Happy Holidays, and a blogger's resolution

It has been quite a hectic year in SWE_Blogger's life, both good things and bad. As a result, this site hasn't been taken care of properly and has therefore been mostly irrelevant.

We're hoping to change that in 2008, so if you happen by here and see this note, check by again soon.

While we'll comment on sports issues, I also want to make this a place where we talk about the things that can make the business fun and interesting -- words and style, photos, display, trends.

So stop by soon, and have a good holiday.

Coming back

Well, I've obviously been away for a long time. It's my intention to get this thing up and running again and start regular posting. We'll see if I actually follow through.

Posting today about the amazing story of Colleen Bellotti, wife of Oregon football coach Mike, angrily confronting Portland Oregonian columnist John Canzano over a column he wrote about their son. Canzano writes about the whole thing in his blog, and the New York Times chronicles it, too.

Adande officially to ESPN.com

Wasn't a well-kept secret, rumored when he took the buyout at the L.A. Times, but J.J. Adande has started writing a column for ESPN. com. David Davis writes about it on SoCalSportsObserved.

Blogging here and me

Going to be brief today, a busy day.

Actually, brief is better than what I've been doing. This blog has often been neglected, as you can see.

June is a travel/vacation month for me, so I've been looking here even less than usual. But I really intend to use this forum more regularly starting in late June/early July, and not just for passing news.

So keep checking back; hopefully, the links are helpful (and more are always welcome), and we'll start doing something interesting here soon.

Christine Daniels interview in Newsweek

Lorraine Ali does an interview/Q&A with L.A. Times reporter Christine Daniels, and it's published here online in Newsweek.

I worked with Christine when she was Mike Penner back at the Times back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A great colleague and friend -- although like many of us, we lose touch when there are thousands of miles between -- and I wish her nothing but the best.

Dave Nightingale dies

Dave Nightingale, an old-school baseball beat writer for the Chicago Daily News and then the Tribune has died at 72, the Tribune reports. Dave's son, Van, is also in the newspaper business. Condolences to the family.

Washingtonpost.com sports editor dies

William C. Grant, sports editor of washingtonpost.com, dies at 53 from melanoma. He was known as an extremely hard worker who loved his job, the obituary says.

Courant's Alan Greenberg dies

Alan Greenberg, a highly respected -- and beloved in the business -- writer for the Hartford Courant has died at 55 of an apparent heart attack.

There's a thread with a lot of shocked posters here on sj.com.

Borges suspended for two months

The Boston Globe has suspended veteran writer Ron Borges for two months without pay after passages from a Tacoma writer's story appeared almost identically in a football notes column by Borges. It's the natural progression in the always slippery practice of notes exchanges. Dan Shanoff says that practice should be ended, and me makes a good point; in the print-only days, there might have been some value to readers in such exchanges, but these days, when anybody can read anything on the Internet, what's the point? And here's Deadspin on the whole mess.

The Chronicle/Balco case

The first post of a message board thread on sj.com, called 'How do we feel about the Chron guys now?'

sfgate

L.A. Times

These two opinions aren't so positive.

Are we, as a group, having any second thoughts about the support these guys got? Obviously, it was based on the information we had.

Thoughts? Seems like a worthy topic for here, given the "sticky" thread back in those early days.

End post.

The thread itself is slow; somebody asked me about that. I think some people are simply confused about what to think after all the support Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams were given within the industry. Given all we know now, are a lot of people having second thoughts?

Or maybe it's just the holiday.

More on Van

The passing of Van McKenzie has created one of the most inspiring threads in the history of sportsjournalists.com. I'm sure it will stay near the top for quite a while, but you can get it here as well.

Meanwhile, this was taken out and made a sticky, the getting-more-famous-by the-minute "Vanifesto" that Van wrote when he was hired to return to the Orlando Sentinel.

A legend leaves us

Van McKenzie, one of the most important sports editors of the past 50 years and an equally large character, has died of cancer at 61. His obituary in the Orlando Sentinel -- his last stop in a 'nomadic' career (to say the least) -- describes the man who influenced the business for four decades and whose stamp will remain on the way sports sections are produced and how they look and read long after he's gone.

I never worked with Van, but I knew him through APSE, played poker with him a few times, ate dinner or drank with him a few times. And I certainly worked with others whose careers were profoundly influenced by him. And I don't think I ever heard anybody say a negative word about the man -- quite a feat in this business.

Wilbon: More ESPN, less Post

After signing a big new deal with ESPN, Michael Wilbon tells Harry Jaffe of the Washingtonian that he won't be leaving the Post altogether but won't be writing two or three columns a week for it anymore, either. "I might write columns for the Web. I might have a blog. I might do something with Tony [Kornheiser] on the Web. I’ll do whatever Don Graham and Len Downie want me to do. ESPN did not create the Wilbon-and-Kornheiser brand. The Post did."

Berkow to retire

Highly decorated and respected writer Ira Berkow is retiring from the New York Times' sports department. He intends to continue writing, though. The memo announcing his departure is posted on Romenesko.