write obituaries as true narratives. Few places in the newspaper allow for classic narrative storytelling in the way the sports and obituaries pages do. Only downside of the obituary: "We give away the ending in the first sentence."

44 Stick to conventions, but push their limits. In the lede, for instance, the reader needs to find out who died, when it happened, and perhaps where and how. But conventions don't bar you from writing a lede like the one McDonald cited as an example in the audio interview -- I'll post it later.

45 Experiment with multimedia. The Times has been collecting advance obituaries for a long time. McDonald said the paper currently has a collection of 1,300. Recently they started doing them in video. A piece on Art Buchwald is the first and, so far, only one the Times has published. McDonald hopes the video obituaries will eventually become a regular feature. Could you do something like this in your community?

Coming soon >>> Chip sends some tips from Lucy Ferris. Books. The end is in sight!


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121442


... the lede; it's about finding it, Maureen Croteau said earlier this afternoon.

Croteau directs the journalism program at the University of Connecticut.

She and her husband, Wayne Worcester, who also teaches journalism at the university, conducted what I can only describe as a tag-team tip dump. The topic was ledes. Here are some highlights:

38 Mary: "The job is not writing the lead, the job is finding the lead -- in your material -- that works for your story."

39 Wayne: "No matter how good you are, you are not better than your material."

40 Mary: Ask one question. "Why do my readers care about this story now?" That's it.

41 Wayne: Read your lead out loud. "One of the writer's greatest tools is the ear." When a reader reads, he hears the words.

42 Mary: "There's no such thing as perfecting the lead. ... You never get the lead perfect. But you get a lead you like."

These are two very compelling teachers.

For more on ledes, check out "The Lead Lab" over at NewsU.

Coming soon >>> John Sweeney on how newsrooms are changing. The last of the tips. What you can expect tomorrow.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121439


... if you want to write something worth reading.

That's from Pulitzer Prize winner and former Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara.

33 There is no substitute for being there. "It's about boots on the street." No matter what you're writing about, it won't be good unless you get out there and know it.

"The best writing that you do comes when you go out and smell and touch it and see it."

34 "You can overwrite, but you can't over-report." Stay away from adverbs and adjectives. "You should be in agony that have so many great things in your notebook that you can't put in the story."

35 If you have a limited amount of time, spend as much of it as you can reporting.

36 "Read the damn clips." Newspapers are losing their institutional memory. Report the story that's happening now, and tell the readers about the story that happened a decade ago.

37 Pay little attention to the public relations folks. "They're not paid to tell you anything important." But be nice to them, "or they won't let you in."

Coming soon >>> Learning about leads. Lunch break. John Sweeney on how newsrooms are changing.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121436


... the data (and the real people who populate it).

A little less than a year ago, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant ran a four-day, seven-story series that revealed massive lapses in the way the military screens for and treats mental health.

The story prompted Congress to demand that the military change its mental health screening and treatment policies.

Lisa Chedekel and Matt Kauffman, who reported the award-winning series, talked about it this morning in a way that made it seem simple.

Ask questions. Figure out where to find the answers. And go get them.

The driving question for this project: Is the military letting soldiers who are mentally unfit into the military?

In the hour I spent listening to the two reporters, it became clear that they work like a machine. In Lisa's words, Matt is "a data god." Lisa said she is better with people than she is with numbers.

The result is a set of stories that are as thoroughly educational as they are gut wrenching.

I can almost hear you yelling at me. Where are the tips? Here you go.

26 Be the expert. You'll be taken much more seriously if you know what's going on. "Do all you can, read all you can," Matt said.

Becoming an expert isn't easy. Sometimes getting the information you need takes some muscle. Matt slogged through thick resistance before convincing the military to release the data from nearly a million pre-deployment mental health screen forms.

"When people say no," Matt said, "that's not the end of the negotiations."

Data is crucial. It puts the story in context. It explains what Matt and Lisa called "the system" to readers.

