Author: Tom Bartel

I was walking around the office the other day and overheard one of the Rake’s ad reps telling two more reps that he’d just sold an ad contract. I opined, in passing, that his customer must be a very perspicacious sort. That, of course, brought the conversation to an abrupt halt. "What the hell does…

The wailing and gnashing of teeth continues unabated at the Strib and other print publications these days. A report from ABC, the company that audits the circulation of the Strib and most other daily newspapers, just noted that most daily newspapers’ circulation was down again. The Strib was down over six percent. Editor Nancy Barnes…

Here is the first sentence of today’s Star Tribune editorial on "Aiding Baby Boomers’ Search for Meaning": "The nation’s supernumerary baby-boomers have reached what’s being gently called "the second half of life," but the big generation is still doing what it has done since its diaper days: It’s demanding notice and altering the contours of…

John Ashcroft, the predecessor of Alberto Gonzales and former title holder of “Craziest Attorney General since John Mitchell” has an op-ed piece in today’s NY Times. In it he argues that the telecommunication companies who provided access for the Bush administration’s illegal wiretaps should be held immune from lawsuits. As he says, “Whatever one feels…

I’d never seen "redband" trailers offered on a movie website before. I guess I’d just been going to too many Doris Day movies. Anyway, I was attracted to the one on No Country For Old Men‘s site. It’s the new Coen Brothers movie. Anyway, you click on the redband trailer link, and it asks you…

I like the rodent. Gotta love the beautiful turn of phrase in a blog. Jeff Horwich over at MPR got off a good one about MinnPost‘s staff yesterday in his piece on the pending competition between MinnPost and The Daily Mole. He described them thus: "[the staff list] reads like the manifest of lifeboats from…