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Thirtieth Job of Bob - College Newspaper Part I; write for a stipend; fish frys rule the news
This entry was posted on 2/1/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
The flag-ship campus of the Wisconsin technical college school system offered a treasure trove of subjects to wade in. Almost every day during my time at the Madison complex, my many journeys through the huge mega-building brought me past the humble school newspaper office. In those days they called the campus paper The Slant. I had already experimented with a couple of journalistic type classes and one day my feet took me in the small office.
The door was open; a sign on the wall noted the paper was published every two weeks. The office was tiny and cluttered and there was only three work stations - a solitary soul occupied one of the computer stations and the other two desks sat empty, their Mac computers sitting idle waiting patiently for some person to boot them up.
The lone staff member was a thin young fellow, maybe 20, sitting at his Mac typing like a madman. He had a couple of earrings in each ear and purple and florescent-orange colored hair.
"Might have an opinion piece or two to offer you," I said.
"Submit something," he said barely looking away from his screen. Then he added, "Name's Justin. Opinion Editor." Then he went back to pounding out his work.
A couple of days later I submitted a piece about the pros versus the cons of legalizing Marijuana. I put it in a Mike Royko esque style of using a fictional working schlep to tell the story and make my argument for me. To my surprise, when the paper came out my piece sat with dignity atop the Opinion / Editorial page.
I wrote several more opinion pieces; it was the era of President Bill and Monica and the several wars in the former Yugoslavia - wars we were being incrementally dragged into. There was plenty of political fodder to gnaw on. Then, I stumbled onto a one-credit independent study class option in Journalism. I was to present a subject idea to the Journalism faculty for approval. When living somewhere other than Wisconsin, I always missed the Friday fish frys. Already accumulating a good portfolio of political diatribes to my credit in the college paper, I needed some other gig; I just could not get this fish fry idea out of my head - review fish frys.
I thought the faculty would toss my fish idea in the trash because it might not be a lofty enough serious journalistic contribution. But, Journalism instructor Mike Irwin thought different. It turns out he specialized in Rural Journalism. That involves immersing one's self in the culture of rural and agricultural America and writing about it, to name only a couple dynamics of the specialty. To my surprise he gave me the green light and I did the project and got an 'A.' The credit would later transferred to the university and will forever sit on my Bachelor of Arts transcript.
Interestingly, no one ever e-mailed or called me on the carpet for my scathing political opinions.
However, once I missed getting a fish fry review in an issue of the paper and to my stunned amazement, people I never met before, instructors, academic staff, and janitors stopped me in the hallway and said they missed seeing the fish fry review. It was then that I started to take colloquial culture much more serious.
I would of course resurrect my fish fry writing clinic a few years ago when this blog got up an running. And, I see no departure from the interest in the near future.
Back at the college, one day I dropped in the newspaper office and my young editor said, "You need to pick up your checks from the Purser's office."
"Checks for what?" I said rather taken aback.
"You get a stipend for each article you write; you knew that right?" he said and returned to pounding out some rant he was working on.
I sauntered over to the Purser's office and to my stunned surprise there was three semesters of stipend checks waiting patiently for me in the bottom of a file cabinet drawer.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Sergeant Louis Alexander Griese, 30, of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, died Wednesday, October 31, 2007, in Tikrit, Iraq. He was wounded north of Samarra, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to B Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Griese was on his third tour of duty in Iraq and had been in the Army for 12 years. He was graduated from Sturgeon Bay High School in 1996.
The Web site militarytimes.com noted Sergeant Louis left for duty in Iraq only a little more than a month after his daughter was born. Louis was remembered as a guy who loved working on cars.
The Web site iraq.pigstye.net a data base for war casualties mentioned via information from the Herald Times Reporter that Sergeant Griese married wife Stephanie in 2002; the couple met online.
The Web site fortcampbellcourier.com noted Sergeant Griese's military decorations as: "Army Achievement Medal (5 awards); Army Good Conduct Medal (3 awards); National Defense Service Medal; Iraq Campaign Medal; Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal; Global War on terrorism Service Medal; Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon; Army Service Ribbon; Overseas Service Ribbon; Combat Infantryman Badge; Expert Infantryman Badge; Air Assault Badge; and, Weapons Qualification, M4, expert."
At the time of his death Louis Griese was survived by his wife and daughter, Stephanie and Skylar; and his mother, Susan Frihart, of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Sergeant Louis Griese was the 82nd Wisconsin military service person to die in Iraq since the spring of 2003. As of this blog entry's posting date:
99,393 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,830 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,439 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1467 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
842 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,033 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,226 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
27 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
145 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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