A terrific -- but hardly typical -- holiday story

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30trees.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=nyregion&emc=ura3

In today's New York Times, there was an unusual holiday story. It was about a couple who donated one of their trees to Rockefeller Center.

Actually, I was relieved to read this story. I thought I was the only person who had an emotional attachment to a tree -- only mine was a birch, not an evergreen.

Will the real Lizzie Borden please stand up?

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/11/28/the_real_lizzie_borden/

Fall River, Mass. museum curators have written their own definitive work on who was the real Lizzie Borden. Like the piece John wrote for Halloween, Lizzie Borden, dead now for 83 years, still haunts the legends of her home town. Martin and his writing partner make a valiant effort to rehabilitate Borden's tarnished image, but perhaps all secrets ultimately get buried with the dead.

"Casino" in police college

It's interesting to see how different newspapers write about the same press conference. Today, a police story caught my eyes - it is quite amusing, in contrast to the usual serious and straightforward crime stories. It talked about police setting up a mock casino in the police school, to arm the policemen with knowledge on gambling games so that they could tackle illegal gambling more effectively.

I read the same story in three local English dailies. Two played up the mini casino angle while one focused on a "guide on violent crime probe" instead.

(Background: Muslims are forbidden to gamble in their religion so people would be very curious to know why is there a "casino" to teach the policemen, who are mostly Malays and therefore Muslims, to "gamble".)

The three leads are:

(The Star)

There is a mini casino in the Cheras police college but don't bet on catching policemen gambling for real.

The mock casino is actually a training ground for policemen to wise up the ways of gamblers and cheats.

(Malay Mail)

Illegal gamblers beware as "gambling experts" will be watching you.

However, these "experts" actually comprise several trained police officers under the newly formed Gambling Prevention Training Laboratory.

The formation of the was (sic) set up to combat illegal gambling activities.

(NST)

The nation's top cop yesterday unveiled the new manual for investigating violent crime such as rape, murder and armed robbery.

... and somewhere in the middle of the story...

Besides the manual, Ismail also launched a mock casino designed to train police officers involved in cracking down on illegal gambling.

***

In terms of grabbing the readers' attention, I would say The Star has done the trick. Everyone - gambler or not - would would want to know why there is a casino in police college, while Malay Mail's story is somewhat directed at "illegal gamblers" only. And NST? Just another police story.

I'd pick The Star as the best story for it is most detailed. It brought in the guide on violent crime probe later while Malay Mail didn't mention it at all. The Star also quoted Inspector-General of Police on his confidence in his men (that they would not abuse their knowledge in gambling):

"Insya Allah (God willing), they will know their responsibilities and will not go against their badge," he said.

Speaking of quotes, I also noticed that both The Star and NST have similar quotes with slightly different wording.

(The Star)

"To catch a thief, we need to think like a thief," said Inspector-General of Police.

(Malay Mail)

"There is a proverb: 'To catch a thief, you need to be a thief'. This concept also applies here. Every year, the Royal Malaysian Police organises courses to train 'gambling experts' among selected police officers."

My guess is that the reporters translated and paraphrased the quotes, which is a common practice here.

unusual article on thanksgiving time

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/nyregion/21citycritic.html?hpw

The story is about the reporter who goes to a factory farm to slaughter her own turkey and how disgusted she feels about the process. I commend the writer's guts to have written a profound piece like that in this 'festive' time, although thanksgiving is traditionally a celebration of harvest.

Sadly, a movieland pot-boiler

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/us/17publicist.html?scp=2&sq=ronni%20chasen&st=cse



http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/ronni-chasen-slaying.html



http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/source-chasen-killing-planned-camera-47151


The murder of Los Angeles-based publicist Ronni Chasen reads like a mystery script; sadly, though, it is the tragic story of a real person.
The coverage is fascinating. The New York Times gives the story a sort of business-angle edge; the LA Times paints it as uber-cop-shop.
This should be the LA Times' story, but it seems like the movie-industry publications are really doing the digging. (Links above)

Similar Viewpoints by Different Sources in the Guantanamo Acquital story

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/nyregion/18ghailani.html?ref=us

Though the news article reports the acquittal of someone accused of a terrorist conspiracy and even expounds upon the intricacies of the case, an underlying theme/viewpoint is established via the commonality in the subject of quotes. This kind of thing establishes coherency and better flow in the story. I personally find it very interesting when I am interviewing two completely different people and they draw almost identical conclusions.

---------------------------------------------

1.) “This verdict is a reaffirmation that this nation’s judicial system is the greatest ever devised,” Mr. Quijano said outside the courthouse. “It is truly a system of laws and not men, where, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, this jury acquitted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of 284 out of 285 counts.”

2.) Judge Kaplan told the jurors they had demonstrated that “American justice can be rendered calmly, deliberately and fairly by ordinary people, people who are not beholden to any government, not even ours.”

“It can be rendered with fidelity to the Constitution,” he added. “You have a right to be proud of your service in this case.”

Descriptive Writing

When our guest speaker Constance Hale was reading out the passage (that many of us didn't quite like), I thought of a book I read a few years ago. It's by Merlinda Bobis from the Philippines. I remember struggling with the book because it was TOO descriptive. I like descriptive writing in general but felt hers was over the top.

I am going to share a passage here, from her book "Banana Heart Summer":

Once upon a time, the bittermelon was sweet and not frowning. It was a shiny, smooth green of the palest hue, with no creases at all. It was a fruit, not a vegetable. It was served for dessert. It was sweeter than mangoes but less fleshy, and it was lean with character; it did not give in too easily to the teeth. People ate it as they would eat corn, gnawing around and around the elongated green flesh, crunchy and sugary sweet, till it was naked, white and vulnerable-looking; a collection of teeth marks. Thus exposed, it became ashamed of itself. Time and again, it worried that its underbelly, with such a savage imprint, would be seen by human eyes and judged. So it began to flinch each time it came in contact with teeth, any stripping teeth for that matter. And each time it flinched, its smooth skin tightened, creased a bit, like a worried forehead. Then each time it worried, its sweetness diminished and an acrid taste crept in its place. With this shifting flavor came a change in color: it slowly darkened. By the time it turned a deep frowning jade, it was struck out of the dessert list. It had become a bitter vegetable, fallen out of favor with most palates, pushed to the culinary fringe.

It's well crafted, no doubt. But I felt it's not for light reading; I had to really focus on the words and process them to fully understand the story.