The waiting game

A journalist in Philadelphia is interested in doing a story on a La Salle project that involves our students tutoring at a city middle school. The program is held on Wednesdays, and there are 3 more until the end of the semester (after which our students in the program take a break to get ready for finals). This journalist is pretty busy and said they can probably make the last Wednesday; I have no problem with that, but if something comes up and it falls through, then I'll have to wait another six to eight weeks before the journalist can visit the site again. Such are the hazards of this profession.

I just learned that a story in Philadelphia Metro about our MA program in Psychology was published; it was written by Rachel Vigoda, daughter of the late Ralph Vigoda, who was an Inquirer reporter. Ralph died several years ago at 53, and I will always be grateful for his professionalism and assistance. If I pitched a story to Ralph, he'd listen and if he liked it, fine, and if he didn't, he didn't wavering for days and days. If he thought another writer at the paper would be interested in doing that, he would tell me who to approach. I don't think I'm going overboard here, but the Inquirer and its readers lost something special when he died.

Once again coming up with a trio...

Tuesday, Nov. 4 was a pretty good day: the Philadelphia Inquirer posted three La Salle stories:

One was a book review by Br. Ed Sheehy; the second was an oped by Jack Rossi on the 1960 presidential election, and the third was an item about Bob Vogel being honored for his "Writer's Matter" program, done in 12 schools throughout the area. I knew the review would be published that day (the author was in town and the paper likes to publish a review when its author is speaking locally), but the other two could have run at any time.

When it's not Halloween

For the first time in 13 years, TV did not come to campus to film the kids from our daycare center trick or treating. It's possible TV crews didn't show because they tricked and treated on the Friday BEFORE Halloween, as opposed to doing it on Halloween (which was on a Sunday this year). Well, next year Halloween should be on a Monday; if I'm lucky, the Eagles will have had a bye week then and the airwaves won't be saturated with football, football and more football.

I still love Halloween

but not for the candy...

It's a good opportunity for media coverage, everything from how the holiday started to how much candy should kids eat to why adults like dressing up in costumes more than kids. Also, the children from La Salle's Building Blocks Daycare Center go trick-or-treating through the campus and local TV has covered it just about every year they've done it.

Many thanks to Marti Hottenstein, who shared her personal story of losing her son and the changes in her life since to Daily News columnist Jen Armstrong. My colleague Amy Cranston came across Marti's story (she's a grad student in psychology) and pitched it to the paper. Jen did the story very quickly. Here's a link:

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/jenice_armstrong/20101020_Jenice_Armstrong__Mom_scarred_by_tragedy_helps_addicts_in_their_struggle.html

Here's where luck plays a part in this business: including the above column by Jen Armstrong, ther ewere three La Salle items in the Oct. 20 issue of the Philadelphia Daily News. All three were submitted at different times but it just happened that they all ran on the same date. The other two were a column by Jack Rooney on his favorite Philadelphia baseball team and an item by columnist Dan Gross on how five La Salle alums have published books recently and will appear on campus to talk about them.

Next up are the mid-term elections: the media will be looking for pre and post analysis, so I'm asking the faculty for any and all opinions.

Deadlines....

Many thanks to Kale Beers of the Athletics Dept. here at La Salle: The BBC's Washington office called me today wanted to talk to John Rossi about American baseball (he's written three books on the topic) tomorrow morning, but the network had specific technical needs that Athletics has and Kale is nice enough to take the time to help out with the interview tomorrow morning.

As the Phillies progress through the playoffs and, we hope, to the World Series, I expect more media will be interested in speaking to Prof. Rossi

And speaking of thanks, I'd like to thank Dr. Luis Gomez, director of La Salle's Hispanic Institute, for taking out of a very busy day to speak with an Inquirer reporter (on deadline) about Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa receiving the Nobel Prize for literature. Several comments from him were published in the story. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/books/20101008_Mario_Vargas_Llosa__visiting_professor_at_Princeton__wins_Nobel_Prize_in_literature.html

In less than an hour there will be a candlelight vigil on the main quad in remembrance of the Hatian Earthquake and those who still need help; La Salle's gospel choir is scheduled to perform. This is an ideal event for TV to cover, as it's visual and will have sound, but I wonder about the odds of the stations being here because the Earthquake has been out of the news and the public's attention for a while (hence the need for a vigil). Frankly, I hope it's dark enough at 6:30 for the candlelight to have a dark background.

Speaking of baseball....several years ago English Professor James Butler told me a story about how he and his brothers had jobs under the grandstand of Forbes Field, the long-gone baseball stadium where the Pittsburgh Pirates played. 50 years ago the Bucs defeated the Yankees in the 1960 World Series and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is doing a year-long celebration of the victory and all things Pirates. Prof. Butler penned a wonderful memoir about his job and the newspaper published it. Here's a link:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10260/1088129-294.stm

Incidentally, Prof. Butler got many emails from Pittsburghers about his piece.

An Oldie But Goodie

I just told this tale to a student who got a good laugh from it, so I thought I'd post it....

Back in February, with Abraham Lincoln's birthday approaching, I went to History Chairman Stuart Leibiger and asked him, Tell me some little-known facts about Lincoln.

"He spoke with a southern accent," said Leibiger.

I was floored. Leibiger reminded me that Lincoln was born in Kentucky and never lost his twang.

So all those movies and TV shows in which actors in deep tones said, "Four Score and Seven Years Ago..." should have said, "Fah scah and sevin yahrs ago...." John Ostapkovich of KYW Newsradio did read a part of the Gettysburg Address with a twang, and Leibiger went on to explain that you can take the boy out of the south but you can't take the south out of the boy. He also told Ostapkovich that Mary Todd Lincoln had seven brothers and brothers-in-law who fought for the Confederacy, which didn't make her popular in Washington.

For Mom and Dad

In the newspaper business there is a story referred to as the "hometowner" -- this is a story about a person that is geared towards their hometown newspaper. For instance, The Bridgewater (NJ) Courier-News did a story about Management Professor James Smither receiving the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching because Smither lives in the paper's circulation area. His "hometown" is part of the paper's coverage. By far, the most hometowners we do are for students. Oh, and let me state for the record, these are mid-sized city, suburban, rural or weekly newspapers; many have regular columns for school/students news. Big city papers, like the Inquirer, will do a story on a student if they receive a patent or find a cure for a disease. It has to be really extraordinary. But for a hometowner about students, the story has to be interesting, or tells about an accomplishment. La Salle has an honor society, the Alpha Epsiolon Society, which recognizes high scholarship with community service. The following newspaper printed items about student who were inductedinto this society:

The Reading (PA) Eagle; the Doylestown (PA) Intelligencer; the Harrisburg Patriot-News; the Warwick (NY) Advertiser; the Pottstown Mercury; the (South Jersey) Courier-Post; the South Philadelphia Review; the Modesto (CA) Bee; the West Chester Daily Local News; the Tewksbury (MA) Advocate; Catonsville (MD) Times; the Chestnut Hill Local; the Ridgefield Press; the Rocky Hill (CT) Post; the Northeast (Philadelphia) Times; the Bucks County Herald, the Glenside (PA) News; the Jenkintown (PA) Chronicle; and web pages of the Hartford Courant; the Rockville (NY) Centre-Herald; and the Wilmington News-Journal.

So why do paper publish items on students being selected to an honor socieity: because they know mom and dad will buy extra copies of the paper!