The Hammock Blog

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in his (or her) life, wrote a blank check made payable to the United States of America for an amount of 'up to and including my life'."

Memorial Day has been set aside as a time to remember those who have paid that ultimate price, and also to honor and thank those who returned from their time of service.

We think often of our military serving overseas, but time and again, they have come to aid citizens here when floods, blizzards, hurricanes and other disasters strike. It matters not whether they faced combat or served in a time of – always relative – peace. What matters is that they were willing to put their lives between us and our enemies in serving America.

Hammock Inc. has the privilege of publishing the member magazine for the Marine Corps League. None of us is a veteran, but as we tell members who ask, we try to be a friend. And though most of the rest of the year we'd argue that the Marines are America's best, on Memorial Day, and Veterans' Day, we lay that aside to honor all equally.

In the 4 years that we have worked with the League and heard amazing stories of heroism and hardship, I've often thought back to the immortal speech William Shakespeare gave Henry V before that battle on St. Crispian's Day. It's worth repeating part of it here, as a reminder of why veterans deserve honor not due to us civilians:

" We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

(Photo At Top: Airman Jacob Proffer, a member of the Air Force Honor Guard, pauses to salute a grave after placing a miniature flag at its base during the “Flags In” tribute at Arlington National Cemetery, May 21, 2009. “When I do this, it makes me take a lot more pride every time I put on my uniform, seeing the measure of sacrifice so many have made,” he said. DoD photo by Donna Miles")

Writers and editors frequently need to find experts who can speak authoritatively on the subject of an article. Journalists who specialize in a given field soon accumulate a list of go-to gurus, but generalists don't have that advantage.

Probably the first thing you try will be a direct online search. You may strike gold—especially in the sources cited by sites such as Wikipedia—or you may be overwhelmed with irrelevant sites. And even after refining your search, the results may still be ambiguous or less than solid.

Here are some suggestions for narrowing your search:

• Ask your editor for suggestions about experts.

• Run a search for other articles on the topic to see who's been consulted previously, or, even better, experts who write on the topic.

• Blogs can be a good source of leads to experts. Similarly, Twitter may help you find people who post regularly on a given topic.

• Contact relevant professional or trade associations. The organization itself may include highly knowledgeable individuals, or they can direct you to members who are versed in the subject. Suite 101 also recommends consulting universities, whose faculty may be knowledgeable or can direct you to colleagues who can help.

• Websites such as Help A Reporter Out and Media Bistro serve as a crossroads for writers seeking information and public relations professionals and businesses eager to supply it. The Adventurous Writer recommends Prof.net as a source of professional experts.

• JournalismNet describes itself as "a free web site with over 600 pages … designed to bring you an investigative guide to the Internet - the best tools, tricks and websites from around the world."

• Friends and colleagues may be able to help—writers and editors minds are attics where all sorts of odd facts lie waiting to be discovered.

Once you have a list of experts, take time to check them out online to see what others have said about them, such as possible biases. You may still use an expert with a known slant, but you will be able to include that as a caveat to your readers.

Rex recently outlined his thoughts about the iPad, touching on the debate among early adopters regarding whether or not the iPad is "good for creating content." Google Docs are read-only on the device, but the Keynote app allows you to create an entire presentation.

And while he doesn't view magazines as a medium that needs saving, he does believe that the iPad "provides lots of opportunities for magazine companies who do something other than replicate magazines on an app."

Over at PM Digital, they asked their digital bloggers for first impressions of the iPad:

• Tim Kilroy: "It means your presentation layer just got cooler, and more transparent. The opportunity to create impact and engagement just increased."
• Anthony Avolio: "Marketers must actively consider touch interfaces when planning their designs... While the iPad is just one device, it's likely the start of a new mainstream push for touch interfaces."
• Glenn Lalich: "The iPad just gave email creative a dazzling shot in the arm... And it didn't cost marketers a cent."

Click to view a larger version of this panoramic photo by Kelsey Wynns for a sense of what Nashville's Riverfront looked like on Monday, May 3, 2010.

For those who have asked how you can contribute to the flood recovery efforts, let me make two suggestions. While there are many groups that are worthy of your support (a great list of them can be found on this post at Nashvillest.com), there are two groups that many of us at Hammock have worked with personally in the past -- and even during the past 24 hours.

Either group will put your contribution to work immediately:

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, the Community Foundation is coordinating contributions to the Metro Nashville Disaster Response Fund and Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund.

This just in: All proceeds from the sale of this T-shirt go to the Community Foundation.

Hands on Nashville: On behalf of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, Hands on Nashville is coordinating the volunteer efforts.

Over the weekend, Nashville experienced massive flooding due to unprecedented torrential rain. Our office building's management is working to address issues related to some flooding in the elevator shafts, so the building is closed for the day. All Hammock employees have the ability to work remotely and you should be able to reach them using their regular direct numbers or through our main number 615-690-3400. All employees are safe, but many have neighbors in need, so we'll also be reaching out to those friends and neighbors today, as well. Thank you to the many kind expressions of concern over the weekend. And for those who would like to help, please contribute to this fund set up by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.