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June 25, 2009

The Public Works crew who painted the markings for a street crossing near Goulds Elementary School in Miami-Dade County were obviously NOT smarter than a fifth grader. No word on whether they had to stay in and write SCHOOL 100 times on the blackboard.

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June 22, 2009

Kodak has announced that its longtime stalwart brand, Kodachrome, will soon be no more. After 74 years and untold millions of frames, capturing everything from backyard birthday parties to big game, Kodak has run its last batch of the film. And the only place in the world that develops it has said it will stop doing so after 2010.

It's sad-Kodachrome was one of those benchmark products that became synonymous with taking extra care to obtain the best images possible. As a kid, I loved the weirdly chemical smell of freshly opened film packets - before film canisters became common - and the finicky process of clumsy young fingers trying to load a camera.

One of the most iconic photos taken with Kodachrome is Steve McCurry's photo of an Afghan girl, shown on the blog page. Regarded as one of the most recognizable photos ever shot, its subject remained anonymous for more than 20 years before McCurry returned and finally located her. The haunting eyes bespeak the difficulties of that country 24 years ago as war gripped it; and are as current as today's headlines.

Here at Hammock, our designers have worked with images on Kodachrome and just about every other film variety you can think of in the past 18 years, except maybe disc film. The shift from print and transparency to digital formats occurred with almost breathtaking speed; though we still receive a share of print images, mainly from readers, I can't recall the last time we got slides. But if we did, you can be assured the quality of photos from them would be as high as we could make it.

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June 17, 2009

"Vicious" and "viscous" often cross paths, as they did in this story about a man who crossed paths with a grizzly bear - and, if you believe the report, a clam was involved, too. I didn't know clams lived in Idaho - must be due to global warming. Thanks to Dave Barry's blog readers for finding this pearl. As a precaution against this article being fixed, here's a screenshot.

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June 8, 2009

Until recently, the tombstone above the late William F. Buckley's grave had a typo. We editor-writer types squirm whenever we make a typo (last week, in an early version of a layout, I discovered that I had written about the "Untied" States Marine Corps, and still shiver at the prospect of THAT getting into print!). But to have one on one's eternal marker - literally carved in stone - is horribly embarrassing, as his son noted in the article. I rarely agreed with Buckley, but for once am glad to say that he's now in the right.

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June 3, 2009

The Kroger Supermarket (universally and incorrectly called Kroger's) in my town has been located on Nashville Pike for at least 25 years. So you would think they could spell the address correctly. But no. I was shopping there this week and noticed that the ad plaque in the grocery cart's fold up basket had a major typo:

I went back the next night to shoot the photo, and had a chance to point it out to the managers on duty. One of them acknowledged that other shoppers had point it out, too. Someone slipped up, he said with a shrug. I hope they clean it up soon.

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June 1, 2009

After weeks of frequent - and needed - rain, the weather around Nashville has been warming up and dry for several days now - which makes it the perfect time to make hay.

Everyone has heard the phrase "Make hay while the sun shines." It's used to encourage people to take advantage of opportunities, to save for that legendary rainy day, or generally to be industrious and not waste time.

It wasn't until I moved to Tennessee 25 years ago that I learned where the phrase "make hay while the sun shines" originated. Like so much in farming, haying depends on the happy coinciding of several factors. The grass has to be fairly mature - tassels ripening but not so ripe that the blades of grass are starting to die and droop. the grass needs to be dry when cut to get the most efficient cutting - if you've ever mowed early in the morning you know how dew-drenched grass clogs blades.

Then the cut grass has to dry some before being baled - if it rains after you've cut it, you have to let it dry out. Again, this is to reduce the chance that mold will develop, which would ruin the hay.

Typically, hay is made when the weather is warm; if farmers are lucky, the rain will hold off while they cut in the spring, then come back often enough so they can get a second cut later in the summer - when of course they want dry weather. If you live someplace with a predictable climate, there's less pressure to complete the job asap. Here in the South, where sudden thunderstorms can pop up on hot, humid afternoons, we don't have that kind of leisure. When it's time to make hay, it's an all-out process.

