Time to test your knowledge of the year 2012 as recounted on the Meyerson blog, the Meyerson Twitter feed and the Meyerson Facebook page.
Take the quiz now.
Take the quiz now.
2012 quiz: The Year That Was the Year Before 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
This quiz is temporarily nonfunctional. See a working version here.
2012: The Year That Was the Year Before 2013
Time to test your knowledge (or at least your ability) to recreate the highlights and lowlights of the year 2012 as recounted on the <a href="http://meyerson.blogspot.com">Meyerson blog</a>, the <a href="https://twitter.com/meyerson">Meyerson Twitter feed</a> and the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/yearinreview/Meyerson">Meyerson Facebook page</a>. Helpful links provided with each question.10 things I learned from Marvel Comics written by Stan Lee
Friday, December 28, 2012
As Marvel Comics guru Stan Lee reaches his milestone 90th birthday today, I’m reminded of a tribute I wrote for him on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Comics Buyer’s Guide, which solicited such letters for a special issue, got literally thousands, and printed dozens, including this one, which is as true today as it was in December 1997:Dear Stan,See (or, rather, hear) also my 1998 interview with Stan Lee. Enjoy.
As you reach your 75th birthday, you must know how much your work has meant to so many. But let me count a few of the ways anyhow:
Your breezy writing style has made generations feel at home in the pages of your books. You were speaking directly to me with phrases like, “Don’t miss the next issue, Charlie!” Didn’t matter that you used “Charlie” interchangeably with “pal,” “fearless one” and “effendi”: Those were aimed at me, too, weren’t they?
And your words shaped the values that guided us through childhood, adolescence, on into middle age and beyond—to the point where I can honestly write...
(Almost) Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Marvel Comics Written by Stan Lee
1. No matter how grim life gets, a sense of humor will help you face it.OK, maybe you led us a little astray on the radioactivity part. But the rest has truly made uncounted lives more meaningful, productive and fun.
2. Try your hardest, no matter the odds.
3. Remember that others depend on you.
4. Radioactivity is your friend.
5. The universe is a place of wonders: Seek them and cherish them.
6. Mutants are people, too.
7. No matter how ugly you are, the beauty within can shine through.
8. A well-placed flagpole is your friend.
9. With great power comes great responsibility ...
10. ... And great power can come to anyone.
Thanks, Stan, for the great stories, the fabulous characters, the unrelenting humor and the sense of wonder with which you’ve endowed us all.
Happy 75th birthday ... effendi!
(Photo: Stan Lee at the Phoenix Comicon in Arizona, May 2011. Photographer: Gage Skidmore.)
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Christmas Song Challenge: Which of your favorites can pass the test?
Friday, December 21, 2012
[Note: Read an update to this essay with an explanation of the Carey song’s appeal here.]
I’m not a Mariah Carey fan. I can’t offhand name another of her songs. But over the last few years, this song, written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, has grown on me to the point where ...
OK, to the point where I listened to it today looping nonstop for 90 minutes. And could have gone longer if the phone hadn’t rung.
I can see where this song wouldn’t work for someone who’s lonely at Christmastime. But I suspect it meets some abstract criteria for pleasing, energizing music composition. (Any music experts out there like to explain? Comment below.)
The reaction from my friends and relatives included predictable disapproval. (Scott Kleinberg: “I just put in for more vacation time so I can mentally get over the news you just broke here.”)
But others offered their One Song choices. Before I ask yours, here are some of theirs:
Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krause, The Wexford Carol: A perfectly lovely piece, but not enough variety or energy to justify an infinite loop.
Karen Carpenter’s Merry Christmas, Darling: OK, I guess. But her voice is flat, emotionally and tonally. And would you listen to it for 90 minutes straight? If you did, would you be willing to listen to it some more after that?
My wife needs Irma Thomas’ version of Oh, Holy Night at Christmas, but even she admits she couldn’t listen to it loop for 90 minutes. (In fairness, she says she knows of no song she could stand that much.) She says she could take any of Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas melodies nonstop—including Skating—and I agree. But instrumentals have an edge: By their nature, they’re unintrusive and don’t wear out their welcome so easily. So I’m going to limit the discussion to vocals.
Relient K’s Merry Christmas, Here’s to Many More is a great addition to the holiday playlist. (Thanks, Thom Martin.) But not enough variety for repetition and not enough energy to sustain listening for more than an hour.