But Matt is quick to point out: "Numbers can help you support a story, but they don't make a story. They don't resonate with readers. ... You need people."

27 Be relentlessly curious and relentlessly optimistic. Believe the information is out there and know that you can get it. Don't ever assume people will hang up on you.

Lisa and Matt went looking for soldiers who had committed suicide. Since the military doesn't release cause of death in suicide cases, this wasn't easy. Using a combination of online resources -- www.icasualties.org and www.legacy.com -- they came up with a list of soldiers whose causes of death were unknown.

And then, they started making calls. They were shocked by the response. "Really, the common reaction to us was just a flood of information coming out," Lisa said, "as if these folks were just relieved we were looking into this."

28 When you have to make difficult phone calls, come up with a game plan.

Jeff Henthorn was one of the first soldiers on the Lisa and Matt's list. When it came time to call, instead of contacting the dead soldier's parents, Lisa called his ex-wife Tricia. They talked for four hours. Tricia led Lisa to Jeff's sisters. Eventually, after she had talked to several other family members, Lisa talked to Jeff's parents.

29 If you work at a small paper, use your size to your advantage. It's not every day that a newspaper the size of the Courant takes on a national investigative story. Lisa said that worked to the project's advantage.

"We're not the New York Times," she said. "We never really showed our hand that we were looking at mental health."

The reporters worked on the project for eight months. Five days before the series was set to run, they sent a list of questions to the military. A few days later, Lisa followed up.

No comment. The day the first story ran, the military called back. Too late.

30 Team up.  Everyone has different strengths. This was the first time Lisa teamed up with another reporter on an investigation.

Her advice on teamwork: "Don't yell at your colleague in the middle of the newsroom."

31 Aim high. "There was no reason," Lisa said, "given the constraints on the Courant at the time, that when we went to the editors and said we wanted to work on a big project about mental health in the military that has nothing to do with Connecticut and isn't an area we have any expertise in, that they should have said yes."

And you know, I think the simple brilliance of Matt and Lisa's approach is worth repeating -- and counting as a tip.

32 Ask questions. Find out where you can get the answers. And go get 'em.

Coming soon >>> A bit from Eileen McNamara on reporting. Learning about leads. And more!


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121433


... sightseeing.

But that's not going to stop me from (finally) giving you this little bit of literary history from Chip Scanlan:


I wonder what bars those guys hung out at...

Coming soon >>> Audio interviews? Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman on a major investigation first thing tomorrow morning. And more!


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121430


... but people still think it's real!

Andy Borowitz, author of the crazy-hilarious Borowitz Report, closed out the day with some great laughs. At first, I thought to myself: "Wait a minute, this isn't very educational. How am I going to get a tip out of this?" Three jokes later: "Screw it."

Here's one thing I learned.

25 Watch, listen to and read fake news. "I've talked to college kids who say they don't get the jokes on the Daily Show," Andy said. "So, they start reading the news. Fake news drives people to real news."

And in some cases, it passes for real news.

Borowitz said he has received thousands of e-mail responses to fake stories he writes. Why haven't I seen that reported elsewhere? What are your sources?

Here are three stories lots of people thought were real:


Time for me to go scrounge up some grub. I still haven't eaten today. Also, I have to admit that things were made more hectic than I expected today by the fact that I can't get Internet access in the presentation rooms. Still, doing my best to get things posted as soon as I can. Unfortunately, all the running around has made it a little difficult to track down the folks I'm planning to do audio interviews with. I'll do my best to round a few of them up later this evening.

One other thing -- I got a cell phone charger! Just as I'd hoped, the morning crew came through for me. Tip number five stands.

Since I might not post again for a few hours, I'll leave you with this. It's funny, and at the same time, sort-of profound. It's one of the opening lines from Andy's presentation.

"People often ask me if I consider myself a news junkie," he said. "And the answer is no. Really, I consider myself a heroin junkie. But I only started doing heroin after watching too much news. News is really a gateway drug."

