I was doing some research on the Great Depression when I came across a “humorous stealth hack” of Wikipedia.

In the description of The Grapes of Wrath plot there were slyly inserted references to “mad cow disease”, the dream of a “steady drug supply” and death by reindeer.

I don’t know about you, but when we studied The Grapes of Wrath in high school there were no references to the Joad’s dream of a steady drug supply.

There has to be a term for this kind of underground, barely noticeable, pranking of Wikipedia entries.

Anyway, see under “Plot” 2nd paragraph, 3rd sentence. 3rd paragraph, 3rd sentence and 4th paragraph 5th sentence.

A small laugh in the midst of the new economic troubles!

People just won’t quit talking about the “death of newspapers”.  Newspapers are not going to die. At least not all of them.  They talk about the death of newspapers all the time on this website. And I just found some talk on this website.

The following is a comment I posted to another blog on the subject. It’s not definitive but it gets the point across.

There’s been a lot of hand wringing over the pending “demise of the newspapers”. But like most everything in the whole big universe this has all been done before — a couple of times.

In the 1920’s a thing called wireless radio was supposed to replace newspapers with it’s magical ability to deliver the news to anyone, anywhere. And radio grew and grew and grew until it was a “media giant”; every bit as big as TV is today.

Newspapers did not go out of business because of radio. Newspapers survived for a whole host of reasons.

The whole cycle was repeated in 1947-1952 when television came up and was supposed to put newspapers, radio and the motion picture business under.

To be sure radio was diminished and was never again the media giant it was in the 1930’s and 1940’s but it didn’t go out of business. I can still walk out to my car right now and turn on AM radio and get some news out of it at the top of the hour. There’s still a big building in New York called “Radio City.”

Newspapers may end up like AM radio, diminished in the future. But like M. Welch points out, if newspaper companies are smart and adapt to the Internets they will survive and thrive. I might point out that AM radio is still a multi-billion dollar industry. Newspapers will continue to survive. I’m no swami but I’m pretty sure that future people will still want the option to pick up some news and entertainment printed on paper for many years to come.

Jeff Jarvis writes a weblog called BuzzMachine. It’s smart, packed with information, and sometimes witty. Please go read Jarvis on the ongoing Howard Stern/free speech issue.

Here’s a copy of an email I just sent to Jarvis:

Mr. Jarvis:

I have been reading your blog off-and-on for a couple of years now and found
you through Matt Welch.

Thanks very much for your coverage of the Howard Stern/free speech issue. I
live in Orlando, Florida, where Clear Channel has pulled Stern from the air.
The Internet, and specifically BuzzMachine, provides my only information
source on this important issue.

The day Stern was taken off the air, a handful of protestors appeared
outside the local Clear Channel studios (WTKS-FM). Local TV news gave the
protest about 30 seconds worth of coverage. Other than that all Central
Florida media outlets have been silent. Of course, all the other show hosts
on WTKS have been quiet. I would like to have heard what the station manager
told them after Stern was taken off the air!

Why has the mainstream media been so quiet on this issue? There are a number
of media-centric reasons. Newspapers see radio as a competitor. They
secretly wish radio to be hobbled. From the TV news perspective, if there
are no pictures, there is no news. You can’t send a TV camera out and take
pictures of Howard Stern being off the air. It’s a good thing a picture is
worth a thousand words, because TV reporters don’t know a thousand words.
Other radio personalities, and radio station managers, are going to keep
quiet too, because they’re afraid they will be next.

Those are just some of the reasons why I think the mainstream media has
ignored this issue.

Anyway, thanks for posting The Daily Stern. I be checking in every day.

Chris Howell
www.chrishowell.com/report/

I was never much interested in the Punk Rock phenomenon of the late 1970’s. I thought it was a waste of energy to be so angry.

For those of you who were into punk (like Mrs. Howell) check out:

Punk 77! Punk Rock in the UK 1976-1979

Link found on Metafilter

From a letter to Loren Jenkins, Newsweek, dated April 24, 1976, as published in Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, 1968-1976.

In this letter Thompson speculates on who will be nominated for the
democratic presidential ticket in 1976. His speculation about who would
then become president is on-target, considering this was written 5 1/2
months before the election.

If I had to make my final bet right now, I’d have
to go with Carter to get the nomination and beat Ford — but I’m still
not sure what to make of it, except that all the alternatives seem a
hell of a lot worse, and I honestly doubt if the outcome of this
election will make any real diference to anybody. The die is cast, the
fat is in the fire, and if the Grim Reaper wants to come on like Jesus,
so be it.

My favorite part is the last sentence which I’m seriously considering for my sig file.