Mark Robinson [pictured at the right] of Iowa City comments on the latest Gannett Co. newspaper messes in Des Moines and Iowa City, plus some other things that are on his mind, in this e-mail:
"Hi, Ron:
"The Iowa City paper to be printed in Cedar Rapids by the competition?
"What next? Dogs and cats getting it on? Gays going straight? The Hawkeyes coming anywhere close to winning a Big Ten basketball championship?
"Of course, the next corporate moves will turn several Iowa newspapers into weekly rags without home delivery. Well, I'm guessing, but it might take about 10 years. One will have to go down to the Hy-Vee or Fareway to pick it up. Those papers will feature stuff written by people who don't live in the central time zone.
"In other words, irrelevant. Marc Hansen will be writing a blog with Basu and Sean Keeler will be the lone delivery boy of the paper Iowa once depended upon [I think he deserves the job]. I will read Hansen's blog. Basu, not so much. Oh, they already have blogs?
"On job losses--
"I am the cynic. I am the guy who went to the job workshop last week in Coralville for people over 50 years of age. I expected perhaps 50 locals to show up, but there easily were 300 of us split half-and-half, women and men. There were men over 60 years of age who want to work, but can't land a job.
"Guess who were advising us on how to get jobs?
"Five Human Resources heads from Pearson, Mercy Hospital, Iowa City Hospitals, and a couple staffing agencies. They were all women around the age of 30. They were not telling me how to get a job, but they were telling me that getting hired at their companies was damned near impossible. You just can't get there from here was the message disguised in bullshit HR speak.
"Sure, the older lady who chaired the seminar told us up front that we 50+ folks are not 'old,' we have wisdom. Ron, my bullshit meter went off the chart.
"Who is a young HR lady going to hire? The 54-year-old guy with the credentials and a mortgage who used to make over 50 grand per year or the 22-year-old woman with a degree that will work for dirt just to pay off her education loans?
"Sorry for the negative vibe, Ron, but times are tougher than hell for some of us. At least, I managed to work the Hawkeyes into my message.
"Keep writing.
Mark Robinson
Iowa City
[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Thanks for your thoughts, Mark. In an attempt to take a positive look at this whole thing, be glad the newspaper business didn't schedule that job workshop. What a chaotic experience that would've been. Hang in there].
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The Cubs and Cardinals open a semi-big four-game series today at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Cardinals appear to be a very good team that is well-managed, as usual, by Tony LaRussa, who is among the best two or three skippers in the business. The Cubs appear to be a bunch of underachieving malcontents who are managed by Lou Piniella, who seems to be at the give-up stage of his baseball career. That said, you would think St. Louis might win all four games in the series [including a day/night doubleheader Sunday] and open a huge lead in the National League Central. All I know is this: Whenever you expect something to happen in baseball, it rarely does. It is a very unpredictable sport.
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I was riding a train in Europe about 25 years ago when a guy who had attended the Running Of the Bulls [pictured at the left] in Pamplona, Spain, got onboard. I didn't know much about that event, so the guy gave me some information. It sounded like something I might want to see in the future. Now I don't want to be there. I have read news accounts of a bull goring a 27-year-old Spaniard to death yesterday. That's not something I need to see.
