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May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Jan. 2, 2007 / 12 Teves, 5767

DADBLAME IT, MISS PRICKETT!

By Paul Greenberg


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It used to be easy to write a year-end column. The subject, the theme, the material … it was all there waiting for me in a great big fat file folder that I'd slowly filled with clips of my mistakes through the year.


The only thing I had to do was just write 'em up. I didn't even have to come up with a new headline; it was the same one year after year: Where I went wrong.


You can't beat a headline like that. Readers are natural critics, and what critic can ignore a phrase like that over some know-it-all pundit's piece?


Especially if said know-it-all is always criticizing others. It was surely my best-read column all year.


Of course some years were better than others. One absent-minded day I'd quoted one of the great all-time summations of history, politics, baseball and the human condition in general ("One never knows, do one?") and attributed it to the immortal Fats Domino.


Uh, oh.


Uhhh . . . OH!


I'd got my Fatses wrong. It was Fats Waller who'd said that, not Domino. Great balls of fire! I was in a whole heap of trouble. It was back when e-mail was still young, and my computer screen was filled the next morning with messages from polite folks, and some not so polite, who were more than happy to set me straight. With the verbal equivalent of a two-by-four. OOO-wee, that hurt.


Once that column went out on the wire, I must've heard from every jazz buff, swing aficionado, rhythm-'n'-blues fan, rock-'n'-roll critic, amateur musicologist and disc jockey from Eugene, Ore., to Mount Airy, N.C.


This new medium of correspondence called e-mail, I realized, (a) was here to stay, and (b) was going to be all over me. A columnist wouldn't be able to get away with anything any more.


But at least that slip-of-mind gave me an excuse to go into the difference between the two Fatses in my year-end column. I ain't misbehavin', I explained. I was just confused as usual.


It as an educational experience. After that screw-up, I would know from the start that poor Dan Rather and squirming CBS would never get away with peddling their dubious "scandal" and even more dubious document about George W. Bush's missing some drills with the Texas Air National Guard. Not in this in Age of the Blogger.


But this year I confidently reached for my Where I Went Wrong folder, and there it wasn't.


Huh? Not only were there no clips in it, there was no folder. I hadn't even had occasion to start one.


Had I become infallible this year, or just lucky? Or had my standards fallen so low that I didn't even notice my mistakes any more?


None of the above. It didn't take me long to figure out why this year was different from all other years. The answer came to me in a flash, and in two words: Sarah Prickett.


This has been our new copy editor's first full year on our editorial and op-ed pages, and by now she's saved us from ourselves so many times, she ought to get lifeguard points. But, dadblame it, Miss Prickett, this time you've gone too far! You've cost me a perfectly good year-end column.


What was I going to do now — write a whole new, original one? (Columnists are notoriously lazy. We'd rather quote others, or even our own mistakes, than have to express an original thought.)


It's a truism in the newspaper business that there are plenty of good writers out there but a good editor is hard to find. Because copy editing — the real kind that doesn't stop with correcting spelling and grammar — requires more than just a technical knowledge of the language, which is rare enough. The good copy editor has got to be literate in the broader sense — that is, have what used to be called a liberal education.


Of course that was before education was reduced to training and the student taught only what is "relevant," that is, transient. There is much to be said for an irrelevant education — one that doesn't go out of style because it was never in. Does anyone study the classics any more? If so, what an advantage they must have!


The first indication Sarah Prickett was made for this job was her previous one — as an editor of the Flannery O'Connor Review at Georgia College and State University. And she's lived up to her billing. Scarcely a workday goes by without her catching something on the page and saving our necks. And this is only her day job; at night she teaches, of course, English composition.


Here's my first New Year's Resolution; Hire more Sarah Pricketts!


But in a television-drenched, non-literate, word-deaf age, where do you find them?

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.

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© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

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