| Given that we all
spend time in the kitchen (It’s the favorite room
in my house), this
New York Times story about bacteria in
the home kitchen should be required reading.
Start nuking those cellulose sponges, break out
the wood cutting board … and wash your hands!
And while you’re at it, break out those
dictionaries. Another terrific story from The
Times reports
that many people are misspelling items they
sell on eBay. What that means is few people
bid on the items. And some who do bid get stuff
for a song, then turn around and sell the item —
this time spelled correctly —making a handsome
profit. As you read this, editors around the world
are trying to figure out how to apply this concept
to reporters.
Speaking of reporting, if you have some time,
you really ought to check out this link. A
19-year-old German student, as a requirement of
his English class, wrote an essay titled An
Ailing Patient — The Decline of Detroit, “Motor
City” of the USA. Folks, this is one
exhaustively researched work. I’m not sure a
19-year-old American student could have done this.
I’m also not sure that many of us know this much
about our community. Even if you don’t have time,
go to the final paragraph of the PDF document of
the essay. If only some Detroiters were so
gracious about Detroit.
We’ll end the day with the
public-service-announcement portion of this
column. A man who claimed
to be an investment banker filed a report with Key
West, Fla., police that someone had stolen $50,
his watch and … some marijuana. The man wasn’t
charged because no marijuana was found because,
well, someone stole it. After reporting that he
had lost the pot, the man told police he only
wanted to report the watch stolen and not the pot,
because he didn’t want police to know “how much
weed there was.” Answer: apparently, enough.
ballen@crain.com
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