Where's my Follower?

Ok, here's a new one. My younger son lives in Israel. Occasionally he views my blog. I invited him to become a "follower" of my blog. We love to have followers. How does he do that? I've been able to find his comment on a previous blog, but he hasn't been able to see it. Nor does he know whether it's been posted or not. Is this confusing or what?

I thought this was supposed to be easy. But it's getting more complicated as we go along. I love to share my thoughts on the modern world with the old world but we seem to have hit a disconnect. Can I blame it on the Icelandic volcano? Probably not.

Can anyone help?

The Irellevants

I am finally reconciled that I am irrelevant. The TV networks are not interested in what I watch, although I am devoted to certain of their more entertaining programs, not reality shows, however, which are anything but realistic. How can you produce a "reality" show that requires proper lighting, camera positions and other technical set-ups to capture the proper framing for the "conflict."

It's all bogus as far as I'm concerned and people who watch so-called reality shows are just kidding themselves.

Advertisers certainly aren't interested in me although my disposable income no doubt exceeds that of the most distressed holder of a toxic mortgage.

And the high tech world is totally confusing to me. Last week's NYTimes had so much information on a totally mind-boggling array of new devices and apps that I can't imagine anyone really needing. I just threw the whole section away, which I do anyway when its recycling day.

So I don't tweet, facebook, Youtube or otherwise clutter up the internet with useless information. Except my occasional blog. Oh, and now one of my granddaughters wants me to join her on something called Hi5. Sounds like a branch of the British Secret Service. I'm waiting for her to tell me what Hi5 is before I commit.

So all this makes me irrelevant, right? Right.

Yours until next time.

Limbclimber

Not-so-full Disclosure

Ok, here it is, partial disclosure:

I am writing this blog for FUN. I'm not trying to "build a brand" or "monetize" and if you enjoy reading my blog that's fine. More disclosure: I'm 79 years old, retired and just trying to keep up the best I can.

Frankly, I am astounded at what appears to me to be the frantic need, urge, desire, impulse of people to be in constant touch with someone else, whether for business, pleasure or just plain nosiness. I will not tweet. I was coaxed into creating a Facebook page but I rarely look at it. I email frequently and use the phone when necessary.

Yes, I have opinions but I seriously wonder if anyone really cares what I think. If you do, here's a new thought: Republicans must think most Americans are stupid; Democrats think most Americans are smart. Both are wrong. We ARE dumb enough in some cases to believe the revisionist history being peddled by GOP partisans; We may be SMART enough in some cases to understand what the Obama adminstration is trying to do, but it wouldn't hurt if they could spell it out in plain English.

That's enough for now. Going to Florida for a week to play golf. See you later.

Cheers.

Sounding Off?

I just read something on line which reinforces my desire not to become one of those persons who sounds off about everything. OK, every once in a while a subject I actually think I know something about gets my goat but I try to resist the temptation to become one of those people who thinks the whole world is waiting for their opinion. See, I'm sounding off even when I'm writing about resisting sounding off.

In this wired world it seems everyone who reads, sees or hears something they feel strongly about has to let everyone else know their opinion about it.

Do they ever ask, as I'm asking now, who gives a hoot what you think about anything?
I've discovered over and over again that most people really don't care what YOU have to say, but are convinced you are fascinated by their opinons about EVERYTHING.

Still listening?

My List

Some time ago I made a list of titles of books I thought I'd write. I just reviewed the list. I'm not writing any of them. They've probably all been written by now. And probably better than I could write them. Or not. In any case, we'll never know.
I'm starting a new list.

The Plagiarism Plague, and more

Clark Hoyt is the Public Editor of the New York Times, sort of a peeping-over-the-shoulder-Tom on behalf of you and me, the readers. This past Sunday he looked into the case of Zachery Kouwe, a Times business reporter who resigned after he was accused of plagiarizing from the Wall Street Journal.

What's worse, the inquiry showed he had lifted copy from other news sources. And who were those news other sources? Why on-line sources. Who in his right mind believes anything you read on-line. Most of it, in my humble opinion is rumor, opinion and unsubstantiated.

This is what "journalism" has come to: in trying to be the first with anything, or at least not the last, once responsible news organizations chase after every item that may, emphasize may, be really newsworthy. Unfortunaltely, again in my opinion, most of it is garbage.

What bothers me most, however, is the New York Times attitude toward all this stuff. As a former journalist, (25 years with newspapers, UPI and CBS) and then as a consultant to business and professional people in how to deal with the media, the Times' attitude toward correcting examples of plagiarisim is abhorrent.

They may print a correction. Does anyone read corrections? I doubt it. What's worse, when Mr. Hoyt asked Philip Corbett, the paper's standards editor, if Kouwe's plagiarized material would be appended in their archives, Mr.Corbett, according to Mr. Hoyt, responded "the paper was not inclined to flag them, partly because there were some clear-cut cases and others that were less clear."

This is a total abrogation of responsibility in my view. When counseling business and professional people, one of the cardinal rules I stressed was that if there were errors in the stories that resulted from their interview, the errors should be corrected not only in the closest edition of the paper but also in the archives.

It doesn't take a genious to realize that some future researcher, calling up an article containing errors of plagiraized material, will assume that what he or she is reading is accurate and original reports when, in fact, it not only may be incorrect but also plagiarized material as well.

Sadly, this is not the New York Times I grew up with. I pass on to all of you the caution I gave to my oldest grandson when he graduated college: "Question everything."

We need to remember that.

Got Apps?

Not yet. Still working on it. My Ipod is so outdated all it does is play music.
Stay tuned.