One of my favorite columns remembered ...

Al Martinez wrote his (presumably last) farewell column in the L.A. Times dated today, and it reminds me of one of my all-time favorites. Al wasn't that well know to readers outside of L.A., although he should have been, but you can find this column in numerous places on the web.

Here's one version, a Christmas story.

Tribute to a copy editor

This blog is called sports writing AND editing, and that's why we were glad to see this Patrick Reusse tribute to Star-Tribune copy editor Bud Armstrong, who retired last night after 43 years there.

These are the kind of people that the business is losing -- at least Bud made it to the end on his terms -- and it's going to continue to diminish the quality of the daily paper ( for however long those are around).

Interesting story about sports writing

Gary Andrew Poole writes an interesting story the Columbia Journalism Review about how to save sports writing, and basically, he wants newspapers to go backward in time and stress good writing. (That's VERY basically.)

Good idea. I don't think newspaper management as it is currently running things is smart enough to buy it, though.