Connecting
July 29, 2020



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Colleagues,


Good Wednesday morning on this the 29 th day of July 2020,

Our colleague Rachel Ambrose ( Email ) shares that AP teamwork came into play with securing a cutout of our beloved Sue Manning in Dodger Stadium (in photo at left). “So many of you helped with inspiration, funds and Dodger connections,” she said. “Sue's cutout will be in the front row of the left-hand bullpen field box MVP section."


"The picture that will be used was taken by AP/LA photographer Reed Saxon . If anyone still wants to donate, Venmo will work and I am rachel-ambrose-3. Or, mail a check to me at 200 Via Colusa, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274.”


Sue's family has been notified, Rachel said, and they are both ecstatic and willing to help out, too, “but I don't think that will be needed.” Any funds beyond the $299 cost will be forwarded to the AP Emergency Relief Fund. The $299 goes to the Dodger Foundation, an organization devoted to the development of boys and girls. Sue loved the Dodgers and spent much extra-curricular time bleeding blue.


VROOM!!! First responses are in on our new series on the vehicles you’ve owned and your favorite one. Not rocket science, we know, but a nice break from our virus-filled summer. Come ahead with your own story and a photo.


Here’s to a great day ahead – be safe, stay healthy.


Paul


What was your favorite ride? Vroom! - first responses…
Mike Doan ( Email ) - My 1965 Mustang convertible was such a cool car! I bought it used in Pittsburgh, and drove it across country when I joined the AP in Portland, Oregon, in 1966. I loved putting the top down when driving through the canyons in the Pacific Northwest.


Then I was transferred to Las Vegas. I tried riding with the top down to cool off in July while driving out to a member station in Henderson, Nevada, with the heat over 110 degrees. I'm surprised that I survived.


"You really should get air conditioning," L.A. Bureau Chief Bill Waugh told me. Yes, sir!


So I traded it in for one of those musclebound 1969 Mustangs with A/C. It had a black interior, and the dashboard even melted on hot days.


Do I wish I had kept my vintage '65 Mustang? No way. I am not a good mechanic.


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Joe Galloway ( Email ) - My cars:

--1952 red Chevrolet convertible
--1955 Ford Thunderbird
--1959 Ford Thunderbird
--1963 Jaguar XKE Coupe, black with red leather interior
--1955 MG TF 1500cc--last of the really good ones. British racing green.
--1962 Mercedes Benz SL convertible
--2004 Nissan 350Z coupe
--2013 Ford C-Max hybrid


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Jim Hood ( Email ) - What was your favorite ride, Paul Stevens asked. It’s impossible to answer. There are simply too many candidates, so let me just mention a few front-runners: a 1989 Porsche 911; a newer but more anemic Porsche Boxster; a 197x Fiat Spider and another Fiat Spider Rob Dalton sold me; two 197x Alfa Romeo Spiders, a 1995 Alfa 164S sedan and a 1999 Alfa 164LS that was the last of its kind seen on these shores until a few years ago; a few Mini Coopers, especially the convertible S model I kept in the Malibu hills; a Peugeot 505 station wagon and a couple of Peugeot 405 sedans; two Audi A3s (one of them my current daily driver); a 1960s era Studebaker Lark and two AMC Javelins of slightly more recent vintage. Oh, and four VW Tiguans, as close as I want to get to an SUV.


The Alfa sedan was perhaps the most notorious of the lot. I bought it from a bankrupt Alfa dealer in Florida and drove it home to Virginia that day, blasting through several states that were in the way. On that trip, the power steering went out, the windshield wipers failed during an intense rainstorm and the engine overheated twice. Each of these would happen with great regularity thereafter. One rainy morning, I was driving in heavy traffic to meet retired AP VP Roy Steinfort when the windshield wipers failed and the engine overheated. As I tried to turn into a nearby auto dealer, the power steering went out.


I managed to wrestle the beast off the road and walked into the dealership, which sold Saturns, a now-extinct brand known for being dull. Nevertheless, a short time later, I was back on the road toward Steinfort’s house in a new Saturn that had working lights, wipers, brakes and air conditioning. Speed isn’t everything. Sometimes simple mobility will suffice.


No offense towards my in-laws but Italian cars do seem to share a genetic predisposition towards overheating. One of my Fiats overheated regularly when the LA freeways slowed down. One day, as I was motoring over to Phoenix for some reason, I noticed a puff of white smoke behind me as the engine lost power on the infamous Indio Hill, the long stretch of I-10 that climbs out of the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs.


