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Happy now, people?

RIP David

That's a photo of David, Beth and Tess at a Steelers game.

For those of you who don't know him, David was one of my childhood friends. He was also one of my roommates at the big downtown apartment I lived during my wild middle 20s.

He was murdered on Wednesday along with another man. David was working installing water pipes for a rural water company. The shooter didn't like David being on his property, so the SOB killed him. The shooter had served two previous prison stints for killing people previously. He's now killed four people.

Anyway, David and I drifted apart when he moved out of the Self's building. He moved in with Beth, they got married and had Tess. We never had a falling out. Never fought or anything. Just went in different directions and failed to keep in touch.

Beth has asked me to write a death notice for David. And to be a pallbearer. I'm honored and humbled by this request. At the same time, I'm worried I won't do David's life justice, since I wasn't part of it for the last 15 years or so.

That brings me to why I'm writing this post. Aside from the sadness and anger I'm feeling, I'm also guilt stricken. I should have made more of an effort to stay in touch.

Since you're reading this blog, you're already one of my close friends (or family). I do not want to lose any of you the way I lost David. Losing a friend is tough enough. Losing a friend twice is even worse.

Olbermann's tribute to his mom

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The not-so funny pages

28? You're over the hill.

Hey, it's not me. It's science.

According to scientists, our mental abilities begin to decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22.

Old Age Begins at 27

Many Americans wouldn't miss local newspaper

Maybe I should quit reading journalism Web sites, the news is just too depressing.

As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community "a lot." Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1147/newspapers-struggle-public-not-concerned

From two to one to none

NYT on the future of newspapers in major cities. Hopefully, it won't trickle down to small markets like Fort Smith.

“In 2009 and 2010, all the two-newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets, and you will start to see one-newspaper markets become no-newspaper markets,” said Mike Simonton, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, who analyzes the industry.

Many critics and competitors of newspapers — including online start-ups that have been hailed as the future of journalism — say that no one should welcome their demise.

“It would be a terrible thing for any city for the dominant paper to go under, because that’s who does the bulk of the serious reporting,” said Joel Kramer, former editor and publisher of The Star Tribune and now the editor and chief executive of MinnPost .com, an online news organization in Minneapolis.

“Places like us would spring up,” he said, “but they wouldn’t be nearly as big. We can tweak the papers and compete with them, but we can’t replace them.”

For Papers, A Downsizing Becomes a Flood

Two sad stories about bars

I love bars. Don't get to go to them these days, thanks to the baby, and I miss it. It's not the drinking because you can do that at home much cheaper. It's the social atmosphere. It's the laughter. It's the people watching. It's the "Holy crap, I've not heard that song in forever" when the jukebox plays.

That's why the next two links make me a little sad.

At Boston's Bull & Finch, aka Cheers, Eddie Doyle was downsized by the owner. SK, I expect a full newsteam investigation into this travesty ...

After 35 years, a legendary Boston bartender is fired

And in the NY Times, there's a story about traditional Irish pubs dying, even in Ireland. And by traditional Irish pubs, I don't mean the TGIF-ified chain pubs here in America ...

In Search of a Pub

Update: Found another bar story on the NYT Web site. This one is about bars in NYC that don't have TVs.

The Few, the Proud: Pubs That Still Resist the Pull of the Television Screen

The final RMN

Click on the photos to see the whole thing ...

Rocky Mountain News - RIP

The oldest newspaper in Colorado will publish a final edition on Friday, and then shut the doors. Denver will now become a one-newspaper town.

This is a newspaper that was named one of the top 10 sports sections in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors on Tuesday. But less than 24 hours later, the publisher announced the paper was shutting down.

I hate this business. I love newspapers. I love reading them. I love writing and I even love editing. I love journalism. And I love reporting. But the business of newspapers is soul crushing.