I’ve long thought that Raleigh could use more community newspapers. I just never thought the News and Observer would become one.

A large number of N&O staffers had their last day yesterday. There were a lot of familiar names in the group that will be missed, but one I thought was particularly disappointing to see was the Take It Outside writer, Joe Miller. I’ve long maintained that the two things that keep me subscribing to the N&O are the columns of Barry Saunders and Joe Miller. Of them, I always thought Joe had one of the best jobs in the country.

I wish the laid-off reporters and writers well and hope I’ll see more of their work soon.

A friend forwarded me a classic Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strip where Bill Watterson takes a shot at greedy capitalists. Calvin’s selling lemonade for $15 a glass and Susie Derkins calls him out on it, whereby Calvin offers a number of excuses for the exorbitant price.

I laughed and found myself missing the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. I also wondered if my kids will ever have the same experience of finding these jewels on the comics page each day.

There will never be another Calvin and Hobbes. If newspapers ever disappear that will be guaranteed.

I ran into an Army friend today who, knowing I’m a Navy vet, praised the Navy for freeing Capt. Richard Phillips, skipper of the Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates.

“It’s just a drop in the bucket,” I told him.

And it’s true. It would take a fleet much larger than the U.S. Navy has to prevent pirate attacks. It’s a huge area and there are hundreds of ships that travel through it. What’s more, these ships are practically defenseless. They cannot maneuver easily, they are easily ambushed due to the limited visibility around their hulls, and they have small, unarmed crews that can be easily overpowered. They are essentially sitting ducks, there for the plundering.

Picking off three pirates might have won one battle but the war continues unabated. Clearly we need a bigger solution.

A dog likes to pretend to control his people, herding them to the places the dog wants to go. Then again, people only pretend to control their dogs, as sometimes getting a dog to do something can be an exercise in frustration!

While I don’t condone stealing copyrighted works, I’ve long recognized the Associated Press’s outright hostility to the Internet. While it could’ve raked in plenty of online advertising dollars, the AP has never played well with the Internet. Never.

Now word comes down that the AP will be going after bloggers who post AP stories.

“We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under some very misguided, unfounded legal theories,” said Dean Singleton, the AP’s chairman and the chief executive of newspaper publisher MediaNews Group at AP’s annual meeting.

(gosh, I hope I can use that quote safely!)

The AP has never provided proper links to its stories, thus anyone discussing an AP story has to cut-and-paste the desired excerpts because AP stories disappear into the ether so quickly.

Again, I don’t have a problem with the AP trying to make money on its product – some of my closest friends have been quoted in AP stories, after all. When the company shows such evident disdain for its online audience, however, perhaps that audience should rightfully go elsewhere.

Some managers will assure their employees that their jobs are safe. Then in the next breath, they’ll add “but … hold off on any big purchases you might be thinking of making.” The implication is that what’s safe now may not be safe later.

While that seems like prudent advice in this type of economy, it’s also the reason the economy is in the funk that it’s in. By telling employees to hold off on those car or home purchases, the very spending that is America’s economic engine is not being spent. Those jobs that weren’t initially in jeopardy eventually are in jeopardy.

While it might not be prudent to tell employees “go spend like there’s no tomorrow!” the irony is that might be what it takes to truly save their jobs.

Dear DVD producers,

The more junk advertisements and previews you put on your DVD that won’t let me skip to get to the DVD menu, the more likely your DVD will wind up on The Pirate Bay. Just sayin’.

Disregards,
Mark