After watching the buzzards circle overhead, I finally caught a ride with a cowgirl in a pick-up. She dropped me in Palm Springs, which appeared to be a pretty nice little town. I vowed to return someday, a promise I have actually kept, unlike others I could think of.


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Guy Palmiotto ( Email ) - Always had a passion for motorcycles and currently own two, a 1994 Honda 900CBR and my primary receiver of this passion is my 1980 DUCATI 900 Darmah. I am the original owner of each, and purchased the DUCATI in May 1980. It has been ridden to Montreal and countless country roads here in Northwestern New Jersey. Italian design has no peer when it comes to motorcycles, and it still holds my attraction. I use the Honda for much of my daily rides and has over 62,000 miles on the odometer. Still handle the routine maintenance of each, but now trust a local shop to handle the more labor-intensive tasks. They have provided excellent stress relief during this pandemic. My worn leather jacket provides a modicum of protection from the elements, and will admit to moments when I have twisted the throttle to excess.


Thank You for sharing Norm’s take, and certainly influenced me to write.


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David C. Hill, longtime Corvette chief engineer, taking a short cruise with me while at an event at the National Corvette Museum prior to his retirement.


Jim Willis ( Email ) - Norm Abelson’s reminiscences about automobiles, particularly his reference to the 1950 MG Midget, took me back to memories of my first new car – a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite Mark III (essentially the same car as the MG Midget without the wire wheels and chrome accouterments). 


I bought the car while studying journalism at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) by working three part-time jobs.


While I loved the lines of the 1950 MG Midgets (either the TC or TD configurations), my Sprite was the first year for MG Midgets and AH Sprites to have roll-up windows and door handles (doors could even be locked) so I felt like I had to have one in British Racing Green.


Later, after a tour of duty with the USAF, I bought an orange ’73 Corvette coupe and drove that car for 20 years, putting about 250K miles on it. I’ve had a number of newer Corvettes through the years, but my favorite is my Rally Red ’65 big block, four-speed Corvette Sting Ray convertible with side pipes and knock-off wheels. I keep a lead hammer with the jack in the storage compartment (no trunk).


It’s not a “garage queen,” which would never leave the safety of the garage when there is a threat of rain, although I don’t like to drive the car in the rain because it leaks like a sieve.
 

My wife and I drove the car in the Hot Rod Power Tour in 2004, putting almost 3K miles on it. When we got close to the Gulf Coast, we started hitting the outer bands of a tropical storm and it poured down rain for three days. I knew the car leaked, but found out it didn’t drain. My wife used a cup to bail out the floorboards during those three days.


Now, we drive the 55-year-old Sting Ray on weekends and to local car events. I cranked it up a few minutes ago. You may have heard it. It’s loud!


My daily driver is a super-quiet hybrid Honda Accord with better fuel economy by a factor of better than five.


Connecting series:
Oh, the places you'll go - with that special person you met



Dan and Becky
Above photo shows Becky and Dan Day walking with their son Liam at his wedding in North Adams, Massachusetts last October; photo at right from their wedding album.


Dan Day ( Email ) - I had just sat down for a late lunch in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel cafeteria when a group of women from Advertising came through the line. The only one I truly saw was the redhead in the middle: Becky Blake, a Marquette University undergraduate whom I’d met briefly on campus two months earlier.


She headed to the salad bar, and I walked over, said hello and asked if she’d like to join me. She did, and that day in June 1979 changed our lives forever.


Becky was in Milwaukee for the summer, working in Classifieds at the Journal-Sentinel Building. A graduate student in journalism at Marquette, I was also in town, working as a reporting intern at The Milwaukee Journal. That chance cafeteria encounter led to our first date, playing tennis on July 5. Exactly one year later, we were married in her hometown of Dodge City, Kansas.


At the time, I was a reporter at The Daily Times in Ottawa, Illinois, waiting for an opportunity at the AP in Milwaukee. I got it when Chief of Bureau Dion Henderson offered me a job in early 1981.


What an adventure it has been. Becky has been with me every step of the way. She was a great partner in dealing with member publishers, editors and news directors, first as a bureau chief’s spouse and later as executive director of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and the Journalism and Women Symposium.


Besides shuttling our three kids from school to swim meets, soccer games and orchestra rehearsals, Becky repeatedly packed and unpacked as we moved from Milwaukee to Omaha, Seattle, San Francisco and cross-country to New York headquarters. Those AP relocations were followed by two more transcontinental moves, to Modesto, California, and Princeton, New Jersey.


The past few years, Becky has kept our AP association going, administering newspaper and broadcast contests for several states. She continues to endear herself to my Princeton University colleagues, baking treats and hosting parties.


