Unca Darrell

JULY 31 / Style, Usage, Journalism

LET'S RESERVE the last day of each month for posts on the crafts of writing and reporting. I started late, so we'll have only a handful of items for July, but wait 'til next month.

JULY 30 / Where's the link?

HEY, KIDS! Let's all go the chron.com and search for "Singapore's dark side: Asian nation combines economic success with suppression of free speech." This was the headline for a stemwinder . . .

JULY 29 / Nick Anderson gets it wrong, again

HOUSTON CHRONICLE editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson is a gifted artist but an ungifted thinker. Latest example is . . .

JULY 28 / Where's Lisa Gray when we need her?

IN JUNE, CHRONICLE columnist and editorialist Lisa Gray went nuclear on Port Aransas and our state. Why? For daring to invite tourists to Texas beaches back in '79 while the Ixtoc I well was still spewing fossil fuel into the Gulf of Mexico. In this excerpt, savor her indignation, her sarcasm, her scorn, her mockery, her rage:

JULY 27 / BHO's job approval just collapsed

FOR MONTHS, and despite much controversy, President Barack Obama's job approval at Real Clear Politics held steady in the 47s and 48s. Moments ago, however, the approval number dropped precipitously to . . .

JULY 26 / Angry libs

NOT LONG ago, the Chronicle's lead editorialist, Ms. Lisa Gray, luxuriated in righteous anger about how the folks in Port Aransas, themselves, were insufficiently angry about the thirty-one-year-old Ixtoc I oil spill. By her account, only two people measured up -- her own sweet, clever self (natch) and . . .

JULY 25 / A sad story

SARAH SPITZ works for public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica. She got her fifteen minutes recently with a cruel and intemperate rant about Rush Limbaugh. Daily Caller outed her hateful remarks. She then issued a statement that was widely characterized as an apology, but in truth was . . .

JULY 24 / Better late than never

AFTER DITHERING for almost three months, the Houston Chronicle on July 14 opined against . . .

JULY 22 / Unserious

THE TRADITIONAL newspaper editorial is an endangered species, and the Houston Chronicle is doing all it can to kill it. Sunday, for instance . . .

JULY 20 / Read this, revised

IT IS SAID that journalism is the first draft of history. Sometimes the first draft gets it right. Charles Krauthammer certainly did in this excellent analysis of President Obama's first term.