Personal News

I spent Thanksgiving week working; I think it was nine consecutive days. That kind of wore on me, I hope that I do not do it again.

Media News

Oh, what wonderful time it must be to have any attachment to Hearst newspapers. Let me see, the Examiner in San Francisco is dead and there is a strike in Seattle.

Sports News

The woeful Cowboys were not able to muster a victory on Thanksgiving, which is becoming a habit. It was the first time I actually watched them in quite some time.

The Nittany Lions wrapped up their disappointing season against Michigan State, winning 42- 23. The game was not even that close. State opened with 28 points on their first four offensive possessions and a number of sacks in the first quarter on the either side of the ball. Alas, it was too little too late, they finished 5 - 7, first losing record since '88 (second since the '30s) and a mere 3 - 3 in my presence. I saw five games at Beaver Stadium and one at Giants Stadium. The Lions record with me ('95 - '00) in attendance is now 27 - 10, with two of those games being at the Meadowlands (1 - 1).

In other PSU sports, the Women's Volleyball team is in the NCAA tourney, looking to repeat as National Champions. I was not able to see them at all this fall, hopefully I will next year. The Men's basketball team scored a huge upset by beating Kentucky down in Rupp Arena. However, the "Double-Crispin Attack" was stopped in Raleigh against NC State and they are now 2 - 1.

Site of the Week

I think I found the man to save the Democratic Party from itself, Rep. James A. Traficant, Jr. (D-Ohio). Trixie Sanchez, editor of previous SOTW castlestrange.com was kind enough to point it out to me.

Traficant's Web site includes a animated image of him swining a board that says "Bangin' it up in D.C." Now, I disagree with many of hizzoner's views (and I suspect that the Democrats do as well), but I like his attitude. So, as the election continues to drag on, just go to his Web site and daydream about Traficant in '04.

Media News

In the chaos of this election, there is no better place to turn to than America's Finest News Source for accurate coverage.

Personal News

I was involved in the overnight coverage of the election for the DPC. It was quite an intriguing night to be in the media and reaffirmed why I am a part of it. DPC had nine papers to take of and we made it through pretty well given the extraordinary circumstances of this ongoing election. It is just an incredible turn of events. I could have never imagined that this would have happened.

Sitting back, I can remember interning in the Interactive Media Division of the Democratic National Committee and noting that the election was 500 days away. It seems like so long ago. It has been such an interesting journey since then.

Site News

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Weekly William News.

Another week, another DPC paper is awarded "Site of the Week." This time www.thedailyjournal.com is the entry, going live the day before the election. It is from Vineland, one of the few parts of New Jersey I do not know well. That brings the DPC total to nine launched with more coming soon. Stay tuned.

Election Day

Don't forget to go out and vote!

Personal News

I skipped all of ROCKTOBER, something unprecedented in the nearly one year of WWN publication. That being said, I better get started...

The frantic pace continues for me at Gannett's Digital Production Center. We now have eight sites officially launched, with VisaliaTimesDelta.com and TulareAdvanceRegister.com (two sites, one market), going out to the world on October 21. Now, I am involved in the election coverage that will keep me pretty busy until Thursday of this week. Then, hopefully the pace will slow down a little and I can start working an eight or nine hour day, instead of twelve.

When I have not been working, chances are I have been doing three things; sleeping, driving, or having something to do with Penn State and/or Erica. Just a few things, in no particular order, I can think of off the top of my head include sitting on a panel for the College of Communications called, Leveraging Your Communications Degree in a DotCom World, attending Christopher Reeve's speech, marching in the 2000 Homecoming Parade with the Metro Washington Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association (PSUWASHDC), serving as an alumni volunteer for Undergraduate Admissions and PSUWASHDC, going down to Zig's for PSWASHDC football viewing parties, Penn State Forum (not to be confused with now defunct The Forum), and luncheon with author Alecia Swasy. I think that is it, but I may be leaving something out.

