UMaine Today magazine: the Kristen Andresen Show

I got a copy of UMaine Today in my mailbox in the journalism department the other day. I really like the cover and It's a nice little PR piece for the sciency side of the university.

However, as I was flipping through it I noticed that four out of the five main features were written by the same person: Kristen Andresen. Managing editor Margaret Nagle wrote one piece. There is also a lot of non-bylined stories that I'm assuming Kristen wrote too, because putting your name on everything in the magazine gets a redundant, ridiculous, and all around silly. This is probably why she doesn't appear in the masthead of the publication.

Don't get me wrong, Kristen is a top-notch writer and she's just doing her job. But as a writer and an editor we don't allow any writer to have more than two bylined pieces in our magazine each month. Because it looks redundant, ridiculous, and all around silly. The more voices the better in my opinion.

Now I know that UMaine is going through a budget crunch, but why not have students write some of the pieces? Interns are free and they're right on campus! It would be nice to know that there isn't just one person writing an entire magazine. By having (practically) one writer, UMaine Today loses some of it's credibility in my book.

Working Together

Today I spend the majority of the day in Camden, Maine with my friend and fellow journalist Anne Ravana. Anne is the Bangor radio news reporter for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. She mentioned to me yesterday during our afternoon stint of grading papers that she was heading to Camden to do a story on Camden Hills High School and wanted to know if I wanted to come along. Camden Hills is looking into becoming a Visa holding public school -- which means it can accept tuition paying foreign kids as students who can graduate with a diploma.

What a coincidence! I am planning on writing a story about public/private schools in Maine who do that very thing! They have dorms and everything and offer a unique, safe, rigorous curriculum for foreign students who want to improve their English language skills and go on to an American college or university.

I went along for the ride and the interview.

One of our friends furrowed her brow and asked Annie how we were going to interview the same people....she thought that Bangor Metro and MPBN were media rivals. We're not. We don't cover the same things and Annie does a story a day where I do a story a month -- and way in advance. This school story won't even come out until our September Education issue. So it was perfect!

It's nice having friends who do the same things you do. It makes a 4 hour car ride pass by in no time! Check out Annie's story Tuesday night at 5 p.m. or check it out online at MPBN.net.

Baseball Backlash

If any of you Yankees fans out there have seen one of their home games on tv I bet you've noticed a bunch of premium seats behind the dugouts and home plate sitting empty. I cackle to the hubris of the Yankees organization in thinking that building a huge new stadium and charging around $500 for one of those cushy seats was a good idea.

Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ general managing partner, said recently that “small amounts of our tickets might be overpriced.” -- from The New York Times

A small amount of seats are overpriced? Take another look Steinbrenner at the amount of empty seats you've got there!

This just tickles my fancy to no end. The amount of money these sports organizations expect people to pay to see a game is ridiculous. Perhaps if professional athletes didn't command such large sums of money to play a game they love, regular people like me could afford to go to a game more than once every five years. Regular American people -- and even corporations these days -- are not going to shell out that kind of cash for a baseball game. Not in this economy. Now the Yankees are scrambling to find a way to cover the costs that are being lost each game.

Read the article here.

Maine Man Song

I'm not really sure what this has to do with Alka-Seltzer but this is hilarious!

Happy Earth Day!

Check out this hilarious blog on Write Stuff that includes Melanie's tips for living a green life. You won't regret it!

Troll Barbie?

I was watching this hilarious Sarah Haskins clip today and was blown away by Troll Barbie! She does exist! And you thought she was just into things like rollerskating, the prom, mermaids, corvettes, and Malibu beach...

Water vs. Electronics

I don't understand all the waterproof electronics out there....especially this one: The worlds first solar powered waterproof phone.

I have never in my 10 years of cell phone ownership gotten my phone soaking wet. I have never dropped it in a toilet, or a pool, or been pushed into a toilet or pool while my phone was in my pocket. WHY does a cellphone need to be waterproof? WHY can't people just take care of their things?

What's next? Sunglasses with tiny windshield wipers?