Coming soon >>> History lesson! Audio interviews? At least another 23 tips tomorrow!


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121427


... w/ Dan Barry.

"When I got to the [Journal Inquirer] I rode around ... and imagined that 20,000 people around me were keeping secrets from me." When Dan got to The New York Times, that number jumped to eight million. And then, most recently, when he started writing "This Land," it jumped to two or three hundred million.

22 Drop the attitude. We drop into a certain lingo. "We build up a callous that separates us from the story."

This makes Dan think about Hurricane Katrina. When he went, he thought to himself: "I've done disaster, let's go. ... But I quickly shed that attitude."

"When I did that, everything became fresh again. Even if something looked like a cliche, it was the truth and I wrote it down. ... I opened myself up to it. ... And once you do that, there's kind of a liberation, at least there was one for me."

"I felt like I was owning the material in some way. Out of a hundred details, I maybe only used five in the story. But I knew, if I needed a better one, I could get it in my notebook."

23 Write a killer lead. "I think people read newspapers, for reasons not to read the story. ... So our challenge is to grab them through the paper and say -- 'Read this.' ... I work extremely hard on my leads. That's my shot." He thinks about top spin, driving the reader from paragraph to paragraph to a surprise that the end.

"What would grab my mother if I told this to her. You need to who, what, where, when, why. But there are creative ways to do that. Maybe you put the who, what, when in the first paragrph and the where and why in the second."

24 Read the newspaper, especially the little stories. "I love metro briefs. These are extraordinary stories that happen in New York that we're too busy to give any more than 60 to a hundred words. ... A man rescues someone off Coney Island. I want to know what that's like. I've never rescued anyone."

"I look for stories about the human condition, the small stories that say something about who we are and where we are."

Coming soon >>> Yes, Chip, history. Andy Borowitz on fake news. Dinner (since I still haven't eaten today).


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121424


... some tips along the way.

For a long time, Steve Friedman squeezed out a living writing magazine stories about celebrities. When he had time, he wrote stories he loved, stories about recovered drug-addict marathon runners, and the like. Then, one day, he landed a teaching job at the University of Missouri Journalism School. Now, he is writer-at-large for the Rodale Sports Group. He has a book coming out later this year.

Here are his four commandments -- fleshed out with tips from the 30 or so editors and writers he e-mailed earlier this week -- for leading "a happy and productive writer's life."

18 Be a reader. Friedman quoted from "Reading Like a Writer," by Francine Prose. "Writers learn from reading the work of their predecessors."

19 Find great stories. "There's no level below which you should not sink in your quest for great stories," Friedman said. Find them in the newspaper. Be curious. Ask people, straight-up, for story ideas. Be blunt and even rude, if you have to. Ask friends and family. "Motives don't matter when you're looking for story ideas," Friedman said.

20 Be a reporter. Do lots of interviews. Do them long. Hang out. Shoot the bull. Take some time to not ask questions. Ask yourself if a scene you witness is really significant, or if it just seems that way because you, the reporter, are there. And "when you hear a great story," Friedman said, "get it from someone else, too." Verify the story. Get details.

21 Be a writer. Rewrite the lead -- and the whole damn thing. Savor the process.

In captivating detail, Friedman illustrated his commandments, guiding us though several of his most delightful, enlightening and outright bizarre stories.

Most of them will appear in his new book, "The Agony of Victory," due out in October.

Coming soon >>> Chip's literary history of Hartford -- really, I promise. Dan Barry on story ideas. And more @ left.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121421


... but there's no end in sight!

Natural planning, Poynter's Chip Scanlan said, has nothing to do with birth control, and everything to do with helping you get your work done.

This one counts as a few tips.

13-17 Make a plan.

"If you follow this method," Chip said, "good things will happen, wild successes will happen."

It starts with a project. Anything really. Clean the garage, file your taxes on time, get a story on the front page.

