Bacon-cats journalism: Putting the theory to practice

Remember the oh-so-funny Op-Ed war between Gene Weingarten and Alexandra Petri in the Washington Post about bacon-cats journalism a couple months ago?

In summary, Weingarten, whose blast against "branding" begot this column, waxed nostalgic about how content used to be driven by more than grabbing eyeballs. He then lamented that online eyeballs seem to have an unquenchable thirst for bacon-strapped cats.

http://www.scalzi.com/cattapebacon2.jpg

Petri rebutted, saying journalism used to accommodate lengthy features on conditions in the corn market because, for decades, no one really knew what people were reading. Is it more noble, she asked, to give the reader what we now know he or she wants?

Principles aside, these writers have both proven it's a lot of fun to talk about writing about cats. But isn't all this talk about writing about cats a bit of pussycat journalism, after all? Check out the urbandictionary definition, which describes a cat that “no longer looks under bushes and hides in a tree. It is satisfied with the little effort, and enjoys snoozing whenever it can.”

So please, e-mail my latest cat story to your grandma, and remind her she only gets ten clicks before having to buy a digital subscription. (The CA is now assigning value to one's eyeballs.)

And if you didn't get your fix with the two cats whose lives were saved by a kidney transplant, then check out my coverage of last year's cat show.

<^_ _^>

P.S. Here's a sneak peak inside my cubicle. Not even staged:

Christmas crime and adult onesies

Sometime after Snuggies and before the Forever Lazy, my mom mailed me a present. She was REALLY excited about it and asked me to call her as soon as it came in. The box was small, unassuming, and the labels seemed insignificant. Nothing breakable, nothing perishable.

It may or may not have been Valentine's Day.

Crime is spiking about this time, and the Memphis Police Department urges citizens to be hyper-vigilant about personal safety practices during the holiday season. The Memphis mayor will address concerned residents in Cooper-Young tomorrow about a recent rash of break-ins. He said he wants to hear from folks before prescribing possible remedies. What areas do police need to target? What practices might be most effective?

What other rising trends could make for correlations?

Hmmm.

Not saying this is causative, but there has been a noticeable rise this holiday season in "lounge wear" that resembles prison uniform.

Adult onesies are criminal.

Half-Marathon Jitters

I'm too nervous about the race tomorrow to write anything yet, but I'm hoping that after the race I'll have lots to post. Today, I will stare at the course map, think about spaghetti, go through my music playlist...I haven't really trained, so I am just hoping to make it to the finish line.

Wish me luck!

A local connection for World AIDS Day

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, and in advance, I wrote about a Memphian who has lived with the virus since the early 1980s. I met with him Tuesday morning and wrote the story Tuesday afternoon before going out on another assignment.

Some of what we talked about is still processing. I wish I'd had more time to think, and to write, and to think about what I was writing.

What I like most about my job, I think, is meeting these people that, whether they know it or not, have the ability to heighten our sensibilities. And they're trusting enough to let someone else (like me) write about them, without conditions, and to open themselves up for public scrutiny.

Comments are rarely disabled on CA pages, but they were for this story, and I think it was the right call. The man I interviewed agreed to tell me about his HIV/AIDS status, and in so doing, he opened that secret part of his life to our world of readers. I didn't want him to be punished for it in the anonymous commenting section.

A couple stories for the ladies

Thanksgiving week so it means those in the office are loading a little more onto their work plates to compensate for holiday scheduling.

I'll be at the paper every day but Thursday, and then, thanks to my mom's outrageous cooking skills, I will redefine gluttony. A Turducken stuffed with crawfish etoufee, green bean casserole and some sort of cajun wild rice are menu items I know of off-hand. Ahhhhhh I cannot WAIT.

Hunger aside, Saturday I went to a community baby shower in Frayser and wrote about the goodies given to about 500 expectant and new moms, as well as some of the infant mortality outreach being done here.

