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When we first started Brentwood Home Page, I wrote a column a day. And it about killed me.
“Susan, there’s not a columnist in the country that writes a column every day,” husband Larry said.
Smart man. So I vowed to write three columns a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And for about a year, I did a pretty good job of hitting my goal.
In recent months, as BHP has grown along with the demands of running a business, it’s been more hit or miss. Some weeks there’s one, sometimes there are three.
I’m not happy about that.
Writing BrentWord is the thing I love most about Brentwood Home Page. There’s never a lack of subject matter. It just always comes down to a lack of time.
So this week I’m going to do my best to get back on track, even if every column doesn’t have three three-dot items in the old Herb Caen tradition or breaking news or something funny – at least to me. And if you have BrentWord-worthy news to share, please send it in. My favorite columns to write are the ones others write for me!
'Organized chaos at its best'
If I’d been on top of my game, I would have reported on Herman Cain’s visit in Brentwood last week, not a full seven days after he cruised into our Barnes & Noble store in Cool Springs.
Robby Bryan shares that around 350 people, two photographers, one NPR reporter and three camera crews were there. See, they didn’t need me anyway.
“Too bad you missed it, it was organized chaos at its best,” Robby says.
I did catch Cain on Meet the Press Sunday morning. Not sure what I think about his 9-9-9 plan but I give him credit for at least having a plan. I’m a political junkie, but so far, the 2012 Race to the White House is leaving me woefully underwhelmed.
Ahhhh, the joys of online journalism
When you own an online "newspaper," when you make a mistake, you don’t have to wait 24 hours to print a correction. Such was the case last week when it seems I turned former Brentwood assistant city manager Jody Baltz into a woman.
Current city manager Mike Walker emailed not long after we posted our history of the Brentwood Fire & Rescue Department, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
“In the article today on the FD, I learned that Jody Baltz, former Assistant City Manager here and currently City Administrator in Tullahoma, had a sex change operation! I knew Jody was an opened minded kind of person and Tullahoma was a progressive community but this was a real surprise to me,” Mike wrote.
For a minute, I didn’t know what to think, or do. Then I kept reading and realized I had made an editing mistake, assuming Jody was a woman. Earth to Susan: First rule of journalism: Never assume anything.
The mistake was fixed and I sent Jody a note of apology for the mix-up.
“Well I guess this means I'm off Dancing With the Stars!” he wrote back.
Favorite Facebook post of the week
From a friend's Facebook page:
“Friend and I were whispering today about the rumor that Justin Bieber bought a house in the Governors Club. So I go to tell my boys the ‘exciting’ news and they were like, "Duh, mom everybody knows that."
So far I haven’t been able to confirm this, but if anyone else can, inquiring minds want to know!
Susan Leathers is editor of Brentwood Home Page. Click here to read previous columns. Email her at susan@brentwoodhomepage.com |