"In this case," Chip said, "the journey matters more than the destination."

Articulating a project can be less intimidating, Chip said, if you ax the verb-driven sentence for a declarative one.

The garage is clean. The taxes are filed on time. The story is on the front page.

Then, ask yourself these five questions:


This method, Chip said, is how he and his wife brought to completion a project they had conceived 30 years earlier. It was a Christmas story. And it became "The Holly Wreath Man."

So, take out a piece of paper. Write down the project you're working on, or one you're dreaming of working on. And get planning.

Coming soon >>> Chip on Hartford's literary history. Steve Friedman on finding and selling the stories you love. And, later this afternoon, Dan Barry on story ideas.



E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121418


... Jabari Asim, author of "The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why," had this to say.

10 "As long as there is no consensus about the use of certain language," Asim said, "it's not okay for me to use." What about artists? Journalists?

The word nigger seems to come up most often today in discussions of hip-hop music. Asim argues for the importance of putting these discussions in context. In 1895, he said, the Parker Brothers -- yes, the same boys who brought you Monopoly -- introduced a game called 10 Little Niggers, a version of the card game Old Maid.

So, who ought to be using the word today?

Artists can, Asim said. But only sometimes. Only, he said, if it is being used to "send up, satirize or expose" the use of the word.

"I think there's a danger in being absolutist about this," Asim said about the use of epithets.

How, though, should such words be used by reporters?

I think this is worth another tip.

11 "Journalists should use [epithets] sometimes," Asim said. "People have a right to know. If I read, 'Mel Gibson went on an anti-semitic tirade.' I want to know what he said."

Here's a suggestion from Asim. If you have to use an epithet, use it sparingly. Write the word once, near the beginning of the story and refer back to it as "the epithet" later.

How exactly, though, should journalists use the epithet on which Asim's recent book focused? For an answer, the author directed me to Poynter dean Keith Woods' comments about the O.J. Simpson trial. Here, is a 1995 essay from Woods.

And here's one more tip, derived from, if not stated directly in, Asim's presentation.

12 Apply the full breadth of the language to scenes, situations and stories that are difficult to write about. "Hip-hop relies on verbal dexterity," Asim said, "so why not apply that standard to the vocabulary that is used?" Like hip-hop artists, journalists craft words into stories. When it comes to using epithets, there are no hard and fast rules for journalists. Be careful, Asim said, but tell the truth.


Coming soon >>> Lunch. Chip Scanlan on the literary history of Hartford. And, since I know you can't get enough of him, Chip on how to acheive "wild success."


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121415


...don't go up to the stranger you see reading one of your books in LAX.

He might flip you the bird and tell you to buzz off.

That and lots of other fascinating stories of the writing life from David Baldacci. His 12 bestselling novels have sold roughly 50 million copies. He's also working to eradicate illiteracy in America -- see the Wish You Well Foundation.

Not surprisingly, Baldacci speaks eloquently. He told stories of his family, of the deranged reader in LAX and of changing his name to David Ford to sell his book to Italians, a people, he says, who do not believe that their countrymen can write well. Here are a few tips.

6 Be curious, no matter what you're writing. "Writing is having an innate curiosity about life. Even if you write fiction. You're writing more than fiction, you're writing about life."

7 Keep it simple. "The best stories have simple storylines." Reading, Baldacci says, takes energy in a way that watching a film does not. A simple story isn't a bad story, or an easy story. Very often, he says, it's a story that works.

8 "You can never allow research to interfere with a story." Baldacci's upcoming novel, "Simple Genius," is about a subject so complex I'm not sure anyone in the audience understood what he was talking about when he described it. A molecular computer. He says he interviewed scores of people, not to write a textbook, but to support the story, with truth.

And here's a good one. I like it because it speaks to our mission as journalists, and the mission of The Poynter Institute. Journalism, Nelson Poynter asserted many years ago, is essential to democracy.

So, Baldacci says, is literacy.