John Denver’s Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk on Christmas)? Nice sentiment, but I defy you to listen twice in a row, let alone for an hour and a half. Same thing with Jackson Brown’s The Rebel Jesus.
Of all the Facebook suggestions for vocals that hold up to repeated listening, the one that comes closest in my mind was suggested by Edie Folta: The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York. Like All I Want for Christmas, it starts out slow and a little off-key, but then builds to a bigger finish. (But the uplift is undercut by lyrics that include “scumbag” and “maggot” – bonus points in my world, but not for everyone, I’ll admit.)
All right, then. Now it’s your turn to take the Christmas song challenge: Which Christmas vocal can you listen to again and again for (oh, let’s say) 60 minutes straight without burning out? Take an hour while wrapping presents or shoveling or cleaning the house and then share below.
(The author is not responsible for any outbreaks of domestic discord that ensue.)
P.S. The Mariah Carey-Jimmy Fallon version of All I Want for Christmas with a little-kid chorus is delightful, but the lack of polish runs thin after repeated listening.
P.P.S. The Cheetah Girls version sucks.
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‘The future of journalism’? Or a long-overdue past?
Friday, December 21, 2012
The future of journalism? To read the glowing praise that accompanied the publication online of this New York Times feature, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek,” you’d think so.
But why? Just because it doesn’t condemn all its multimedia assets to one ghetto or sidebar column, or toss them simultaneously in readers’ faces on an overstuffed landing page?
This isn’t the future of journalism. It’s the past that should have been but hasn’t been, so far. In 2009, University of Maryland journalism professor Ronald A. Yaros advised this in an American Journalism Review piece called “Mastering Multimedia“:
In other words, the Times is winning heaps of praise for finally doing something at the end of 2012 many of us have been championing since the last decade. (I remember advocating this approach at the Chicago Tribune in the mid-2000s.)
That this entirely sensible and reader-centric awakening has taken newsrooms so long strikes me as reason more for head-shaking concern than for celebration.
People with blogs have been presenting content this way for years. Newspaper Web sites, their editors and their content-management system architects just couldn’t have been bothered.
Good work on this one, NYT. Make it standard operating procedure, and then let’s figure out what’s really next.
See also:
The Atlantic: ‘Snow Fall’ Isn’t the Future of Journalism
GigaOM: The good — and bad — about the NYT’s ‘Snow Fall’ feature
Get updates to this blog by email, for free.
But why? Just because it doesn’t condemn all its multimedia assets to one ghetto or sidebar column, or toss them simultaneously in readers’ faces on an overstuffed landing page?
This isn’t the future of journalism. It’s the past that should have been but hasn’t been, so far. In 2009, University of Maryland journalism professor Ronald A. Yaros advised this in an American Journalism Review piece called “Mastering Multimedia“:
It’s not enough to post some text and then simply throw some video into the mix. To keep readers’ attention and enhance the audience’s understanding, it’s critical that each ingredient in a rich multimedia stew is placed precisely where it makes the most sense.(Emphasis mine.)
In other words, the Times is winning heaps of praise for finally doing something at the end of 2012 many of us have been championing since the last decade. (I remember advocating this approach at the Chicago Tribune in the mid-2000s.)
That this entirely sensible and reader-centric awakening has taken newsrooms so long strikes me as reason more for head-shaking concern than for celebration.
People with blogs have been presenting content this way for years. Newspaper Web sites, their editors and their content-management system architects just couldn’t have been bothered.
Good work on this one, NYT. Make it standard operating procedure, and then let’s figure out what’s really next.
See also:
The Atlantic: ‘Snow Fall’ Isn’t the Future of Journalism
GigaOM: The good — and bad — about the NYT’s ‘Snow Fall’ feature
Get updates to this blog by email, for free.
Let’s do the time warp again
Friday, December 21, 2012
On the morning after Christmas, for the first time in more than five years, I'll be returning to the airwaves on my former radio home, WXRT-FM 93.1 (93XRT).
I'll be filling in for the wonderfully dedicated and talented Mary Dixon at the morning-anchor seat I held for most of the 1980s, mostly alongside Terri Hemmert, who's still there; and before that with Garry Lee Wright, who's not.
