Many years ago, we sent a reporter and a photographer out to the Nantahala National Forest to do a story on the wild boars out there that were tearing up the place. They spent about 3-4 days, traipsing up and down the hills. They got a great story, but no sightings of a boar. Nature stories can be like that. So it was with a little trepidation that I approached the story that ran today about the search for the Hellbender, a rare salamander that lives in mountain streams. It had all the makings of a snipe hunt, and we were resigned for defeat, as there is a long and proud tradition of nature journalism not quite panning out. (By the way, Boar is very tasty. If you ever see it on a menu, order it ...)
This time, we got lucky. For most of the day, our crack library was hunting down an image of a hellbender that we could use. Not as easy as it sounds (maybe it doesn’t sound easy ...) But right after they found a photo, we heard from our photographer, Kelly Bennett. The researchers had caught one of these critters, and we had the photos to prove it. Our entire newsroom—probably me loudest—cheered. Great story. Great photos.
Summer writing contest: The other day, Merriam-Webster released its list of new words in the 2007 dictionary. Lots of cool words, like Bollywood, and microgreen, etc. So, here’s the contest. You write a three-sentence paragraph or 5-7-5 haiku using as many of these words as you can. I will choose a winner, who will get a free, yes, free, Journal coffee mug, along with the satisfaction of a job well done. Deadline is close of business on July 20. Have fun!!!
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
speed dating was doomed
like agnolotti stuffed with
cheesy nocebo
Very nice. especially the agnolotti reference
Nodding his ginormous head to the crunk emitting from his hacked dvr,
Larry continued to read the gray literature about getting started in bollywood. He had given up on his plan to become a snowboardcross super-athlete after the IED blew him off the course in Nepal – like the worst RPG smackdown he’d ever been given except this one left him flex-cuffed to a hospital bed with little agnolotti shaped burns all over his body, a perfect storm of pain. Finding that the chaebol financed all productions through their sudoku holding companies and speed dating extortion rackets, suddenly Larry’s viewshed opened up, each piece of the hardscape a microgreen nocebo attempting to break his spirit, like the pimply kid in the telenovela he was ignoring in the background.
WOW! Microgreen nocebo. Sounds like the salad course at an Asian fusion restaurant
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