{"id":597,"date":"2009-02-18T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T19:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=597"},"modified":"2025-03-02T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T19:32:08","slug":"https-orcutt-net-weblog-farewell-milllbrook-round-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/https-orcutt-net-weblog-farewell-milllbrook-round-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell, Millbrook Round Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walk\u00ading into the din\u00ader yes\u00adter\u00adday, I glanced at the hon\u00ador box con\u00adtain\u00ading our vil\u00adlage news\u00adpa\u00adper, The Mill\u00adbrook Round Table<\/em>, and was shocked to read the fol\u00adlow\u00ading head\u00adline:<\/p>\n

Round Table Pub\u00adlish\u00ades Last Issue, Clos\u00ades Its Doors<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"42-18288293\"I was numb as I went inside and had my two cups of black cof\u00adfee. Part of me wished I still drank, so I could go pick up a pint of Irish whiskey and lace my cof\u00adfee with it.<\/p>\n

To me, a guy whose first job out of col\u00adlege was as the lone<\/em> reporter for the Round Table<\/em>, read\u00ading that the paper had gone under was like hear\u00ading that an old friend\u2014a friend you had\u00adn\u2019t spo\u00adken to in years\u2014had died sud\u00adden\u00adly, and pen\u00adni\u00adless. But look\u00ading into your friend\u2019s death, you dis\u00adcov\u00ader that it actu\u00adal\u00adly came after a long ill\u00adness, and in the case of my old friend, it was an ill\u00adness caused by three fac\u00adtors:<\/p>\n

The Inter\u00adnet.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The World Econ\u00ado\u00admy.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact that nobody reads news\u00adpa\u00adpers any\u00admore.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Sad\u00adly, the Mill\u00adbrook Round Table<\/em> was just one of scores<\/em> of local news\u00adpa\u00adpers forced to close down, because the hold\u00ading com\u00adpa\u00adny of many of them, Jour\u00adnal Reg\u00adis\u00adter Co., default\u00aded on loans and was de-list\u00aded from the New York Stock Exchange. How\u00adev\u00ader, despite the sym\u00adpa\u00adthy I feel for all of those reporters, edi\u00adtors, pho\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adphers, graph\u00adic design\u00aders, proof\u00adread\u00aders, ad sales\u00adpeo\u00adple and deliv\u00adery peo\u00adple, no one can say we did\u00adn\u2019t see this com\u00ading. The truth is, news\u00adpa\u00adpers have been an anti\u00adquat\u00aded tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy, and try as they might, they haven\u2019t been able to find a new busi\u00adness mod\u00adel that would enable them to be prof\u00aditable in the post-paper world of instant, online pub\u00adlish\u00ading.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But this piece isn\u2019t meant to be a dirge to news\u00adpa\u00adpers in gen\u00ader\u00adal; it\u2019s a dirge to one<\/em> news\u00adpa\u00adper I knew well and loved because, for a brief time, I was a part of its 117-year his\u00adto\u00adry. In fact, I count myself lucky to have been the reporter for the Round Table<\/em> in 1992, dur\u00ading the cen\u00adten\u00adni\u00adal of both the paper and Mill\u00adbrook itself.<\/p>\n

I was home on spring break and had\u00adn\u2019t even grad\u00adu\u00adat\u00aded yet when then Exec\u00adu\u00adtive Edi\u00adtor Diane Pineiro-Zuck\u00ader and Man\u00adag\u00ading Edi\u00adtor Gene Lomoriel\u00adlo inter\u00adviewed me for the reporter job. As a phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy major, I was an anom\u00adaly in the news\u00adpa\u00adper world. I did\u00adn\u2019t know the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between a nut\u00adgraph and an invert\u00aded pyra\u00admid, but they appre\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded my abil\u00adi\u00adty to write clear\u00adly and con\u00adcise\u00adly, as well as my desire for pre\u00adci\u00adsion and exac\u00adti\u00adtude in sen\u00adtences, so they hired me. I went back to school the fol\u00adlow\u00ading week, took my final exams and began on the news\u00adpa\u00adper two weeks lat\u00ader.<\/p>\n

Despite its small size, the paper was tech\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly advanced, using net\u00adworked Apple Mac\u00adin\u00adtosh\u00ades through\u00adout the office for report\u00ading, edit\u00ading and lay\u00adout. The pub\u00adlish\u00aders at that time, Hamil\u00adton and Helen Meserve, were intel\u00adli\u00adgent, cul\u00adtured Man\u00adhat\u00adtan\u00adites who had retired from big city finance to the Mill\u00adbrook coun\u00adtry\u00adside, and they ran the paper judi\u00adcious\u00adly and cre\u00adative\u00adly, going so far as to buy a board\u00ading house<\/a> for their reporters to bal\u00adance the low salary. Hamil\u00adton Meserve was a seri\u00adous man and from what I remem\u00adber an avid trout fish\u00ader\u00adman, and he was also the son of the Wicked Witch of the West (a.k.a. Mar\u00adgaret Hamil\u00adton).<\/p>\n