9 Encourage literacy in your community. According to Baldacci, half of all Americans are essentially illiterate. "An illiterate population is one that is easily manipulated. If you can't read, you can't really think. And if you can't think, how do you come up with your thoughts and ideas and opinions about things."

What does your news organization do to help people in the community learn to read. If you can't think of anything, Baldacci's newest effort might be a good way to start. Check it out here.

Coming soon >>> Chip Scanlan joins the blog. Jabari Asim on the power of language. Lots more today -- see schedule @ left.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121412


... at your favorite major hotel!

This one is the result of a team effort. But most of the credit goes to Korky Vann. She threw this one at us over dinner.

5 If you leave your cell phone charger at home when you're travelling, check in with the front desk at your hotel. More often than not, they'll have a replacement for you. Korky says the chargers are one of the most common things people leave behind in hotel rooms.

In light of this tip, it seems almost appropriate that I left my charger back in St. Pete. To be completely honest, I lost it months ago, and have since been relying on the charger I keep in my car. Maybe the Hilton can help me out?

Debbie, a front desk staffer at the Hartford Hilton, delivers bad news. She knows the hotel staff saves the chargers they find. But as luck would have it, she doesn't know where they are.

Up until a few days ago, Debbie says, there were roughly 40 chargers sitting in a box behind the front desk.

I leave my room number and hold out hope that the morning crew will be able to track down this box.

I'll keep you posted.

If you're looking for a slightly more responsible solution, buy some extra chargers in advance. That's what Washington Post reporter and book author Rajiv Chandrasekaran says he does. Check out Amazon for super-cheap generic chargers.

Until further notice, reaching me by cell phone will be impossible.

Coming soon >>> The cell phone charger hunt continues. Breakfast. David Baldacci @ 10.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121409


... not only sounds cool; it is cool.

Amy Gahran, who maintains the Poynter Online blog "E-Media Tidbits," posted this tip in a comment to my first post on this blog.

4 Use RSS feeds to follow new developments on your beat without having to visit a hundred different Web sites everyday.

But how do you create a search feed?

Here's Amy:

Big thanks to Amy.

Later this morning, the workshop begins, and I'll start flooding this blog with tips. Don't let that stop you from commenting or e-mailing me with tips of your own -- just like Amy did. And feel free to weigh in on the tips I'm posting.

Coming soon >>> One more post before I sleep.


E-mail this item | Add/View Feedback (1) | QuickLink this item: A121406


... an argument for the power of good writing in an age of multi-everything. If I could eat all the Blackberries I see in this place, I would probably be sick. Then again, the medium -- or the media -- isn't what matters.

What matters, according to Denis Horgan, is the writing.

1 When buzzwords like multimedia, community journalism and innovation hang thick like fog >>> "writing is the basic raw material of all storytelling, all communication and all journalism."

2 Good writing is >>> "the effective (affective) relay of information to an audience."

3 If you want to be a good writer >>> "write blogs, write letters, write on bathroom walls ... write more."

Click here to listen to Denis explain his advice. He's written news stories and he's written fiction. He's been in the business for a quarter of a century and he is one of the most ardent proponents of the blog, as a form, that I've ever met.

As promised, I'm off to the bar. Hope to see you there. Check back in the morning for more tips.

Coming soon >>> RSS instructions from Amy Gahran. Tips like crazy all day. See the schedule @ left.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121403


... the waiter, even though I'm trying to collect a big pile of tips myself this weekend?

Just got back from a fascinating dinner with a few of the speakers, not to mention the folks who are running this event. Many thanks go to Korky Vann and Denis Horgan, both of whom are leading the charge this weekend. And from the little I've seen so far, they've got a wonderful team of people helping them out.

(Full disclosure -- Denis picked up the tab at dinner.)

So, where are the tips? Haha. To be honest, I hope you aren't anywhere near your computer at this hour on a Friday night.

