Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 143

A Writer's Moment: 'It's an obvious fact'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's an obvious fact':   “A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lu...

'It's an obvious fact'

 

“Aman should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that heis likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of hislibrary, where he can get it if he wants it.” –Arthur ConanDoyle
Born in Scotland on this date in 1859, Doyle was noted for his "good use of his brain's furnishings" and as his iconic literary creation Sherlock Holmes once commented, “There is nothingmore deceptive than an obvious fact.”  
Originally a physician (I always thought that heresembled what I imagined Holmes' sidekick Dr. Watson to look like), Doyle wrote his first Holmesbook, A Study in Scarlet, in 1887. It was the first of just four novels he wrote about Holmes and Dr. Watson, but he“filled out” the Holmes library with over 50 short stories featuring hisfamous detective.    The Sherlock Holmesstories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.   The tales spawned many dozens (if not more)of uses of Holmes by other writers and in movies and televisionprograms.  He also brought Deerstalkerhats and Meerschaum pipes into vogue.  Doyle, who died in 1930,          was a prolific writerwhose other works included fantasy and science fiction, plays, romances,poetry and historical novels.  
Among the many sayings Doyle created and which have become part of the lexicon is, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, nomatter how improbable, must be the truth.” Words to both solve mysteries and live by.

A Writer's Moment: 'A Living Legacy'

A Writer's Moment: 'A Living Legacy':   Daniel Grayling Fogelberg was born in May of 1951 in Peoria, IL where his father Lawrence was an established musician, ...

'A Living Legacy'

 

Daniel Grayling Fogelberg was bornin May of 1951 in Peoria, IL where his father Lawrence was an establishedmusician, teacher, and bandleader. His first instrument was the piano, but hegravitated to the guitar in high school and became one of the nation’spre-eminent singer-songwriters during his lifetime.  He died in 2007 in Colorado.

 

In 1981 his album The InnocentAge took the country by storm, led by the following song  written as a tribute to his father.   For Saturday’s Poem (and widely availablein its musical version on YouTube), here is Fogelberg’s,

 

                    Leader of the Band

 

An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay

A quiet man of music denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once, but his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love through discipline, a thundering velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band

My brother's lives were different for they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St Paul
And I'm in Colorado when I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life I've chose and come to know so well

I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
And papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band
I am a living legacy to the leader of the band

                                                                                         

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'Fairness: The key to good journalism'

 

 

“Peoplecan get their news any way they want. What I love about what's happened is thatthere are so many different avenues, there are so many different outlets, somany different ways to debate and discuss and to inquire about any given newsstory.” – Jim Lehrer

 

Born in Wichita, KS on this date in 1934, Lehrer wasthe longtime news anchor of PBS Newshourand known for his role as a debate moderator for a number of U.S. presidentialelections.  He also authored numerousbooks, drawing on his experiences as a newsman and his interests in history andpolitics. 

 

Lehrer's journalistic career -- startingas a reporter for the Dallas Morning News -- earned him numerous awards and honors, including several Emmys, the GeorgeFoster Peabody Broadcast Award, the University of Missouri School ofJournalism’s Medal of Honor, and the William Allen White Foundation Award for JournalisticMerit.  

 

He said he was especially proudof the White Award, named for the great newspaper editor from Emporia (not far from his hometown of Wichita).  

 

Lehrer, who died in 2020, said he waspleased with his journalistic recognition because he’d always prided himself on fairness in his reporting.   “I know for certain that it's always possiblefor a professional journalist who understands what he or she's up to to befair, and that's the key word. Fairness to individuals, fairness to ideas, andto issues -- that is critical, and that is also part and parcel of what the jobis all about.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Fairness: The key to good journalism'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fairness: The key to good journalism':     “People can get their news any way they want. What I love about what's happened is that there are so many diff...

A Writer's Moment: 'Talent, Stubbornness and Sheer Luck. Any two wil...

A Writer's Moment: 'Talent, Stubbornness and Sheer Luck. Any two wil...:   “If people ask me for the ingredients of success, I say one is talent, two is stubbornness or determination, and third ...

'Talent, Stubbornness and Sheer Luck. Any two will do'

 

“If people ask me for the ingredients of success, I say oneis talent, two is stubbornness or determination, and third is sheer luck. Youhave to have two out of the three. Any two will probably do.”–  Fred Saberhagen

 

Born on this date in 1930, Saberhagen wrote science fictionand fantasy, and is most famous for his Berserker series of shortstories and novels.  He also was one of the first writers to put togethera series of vampire novels in which the vampires (including the famous Dracula)are the “good guys.”  “I used the same tools that make any writer good,”he said, “plus a cheerful willingness to suspend belief.” 

 

A native of Chicago and a Korean War veteran, Saberhagenwent to work for Motorola after the war.  At age 30, he started writingfiction and his first novel The Golden People came out in 1964.  Hesaid he was “filled with ideas” and just felt the urge to write everyday.  “Ideas are everywhere,” he said.   “It's the paperwork,that is, sitting down and thinking them into a coherent story, trying to findjust the right words that can, and usually does, get to be a writer’s labor.” 

 

Still writing “serious science,” too, he served as editor and writerfor all Chemistry articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica from the late1960s through the mid-1970s.  But, from that point until his death in 2007he only wrote science fiction.       

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                       As foradvice to aspiring science fiction writers, he said, “The advice would be thesame as for any kind of fiction.  Keepwriting, and keep sending things out, not to friends and relatives, but topeople who have the power to buy. A lot of additional, useful tips could beadded, but this is fundamental.”

A Writer's Moment: Hope chronicled; Memories preserved

A Writer's Moment: Hope chronicled; Memories preserved:   “We use the word 'hope' perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: 'I hope it's a nice day.' 'Hop...

Hope chronicled; Memories preserved

 

“Weuse the word 'hope' perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary:'I hope it's a nice day.' 'Hopefully, you're doing well.' 'So how are thingsgoing along? Good I hope.'  'Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.'  Memory is valued, and I hope that we neverlose memory.” – Studs Terkel  Born on May 16,1912 Louis “Studs” Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, andbroadcaster who won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for hisbook on World War II titled The Good War. Besides that book, he is probably best remembered for his oral histories, his other terrific book Working, and his unbending optimism about life and the goodness of people.  WFMT, the Chicago radio station whichbroadcast Terkel's long-running interview program, preserved 7,000 tape recordings ofTerkel's interviews and histories. After his death in 2008 at age 96, The Library of Congress announced a grantto digitally preserve and make available those recordings, which it called "aremarkably rich history of the ideas and perspectives of both common andinfluential people living in the second half of the 20th century." 
 [image error] Louis “Studs” Terkel
"For Studs, there was not avoice that should not be heard, a story that could not be told," said GaryT. Johnson, president of the Chicago Museum of History, the initial recipientof the recordings. "He believed that everyone had the right to be heardand had something important to say. He was there to listen, to chronicle, andto make sure their stories are remembered."