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BURNINGBIRD
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a node at the edge
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June 22, 2002
 Stuff
I checked and it's only 85 degrees and 20% humidity outside - St. Louis is 91 and 41% humidity. I'm going to die. I just know I'm going to die. I'm going to hit the sidewalk there and my toes are going to curl up and I'll start melting into this puddle of goo, plaintively calling out "I'm melting. I'm melting." Allan posted a link to a cartoon send up of webloggers. Okay, I squirmed a bit with this 'toon. I must write more in-depth political essays of the essentialness of the American experience, and our war on terror. And must weblog about sex more. Not today, though. I'm tired, and have a headache. This is fun: AKMA, Wonder Chicken, and Rageboy have been given parts in a re-make of Dune. AKMA stars as Dr. Yueh, Wonder Chicken is Jamis, and Chris Locke is The Beast Rabban. Of course, now that they're all big names and stars they won't be socializing with the little people. We can kiss off the cozy meetings over coffee on Tuesdays, the Saturday socials. Sheila Lennon writes about a byline strike at the Providence Journal, the Washington Post, Canadian publications and elsewhere. Article writers are withholding their bylines from stories in protest about not having a contract between their various Newspaper Guilds and the publications they write for. This is an interesting protest because writers like to be given credit for their publications. I support the writers - of course - but wouldn't a better strike be to not write for the publication at all? Shannon's a Godmother of a new baby girl, Charlotte. Can't ask for a better nanny to sing one to sleep can one? Hmmm. That last sentence was meant as a compliment. You all took that as a compliment, didn't you? And chocorate. I like chocorate. Posted by Bb at June 22, 2002 04:12 PM Comments
Yeah, I found the byline strike puzzling too, but then again it reminds me of European-style strikes. Like they'll strike for a day and then go back to work, which seems strange to us Americans who are used to thinking about strikes in the more dramatic terms of: we're going to stop working altogether until we can iron things out. The former makes the point but it doesn't brute force the issue. Maybe it depends on whether you think management will respond to gentle pressure or whether they'll ignore your demands unless they absolutely have no choice. On the other hand maybe not, because I'm not sure I think anyone really believes anything but the latter about management. ("Management" of course being a gross simplification of a rather multivariant and complex set of participants in the whole labor negotiation process.) Blah, blah, blah. More importantly, must return to pleasantly non-humid sunny afternoon of exactly the right temperature. ;-) Posted by: Abie on June 22, 2002 05:20 PMAbie, you have a mean streak at times. Cool afternoon of right temperature, indeed! ;-) Posted by: Bb aka Shelley aka Weblog Bosswoman on June 22, 2002 07:56 PMWHen we were coing through contreact negotiations at the Salem News in MA we had a byline strike, too. It was planned for a week. Management had other plans, though. After a week, they decided they wouldn't allow bylines in the paper, period. Fuck the writers and photographers, they said, we'll show them! They lost a lot of good writers and the quality of the paper suffered greatly ... it was a lose-lose situation, a game of negotiation chicken that backfired on everyone. Only 41% humidity?? Post a comment
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