In an ideal world, our children and grandchildren would all be close by, but they inherited the Day family diaspora gene. Daughter Katie and family are in suburban Detroit, son Liam and his new bride are in New York City, and son Tim is in the San Francisco Bay Area.


Meantime, Becky is learning to tolerate my presence 24/7 as I work remotely. Because of COVID-19, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this month at home. That was nice, but she missed out on my years-in-the-making plan to take her back to Milwaukee. I was going to buy her lunch at the Journal-Sentinel cafeteria.


A doubletake when viewing parodies of famed Iwo Jima photo
Chris Carola ( Email ) - I nearly did a doubletake when I saw Allen Matthews’ and Hal Buell’s contributions in Tuesday’s Connecting regarding parodies of Joe Rosenthal’s famous AP photo of the Iwo Jima flag raising.


Just two weeks ago I was going through some old photo albums from my journalism student days at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y., near the Pennsylvania state line about 90 miles south of Buffalo. Among the washed-out color snapshots is this Iwo Jima photo parody carried out by four of my dormitory floormates, with me serving as the photographer, using my newly acquired Canon AE-1.


It was taken in April 1978 in an off-campus spot known as “Merton’s Heart.” A vaguely heart-shaped clearing on a hillside across the Allegany River from the St. Bonaventure campus, Merton’s Heart is named after Thomas Merton, the theologian and Trappist monk who studied and taught at the college in the late 1930s and ‘40s and was known to take walks in the nearby hills.


Bonaventure students on occasion would set out on hikes to Merton’s Heart, typically in the fall or spring, since that stretch of western New York is where God puts the surplus snow he can’t cram into Buffalo during the winter. For our particular outing in ’78, we each lugged along our own 6-packs of beer. Someone must’ve have suggested staging the Iwo Jima flag raising photo. I can’t remember whose idea it was, but someone’s jacket was used as a stand-in for the flag.


There was no disrespect intended. We grew up reading WWII books and watching WWII movies, including “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” Most of us had relatives who fought in the war.


Four years after I snapped this photo parodying the famous AP image, I started my first stint with AP at 50 Rockefeller Center in late June 1982. I would work a total of 34 years for AP, the last 31 in Albany, N.Y. As I mentioned in a previous Connecting contribution, my family learned in recent years that my late father had a first cousin who died of wounds suffered on Iwo Jima while serving with the 28th Marines – the same outfit that raised the flag photographed by Joe Rosenthal.


I was also interested to see in Hal’s story the parody photo of the inaugural Jock magazine cover showing several N.Y. Mets raising the 1969 World Series Champions flag. I remember seeing a similar Mets-themed Iwo Jima parody used in a subway poster on the No. 7 train while en route to my first Major League Baseball game, a Pirates-Mets doubleheader at Shea Stadium on Sept. 21, 1969. Are there any old Mets fans from New York City on Connecting who can verify that the poster in question was in use as a ticket-selling ad during the pennant drive that season?


More on the capital B in Black


John Eagan ( Email ) - I have been an adviser for 12 years to prisoners who produce the monthly San Quentin News newspaper.


After a few years of training and grooming by myself and other retired journalists, the prisoners pretty much took over policy and production on their own.


Most of the prisoner staffers are Black, so it is interesting that they developed the following regarding racial identities last year, as stated in the San Quentin News style sheet:


Black/White: Capitalize color when it refers to an ethnic identity. The preferred term is Black and White (capitalized) when referring to racial identity. Use African American only in quotes (no hyphen), in the names of organizations, or if a person refers to themselves as African American. Don’t use African American referring to an African Black person. NOTE: Capitalized Black and White are SQN exceptions to AP style.


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Ford Burkhart ( Email ) - On Larry Thorson's 'Cap B for Black' note:


We could all use a few sensible new rules. We just need to be consistent. In English, we cap Spanish and English, and now Black, right? In Spanish, they lower case espanol (with a tilde of course) and ingles (with an accent) and the world doesn't end. We should be thankful we don't have to worry about the tilde and accents. Thanks to Larry for a thoughtful comment.