But it's not exactly the same seat, and it's not in the same place. My last visit took me back to that cramped, windowless (but it was home!) place at 4949 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. This'll be something completely different: I'll be figgerin' out what's news from the 10th floor at 2 Prudential Plaza.
First newscast: 6 a.m. Last newscast: 8:30 a.m.
(Photo: Chicago Radio Spotlight)
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I'll be filling in for the wonderfully dedicated and talented Mary Dixon at the morning-anchor seat I held for most of the 1980s, mostly alongside Terri Hemmert, who's still there; and before that with Garry Lee Wright, who's not.
First newscast: 6 a.m. Last newscast: 8:30 a.m.
(Photo: Chicago Radio Spotlight)
Get updates to this blog by email, for free.
Parties, presents and powerlessness
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Re-posting here in 2015 on its third anniversary, because the3six5 project -- for which this was originally written Dec. 16, 2012, and posted the day after -- has gone to the great 404 in the sky.
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A lot of wonderful people I worked with at a job I quit 23 years ago get together every year at a big party that has in many ways defined the holidays for me and my family.
In a tradition at these parties, each of the little kids gets a present. Years later, one of those gifts to our eldest son lingers in my mind above all others. It's a squeeze toy: a baby wearing a diaper and a baseball cap bearing the word "Ace."
"Ace the Baseball Baby," as we came to call him, anchored the Meyerson bathtime toy lineup for years.
And Ace has been relegated to a box in the basement.
This year, as the families of 20 children mourn their deaths in the senseless slaughter at Newtown, Conn., the passage of time weighs on me more heavily than ever.
That atrocity means the parents of 20 children won't get to introduce them, all grown up, to old friends. Twenty children won't get to bring around girlfriends or boyfriends to meet their parents' former coworkers. Twenty children won't live to hear their parents talk nostalgically about their old childhood bath toys.
Somewhere in a dark corner of a dark box, Ace the Baseball Baby awaits the call up to rejoin the roster of playthings for the next generation.
I left tonight's party hoping that generation will be blessed by lives free of horrors like that which descended on Newtown.
I returned home to read President Obama's words, echoing something I've been saying -- to some skeptics on Facebook, pleading for -- over the last few days:
"We can't accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"
I'm not. May we all resolve to do something to see it never happens again.
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Charlie Meyerson’s delivered the news to Chicago for a long time – in print, on air, online. What’s next: @Meyerson, Meyerson.blogspot.com.
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| An ornament at the party |
In a tradition at these parties, each of the little kids gets a present. Years later, one of those gifts to our eldest son lingers in my mind above all others. It's a squeeze toy: a baby wearing a diaper and a baseball cap bearing the word "Ace."
"Ace the Baseball Baby," as we came to call him, anchored the Meyerson bathtime toy lineup for years.
And Ace has been relegated to a box in the basement.
This year, as the families of 20 children mourn their deaths in the senseless slaughter at Newtown, Conn., the passage of time weighs on me more heavily than ever.
That atrocity means the parents of 20 children won't get to introduce them, all grown up, to old friends. Twenty children won't get to bring around girlfriends or boyfriends to meet their parents' former coworkers. Twenty children won't live to hear their parents talk nostalgically about their old childhood bath toys.
Somewhere in a dark corner of a dark box, Ace the Baseball Baby awaits the call up to rejoin the roster of playthings for the next generation.
I left tonight's party hoping that generation will be blessed by lives free of horrors like that which descended on Newtown.
I returned home to read President Obama's words, echoing something I've been saying -- to some skeptics on Facebook, pleading for -- over the last few days:
"We can't accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"
I'm not. May we all resolve to do something to see it never happens again.
-------
Charlie Meyerson’s delivered the news to Chicago for a long time – in print, on air, online. What’s next: @Meyerson, Meyerson.blogspot.com.
Christmases past, present, future
Sunday, December 16, 2012
 |
First posted Dec. 16, 2012, to Daniel Honigman and Len Kendall's now-defunct project, "the3six5: 365 days, 365 points of view."
In a tradition at these parties, each of the little kids gets a present. Years later, one of those gifts to our eldest son lingers in my mind above all others. It's a squeeze toy: a baby wearing a diaper and a baseball cap bearing the word "Ace."