But if you are, I'll be sticking with you for another couple hours. First set of tips is on its way. It'll come from Denis within the hour -- in audio!

(For those of you who were hoping to hear from Chris Keating tonight, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. Wasn't able to catch up with him tonight. Soon enough, all you wonks, soon enough.)

Denis and I talked about the value of writing in an age of mutlimedia storytelling, what lies ahead at the workshop this weekend and exactly what he means when he says "good writing."

Like I said, I'll post the audio, and some tips, before midnight. That's a deadline. After that, I'll be at the hotel bar, having a drink and unwinding.

If you are at the computer -- and you're in Hartford -- get yourself out of the room and come have a drink with me.

Coming soon >>> Interview w/ Denis Horgan. RSS feed instructions from Amy Gahran. A whole flurry of tips -- see schedule @ left.


E-mail this item | Add Your Comments | QuickLink this item: A121400


... if I start early?

It's almost noon on Friday. Already I've gotten some killer response to my first post. I just can't help but tell you all about it.

First of all, Michael suggested I Twitter these tips. What does that mean? Check it out. Yesterday someone at Poynter told me this thing is "burning up the Web." So, I'll be using my new Twitter page throughout the weekend to let you all know exactly what I'm up to. Am I asking you to stalk me? I think that's the idea.

Lots of people have weighed in with pre-workshop tips. Here's a quick rundown. And no, I won't be counting these toward the grand total (because that, I think, might be cheating).

• Laurie suggests we get to the point >>> "You'd better put the 'why I'm bothering telling you so' part at the top!"

• Kathleen tells us to save some good ideas for the next time around >>> "After I do a seasonal story, I 'debrief' myself and make a list of a two or three other stories I could have done. Then I use Microsoft's calendar to set up an appointment for about six weeks before that story will return the next year, with the ideas typed in."

• Denise suggests we get out the door and report >>> "The stories are in the people, how they go about their lives, and that means getting out the door, in the community and observing the world first-hand."

My #1 tip for reporters: Know how to create search feeds (RSS) to follow your beat -- whether ongoing (for search strings such as: environment... 

• Rick throws this in the mix >>> "Do I have to write this 'story' as a story? Alternative story forms (Q&A, 2-minute guide, pro and con, etc) are often more effective and a darned sight more visually entertaining than a 25-inch story."

• Ann writes in to advocate for questions and answers >>> "It's always easy to structure if you start with a question, then answer it. Next paragraph, next question."
  

This is great stuff. I'm learning a ton and I haven't even gotten to Hartford. Keep it coming everyone!

Here's one more great idea. This one comes from fellow Poynter blogger Amy Gahran. She's arguably a journalism-tip machine -- go here now.

• Amy tells beat reporters >>> "Know how to create search feeds (RSS) to follow your beat -- whether ongoing (for search strings such as: 'environment Alabama') and short-term for special purposes (such as: 'fulton amendment').

If I'm lucky, I'll get Amy to elaborate on that for the blog sometime this weekend. Hint-hint, Amy. E-mail me.

I'm off to the airport. By 7 or so, I'll be in Hartford. I have audio interviews scheduled with Denis Horgan and Chris Keating, both Hartford guys. Denis, director of the workshop, will give us a quick preview of what we might expect, and Chris, capitol bureau chief for The Hartford Courant, will give us a sneak peak at his session on covering local politics. Check back later tonight to hear what they have to say.

And be sure to glance over my itinerary for tomorrow. Send me the questions you would ask if you were in the audience. I'll ask 'em and bring you the answers.

To wrap up, I'll leave you with this.

• In the comments on last night's post, Dan advises me to stay away from cheese cubes >>> "... at those press parties. they'll kill you."

E-mail this item | Add/View Feedback (1) | QuickLink this item: A121364


48 Tips in 48 Hours Archive

View items published between:		and
	(MM/DD/YYYY)		(MM/DD/YYYY)

Or, go back 10 items per page: MORE > | Back to Top