The last couple of years have not been great for hay - drought precluded most second cuttings, so the price went up. The price of fuel for tractors also rose, adding to the price of hay. The wilting economy put even more pressure on folks who needed hay for livestock. My fingers are crossed for a better summer this year for making hay.

Speaking of haymakers - the hard punch swung with everything you have - got its name from the action of cutting hay with a scythe. We have one of those implements in the barn - a reminder of a time when muscle power alone did everything. I cannot imagine spending days swinging a scythe to cut hay, then raking it into windrows and heaping it in stacks or ricks. By the end of that process, you would be ready for a month of rain just so you could stop.

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May 29, 2009

I've never watched an episode of "Heroes" and remember the name of one of its stars only because it makes me think about Italian bread. So it's only because of my doughy - sorry, doughty - typo-hunting news reader that I spotted this item about Hayden Panettiere.

She wanted her Italian motto to say "Vivere senza rimpianti" - live without regrets - but either she or the tattooist threw in an extra "i" in the last word, spelling it "rimipianti." Scusi!

It's amusingly ironic that she probably does regret having to live with the hard-to-erase typo, done up in an art form celebrated in song by Jimmy Buffett as "a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling."

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In an ad campaign released in New York by The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) on Thursday, the anti-gay marriage group misspelled the word "marraige" at the close of their commercial. The ad quickly got pulled, and presumably the error will be, ahem, straightened out.

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May 18, 2009

My employer, Rex Hammock, frequently castigates reporters and editors who publicly demonstrate their utter lack of math skills or understanding of statistics. Rex missed this one - The San Francisco Examiner recently reported the average tourist to the City by the Bay spends $23.33 per day. Here's the link to the original story, as well.

I know the recession has created lots of travel bargains, but any resident of SanFran should have said "huh?" in writing or editing that piece.

And just to be mean, The Snitch story couldn't keep straight what the Examiner typo was - note the discrepancy between the figures in the first and last paragraph.

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Chicago, The City of Broad Shoulders, saw a lot of broad shoulders from 11-17 May as the US Marine Corps blew into the Windy City to give residents a close-up look at today's Corps during the service's inaugural Marine Week.

Hundreds of Marines performed community services tasks such as cleaning up parks, assisting with Habitat for Humanity projects and rehabbing community centers; they also visited schools, participated in sporting events, exhibited the latest in Marine equipment such as the V-22 Osprey and demonstrated Marine skills such as martial arts. On Sunday 17 May, a group of Marines staged a mock raid in the city's popular Arlington
Park racetrack complex, complete with Ospreys landing and troops fanning out.

The previous evening at Navy Pier, the Marine Corps League hosted a VIP reception keynoted by an address from General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret), who was the 32nd Commandant of the Corps and serves now as National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama. Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlton W. Kent, and LtGen. Ronald S. Coleman, Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs were also among the guests who included local political figures and many members of Chicagoland and Illinois Marine Corps League Detachments.

Local Leaguers were deeply involved in the planning and implementation of events, assisting the active duty Marines wherever necessary. Their scarlet jackets and caps - known as "covers" in Marine parlance - stood out in the crowds. It was a chance for these veterans to spend time getting to know some of today's Leathernecks who carry on the Corps' proud legacy.

The week-long event was an opportunity for Chicagoans to meet the individuals who make the Marine Corps, said Chicago native Brig. Gen. Melvin G. Spiese, commanding general, Training and Education Command, in Quantico, VA. "The idea of Marine Week is to get the major cities in America exposed to the Marine Corps," said General Spiese. "We couldn't find a better place to kick this thing off. We are America's Marine Corps."

"This is a Marine Corps town, it’s a very popular part of the military here," said Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in opening the week-long event on 11 May. “You’ll see it all week, there is a great history of Marine Corps families in Chicago."

Plans are in the works for the next Marine Week scheduled for this fall in Boston.

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Bill Hudgins

Editor

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