I know people

Facebook logo I found on the Internet using ... gasp ... Google
Note: This column appeared first in The Tidewater News on Friday, July 3, 2009.

When I first saw Facebook, I didn’t want any part of it.

I had already been making an erratic commitment to two other Web sites — Flickr and LinkedIn. Plus, I had two blogs that I wasn’t doing much with — and an online comic strip that has been mostly abandoned since 2003.

I decided that Facebook was not to be dabbled with. I was too busy.

But in March I had a change of heart; I joined the Web site after hearing that it was an excellent tool to reconnect with old friends.

Now, four months and precisely 282 friends (including pending requests) later, my foray into Facebook has been an entertaining one. As promised, it has been an excellent tool for reconnecting with old friends, but it’s also provided me with revelation.

My friends are all over the map, literally and professionally.

Since my profession is writing, I decided to do a little exercise to test the old mantra, “It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know.”

So, here is whom I know:

I know 105 people in Michigan — and 142 in Illinois. This makes sense, because I lived in those places for 11 years and 17 years, respectively.

I know 34 people from elementary school, 84 from high school and 24 from college.

I know 19 people who are unemployed, although that number could be higher.

I know a horror/suspense writer who has had several books published, and there’s buzz about one being made into a movie.

I know a popular narrator of Christian books in Chicago, and I know a seminarian in Detroit.

I know a bartender in Warrenville, Ill.

I know a guard at a juvenile detention center in Vermillion County, Ill.

Oh, do I know graphic artists. I know them in Salem, Ore., Colorado Springs, Colo., Berkley, Mich., and Baltimore.

And oh, do I know photographers. I know them in Ann Arbor and Pontiac, Mich., and Albany, Ga.

I know two professors at Wayne State University and one at Michigan State University. I also know a journalism instructor at Oakland University.

Obviously, I know people in newspapers. Not to be a name dropper, but I have friends at The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Macon Telegraph, The Greater Wilmington Business Journal, The Oakland Press, The Daily Herald of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., and The Army Times. I also know the former graphics editor for USA Today.

I know a vice president of the Professional Bowlers Association.

I know a professional model and actor who has been in a couple of movies and numerous print ads.

I know two radio personalities: One is a DJ for an alternative rock station in Chicago; the other hosts a psychedelic program once a week from Princeton.

I know an assistant principal in Berea, Ohio, and middle-school teachers in Aurora, Ill. and Wrightwood, Calif.

And I know a senior retail manager for Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

The others? Well, they didn’t say what they were doing at the moment, so it’s anybody’s guess. For all I know they could be digging ditches in Alaska. Or they could be drilling for coal in West Virginia. Maybe they’re cleaning sewer pipes in Kansas — or working the carnival rides in Arkansas.

Then again, they could all be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

So don’t mess with me.

I know people.

Something from Ikea to cheer you up

Ikea commercial from the United Kingdom, probably from 2007
I've become concerned that too many of my posts on this blog are devoted to unhappy subjects. So here's a cute little ditty I found last night on the Internet.

Enjoy. I've watched this clip like 4,867 times and it still makes me laugh.

A few notes, dear readers:
(1) £390 is about $780, so I'd be pretty pissed if I just spent $400 too much for a rug.
(2) Jena and I love Ikea, and this is just makes us miss it more.
(3) My brother Mark and I know a former co-worker of our Dad's that actually laughs like this. Seriously. We still laugh about that.

So long, Wheaton Central

Jim Czajka's web film "Remembering WCHS," which can be seen here
and on Facebook. The Simple Minds' lyric "going to take you apart"
is strangely prophetic.

Thomas Wolfe was right. You can’t go home again.

Last week I found out – thanks to the slowly growing nexus of old friends, classmates, acquaintances, co-workers and fellow ne’er do wells – that my alma mater, Wheaton Central High School, is slated for demolition.

I haven’t set foot within the city limits of my hometown, Wheaton, Ill., for several years. But the last time I was there, I remember driving down Roosevelt Road and watching the sandy brick walls of WCHS go by.

It’s a massive place; the entire school campus probably takes up nine city blocks. And it’s an old place; the building is 84 years old, which would put its construction date sometime during the Coolidge administration.