Ford Burkhart in Tucson (ex-Philadelphia and Harrisburg AP bureau in 1970 with Larry, later at APW together in NY)


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Ed McCullough ( Email ) - To Larry Thorson's rhetorical (?) query - Those exercised about B for Black: please say whether you routinely capitalize Jew, Muslim, Christian, Protestant, American, British, Chinese, South African, Russian, German - a valid response would seem to be: the first four are religions. The latter six refer to countries. Blacks are neither. Nor are whites. Re AP's explanation (John Daniszewski, July 20) that "We agree that white people's skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices," might not a reasonable person oppositely conclude that individual and societal actions are bigger factors than ones' skin color? And, who is "we"? In my 35 years (through Dec. 2016) with AP as reporter, editor, bureau chief and regional manager, I never was asked to agree to that statement, nor would have. Asians certainly have been discriminated against in U.S. history - e.g., the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, WWII-era Japanese internment, and today's Supreme Court challenges regarding university admissions - as were American Indians who resisted genocide. Yet news references to them probably would not reference skin color at all, nor capitalize the "y" in yellow nor the "r" in red.


A visit to Little Bighorn in search of Mark Kellogg’s grave marker
Kevin Walsh ( Email ) - Lisa and I recently visited Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. This was our second visit in four years.


I tried, without success, to find the grave marker for Mark Kellogg, claimed by AP as its first correspondent killed in battle. The visitor center was closed and the park rangers were either ignorant of Kellogg's story or completely unhelpful.


I was able to dig up this photo online and I found Kellogg's name on a central monument near the area where Custer made his last stand.


Which made wonder. What is the AP doing to preserve Kellogg's legacy? Is there a way to help educate the National Parks Service about his legacy -- or at least help visitors find his grave marker? What will happen to Kellogg's belongings that were part of the now-closed Newseum's collection?


I'm also curious if any other Connecting readers have found Kellogg's grave marker.


Five years ago, we celebrated Jim Lagier’s 80 th
Seated, Jim Lagier and Edie Lederer. Standing, from left to right: Marty Thompson, Elaine Hooker Jackson, Jeannine Yeomans, Bill Saul, Linda Deutsch, Chuck McFadden, Mike Rubin, Paul Stevens, Mike Goodkind, Lyle Price, Bob Egelko, Dan Berger and Steve Lawrence.


Five years ago, in July 2015, longtime AP bureau chief and executive Jim Lagier celebrated his 80 th birthday in Walnut Creek, California, and proudly joined colleagues in the Connecting 80s Club. Four months later, he died after a battle with cancer.


This photo is a happy reminder of that special party for Jim, who was AP bureau chief in Tokyo when he retired. It shows Jim with 14 of his former AP colleagues who attended the party, organized and emceed by Jim's brother, Larry.
Connecting wishes Happy Birthday

Jeannie Eblen - jkeblen@sunflower.com


Stories of interest


Biden’s notes: ‘Do not hold grudges’ against Kamala Harris
The notes of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden reference Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., among other things as he speaks at a campaign event at the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, July 28, 2020.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)



By BILL BARROW and ANDREW HARNIK


WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden was uncharacteristically tight-lipped on Tuesday about the final stretch of his search for a vice president. But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee seemed prepared to talk about at least one leading contender: California Sen. Kamala Harris.


As he took questions from reporters on Tuesday, Biden held notes that were captured by an Associated Press photographer. Harris’ name was scrawled across the top, followed by five talking points.


“Do not hold grudges.” “Campaigned with me & Jill.” “Talented.” “Great help to campaign.” “Great respect for her.”


Those are all observations Biden has made about Harris before. But they take on new significance following a recent Politico report that one of Biden’s closest friends and a co-chair of his vice presidential vetting committee, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, still harbors concerns about Harris’ tough debate stage performance and that she hasn’t expressed regret.


Read more here . Shared by Peg Coughlin.


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A growing group of journalists has cut back on Twitter, or abandoned it entirely (Poynter)


By Mark Lieberman


In late June, The New York Times published an article by Noam Scheiber detailing discomfort staffers at The Ringer feel about managers’ commitment to racial diversity and inclusion. K. Austin Collins, a former Ringer employee, was one of four Black journalists to detail his frustrations for the article, and the only one quoted.


Scheiber’s piece on the sports and culture media company surfaced amid a broader transformation currently taking place within the media industry, in which Black journalists and other journalists of color are sharing long-held frustrations around their experiences with racism embedded in the culture of their workplaces.


Much of that conversation has been playing out on Twitter, in impassioned threads and replies.


Collins, however, hasn’t been weighing in. He hasn’t tweeted since the start of the year, and he deleted his past tweets. He still uses the social media platform’s search function and maintains an anonymous private account to check in on Twitter controversies — but not often.


Read more here . Shared by Bob Daugherty.


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Krissah Thompson named The Washington Post’s first managing editor for diversity and inclusion (Washington Post)
Krissah Thompson has been named managing editor for diversity and inclusion at The Washington Post. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)


By Paul Farhi


The Washington Post has named Krissah Thompson, a veteran editor and reporter with nearly 20 years of experience at the organization, as its first managing editor for diversity and inclusion, a new senior position created as a result of a broad reckoning among news organizations in the wake of nationwide protests over racial inequities.


