The Best Stories You've nEver Read #18
He is right more often than most columnists. He is on the cutting edge of the great issues of our time. But he may also be the least influential, least read scribe in the stable of New York Times columnists. In a provocative essay, T.A. Frank of Washington Monthly asks "Why Is Bob Herbert Boring?" His answer is interesting, incisive and says more about today's media audience and our times, than it does about Mr. Herbert, who should keep on keeping on.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #16 & 17
I enjoy watching football as much as anyone, but after reading these pieces in the New York Times and the Riverfront Times, I have to wonder why the government doesn't act to stop the slow-motion maiming that goes on in this sport. The Times looks at an epidemic of concussions among high school players and how little is done to protect these youngsters. This is in part because the players have been trained as gladiators and many will not report when they've gotten their bells rung. The Riverfront Times story isn't nearly so groundbreaking but it's timely. It looks at NFL players who suffered injuries to body and mind that led to impoverishment, early death and suicide. There's probably too much money and fan interest in this game to put a stop to it, but after reading these stories you have to wonder whether the players are paying too high a price -- no matter how many millions they make -- for our entertainment.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #15
Who would've thought that Silicon Valley would be leading the way with the re-introduction of a retro sport. The hot new game in offices there is Four Square... from our playground days. Read all about it in the San Francisco Chronicle.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #13 & 14
These articles discuss high tech and low tech ways to pass the time. The first story from the New York Times is a tone poem about people who enjoy watching the world from the windows of their apartments. Every once in a while something happens, an accident, a fight, but mostly they just watch. The other story from the Wall Street Journal is about a man who spends most of his days living a virtual life online. He even has an online wife much to the dismay of his real life wife. But he's not really cheating on her since he's never met his virtual wife in person... or is he? (If you have trouble accessing either of these stories through the links, send me an e-mail at weisswrite@gmail.com.)
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #12
Enjoy a chuckle and shed a tear over the demise of the Weekly World News -- one of those trashy tabloids that kept breaking the big stories. Like, for example , Elvis is alive and well and living in Kalamazoo. Read Peter Carlson's account in the Washington Post.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #11
Many of us know an eccentric neighbor who lives alone and keeps to himself. Usually that's just fine with us. But what if the neighbor needs help? Would you get involved? Well Bill Judge's neighbors did and the story they told reporter Pam Kelley is at once inspiring and surprising. Kelley's account can be found in the Charlotte Observer.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #10
How much would you pay for a playset for the kids? How about $6,000? How about $10,000 or even $98,000? Reporter Diane Mastrul found parents who did just that, all in the interest of keeping their kids away from the video games and the tube. Her story can be found in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #9
Shannen Rossmiller slipped and fell in her bathroom on the day of the 9/11 attacks and as a result we're all a little safer. Bored and restless during her recovery from a broken pelvis, Rossmiller, a Montanan and municipal judge, began monitoring internet transmissions among Islamic extremists in the Middle East. Over a period of years, she became one of the FBI's top terrorist cyber hunters by posing as an extremist herself.. Her story is being chronicled this week in a five-part series in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #8
This piece from the Los Angeles Times will
tear your heart out. It's about the dozens of babies at LA's Cedars-Sinai Hospital who contracted HIV through blood transfusions in the 1980s before hospital officials could trace the source of the
contamination to tainted blood donations. Many children didn't live long; but others remain alive today. The father of one child who died at age 11 has been on a mission for more than a decade to hold the hospital accountable. Hampering Bruce Kasper's quest is the fact that some of the survivors are keeping their infections a secret for fear of being stigmatized and shunned. But he has found an ally in one young man who wants some answers.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #7
If you miss the corner drugstore, this story from the Washington Post is just for you. Reporter Dale Russakoff takes readers into Cheri Garvin’s Leesburg (Va.) Pharmacy where customers can ask Garvin and her staff to whip up tummy-ache medicine in almost any flavor a child desires (and provide a taste to see if it’s just right) and where they can buy a special diaper rash ointment called “Robert’s Butt Paste.” “Try asking your mail-order drug plan for that,” Russakoff writes. But this story is about more than nostalgia. It provides a keen analysis of economic trends and what Americans are losing and gaining as the prescription drug trade becomes increasingly competitive.
-- Dick Weiss