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| Photo: LauraTrev1 on Etsy |
But those years passed quickly. The timeless nature of these get-togethers provides a stunning contrast to recognition that all three of our kids have grown up into young men.
And Ace has been relegated to a box in the basement.
This year, as the families of 20 children mourn their deaths in the senseless slaughter at Newtown, Conn., the passage of time weighs on me more heavily than ever.
That atrocity means the parents of 20 children won't get to introduce them, all grown up, to old friends. Twenty children won't get to bring around girlfriends or boyfriends to meet their parents' former coworkers. Twenty children won't live to hear their parents talk nostalgically about their old childhood bath toys.
Somewhere in a dark corner of a dark box, Ace the Baseball Baby awaits the call up to rejoin the roster of playthings for the next generation.
I left tonight's party hoping that generation will be blessed by lives free of horrors like that which descended on Newtown.
I returned home to read President Obama's words, echoing something I've been saying -- to some skeptics on Facebook, pleading for -- over the last few days:
"We can't accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"
I'm not. May we all resolve to do something to see it never happens again.
---
Charlie Meyerson’s delivered the news to Chicago for a long time – in print, on air, online.
More of Meyerson on Christmas here.
The pitch: Reasons to work with Charlie Meyerson
Saturday, December 15, 2012
One guy, many strengths: 24/7 radio news discipline + digital media innovation = Quality content, created at the speed of broadcast.
INVENTED CHICAGO TRIBUNE’S FIRST WIDELY SUCCESSFUL EMAIL PRODUCT, DAYWATCH.
More than a decade hand-coding email daily, in raw HTML for that Old World quality (some image links have expired): Read more
‘THE WAY TO GET MONEY TO FIX A BRIDGE IS FOR IT TO COLLAPSE AND KILL PEOPLE.’ With Daywatch, proved an apt pull-quote is a great way to engage an audience: Read more
INVENTED CHICAGO TRIBUNE’S FIRST WIDELY SUCCESSFUL EMAIL PRODUCT, DAYWATCH.
More than a decade hand-coding email daily, in raw HTML for that Old World quality (some image links have expired): Read more
RULE 1. ‘ASSUME MOST OF THE AUDIENCE ISN’T INTERESTED.’ Wrote Tribune style guide on “headlines that work” — on the Web and in print. A former Tribune colleague wrote in July 2012 about a 2007 coaching session: “I look back at your words of wisdom at the Trib about things like SEO value in headlines, and realize you were a good five years ahead of anyone I knew.” Read more
(HELPED) WRITE BOOK ON WHAT MAKES PEOPLE CLICK. “Clickthrough reports provide a vivid and intimate understanding of what moves an audience and why”: Read more
A CONTENT CURATOR BEFORE THAT WAS A THING. Do you think it was easy to get conservative Tribune editors to allow a link to TheOnion.com, long before the two companies got into business together? Read more
HAS BLOG, KNOWS HOW TO USE IT. Daywatch was a blog — a continually updated Web list of news items — in 1999, before the word “blog” existed. The work continues at this personal outpost since 2005: Read more
BEE IN RAHM EMANUEL’S BONNET. Spent this year just past as Chicago City Hall and political correspondent for a startup all-news radio station: Hear more
• Hear much more
FACEBOOK MEMBER SINCE BACK WHEN SONS INSISTED THE ONLY PEOPLE HIS AGE THERE WERE [UNSAVORY]. An early-early adopter: Read more
‘WE ARE BETTER POSITIONED … TO GO ON AND CREATE SOMETHING NEW AGAIN, SOMEWHERE ELSE.’ Now seeking new adventures. Is [yours] the place? Read more
SPANISH? Yo no hablo español lo suficientemente bien como para componer esta frase sin utilizar un traductor en línea: Read more
SO … LET’S TALK. Or at least Link: Read more
2012 in tweets / Multimedia, schmultimedia / 'I see dead people ... liking things'
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
3 things for Tuesday, Chicago:
2012 IN TWEETS. Twitter's out with a fascinating report, "This Year on Twitter," revealing among other things the two tweets that generated the most retweets for the year and other "moments of serendipity and just plain awesomeness."
* A personalized view of your year in Twitter
* Subject of my "golden tweet" of the year: CTA news
* 'Seinfeld' re-envisioned for Twitter
MULTIMEDIA, SCHMULTIMEDIA. A new Pew Research Center study of the demographics of mobile news finds young people getting news through smartphone apps "prefer a print-like experience over one with high-tech or multi-media features."