Thompson, 41, will be responsible for leading the newsroom’s efforts in the recruitment, hiring, promotion and mentoring of staff members, with an eye toward expanding the newsroom’s diversity.


Currently an editor in The Post’s Style section, she will join the news organization’s masthead as one of four deputies to executive editor Martin Baron. She is the first African American woman to become a managing editor in the newspaper’s 143-year history.


Read more here . Shared by Dennis Conrad.
Today in History - July 29, 2020
By The Associated Press
Today is Wednesday, July 29, the 211th day of 2020. There are 155 days left in the year.


Today’s Highlight in History:


On July 29, 1967, an accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen. (Among the survivors was future Arizona senator John McCain, a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander who narrowly escaped with his life.)


On this date:


In 1856, German composer Robert Schumann died in Endenich at age 46.


In 1914, transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco. Massachusetts’ Cape Cod Canal, offering a shortcut across the base of the peninsula, was officially opened to shipping traffic.


In 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency was established. Jack Paar made his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”


In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.


In 1965, The Beatles’ second feature film, “Help!,” had its world premiere in London.


In 1968, Pope Paul the Sixth reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s stance against artificial methods of birth control.


In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland.


In 1980, a state funeral was held in Cairo, Egypt, for the deposed Shah of Iran, who had died two days earlier at age 60.


In 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in a glittering ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)


In 1986, a federal jury in New York found that the National Football League had committed an antitrust violation against the rival United States Football League. But in a hollow victory for the U-S-F-L, the jury ordered the N-F-L to pay token damages of only three dollars.


In 1994, abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton’s bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Florida. (Hill was executed in Sept. 2003.)


In 1997, members of Congress from both parties embraced compromise legislation designed to balance the budget while cutting taxes.


Ten years ago: Army Spc. Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning was flown from a detention facility in Kuwait to the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, to await trial on charges of giving military secrets to WikiLeaks. The House rejected a bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust; Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., angrily denounced Republicans who’d voted against the measure, calling it “a shame, a shame.” A House panel charged New York Democrat Charles Rangel with 13 counts of ethical misdeeds (he was later censured by the full House).


Five years ago: Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that America’s armed forces stood ready to confront Iran, but that a successful implementation of the nuclear agreement with Tehran was preferable to a military strike. Afghan authorities announced they were certain that the Taliban’s reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had died in a Pakistani hospital in 2013. Microsoft released its Windows 10 operating system, an upgrade of Windows 8.


One year ago: Britain’s weather agency confirmed that the country had seen its highest temperature on record, 101.7 degrees Farenheit, during the heat wave that broke temperature records across Europe in the preceding days.


Today’s Birthdays: Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum-Baker is 88. Actor Robert Fuller is 87. Former Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole is 84. Actor David Warner is 79. Actress Roz Kelly is 78. Rock musician Neal Doughty (REO Speedwagon) is 74. Marilyn Tucker Quayle, wife of former Vice President Dan Quayle, is 71. Actor Mike Starr is 70. Documentary maker Ken Burns is 67. Style guru Tim Gunn is 67. Rock singer-musician Geddy Lee (Rush) is 67. Rock singer Patti Scialfa (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) is 67. Actor Kevin Chapman is 58. Actress Alexandra Paul is 57. Actor/comedian Dean Haglund is 55. Country singer Martina McBride is 54. Rock musician Chris Gorman is 53. Actor Rodney Allen Rippy is 52. Actor Tim Omundson is 51. Actor Ato Essandoh is 48. Actor Wil Wheaton is 48. Rhythm-and-blues singer Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men) is 47. Country singer-songwriter James Otto is 47. Actor Stephen Dorff is 47. Actor Josh Radnor is 46. Hip-hop DJ/music producer Danger Mouse is 43. Actress Rachel Miner is 40. Actress Allison Mack is 38. Actress Kaitlyn Black is 37. Actor Matt Prokop is 30. Actress Cait Fairbanks is 27.

Got a story or photos to share?
Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!


Here are some suggestions:

- Second chapters  - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.
 
- Spousal support -  How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career. 

- My most unusual story -  tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.

- "A silly mistake that you make"-  a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.

- Multigenerational AP families  - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.

- Volunteering  - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.

- First job  - How did you get your first job in journalism?

- Connecting "selfies"  - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.

-  Most unusual  place a story assignment took you.

Paul Stevens
Editor,  Connecting newsletter
paulstevens46@gmail.com
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