Eubie's notes

In Saturday’s WSJ’s Weekend Journal was an intereview with Janis Ian.

I liked the last question:

How old were you when you thought you were grown up?

In my 40s, I realized would never be the youngest again, never be considered amazing again, that I was being looked up to by two generations of songwriters. I had to accept that I had moved into a mentoring age, and I could go gracefully or go kicking and screaming. I remember when I was a kid thinking, “When I grow up no one is ever going to tell me what to do again.” How nice to be so innocent.

George Carlin‘s “FM-AM” and “Class Clown” were some of the first comedy albums I heard. As a boy, the hippy-dippy weatherman was a great routine. NY Times: George Carlin, 71, Irreverent Standup Comedian, Is Dead.

It was a shock. NY Times Tim Russert, 58, NBC’s Face of Politics, Dies. For my friends and colleagues, the reaction was. “That’s so young.” Here’s another story from MSNBC.

The audience might have been children, but I enjoyed the books as much as other books I read recently. Finished “A Single Shard” by Linda Sue Park. It was a fascinating story about Korean pottery in the 15th century.

Last week I finished “Because of Winn Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo. I enjoyed “A Single Shard” better.

Sharon McCarthy, who lives in the Charlotte area, plans to hike the Smoky Mountains over the next year to raise money for the Girl Scouts. She will hike mostly on the weekends. She was profiled in the Charlotte Observer, but the article page is no long available. Instead I’ll read of her hikes through her blog — Great Smoky Mountains Girl Scout Challenge.

At that a flea market in Sevierville, Tenn., you can buy tires and have them mounted there too. He powered the rig with a generator.

Tire changer

I enjoy reading Jonathan Clement’s “Getting Going” columns in the Wednesday WSJ. I was surprised to see him writing his last column today, What I Learned From Writing 1,008 Columns. I missed the mention in an earlier column this month, And It All Comes Down to This….

He’s also left an online column of his favorite columns, A Longtime Columnist Picks His Favorites. He also has a web site, JonathanClements.com, where he promotes his books and answers some questions.

He’s going to be director of financial education at Citi. He’s mentioned in a Portfolio.com article about others leaving WSJ, It’s Quittin’ Time at ‘The Wall Street Journal’.

I also enjoy Bob Brinker and Jane Bryant Quinn and the advice from Fidelity, Vanguard, and online bloggers, such as Get Rich Slowly.

Cool Tools is for gadget freaks. Cool tools I’ve enjoyed are write in the rain notebooks, Gossamer Whisper Uberlight Pack, Fiskars PowerGear Bypass Pruner and Access All Areas: A User’s Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration, among other bookmarked links.

Cool Tools is like a trip to the hardware store.

Now Cool Tools, a site created by Kevin Kelly, lists all the tools that run Cool Tools.

Time and Newsweek struggle to remain relevant to readers and advertisers. The WSJ reports on latest Newsweeks job cuts of 111 jobs cut including older and higher-paid editorial help. The goal is to cut costs and invigorate the publication.

Newsweek is trying to recover by boosting the new hold and covering things more seriously. Time shifted is publication cycle to Friday from Monday.

The competition isn’t just cable news and the internet. It’s also the Economist magazine:

In 2007, the Economist newsmagazine, published by U.K.-based The Economist Newspaper Ltd., saw an 8.5% increase in advertising pages compared with 2006, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. By contrast, Newsweek’s advertising pages dropped 6.7% and Time’s fell 6.9%.

But long term the biggest threat is indifference.

At a recent speech at Columbia University, Mr. Meacham delivered a blistering response after he asked who reads Newsweek and none of the 100-odd students in attendance raised their hands.