December 11, 2004

My new favorite TV show is "The First Amendment Project." Broadcast on the Sundance Channel and Court TV, this four-part series features 30-minute documentaries about free speech violations in America. If you missed the first two "episodes" (Fox vs. Franken and Poetic License), don't worry. They'll be rebroadcast several times during the month of December.

* Approximately 1.1 billion people get their water directly from rivers, ponds, springs and wells -- not from indoor faucets. (Washington Post)

* At least 32 people have committed suicide at the Empire State Building since it opened in 1931. (San Francisco Chronicle)

* About 71% of the surface of the planet is covered by salt water. (MarineBio.org)

* Google hasn't had a complete system failure since February 2000. (ZDNet)

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week that about 5,800 people a holiday season end up in U.S. emergency rooms because of decorating injuries. (Chicago Sun-Times)

December 10, 2004

I wouldn't want to be Andrea Minnon's 14-year-old son right now.

Minnon, a mom from Lebanon, Maine, claims she never heard of J.D. Salinger's classic novel "The Catcher in the Rye" before it appeared on her son's freshman reading list. But after researching it on the Web, Minnon petitioned the school to ban the entire freshman class from reading it.

(It should be noted that Minnon made this inane request without actually bothering to read the book first.)

In an appearance before Congress last February, FCC chairman Michael Powell explained that the number of indecency complaints his organization received had soared to more than 240,000 in 2003, a figure that was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002.

What Powell failed to mention (and/or realize) was that 99.8 percent of all the indecency complaints made in 2003 came from the Parents Television Council.

December 9, 2004

Although this year took a toll on me emotionally, I worked extra hard to compensate professionally for various losses. In 2004, I:

* Wrote 1 nonfiction book, 23 poems, 12 short stories and 14 novel chapters
* Snail mailed or e-mailed 160 queries, article submissions, book proposals, contest entries and resumes
* Worked 50 overnight shifts for The New York Times on the Web
* Published 43 Jaded Writings columns
* Published 514 Afterthoughts
* Published 620 obituaries for The Blog of Death
* Wrote 219 journal entries
* Completed 83 freewrites
* Outlined a nonfiction book
* Researched 8 books for Hundreds of Heads Publishing
* Published 34 issues of Siren Song Magazine
* Published 9 book reviews in Bookmarks Magazine
* Published 3 short stories in print anthologies
* Wrote 8 items for E-Media Tidbits
* Published articles in Conscious Choice Magazine, Skirt! Magazine, Professor Barnhardt's Journal and FlashShot
* Received publicity from CBSMarketwatch, USA Today, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Yahoo! Picks, WIMA 1150AM and Quietpoly Magazine
* Redesigned and relaunched The NYC Writers Group Website
* Wrote 93 blog entries on The NYC Writers Group Blog
* Moderated the NYC Writers Group and the South Florida Freelancers Group
* Participated in the Seattle Writers Bloc
* Read 54 books

Here's a quick wrap-up of my favorite books, movies and musical discoveries from 2004.

1. Four Trials by John Edwards
2. The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
3. Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates
4. Candyfreak by Steve Almond
5. The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
6. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart and the Writers of "The Daily Show"
7. Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke
8. Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
9. The Fat Girl's Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker
10. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark

(Honorable mentions: The Last Juror by John Grisham, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame by Robin Robertson and The Bush Survival Bible: 250 Ways to Make it Through the Next Four Years Without Misunderestimating the Dangers Ahead, and Other Subliminable Stateger by Gene Stone.)

1. Revis
2. Will West
3. Daughter Darling
4. The Calling
5. Collapsis
6. Blindside
7. Crossfade
8. Lo-Pro
9. Shinedown
10. Gary Jules

1. Finding Neverland
2. The Notebook
3. The Incredibles
4. Before Sunset
5. 13 Going on 30
6. Spellbound
7. Hidalgo
8. Super Size Me
9. Calendar Girls
10. The Bourne Supremacy

(Since I'm such a movie fan, I must note that I also enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11, The Last Samurai, The Grudge, Hellboy, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Shaun of the Dead, Shrek 2, King Arthur, The Manchurian Candidate, Miracle and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.)

December 8, 2004

A new Jaded Writings column has been posted. This week I attempt to spread some goodwill and holiday cheer.

* Horace - 12/8/65 BC
* James Thurber - 12/8/1894
* Dalton Trumbo - 12/9/1905
* Emily Dickinson - 12/10/1830
* Gustave Flaubert - 12/12/1821
* Ross MacDonald - 12/13/15
* Shirley Jackson - 12/13/19
* Muriel Rukeyser - 12/15/13

December 7, 2004

You're not alone. The Quakertown Optimists Club in Quakertown, Pa., closed down last week due to lack of participation.

Carlos Romero faces nearly six years is prison if he is convicted of making criminal threats. The 59-year-old pastor from National City, Calif., allegedly persuaded three women in his congregation to have sex with him by threatening them with bodily harm and spiritual damnation. His trial is scheduled to start on Valentine's Day.

December 6, 2004

"Too many of us talk and act as if writing were a form of procreation without the sex, all labor and pain, all dilation and contraction, with none of the romance and excitement at the point of conception. For those of you who want to write well, I'm about to reveal a great secret: The Writer's Struggle is over-rated. In fact, the struggle turns out to be not just a confidence game, but a con game, a cognitive distortion, a self-fulfilling prophecy, the best excuse in the world for not writing."
--Roy Peter Clark

As I mentioned in a recent column, many journalists are working hard to cover the news, examine social issues and offer solutions on how to fix the problems in our society. Derek Willis' Weblog, The Scoop, highlights some of the media's best investigative pieces. Recent entries include:

* The Toledo Blade's discovery that Route 37 has the highest fatality rate of any major Ohio route.

* The Tennessean's finding that Metro Nashville police rarely used deadly force when making arrests.

* The Detroit Free Press' exposure of a military program that tested the effects of chemical exposure on soldiers during World War II.

December 5, 2004

Rev. Ruben Rocha, a priest at St. Pius X School in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., caused an uproar last month when he told the students in grades K-3 that there was no Santa Claus. For some reason, the parents who were horrified by this priest's actions didn't notice the irony of the situation.

If you're looking for some classic Christmas tunes, check out my holiday playlist on the Apple iTunes store. Featured artists include Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Burl Ives, Rosemary Clooney, Gene Autry, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Michael Bublé, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Mel Tormé, Nat King Cole and Boris Karloff.

Past Afterthoughts