 Red Room Writer Profile
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Earl Merkel's Blog
October 25, 2009
- Given today's widely publicized comments about the need to regulate 'rapacious' businesses --notably, the insurance industry-- AP rings in with a fact-checking analysis of its own. Can a government takeover of Col. Sanders' realm be far behind?This is the kind of reporting that an unfettered, non-partisian news media can --and should-- provide in a democracy. It's not pleasant reading if you have ...
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October 24, 2009
- Here's the latest in our ongoing examination of "what the heck is the future of the novel?" -series... --Earl Merkel ----- "Digi-novel" combines book, movie and website NEW YORK (Reuters) - Is it a book? Is it a movie? Is it a website? Actually it's all three. Anthony Zuiker, creator of the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" U.S. television series, is releasing ...
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October 16, 2009
- A writer e-mails me to ask about ad ("Publisher Looking for Authors!"). I reply-- but is your answer different? Respond, and I'll forward your comments.--Earl Merkel----------------------- Sent: Thu, Oct 15, 2009 10:17 am Subject: FW: publisher looking for authors Dear Earl: I received this through my writing group. The article talks about publishers – have you heard of ...
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October 9, 2009
- No commentary today: hey, I'm just reporting here-- but when even the Associated Press seems a tad abashed, you have to wonder if all of this is maybe a bit too much, a little too early. From the AP story: "...The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of 'a new climate in international politics' and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the ...
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October 2, 2009
- There's a myth --started, I suspect, by writers-- that all writers write "not because we want to, but because we have to." The compulsion to write is, we tell people, an "artist sort of thing."Uh-huh. Ri-i-i-ght. Yeah-- that explains why so many of us stare at the morning's blank computer screen, motionless hands poised over the keyboard, until our eyeballs bleed. And then we ...
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September 30, 2009
- Every writer --whether newbies or veterans suffering acute crisis-of-confidence issues-- has wondered: do I need outside editing help to whip my book into publishable shape? Below is an e-mail I received from just such a writer, and the advice I provided. Was I wrong? You tell me, and I'll pass it along. --Earl ...
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September 27, 2009
- Another good one bites the dust. If you're not familiar with William Safire's ON LANGUAGE columns, you're simply not as good a writer as you could be. Period. He was also a take-no-prisoners -type of columnist-- and one who backed up his opinions with carefully researched fact. No "nabob" he, Mr. Safire will be missed by those who savor both finely honed writing and the practice ...
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September 13, 2009
- As a recovering journalist, I still find my decades-old j-school training occasionally reminding me how lazy --even cowardly-- I often feel these days. It nags particularly loudly when I catch myself personally avoiding that most rare of today's journalistic attributes: an impartial fairness in dealing with an uncomfortable story. I try to ease that guilt by telling myself that I'm no longer ...
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September 12, 2009
- RIP, Larry. If you know this Chicago-born writer's work only through M*A*S*H (the TV- series version), you're missing the full measure of his talent. He wrote films and plays you've no doubt seen and enjoyed immensely, but which most people associate only with the actors or directors who were attached to those projects. Why? Well, you've probably heard the joke: once there was a Hollywood ...
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September 11, 2009
- Did he try to barter Obama's Senate seat? Well, he says, "yes"-- not, he insists, for money... but for love. My interview with him, referenced below, is in the second bloc of our show, but you guys might enjoy the rest of the program, too. Still, if you just want to hear Mr. Blagojevich choke-and-stutter, it starts at about 12:50 min into the program. <chuckle> Please note the ...
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September 6, 2009
- The article below, from the Sunday (9/06/09) New York Times, is quite an interesting look at what the publishing business was... though, perhaps inevitably, it's somewhat thin on what it IS today, if only because most people still in publishing aren't all that sure themselves.Nonetheless, it's a revealing glimpse at the morphing of an entire industry over the course of a few decades-- and as ...
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August 22, 2009
- Recently, I posted a column I wrote about the perils of each summer's "Silly Season" -journalism (See: "The Infamous Chicken Little Article," a link to which is at right-bottom of this page). Someone at the BBC took note, it seems; below, an article entitled "Science Ponders Zombie Attack" --complete with that charming Anglicized spelling-- from those fine folks ...
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August 19, 2009
- For authors of thrillers and crime-fiction --as for law enforcement itself-- DNA-based evidence has evolved into the "gold standard" of forensics. Be advised, fellow suspense authors, that Israeli scientists have developed a technique to fake such "conclusive" evidence-- a development that may either force you into re-write mode, or spark some creative new storyline directions ...
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August 17, 2009
- I'm starting to believe all the adverse comments about Canadian health care: the story below, from the Toronto Star, is what happens when one must wait six months to see a mental health expert...Complaint prompts school to kill 'Mockingbird' The classic literary novel To Kill ...
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August 14, 2009
- Hosts Earl Merkel and David Latko are on a "free speech" binge this week on talk-radio's MONEY & MORE, examining some of the more troubling issues of cyber-stalking and privacy-rights questions that have erupted in the midst of the national healthcare town hall meetings. Among them: did the Administration make a major misstep in asking Americans to report "fishy" e-mails ...
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