Section 1 final offer: Wednesday at 8 a.m.

Responding to the roar of the crowd in Section 1, I have been looking for a time and place to give the in-class portion of the final before Dec. 12, which is the scheduled time.

Room 009 is available from 8 to 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 10. If you cannot take the final at that time, please let me know ASAP. I'll let everyone know for sure once I hear back from anyone who has a conflict.

Section 3, you are still on for Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008, from 3:20 to 5:20 p.m. in Room 004.

Stevens out of Senate, Palin still in the news

Interesting times for Alaska politics. Ted Stevens, longest serving Republican in U.S. Senate history, gets bounced (that's what a criminal conviction a week before the election will do for you), but Sarah Palin's face keeps showing up. Wonder when her Senate campaign begins.

Here's the AP story on Stevens: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZXmpL3-GlWbhbGKemFmCm_bPPmQD94HVFD80

In case you missed it: Hulk for dictator

In case you missed the teaser on the front of the Daily Skiff, here's the kind of leadership student editors at TCU would like to see: "Hulk Hogan should be America's dictator."

Why didn't the Republicans think of that before Nov. 4?

Three articles worth reading

I saw three articles on Romenesko this morning that I thought worth pointing out to people headed into the field of journalism.

Set aside plenty of time to read this article in the Columbia Journalism Review that argues, "To win the war for our attention, news organizations must make themselves indispensable by producing journalism that helps make sense of the flood of information that inundates us all."

Next up is from the Daily Skiff, The Texas Christian University newspaper, quoting Craig Flournoy, an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University, on how the turmoil in journalism today "benefits young people because it allows them to move up the ladder faster."

And finally, check out this article from the Knight Digital Media Center that quotes Jonathan Weber of New West right here in Missoula on the increasing interest in community news sites.

Trim stories, don't butcher them

I had the feeling some of you charged out of the classroom today intent on using the delete key as a samurai sword on the latest assignment. I have asked for this collection of 1,800 words (I hesitate to call it writing) to come down to 900, and many of you asked why leave that many standing.

I'm a believer in less is more, that longer writing is easier to do than concise writing ("I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one," Mark Twain said -- yea verily). But please use caution that you leave the essential information in this story. If you think you have done that in fewer than 900 words, fine. But I'll be checking it twice over Thanksgiving.

So don't start acting like John Belushi as the Samurai Deli Owner.

Now and then I lead you astray

Several of you have answered the extra credit question by pointing out that the caption says "Then" and "Now" and there is no "Now" photo. In the original publication, there was a second photograph, which I decided not to post. That is not the obvious error that several readers brought to the attention of editors. Sorry about that bum steer.

I am still accepting answers by e-mail. Only one correct answer so far. Keep trying.

That must have been some fire

I was struck by the picture on the front of La Opinion, the Spanish language paper published in Los Angeles, Calif. A photo like that of such destruction is bound to make readers stop and look.