\"6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ef23b27d970b-600wi\"Every Tues\u00adday after\u00adnoon, when we were on dead\u00adline for the week\u00adly edi\u00adtion, I would pick up the phone, hit the \u201cINTERCOM\u2014ALL\u201d but\u00adton, and screech (in my best Wicked Witch \/ Miss Gulch imper\u00adson\u00adation, which was pret\u00adty damn good), \u201cI\u2019LL GET YOU, MY PRETTY! AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO!\u201d Once, Mr. Meserve was there and no doubt heard me. But he nev\u00ader fired me. Either he appre\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded my brash, unbri\u00addled, man\u00adic ener\u00adgy, or I was just too damn tal\u00adent\u00aded to fire. I like to think it was both.<\/p>\n

As a reporter in the coun\u00adtry, I did\u00adn\u2019t get many of what you\u2019d call \u201csiz\u00adzling\u201d news sto\u00adries. Most of the time, my job as the small-town reporter was to serve as chron\u00adi\u00adcler of the com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty\u2019s events: fairs, pageants, horse shows, auc\u00adtions, art expos, book sales, library dri\u00adves, ball games, vil\u00adlage coun\u00adcil meet\u00adings, and pro\u00adfiles of both local celebri\u00adties and reg\u00adu\u00adlar joes.<\/p>\n

Still, there are sev\u00ader\u00adal sto\u00adries that have stayed in my mind, some of which I believe made a dif\u00adfer\u00adence. I inves\u00adti\u00adgat\u00aded a devel\u00adop\u00adment com\u00adpa\u00adny on their plans for restor\u00ading the aban\u00addoned Ben\u00adnett Col\u00adlege site in Mill\u00adbrook, and I dis\u00adcov\u00adered that they had\u00adn\u2019t done any<\/em> of the Flori\u00adda build\u00ading projects they claimed. I inter\u00adviewed a Sil\u00adver Star winner\u2014a bom\u00adbadier over North Africa in WWII\u2014who told me he could make out Pat\u00adton\u2019s shiny hel\u00admet from 30,000 feet. And in one of my first sto\u00adries at the paper, I report\u00aded on a Ger\u00adman Shep\u00adherd that tore a rabid rac\u00adcoon to pieces. Gene ques\u00adtioned its news\u00adwor\u00adthi\u00adness, but at the time rabies cas\u00ades were spring\u00ading up all over New York and Con\u00adnecti\u00adcut, and folks want\u00aded the rabid rac\u00adcoons dead. The dog\u2019s name was (I\u2019m not kid\u00adding) Rocky, and short\u00adly after my sto\u00adry and his pho\u00adto appeared in the paper, he became a local hero.<\/p>\n

And then there were the humor\u00adous moments. Like the time I went to a Vil\u00adlage Board meet\u00ading for the annu\u00adal bud\u00adget review and one of the Vil\u00adlage trustees com\u00adplained about a num\u00adber of the items, until the Vil\u00adlage Clerk final\u00adly said, \u201cDammit, R\u2013, you\u2019re look\u00ading at last year\u2019s<\/em> bud\u00adget!\u201d Then there was the time I was cov\u00ader\u00ading the Memo\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal Day parade and the police chief (who was direct\u00ading traf\u00adfic in mir\u00adrored sun\u00adglass\u00ades) called me over, looked around and urged me to poke him in the chest. So I did, and he said, \u201cYeah\u2026bulletproof. Stop a god\u00addamn .357 point-blank, this son-of-a-bitch will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or take the time I wrote about an event from 1892 in my week\u00adly \u201cReporter\u2019s Note\u00adbook\u201d col\u00adumn. I made fun of a news item from 100 years before, when a local cit\u00adi\u00adzen had, \u201clost con\u00adtrol of his horse, let\u00adting it ride up on the Vil\u00adlage green.\u201d In response I wrote, \u201cSounds like some\u00adbody<\/em> was dip\u00adping a bit too much into the sauce.\u201d Well\u2026the day the paper came out, a woman (who, iron\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, worked <\/em>at the Round Table<\/em>) con\u00adfront\u00aded me, demand\u00ading an apol\u00ado\u00adgy because her grand\u00adfa\u00adther<\/em> was the one I\u2019d inad\u00adver\u00adtent\u00adly writ\u00adten about. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly for me, Mill\u00adbrook had, and still has, a predilec\u00adtion for pro\u00adduc\u00ading cen\u00adte\u00adnar\u00adi\u00adans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With\u00adout ques\u00adtion, I\u2019m pleased that I began my pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal writ\u00ading career in journalism\u2014the same way two of my idols got their start: Mark Twain and Ernest Hem\u00ading\u00adway. It was Hem\u00ading\u00adway who once said, \u201cNews\u00adpa\u00adper work will not harm a young writer and could help him if he gets out of it in time.\u201d I feel a pang of regret that most young peo\u00adple com\u00ading up today won\u2019t get the same oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adties to hone their writ\u00ading skills while being paid for their words. In essence a paid appren\u00adtice\u00adship, news\u00adpa\u00adper work taught me a lot about writ\u00ading and work in gen\u00ader\u00adal.<\/p>\n

