William M. Hartnett

The neighborhood of the week real estate feature is about the tiny oceanfront town of Palm Beach Shores.

DOWNLOAD THE PRINT SECTION
Print pages in PDF: Right-click and save-as to download (5.8 MB, 6 pages)

More bad newspaper writing that makes my eyeballs hurt: The “Got _____?” lede. The original “got milk?” ad campaign is bad enough, but to see its udder-tainted influence afflicting the brains of newspaper reporters is worthy of an Official Hartnett Brand Writing Whinge™. Stupid, lazy, meaningless. Not much more to say about it.

Previous installments in this series of annoying writing habits include the “call it” lede, the cop-talk phrase “person of interest,” inappropriate use of “award-winning,” the very rarely accurate use of “in a wide-ranging interview” and that all-time king of writing fail, “to be sure.”

• Disappearance of a financially golden newspaper period - The Media Business
  "Voices in and around the newspaper industry would have us believe the industry is falling apart and taking its last gaps. Investors are fleeing newspaper companies, publishers are decrying the lack of newspaper advertising growth, debt challenges are plaguing many companies, and there are layoffs and buyouts everywhere. If one rationally looks at the industry, however, one sees that it is fundamentally sound, but that a unique, financially golden period in its history is ending. It is that change which is creating the bulk of the turmoil in the industry, but the biggest problem is that those working in the industry have short memories about the newspaper business and don't remember it any other way."
  (tags: newspapers business history)
• Tanker trash talk - James Wallace on Aerospace
  "With the Pentagon perhaps just a week or so away from sending out a request for proposals on the Air Force tanker, the ongoing war of words between Boeing and Northrop backers has turned more ugly. The Boeing camp is upset at a hard-hitting radio ad from a group that calls itself "Alabamians to Build American Tankers.'' A sample from the ad: "The reason we are still trying to replace our aging refueling tankers is because Boeing executives were involved in a scandal of bribery and cheating in the last bid. Our Air Force is working hard to protect our country but it appears that Boeing's corporate policy is 'if Boeing can't win no one can' … and that means our troops lose." Woof.
  (tags: aerospace tanker airbus boeing politics)
• Brian McBride, Hard Man - Goal
  "The Chicago Fire just got a lot tougher Wednesday when the Major League Soccer team acquired striker Brian McBride in a deal with Toronto. … Despite his age (36) and some hard knocks sustained when he wore the captain’s arm band for Fulham, McBride appears as healthy and reliable a player now as he was for the U.S. national team." The man has titanium plates surgically implanted in his face.
  (tags: soccer nyt brian-mcbride mls)
• Re:connecting - yelvington.com
  "With the best of intentions and concerns about ethics and standards, we've built walls between journalism and the people and places we write about. America's newspapers were founded by activists, boosters and community-builders. The institutions they built had hearts and souls that over the years have been lost, forgotten, or just thrown away."
  (tags: newspapers community)

And I do mean dollar. As in one. As in one dollar. As in the one dollar per week I’m hoping to make from the addition of a bit of Google Adsense to the site. I know, I know. I too have always thought it was a little cheesy to put advertising, however well targeted and unobtrusive, on a little-trafficked personal site, particularly one that is long on opinions and short on legitimately interesting or useful content. Though I do have cat pictures. Lots of cat pictures.

Ah, but here’s another of my defining personality traits: I am cheap. A moneygrubber, if you will. The temptation to claim back some of my hosting expenses, as admittedly modest as they are, just proved too much, I’m afraid. If you really hate the ads, then, I don’t know, close one eye and use your thumb to block the view. I’m not officially suggesting that you click on a few of the ads just because you think I’m such a swell dude, but on the off chance you actually run across one that looks relevant to your interests, don’t be afraid to click on it, secure in the knowledge that, in doing so, you’ll have dropped a few pennies in the ol’ tip jar.

Why, there’s $1.66 off two clicks in there already. Sodas for everyone! Or sodas for 2.76 of you, anyway.

• Curmudgeonly resistance goes beyond the newsroom - Readership Institute
  “While there is no denying pockets of curmudgeons remain in newsrooms, perhaps it’s time to shine a light on the need for swift change in other departments, as well.” Start with the biz-side whiz who once told me “long-term thinking is a luxury.”
  (tags: newspapers readership-institute)

• Newspapers should have launched Google’s ‘Knol’ - Lucas Grindley’s blog
  “Google’s new ‘how to’ site, called Knol, is something I’ve pitched to newspapers for the last four months during my job search. Now I’m sharing the plan with everyone.”
  (tags: google newspapers knol)

As ever, I’m only pretty sure that what I have here is the correct view of The Spokesman-Review’s main office and printing plant in Spokane, Washington, as seen in Virtual Earth/Live Maps. Maybe Ryan Pitts or Colin Mulvany is out there and can correct me if I’m wrong.

And in Street View:

View Larger Map

• 2009 Nissan GT-R: The Arrival of the Fittest - NYTimes.com
  “This is the GT-R’s mission: Annihilate nearly every other car on the market at the racetrack while providing seating for four and ample storage space. Somewhat amazingly, it succeeds.”
  (tags: auto gt-r nissan nyt)