Hooray for "Hugo"

Our family saw "Hugo" this week.  It is the story of a 12-year-old orphan who lives in a Paris train station and is trying to repair an automaton, believing it has a message from his late father. He meets a toy shop owner who turns out to be forgotten and disillusioned cinema legend, Georges Melies. Hugo and Georges' goddaughter, Isabelle, reconnect him with his past and a new generation of film lovers. Anyone interested in cinema history won't want to miss this charming film. Here is an interesting story from the Los Angeles Times about how "Hugo" has revived interest in Melies.

Remembering Kennesaw Mountain

In wrapping up the manuscript for my book on Civil War journalism, I have been thinking about how I first got interested in the subject. Twenty years ago, our family was living in Marietta, Georgia, less than a mile from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. I enjoyed hiking in the park and that's when I first started thinking about the reporters who covered the fighting that took place there in 1863. I've been writing about the subject ever since.

A Christmas Gift from the Past

My oldest daughter's favorite Christmas gift this year was a record player, yes, a record player. A college friend has one and Emily decided that she wanted one, too.  It was a lot of fun showing her how it worked--that needle can be tricky she learned--and then digging out some of our old records from the basement for her to play.

Pioneering Art Director Dies

Louis Silverstein, who became known as the “godfather” of modern newspaper design, died last week at 92.  As art director of the New York Times, Silverstein made the “Gray Lady” more visually appealing in the 1970s at a time when newspapers faced increasing competition from television. By using creative typefaces, enlarging photographs and adding graphics, he modernized a paper that had always been slow to change its look. Silverstein made his first changes to the newspaper's look in 1967 when he changed the typeface and eliminated the period that had followed the Times name since its founding. “Every time you pick up the paper, you have in your hands a reflection of Lou’s sparkling talent,” former executive editor A. M. Rosenthal once said.

Happy Birthday Jon Stewart

A belated happy birthday to Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, who turned 49 this week. I have always found it troubling that polls regularly show that a majority of young Americans get their television news from The Daily Show, but at least they are getting it from a master of social satire. Stewart once said, "I have complete faith in the continued absurdity of whatever's going on." His show proves that time and again.

Philly papers leaving iconic home

In a move everyone saw coming, the owners of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News announced the two newspapers are leaving their landmark Broad Street home for a smaller space downtown.  The home of Philadelphia's two daily newspapers opened in 1925 and for decades has been one of Philadelphia's iconic buildings. The 18-story Beaux Arts skyscraper has a white facade and a distinctive clock tower. Philadelphia's two newspapers have been steadily shedding staff and currently occupy only about half the building. The Inquirer and Daily News will move into the former Strawbridge & Clothier store at Eighth and Market streets.

Pittsburgh Press reborn

The Pittsburgh Press, which disappeared from the Steel City in 1992, has been reborn as an electronic edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  The Press was the victim of a crippling strike that shut it down for a year.  At the time the Press was the largest newspaper in Pittsburgh and the closing was a shock to many.  The Press won two Pulitzer Prizes during its long history.  The electronic edition will appear in the afternoon on the Post-Gazette web site and contain 12 to 16 pages daily. Of course, this new version of the Press doesn't mean that Pittsburgh has two newspapers again, but it's good to see the ownership of the Post-Gazette giving a nod to the city's press history.