I learned the impor\u00adtance of writ\u00ading short declar\u00ada\u00adtive sen\u00adtences. I learned the role of com\u00admas in cre\u00adat\u00ading non\u00adre\u00adstric\u00adtive claus\u00ades. I learned that nouns and verbs are the meat of writ\u00ading and that when\u00adev\u00ader pos\u00adsi\u00adble you should elim\u00adi\u00adnate adjec\u00adtives and adverbs. I learned how to pro\u00adduce under time pres\u00adsure. \"notebook-page-1\"I learned that spelling DOES matter\u2014particularly the spellings of peo\u00adple\u2019s names. I learned to use semi\u00adcolons spar\u00ading\u00adly. I learned how to write a lead. I learned how to spot a sto\u00adry, how to notice details, how to take notes. I devel\u00adoped close to a phono\u00adgraph\u00adic<\/em> mem\u00ado\u00adry, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when it comes to dialogue\u2014the dic\u00adtion, accents and rhythms of peo\u00adple\u2019s speech. I learned how to LISTEN, and that often the best thing you can do as a reporter is to keep qui\u00adet and let the oth\u00ader per\u00adson talk. I learned the val\u00adue of prepa\u00adra\u00adtion: hav\u00ading your ques\u00adtions planned in advance, know\u00ading you could always stray from the agen\u00adda if you want\u00aded to. I learned how crit\u00adi\u00adcal it was to be fair<\/em> and accu\u00adrate<\/em> in your reporting\u2014in any form of writ\u00ading, I believe\u2014if you want\u00aded your sources to con\u00adtin\u00adue being your sources in the future, and if you want\u00aded to main\u00adtain a rep\u00adu\u00adta\u00adtion for integri\u00adty.<\/p>\n

Most impor\u00adtant of all, writ\u00ading for the Round Table<\/em> day in and day out built up what I think of as my total word count, or the amount of over\u00adall expe\u00adri\u00adence I have with words. George Bernard Shaw once wrote that a writer should\u00adn\u2019t expect to be paid<\/em> for his own work (some\u00adthing that was\u00adn\u2019t jour\u00adnal\u00adism) until he has writ\u00adten a mil\u00adlion words<\/em>. That\u2019s right\u2014a MILLION. What the Round Table <\/em>did for me, more than any\u00adthing else, was give me a head start on this mil\u00adlion-word jour\u00adney, so that by the time I fin\u00adished there about a year lat\u00ader, I had writ\u00adten, by my esti\u00admate, at least 900,000 words.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Coin\u00adci\u00adden\u00adtal\u00adly, last week\u00adend I was going through old box\u00ades of let\u00adters when I came upon sev\u00ader\u00adal let\u00adters of praise from for\u00admer sub\u00adjects of Round Table <\/em>arti\u00adcles. This serendip\u00adi\u00adtous find spurred me to unzip my leather port\u00adfo\u00adlio and browse my clips from those days, almost 20 years ago. My writ\u00ading is sharp\u00ader and much more felic\u00adi\u00adtous now than it was then, but even then it had that spark\u2014a love of lan\u00adguage and a desire to get it right.<\/p>\n

After The Mill\u00adbrook Round Table<\/em> I wrote for the area\u2019s dai\u00adly news\u00adpa\u00adper, The Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie Jour\u00adnal<\/em>, and while I learned a lot from my edi\u00adtor, Stu Shinske, and while the chal\u00adlenge of meet\u00ading a dai\u00adly dead\u00adline was excit\u00ading, the Round Table<\/em> had tak\u00aden my jour\u00adnal\u00adism vir\u00adgin\u00adi\u00adty, so it would always be first in my heart. I can still remem\u00adber wak\u00ading up at 6:00 am to eat break\u00adfast with my grand\u00adpar\u00adents, then dri\u00adving in a rush into Mill\u00adbrook to be the first one in the office, to sit down at my desk with the cool, lilac-tinged breeze waft\u00ading in the win\u00addow, sip\u00adping my cof\u00adfee and start\u00ading to type.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad I got to expe\u00adri\u00adence this piece of Amer\u00adi\u00adcana before it died, if only for a short time. I loved being a news\u00adpa\u00adper\u00adman, and I\u2019m proud to say I was one. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walk\u00ading into the din\u00ader yes\u00adter\u00adday, I glanced at the hon\u00ador box con\u00adtain\u00ading our vil\u00adlage news\u00adpa\u00adper, The Mill\u00adbrook Round Table, and was shocked to read the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,7,8,10,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism","category-personal","category-publishingandthemarket","category-technologyandinternet","category-writers","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9202,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/9202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}