And earlier today I did a write-up based on Self magazine's list of healthy cities for women. Guess what spot Memphis came in.

Less about the new animal shelter, more about my vacuum cleaner

It makes good sense to plug my story on the new Memphis Animal Shelter by going into detail about my kitten's litany of ailments, right?

He was a rescue kitten, after all, though not from the shelter but from an NPO in Midtown.

I dreamed of Seessel Snickerbottoms months before I got him. I knew he would be fluffy with white fur and splotches. He would love me endlessly and ask nothing in return. I searched online, hit up strangers on Twitter and visited pet shops. I was nearly at my wit's end when Seessel (I'm not going to tell you his original name) was revealed to me from the back room of a cattery where the owner was hoarding him. He was perfect.

About a week into things, his left eye got goopy with chlamydia, and I first learned the joys of squirting medicinal syringes down this petulant animal's throat.

 A couple weeks after he'd recovered from castration, I found a flea on him and administered some cheap medicine to the back of the neck. That one flea cost me $175 after vet's fees to rid him of the apparent toxins I unwittingly bathed him in.

That was way stressful, but nothing like last week, when he threw up all over the apartment and finally hocked up a tangled web of hair bands. He was in a bad place, and once the vet took an x-ray, I approved her recommendation for immediate surgery. My foot-long kitten had gobbled about 20 hair ties. Some he didn't bother to chew.

                                            He had surgery Tuesday, and it was intense.

While I was driving home yesterday from the shelter, worried about how I should approach my story about the gleaming new facility given Tuesday's news of a bruising audit that accused employees of ties to dogfighting and disregard for policy, I got a call from the clinic that Seessel was ready to come home. I rushed to make the deadline for both my story and the clinic's hours.

Now, it's almost time for me to give him his third dose of medicine today. But for the record, I still think adopting him was *without a doubt* worth it.

Free mulch tomorrow at Tobey Park

I swear, this isn't a blog about recycling. However, the city does recycle the 110,000 tons of tree "wastes" it picks up annually and gives it back to Memphis residents as mulch. Because I don't have a yard, I have little to no concept of how expensive mulch is, but after I wrote a brief on this mulch giveaway Saturday, I was told it's kind of a big deal.

Photo by ecastro on FlickR

Yahoo answers, which is completely unscientific and usually totally inaccurate, says people are spending hundreds of dollars for this stuff. I think a bag at Home Depot is around $4, but I guess you have to buy several bags to accomplish true feats in gardening. I'll have to ask my mom.

Welcome to the blog, note on electronic waste

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to use this space to share my work, thoughts and links on the Web that help me get through the day.

Yesterday, I stopped by the e-recycling drive at Central Station in Downtown Memphis, and  talked to folks as they gave up their newly-obsolete wares. It made me think about how rapidly electronics are phased out and have to be replaced. I've had my laptop for nearly six years now, and that's something to brag about. (Of course, I have to leave it plugged in at all times, and routinely dump pictures and music into an external hard drive.)

Some readers e-mailed me today and said they'd like more information on how to recycle their electronic waste. This is the e-mail I sent back:

XX,

Thanks for your note! Unfortunately, yesterday was the only day to drop off the stuff in bulk, for free. 5R Processors does have a Memphis office - and you could call perhaps for a quote, and see what they would take from you.

Office: 3328 Winbrook Drive Memphis, TN 38116
Phone: (901) 546-0088

There is also a drop off at Shelby Farms - Hours and such are here: http://www.memphistn.gov/framework.aspx?page=870 but I'm told it is rather limited (weight and amount restrictions).

This article, which was linked to mine, is a pretty thorough run down of places to take gadgets in Memphis. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/16/getting-rid-of-gadgets/

And alas, if none of these options work, there will be another drive next year. It's usually promo'd in the newspaper, on television, on the Downtown Memphis Commission website and in neighborhood newsletters.

Best,

Sara