LA Press Club Awards
All of the categories haven't been announced yet, but I'm a finalist in two, column and headlines, in papers under 100,000 circ. And I still don't run in my hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times.
I got a little ticked off about that earlier this morning, so I partially canceled my subscription -- rolling it back to just weekends so I can still have access to LA Times online to laugh at Susan Spano's dull Paris "blog" every week, and be entertained by all of Frania's Spano corrections in the comments section. (They don't seem interested in printing my corrections of Spano any more, they just make them without remark, like when she reported that France was considering abolishing the 40-hour work week. They had actually done so a few years back, and were, in fact, considering relaxing the 35-hour work week law enstated by the socialists.) For actually informative, entertaining columns on Paris, turn to La Coquette and Auntie M, and the archives of Jason Stone's Paris blog. How amazing that these people are so much better at doing Spano's job for free than she is at doing it for pay.
For those interested in reading my column, I do run in the Orange County Register every Monday morning, and in over 100 papers across the country, and I'm trying to be better about changing the column on the front of the site weekly. Who knows, maybe, someday, I'll think and write like one of the advice columnists the LA Times runs: Carolyn Hax, Dear Abby, and Amy Dickinson. Of course, if that day comes, I'll have to kill myself if I don't die of embarrassment first.
Only a few more cancellations and the LA Time's circulation will be back down into the 800,000's! Great work Cathy!!
PS - People who pay 50% or more of the regular subscription price declined by almost 13% in the last six months! So readers - ask yourself - are you doing your part?
Brady Westwater at May 5, 2005 8:26 PM
Do you really need to be a subscriber to see the online edition? That may be so for Calendarlive, and for archive research, but I believe the news plus the Spano drivel (plus the online crossword!! Yay!!!) is available to anyone who registers.
Stand by for a mega-dose of Spano this coming sunday. If it's as thrilling as last week's piece on the city of Coventry, subscriptions may be cancelled en masse.
Stu "El Inglés" Harris at May 6, 2005 6:14 AM
BTW, the online Spano-drivel, already unreadable in the literary sense, is now virtually unreadable in the practical sense, thanks to an insufferable ad-banner-frame that some teenage web "designer" has decided to slap across the text. I've complained, but been ignored.
Stu "El Inglés" Harris at May 6, 2005 10:09 AM
I know...it's pretty dumb, too...they could put an ad in the middle of the page, but that thing that crosses the page makes me so mad -- it turns out it's for AAA -- it makes me want to cancel my AAA car insurance and go with Geico.
Amy Alkon at May 6, 2005 10:28 AM
The LA Times doesn't run you? Why not? They run that dimbulb Dear Abby, don't they? At least you give sensible advice, Amy. Abby, on the other hand, has moved past "stupid" and is well into "dangerous." Here's the peach of a column she ran today.
Well, I could answer this request for advice in one word: RUN! But Abby doesn't seem to have my gift for conciseness. She writes: Bah. Dangerous advice. Waiting for a scheduled appointment? That could take weeks! Call the police! Call social services! That man is dangerous and should be institutionalized.Patrick at May 6, 2005 5:10 PM
Congratulations, Amy, for the LA Club awards & thank you for the compliment.
Bravo to you!
Frania W.
Frania W. at May 6, 2005 6:46 PM
Corrective P.S. to previous Frania's post:
Oops! LA *Press* Club... awards.
FW
Frania W. at May 6, 2005 6:51 PM
Amy, I'd love to read your column regularly, if it only were available where I live. Good look for the awards from Germany!
Rainer at May 7, 2005 11:20 AM
Thanks, Rainer...and actually, you can...it's on most of the New Times Web sites, the Weekly Planet Web site, and many others. And I'm trying to change it (on the front of my site) weekly.
Amy Alkon at May 7, 2005 11:26 AM
Thanks for the hints to other sites that publish your column, Amy. I think your writing is hilarious. Lots of people all over the world need your advice, so: When does the German translation come out, for starters? (Not for myself, but as I said: Lots of people...)
P.S.: Of course I meant to write "good LUCK for the awards..."
Rainer, with English language module now working again at May 10, 2005 11:37 AM
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