[lit-ideas] Re: Not a Transom Tale

Since television news is not something I watch, I had to wait for mention in the Oregonian of the black-knickered mayor to understand what others were talking about. Now, having with a sense of due duty and diligence, followed up on the internet--no doubt the censors are tracking me yet--I can report that lamb dressed as mutton, even when its called Mayor Kontur-Gronquist, looks the same wherever and whatever it shows.
http://bumpshack.com/2008/01/10/carmen-kontur-gronquists-racy-myspace- photo/
The careful reading which revealed this slightly-naked lady caused me to stumble on a much more important piece. The Oregonian is experimenting with something called, rather dully in my opinion, "community voices," guest opinion pieces from people who have emerged from a selection process, rather than by random selection over the transom. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transom
The piece in question you'll find buried half-way down this page. It's headlined "Sandra Duffy: Journalism's First Loyalty is to its Citizens." 

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianopinion/
Yesterday I struggled up from battling germs--currently I'm winning-- to be presidential, which meant making the highland dance competition run to time, announcing, fielding everyone's questions. The reward was a competition that ran exactly to time; the cost, as in all such things, was a lot of concentration and effort. This morning I was awoken by a phone call carrying news that my reputation for efficiency was undone. Though I had checked that every task I was supposed to do had been completed, we had not reckoned with slackers. The result was some number of parents with kids were stranded outside a dance studio where a workshop was supposed to take place; they had no means of getting in. One of the teachers solved the problem by diverting everyone to her studio while I worked on the afternoon round. Apparently the studio's secretarial person thought that if she left the back door unlocked, and didn't tell anyone, we'd somehow figure out how to break in and take possession of the studio. My phone number was on the contract, but she thought that it was our responsibility to contact her and to ask her was her thought process might be. 

It's enough to turn your interest towards higher things.

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon

------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: