The Best Stories You've nEver Read #6
This story from the San Francisco Chronicle could have been headlined The Nightmare Next Door. Your new neighbors move into a derelict home next to your home and, thank God, they're renovating it. But oh no, they're doing it themselves. And double oh no... while you're on vacation, the house comes off its foundation, rolls down a hill and crashes into your home causing. $30,000 damage and creating a neighborhood bio-health hazard.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #5
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories here that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend David Flick's Waitresses Serve Up Plenty of Charm in the Dallas Morning News.
You can’t miss with an opener like this:
Barbara Woodley, a waitress at Mama’s Daughter’s Diner, came to work last week wearing big hair, a purple blouse, black pants, bright costume jewelry and a pair of oversized, rhinestone sunglasses.
Her sister Natalie, everyone agrees, is the flamboyant one.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read --Fourth In A Series
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories here that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend J.R. Moehringer's hysterically funny piece on Cheeta of Tarzan fame.
Cheeta (top left) recently celebrated his 75th birthday and Moehringer (top right) gives you a look at the world through Cheeta's eyes. You also learn quite a bit about chimps. The piece appeared in April in the Los Angeles Times. Moehringer has since left the newspaper to work as a magazine writer, among other things.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read --Third In A Series
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories here that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend the Tampa Tribune's "Of Faith , Fame and Fortune." This story is both well-documented and well-told. Michelle Bearden and Baird Helgeson beautifully demonstrate how to use the best narrative techniques to draw readers in, and then bring to bear a set of facts that cast a shadow over what once appeared to be a well-intentioned ministry. They write about Randy and Paula White who arrived in Tampa 16 years ago with all their worldly possessions in a U-Haul and a driving ambition to create "the perfect church for people who are not." Today that church is one of the fastest growing in the country with many worthy outreach programs, but it has also enriched the Whites to the tune of a $1.9 million business jet and homes worth more than $5 million in Tampa and New York.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read -- Second in a Series
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories here that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend S.L. Price's "Dark Times for a Baseball Man" in the recent edition of Sports Illustrated. It's a fascinating character study of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.
The Best Stories You've nEver Read -- First In A Series
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend Thomas Curwen's: "Attacked by a grizzly" printed April 29 and 30 in the Los Angeles Times. It's the story of Johan Otter and his daughter, Jenna, who were mauled by a 400-pound grizzly and lived to tell the tale. They did so many times to the media in the immediate aftermath, but those renderings were superficial. After some time passed, Curwen went back to the story and got inside Otter's mind in a way that you will find compelling.
I found this story through my association with Writer-L, a listserv for non-fiction writers. It is also posted in the Nieman Narrative Digest, along with some other great examples of narrative journalism.
