response 1 of 41:

Mar 12 18:32 UTC 1998

I brought this up because Monday, as Jim was biking home early in the rain,
in a bright yellow slicker, someone from the Ann Arbor News wanted his photo,
and Wednesday David e-mailed us that JIm's photo was in the paper (local),
'going home early from his job at a construction site.' (Jim does not have
a job, he was insulating a house we are building, but reporters are not all
that concerned with the facts).  He was also photographed a couple of years
ago exiting a rummage sale with a large Santa-Klaus type bag over his shoulder
containing among other things 2 speakers, a broken umbrella, broken shades,
broken clock, and an old rug (the reporter got the list right that time).
I got in the Manchester News once because a friend and I were the only guests
at the grand opening of the Solar Currents solar electric facility west of
town who happened to actually be looking at the solar collectors -- the rest
were busy making and listening to speeches and eating cake and punch.

response 3 of 41:

Mar 12 23:14 UTC 1998

I've been in the Snooze several times.  Once was for an article on 
the Internet Council.  The other times were when they published press
releases I sent them whenever I was awarded a contract to do a web
site.  I've also been one of the people interviewed for a feature on
home workers in Internet World.

Oh yes, I was also on local cable TV when I did the first TV spot
for Grex.

response 5 of 41:

Mar 13 00:55 UTC 1998

I was in a picture in an article about Theater Guild's trip to Scotland.  I
was used as the background to a temperatures section of a weather report once,
many years ago.

response 7 of 41:

Mar 13 02:27 UTC 1998

As someone involved in politics for quite a few years, and held elective
office, my name got into the paper quite a bit.  I wish I had saved all
of my press clippings.

On the whole, I *like* reporters; I talk to them readily; I don't envy
their jobs; and I know they're usually overworked and underpaid.  Perhaps
as a consequence, though, along with massive ongoing staff turnover that
robs newspapers of focused experience, reporters are all too often
clueless about the stuff they're assigned to report on. 

In the last 25 plus years of dealing with public issues and newspapers in
various cities, I have never seen a newspaper story of more than a few
lines, about something on which I had direct personal knowledge, that was
COMPLETELY right.

That being said, though, I must confess that I am very impressed with the
Ann Arbor News in comparison to all the other local papers I've dealt
with.  Covering local stuff and getting it right seems to matter to them.

response 9 of 41:

Mar 13 07:19 UTC 1998

I've been in the Ann Arbor News a few times, mostly when I was involved in
high school politics a few years ago.  After I stopped being directly involved
in school politics, I started covering the school board  for the school paper,
and hanging out with the professional reporters a lot.  I stopped being
written about at that point, but it gave me a good view of how the
professional news organizations work.

response 11 of 41:

Mar 13 12:48 UTC 1998

Sometimes to get into the news it's sufficient to have some
association, however slight, with someone else who's in the
news. I went to both college and graduate school with Ted
Kaczinski, although I didn't know him well. When the Unabomber
arrest story broke, I got called and interviewed by a number
of reporters from all over the country. So far as I know,
though, I was quoted by name only in the Michigan Daily, the
University of Michigan student newspaper.

response 13 of 41:

Mar 13 14:00 UTC 1998

Oh, my wife and I have also had our pictures in the Manchester paper
several times after placing or winning their annual canoe race.  Lots
of fun, that!

response 15 of 41:

Mar 13 16:45 UTC 1998

We had several color shots of our stainless steel roof (the only part of a
house we are building that we did not do ourselves) in the Nickel Development
Institute's quarterly publication, the same issue that featured the Chrysler
Building in NYC, also with a stainless roof.  This is because we called all
over the country asking for details on how to build a roof, and this institute
sent us lots of free info and recommended a good local roofer, and then asked
if we minded their publishing something.  The photographer that they located
(by calling Photo 1, they thought it was a photographer) turned out to be a
friend of a friend.  Jim helped him climb the phone pole for good shots.  This
is the only time in my life I have been referred to in print (not electronic)
as 'Keesan' (no first name).  Details were correct, except that it was a
Canadian publication and spelled us as Ann Arbour.  We got two copies.

response 17 of 41:

Mar 13 19:14 UTC 1998

        Back around 1970 the coming of the Chinese ping pong team was big
news. I happened to be at the airport when they arrived and for the next 2
weeks i heard, from many people, that i was shown a few times.
        Also about 1987 channel 4 did a story on the place i worked (slow news
day?) and i was shown working.

response 19 of 41:

Mar 14 00:19 UTC 1998

Where or what is Westnedge?  And how does a person become a backdrop for
temperatures (Senna)?

response 21 of 41:

Mar 14 05:02 UTC 1998

Isn't there a song or two about Kalamazoo?  Jim thinks something like Nadine
or Why can't you be true?  Are there songs about Ann Arbor?

response 23 of 41:

Mar 14 17:04 UTC 1998

Westnedge is one of the main highways in Kalamazoo.  It stretches from the
northernmost section through downtown then into Portage until it hits the end
of the Portage limits and veers off to the southeast.  I have no idea where
it ends.  That's why I love when I ask people where their street is located
when they're trying to determine if we deliver to them and they say, "I'm off
Westnedge."  ;-)  My response is, "Okay - we've narrowed it down to twenty
miles or so..."

Glenn Miller wrote a song for his friend who met a girl in Kazoo called, "I've
Got a Gal in Kalamazoo".