Taking a "dump"

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Nov 27, 2002 11:58 pm

It snows where I live. Sometimes it snows a lot. And as everyone here knows, snow is big news. What could be more interesting than yesterday's weather, with the possible exception of a turkey getting pardoned by the president?Based on your years of doing this, I bet everyone who lives where it snows (and thus edits weather stories) can fill in the verb:The storm ----- a foot of snow on Sheeplick.
Dumped, of course. Storms always "dump" snow. I am so sick of stories that say a storm "dumped" snow. If it snows a quarter-inch per hour for 12 hours and you get three inches, that hardly seems like a "dumping."
I start getting sick whenever I see this mandatory weather story sentence. I know the hated d-word is coming. And it is there EVERY time.Come on. Have an idea out there.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 12:05 am

i often admire the passion exhibited here.but some of you need a rest.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 12:10 am

I can't rest. I have to shovel the f--- snow that was "dumped" on my driveway. Then I have to go to work....

jbm · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 12:53 am

here in our non-winter state, we have:
"snow covers Northeast"and the AP lede:
"snow blanketed parts of the Northeast..."any better, my Yankee friend?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 12:58 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jbm:
here in our non-winter state, we have:
"snow covers Northeast"and the AP lede:
"snow blanketed parts of the Northeast..."any better, my Yankee friend?<hr></blockquote>It should be obvious that there rarely is a need for a "story" when snow falls during winter, especially in a "non-winter state," whatever that means. Weather fans should be given a nicely detailed page with maps and charts and forecasts, but it is not news in, say, Jacksonville, that snow falls in Chicago except to the extent that it fouls up the air-traffic system.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 1:12 am

Mr. Moderator:We have an opening for city editor. With that thinking, you have my vote. Pack your bags.Now hear this: Weather happens every day. It is rarely interesting. Especially since it is yesterday's weather. If you have to read today's paper to find out what the weather was like yesterday, your problems are far too complex to analyze in this small amout of bandwidth.If people die or there is a calamity, weather is news. If there is four inches of snow and some asshole spins out going down a hill and turns a utility pole into a work of modern art, it is NOT NEWS. But nobody listens to me on this.[ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: Bumfketeer ][ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: Bumfketeer ]

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 1:31 am

And in response to JJ:Passion, yes. You note that I had to edit the above post twice because I was so pissed off about weather stories that I made two mistakes in it.And I do need a rest. If you do this work and don't need a rest, you're not doing it right.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 3:26 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
Mr. Moderator:We have an opening for city editor. With that thinking, you have my vote. Pack your bags.<hr></blockquote>Heh. I'm pretty satisfied where I am, thanks. I think a third tour in Albany would be a bit much. Everyone has his price, but ....

zfriloux · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 10:40 am

You know, we have openings here in Houston for any of you tired of shoveling snow. Of course, you're required to freak out whenever it rains a lot. But flood insurance can do wonders for that problem.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 12:54 pm

When I was at the Winnipeg Freep the formal written sheet to guide us in writing weather stories started with: Look out the window!
It was a pm at that point, and we were doing the day's weather. And it did get an awful lot of snow, which was deposited and blown on the city where it smothered, blanketed, etc.
If the storm is worthy enough, the weather story is OK. Enough dumping on snow.

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 8:09 pm

Our paper has a specific rule banning use of the term "white stuff" as a colloquial reference to snow ... simply because it annoys our managing editor on a mysterious personal level. Anybody else have paper with rules imposed from an equally irrational and dictatorial perspective? (That being said, "white stuff" annoys me too.)

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 8:27 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
Our paper has a specific rule banning use of the term "white stuff" as a colloquial reference to snow ... simply because it annoys our managing editor on a mysterious personal level. Anybody else have paper with rules imposed from an equally irrational and dictatorial perspective? (That being said, "white stuff" annoys me too.)<hr></blockquote>There's certainly nothing irrational about prohibiting a clichÃ© from appearing in your newspaper, and nothing "dictatorial" about a managing editor doing it.