'I SEE DEAD PEOPLE ... LIKING THINGS.' ReadWrite.com's Bernard Meisler says something's rotten in the state of Facebook.
What was your "golden tweet" of the year? Share below.
* A personalized view of your year in Twitter
* Subject of my "golden tweet" of the year: CTA news
* 'Seinfeld' re-envisioned for Twitter
MULTIMEDIA, SCHMULTIMEDIA. A new Pew Research Center study of the demographics of mobile news finds young people getting news through smartphone apps "prefer a print-like experience over one with high-tech or multi-media features."
'I SEE DEAD PEOPLE ... LIKING THINGS.' ReadWrite.com's Bernard Meisler says something's rotten in the state of Facebook.
What was your "golden tweet" of the year? Share below.
This page intentionally left blank. (Not!)
Monday, December 10, 2012
3 things better than "This page was intentionally left blank":
A couple of nights ago, as my wife sifted through the week's mail, she laughed out loud and said, "They didn't do a very good job." And then she handed me this page.
Beyond the antiquated absurdity of this practice -- ridiculed by the "This Page Intentionally Left Blank Project" -- why would any company leave a page blank in an era where attention is so valuable a commodity intentionally?
Why not use that space for something more useful, engaging -- or at least more fun -- than a paradoxically wrong message?
Instead of that dumbly robotic note, take a leaf from Wendy Clark, senior vice president at what Fortune calls "the biggest consumer brand on Facebook" -- Coca Cola -- and act "humanly"?
Some suggestions for better ways to use that blank space -- and take the relationship with customers to a new level:
Share below.
Beyond the antiquated absurdity of this practice -- ridiculed by the "This Page Intentionally Left Blank Project" -- why would any company leave a page blank in an era where attention is so valuable a commodity intentionally?
Why not use that space for something more useful, engaging -- or at least more fun -- than a paradoxically wrong message?
Instead of that dumbly robotic note, take a leaf from Wendy Clark, senior vice president at what Fortune calls "the biggest consumer brand on Facebook" -- Coca Cola -- and act "humanly"?
Some suggestions for better ways to use that blank space -- and take the relationship with customers to a new level:
1. "Not much to see here. Want more to read? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook."What higher use could you find for blank space that would be seen by thousands of people?
2. "Give this page and a crayon to a kid and ask him or her to draw a picture of a wonderful future."
3. "This page intentionally left blank -- except for this sentence and the logo above, both of which we wanted you to appreciate in a space of their own, free of interference from other, more prosaic elements."
Share below.
3 things about Lego and autism
Sunday, December 2, 2012
* Another reason Lego deserves a place in the pantheon of great toy companies: "Lego tracks down rare train set for Asperger's boy, 11, who saved up for it for two years only to discover it was no longer made."
![[279/365] Businessman](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vA8b5Yb-aSAtD_p-r5pA0vu0LA2lT-HA_0OXI0I7dfTXyP9vYcusFTaRsPQ7jM1KHR4xjgXt3AECURh-cLjbtoXvZ66dlFNbTwS5ygsYVfsbutyCu4ycNqG-jObH4TNSJp=s0-d)
* And, by the way, that kid no longer has Asperger's disorder. Neither does anyone else, according to the forthcoming edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual.
* A Danish firm that finds jobs specially suited for autistic adults relies on Lego in a big way.Image: pasukaru76 with Creative Commons
* And, by the way, that kid no longer has Asperger's disorder. Neither does anyone else, according to the forthcoming edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual.* A Danish firm that finds jobs specially suited for autistic adults relies on Lego in a big way.Image: pasukaru76 with Creative Commons
Will moderate for food
Saturday, December 1, 2012
For the second time this fall, the Publicity Club of Chicago's invited me to moderate a panel -- this Wednesday featuring TV news decision-makers. Not too late to sign up. (And the food is good.)
Here's how it went last time.
Yes, I always look that thoughtful when I moderate.
With Cynthia Lawson, Alex Sabbag, Jack Yeo. (Photo: Karen Kring.)
Yes, I always look that thoughtful when I moderate.
With Cynthia Lawson, Alex Sabbag, Jack Yeo. (Photo: Karen Kring.)