As for time with Erica, we have spent just about every weekend, or at least part of every weekend together. A few weekends ago, we went to the wedding of Laurie Mealy and Bob Walters (congratulations!), near Pittsburgh. Prior to the wedding, we went to Pittsburgh and went on The Duquesne Incline and to "The O," which is officially known as "The Original Hot Dog Shop." It is supposed to be legendary, I can kind of see why.

This past weekend was the annual Subversive Weekend. For the uninitiated, that refers to the weekend when Kyle Thompson comes up from Charlotte for a Penn State football weekend. We had a good time down at the Big Easy with assorted rouges, the nefarious Jake Muha.

So, as you can see, I have been very busy as of late. I am planning to take a much needed break for traveling, sticking around for a change. In theory, I have more time to keep WWN updated, just less to put in it.

Media News

The Rashard Casey saga has played out and he was not indicted on charges that he beat up a Hoboken cop. Many media outlets erroneously reported that had he been indicted a week before the official announcement. Surprisingly enough, one newspaper that showed restraint and did not report that Casey was indicted was the Daily Collegian. I found it interesting and was pleased that they reported the story the way they did when it first ran. When Casey was exonerated, the Collegian published my letter to the editor.

To see how one paper covered the ordeal, go to the CDT's Penn State Football section.

Penn State News

I think the powers that be at PSU ought to consider heading down to the Carnegie Building and taking some PR courses. In the past few weeks, President Spainer has made a fool of himself addressing the Casey situation and the Unversity Faculty Senate has passed a resolution condemning booing at football games. First off, Spainer scolded the media for saying Casey was indicted. "Shame on the news media for their atrocious handling of this story," Spanier said. "Shame on the sports columnists and editorial writers for their condemnation of the university over the past several months for how we have handled this matter." Um, Spanky, his fate was decided by a dozen people, it could have gone either way and apparently, came very close to going the other way. Secondly, I wonder why the University Faculty Senate thinks that students booing at a football game is so important. I thought that UFS had more pressing issues to deal with, apparently not. I hope they are happy they did this, after all they were mentioned on every newscast in the country. The one that I saw, DC's WRC-TV mocked the UFS for the resolution. Gimmie a break!

For the record, I do not recall hearing so many boos directed at an oppossing team as I did yesterday.

Last night, Sut Jhalley visited the College of Communications. He is a juggernaut in media studies and I was not able to make it, doh!

Announcements

Congratulations go out to Brad "Mulch" Stratton, who was hired as a cub reporter for the Asbury Park Press, a Gannett newspaper.

There were a whole lot of birthdays in October, notably our man in Africa, Matt Clifford; blues man Tom Harrison; smilin' Ryan Meczkowski; and of course, fearless leader, DPC manager Elisabeth Banks. Happy birthday to one and all.

Sports News

Congratulations to the Yankees, winners of the first Subway Series in 44 years. That is twenty-six World Series championships in 77 years.

Oh those Nittany Lions!Saturday, they were officially eliminated from bowl consideration losing to Iowa 26 - 23 in the first overtime game for either school. It was an exciting game, once PSU started playing in the second half. They had a couple of opportunities to win, but they were not able to do it when it counted. The officiating did not help either. Oh well, there is always next year. At least they have been exciting since Big Ten play started, winning the previous two home games vs. Illinois 39 - 25 and vs. Purdue, 22 - 20. The latter was probably the most enjoyable game since the '97 Ohio State game, which I still maintain was the best game I have ever seen in person. I only saw the end of the Indiana game, because we were at Laurie and Bob's wedding reception, but it was exciting as well.

Site of the Week

This week (month?) visit www.castlestrange.com home of Paper or Plastic, a clever newsletter that is replicated online. Elisabeth Banks, my boss puts it together with her husband. This edition features among other things, Baltimore tourism, a Britney Spears review, and the Eurotrash quiz!

P.S. - We will just consider VisaliaTimesDelta.com and TulareAdvanceRegister.com retroactive sites of the week.