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 8:41 pm

What's irrational is that he admits he just dislikes the term on a personal level, therefore it's banished for use or reading for everybody in our circulation area. That's akin to whatever rock band it was a decade or so ago that pitched a fit and refused to stage the stage because some lackey forgot to remove a certain color of M&Ms from the pre-show backstage buffet. And that IS dictatorial. I just happen to agree with, and benefit from, such arbitrary whims. I'd run my paper, if I ever ran one, in much the same fashion.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2002 9:02 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
What's irrational is that he admits he just dislikes the term on a personal level, therefore it's banished for use or reading for everybody in our circulation area. That's akin to whatever rock band it was a decade or so ago that pitched a fit and refused to stage the stage because some lackey forgot to remove a certain color of M&Ms from the pre-show backstage buffet. And that IS dictatorial. I just happen to agree with, and benefit from, such arbitrary whims. I'd run my paper, if I ever ran one, in much the same fashion.<hr></blockquote>If i could stop gagging long enough to try to get "white stuff" past our slots, i'd be fired. in fact, it's a joke on our desk, right up there with "Tis the season ... " and several other seasonal cliches.At a previous employer, using "All That Jazz" in a headline or cutline was declared a firing offense after the 17th time it appeared in print.Members of Van Halen trashed their dressing room over the offense of brown M&Ms appearing in their bowl before a concert. However, they supposedly had a reason for putting that condition in their contracts: It was a test of whether promoters had read their contract, and they were tired of being ripped off. Or so David Lee Roth says.And here comes the slot with another chance for me to get fired.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:51 am

Personal management whims?
1. A managing editor who was fascinated - nobody knew why - with water main breaks. I once went out with two other reporters and two photogs on one of these.
2. The immortal Gilles Purcell of CP (an amputee) who insisted that all references to amputation record whether the cut was above/below the knee/elbow.
3. A city editor who liked an annual spring story on the residual dog poop which came to light upon the receding of the by-then-dirty-grey stuff.
There must be more, but these really stand out.

SusanV · **Posted:** Fri Nov 29, 2002 1:18 pm

5. An editor who insisted that we do a cover on the best boarding schools. Coincidentally--or not, take your pick--his alma mater was mentioned prominently throughout.[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: SusanV ]

jmcg · **Posted:** Fri Nov 29, 2002 7:50 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
5. An editor who insisted that we do a cover on the best boarding schools. Coincidentally--or not, take your pick--his alma mater was mentioned prominently throughout.[ November 29, 2002: Message edited by: SusanV ]<hr></blockquote>That wouldn't be Steve Smith, guiding coverage that gushed about Deerfield Academy in western Massachusetts, where the bond between the boys and their regard for their school can only be described as love, would it??

Craig Lancaster · **Posted:** Sat Nov 30, 2002 1:48 am

I think Gary Kirchherr, who toiled beside me at the Anchorage Daily News, will back me up on this:Every year (sometime in October, generally), the Daily News would herald the first snowfall with a breathless story and often multiple pieces of art.I never understood it. It's Alaska! All it's gonna do for the next five months is snow! What's the big deal?Here in San Jose, we have a fascination with rain. I guess that's what happens when you have 300 clear-and-sunny days a year.

Rio · **Posted:** Sat Nov 30, 2002 3:03 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Craig Lancaster:
I think Gary Kirchherr, who toiled beside me at the Anchorage Daily News, will back me up on this:Every year (sometime in October, generally), the Daily News would herald the first snowfall with a breathless story and often multiple pieces of art.I never understood it. It's Alaska! All it's gonna do for the next five months is snow! What's the big deal?<hr></blockquote>There *isn't* a big deal, of course. The ninnies running that paper simply got it in their heads that snow in Anchorage is a story that will interest readers. It's as simple as that.By the way, nice to "see" you again, Craig. Didn't see you lurking back there. :)

Powderhorn · **Posted:** Sat Nov 30, 2002 4:26 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Craig Lancaster:
Here in San Jose, we have a fascination with rain. I guess that's what happens when you have 300 clear-and-sunny days a year.<hr></blockquote>Before I ever got into this field, one thing that always irritated the hell out of me was a similar knee-jerk reaction to clouds in Phoenix.Every time they forecast anything so much as a cloud, the local news stations would go on "Storm Watch (insert year here, with cute apostrophization to make it seem apropos)."Mind you, I noticed on weather.com today, in checking on weather at the ol' stomping grounds, that "in excess of a half-inch could fall in the next 24 hours."Imagine that -- a half-inch.

pzicari · **Posted:** Sat Nov 30, 2002 7:10 pm

I once worked for a managing editor who banned pictures of snakes and had kittens (metaphorically) when we ran a picture of a kid holding a cat over a fountain.
Prohibiting stuff is a newspaper manager's prerogative, and we who toil in the trenches should count ourselves lucky that modern tinkerers aren't as aggressive. Imagine working for Col. McCormick in Chicago back when he decided to try to drive "ph" out of the English language ...

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Dec 04, 2002 1:38 am

Almost as banal as the "snow story" are snow pictures, proven by this "gallery" taken during a 3-inch snowfall in Chicago where, as we know, snow is unusual.web page

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