My school had its share of famous alumni. Red Grange, Edwin Hubble, Sam Skinner and Bob Woodward usually get name-dropped. Jim and John Belushi always do.

I have a theory about what happens when you discover that someplace special to you has been, or is about to be, tossed into the dustbin of history: Part of your memories die with the place.

Case in point, I have a picture of what WCHS once looked like in my head. But I’ll bet that if I had been in Wheaton last week for the final “walk thru” ceremonies for alumni, I probably would have seen something that would have brought back a memory or two. These were the halls that we walked through as hopeful, naïve, confident, scared and confused teenagers. To this day, the halls of WCHS are a common denominator that I have with a lot of people who I would otherwise have no bond with.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not memories of the building itself that I still treasure after all these years. The people are what made the place special. But I submit that even though we all remember the actors of the play, when they tear down the stage something is still lost.

I have three memories from WCHS that seem to stand out the most. Oddly enough, they all involve my days as a “band geek.”

First, I remember that on Friday nights during home basketball games, I participated in something called the “Pep Band.” Some of us were lucky enough to have found some old orange sweaters from the late 70s that actually said “Pep Band” on them. It was a blast. I remember heckling referees for bad calls against our team, playing the Survivor song “Eye of the Tiger” WAY too many times, and also playing the “Sleezophone,” which was a saxophone mouthpiece on a tuba. It was loud and got people’s attention. But the best part happened after the games, on the long walk back through the dim hallways when we would play “Stripper.”

Second, I remember the oldest part of the building housed the main auditorium. This was the venue for school plays, talent shows and other extravaganzas. At both corners of the building were stairwells that went up three flights in a square. During school hours and between classes, this was the noisiest place in school. But after hours it was the perfect place to warm up. For an average saxophone player that sometimes had to build up the courage to play in front of a packed auditorium, the acoustics of those stairwells were the perfect confidence builder.

Finally, I will never, ever forget the football field. I will never forget going out there with about 120 other fellow band geeks to do things like: twisting “G-shape” formations; marching into a makeshift tunnel in a trench coat at one end and emerging from the other side in my band uniform; a small flag in a holster at my hip; casually using my peripheral vision to make sure I was lined up with the person next to me; spats; white gloves and white shoe polish. And I’ll never forget the circle we used to march into, with Mr. Redford at the center, at the end of those football games. They were Friday nights that I will always treasure, but dammit if it didn’t seem to rain too many times.

So it is with a heavy heart that I use this space to say farewell to a friend that was always there, that sheltered us from the elements, that gave us a safe environment in which to learn and grow, and that served as the stage of life for us.

Goodbye, Wheaton Central High School. You were a good friend. Thanks for the memories.

Now strip.

Trouble at The Oakland Press

Front page picture/graphic, created by me, for the Dec. 23, 2004 online edition of The Oakland Press. Journal Register Company, the newspaper's owner, declared bankruptcy on Saturday.

A little bit of sad, but not unexpected, news today.

The Detroit Free Press (with a heavy heart, I'm sure) rolled out the news that the Journal Register Company, which owns 20 daily newspapers including The Oakland Press, filed for bankruptcy protection on Saturday. The article said JRC will "cancel its stock and become a closely held company, owned by its lenders, under a proposed reorganization plan filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. It listed debt of as much as $1 billion and assets of between $100 million and $500 million in Chapter 11 documents."

As a former employee of The Oakland Press, I can with some authority report that the company has been in trouble for some time.

JRC paid too much – $415 million – for 21st Century Newspapers in 2004. They bought The Oakland Press, The Macomb Daily, two other dailies and 87 non-dailies. Frank Shepherd, 21st Century's CEO at the time, had invested $300 million into 21st Century just seven years earlier. He reassured everyone that the new owners were "good people" and would take "good care" of the employees. Then he took his golden parachute and retreated to Charlevoix.

Shortly after the announcement that JRC was taking over, I remember one of the photographers warning everyone the company was bad news. The Internet is full of horror stories about JRC. (It was named one of the Ten Worst Managed Companies in the America by the Web site 24/7 Wall Street in September 2006). There isn't enough space in this blog to devote to the nightmares that company has brought to other newspapers across the country, but suffice to say there are plenty of other blogs that do. To be brief, flagging morale at The Oakland Press dropped even further. Three senior editors, who had each been with the paper for more than 30 years, were suddenly axed in August 2006. The next month, several IT people, including myself, were let go. There have been other layoff rounds since.

