A former colleague and dear friend once joked that I was a “twenty-something stuck in the body of a 63-year-old man.” My friend even once got me a birthday card, showing a stodgy old man with an inscription along the lines of: another year closer to shaking your fist and yelling ‘Hey you damn kids, get off my lawn!’
That’s pretty much what this blog is about and why it’s named the way it is.
My wife and others around me are often subjected to complaints about everything from horrible pizza delivery service to idiot politicians doing something stupid, to the jerk in the loud car who blows by you on the right only to meet up at the same stoplight blocks away.
As I told my wife: These are the things you’ve spent six years listening to. Now, the world will (hopefully) listen (or, in this case, read). Check out my very first entry on drive-throughs for an example (entitled A hungry wet man…)
I’ll spend some time commenting on news, offering opinions that are probably too short for a column format. The tone will be admittedly a bit ranty, but with sound opinions based on common sense.
As we in the news business claw for ways to reach readers in any way possible, the rules of the game are changing a bit. We hope to get people to read online, whether it’s hard news stories or entertaining blogs like this. That being said, I’m still an old school journalism guy, and while this won’t be strict journalism, I’ll insist that we follow the same rules. Basically, that means no personal attacks, verify your facts, and if you’re going to comment about someone or something based on those facts, you should be able to tie your name to it.
As a general rule, issues and people that I cover on the news side on a regular basis will be off limits for me to discuss on an opinion basis, but feel free to comment yourself on these folks. I do, however, plan on offering some small blog-only news items or further insight and detail on stories that I do write for the paper.
You, the readers, will be encouraged to sound off and leave your feedback, and often, a question will accompany each post for you to respond to.
If you’ve got any feedback on the blog itself, certainly direct that to my attention via e-mail.
Here’s to a hopefully great online experience.
Patrick Ferrell, is a staff reporter for The Herald News in Joliet. and the Sun Times News Group. Patrick covers education and politics. When he’s not ranting about something, Patrick can usually be found watching a race or careening down a ski slope. He resides in Will County with his wife, Laura, and the couple’s Portuguese water dog, Oscar, and bloodhound named Duke.