Before the recession hit nationally, the economy had slowed in Michigan about three or four years earlier. JRC was doing fair everywhere else, but the Michigan cluster was dragging the whole company down. It became routine for JRC to announce its financial reports with the words "excluding the Michigan cluster." I remember an immense amount of pressure being applied to the sales people at The Oakland Press. But things really took a turn for the worse when classified advertising fell off.

Last year, JRC's stock was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange. The stock now trades at fractions of a cent. Slowly, the company has been closing, or trying to sell, newspapers in the Philadelphia area, and in Connecticut and New Jersey.

So it was just a matter of time before Saturday's announcement. The big questions now are, will JRC sell The Oakland Press? Who wants to buy it? And what will happen to the people working there now?

But perhaps the most disturbing part about all of this has been the reaction from people back in Michigan, specifically those posting comments on the Freep site in tandem with the article about JRC's bankruptcy announcement.

Some idiot named "Tucker 13" wrote:
I canceled the Oakland Press after 10 years of home delivery after they dropped Ann Coulter because some moonbats complained. Screw em. Hope they go under and all the liberals who work there lose everything they have.

For a region that has been hurting economically for at least three years longer than any other part of the country, and is now suffering more than anywhere else, it's pretty shocking and sad that someone would write "screw them," and "I hope they go under and everyone who works there loses everything they have." Wow. And that diatribe was because they cancelled an Ann Coulter column? Seriously?

Must be a JRC stockholder.

It May Be Time

CareerBuilder.com ad from Super Bowl XLIII

Yeah, it may be time.

I know someone very close to me who:

• Hates going to work every day
But somehow finds the strength to go there at least five days a week and spends 18 hours a day there.

• Has co-workers that don't respect her
Well, one really. Unfortunately, it's the one person she can't afford to have disrespecting her.

• Wishes she were somewhere else
Like Michigan. Meanwhile, everyone in Michigan wishes they were somewhere else.

• Cries constantly
Hmmm, well, no not really. But she cries enough to make me worry about her, OK?

• Daydreams of punching small animals
Can't attest to this. But it could be true. We've had a couple fish meet an untimely demise. And my back hurts in the morning sometimes. Hmmm ...

• Sits next to a hairy guy in a speedo that picks his toes.
Actually, she sits next to ME at work. Can't say that I've ever worn a speedo to work (or that I even own one), but I HAVE worn ripped jeans to the office, and have clipped my fingernails at my desk.

Yeah, it may be time. I know there's something better for her out there. I just hope she can find it soon.

New Blog

Hi everyone!

Wow, it looks like my last post was in June. Sorry I haven't been on here in awhile. There have been some changes since the summer - I'll try to bring you up to speed quickly:

• In August, Jena accepted a position as managing editor of a newspaper in Virginia.
• We moved from Mantua, N.J. to Virginia at the end of August.
• The day we were moving (and I mean the truck had come that very morning and taken most of our stuff) I lost my job working for a software company in Philadelphia.
• A couple weeks later, one of the reporters at Jena's newspaper abruptly quit, so I was hired to take her place.

So I'm very fortunate that I get to see my spouse all day! Plus the work here is good; I enjoy writing stories and taking photos here, and meeting the people in our coverage area. I must say that the people of here are very warm and friendly.

Meanwhile, I'm in the process of moving my previous posts from my other blog, Black Sox Nation, to this new one - Number Three. I'm going to devote BSN to my fantasy baseball team, the Kodiak Black Sox.

(For those who are interested, the third web site I'm "running" is for my online comic strip, Brenda Monarch).

So yes, I'll be running two blogs. I know, I did such an awesome job managing one.

Gotta run.

Sincerely,
Charlie

Home with Kid No. 2

Hey everyone.

Jamie wasn't 100% this morning, so he stayed home with Dad. I think he's fine, but he did manage to sneak a dining room chair over to the freezer this morning, pop up the lid, and open three or four frozen dinners. Took the plastic off and everything. Think he was hungry?