How to Read a Newspaper

[tanabutler]

Good morning, Russ!

Someone this weekend (farm dinner, upstate NY) told me you were originally a sports writer. Is this true?

Reading your book, I got wondering about the young Russ Parsons. Did you have a chemistry set? Were you a geek* as a little lad? How can you trace your present occupation (and perhaps pre-occupation, and a lovely one it is) back through your life to your childhood, vis à vis your interests and hobbies and favorite learning experiences?

Thanks so much. I love the detail in your writing, and how you chase down the unusual and uncommon.

Tana

*Not the chicken-head-munching-circus-geek...but, now that I think of it, some permutation of that...I usually call myself a geek in the computer sense. Oh heck, you know what I mean.

[russ parsons]

Hi Tana,

Actually, I was probably closer to a chicken-head-biting geek than a science geek growing up. But my dad was a scientist, and I think subconsciously that implanted me with a curiosity about how things work. But though "French Fry" is a kind of science writing, I do a lot of other things as well.

Probably the greatest thing about journalism--and food journalism specifically--is that it affords someone like me, born with an intense curiosity but the attention span of a hummingbird, the opportunity to stay busy and involved. It's like a college division of continuing education, except you get paid for it.

So I do some science stuff, I do a lot of agriculture stuff (some of which involves science), I do a lot of technique (some of which involves science), some history (none of which involves science, really) ... and I never get bored. When I get tired of one thing, I move on to another. I'm a real interdisciplinary guy.

I did start out as a sportswriter and I did that for 10 years. I learned a lot. I learned how to work really hard. I learned how to have fun writing. I learned how to write on deadline (if you've ever had 10 minutes to phone in 800 words from a pay phone in a 7-11 parking lot in Plainview Texas, when the temperature is 24 degrees and the wind is blowing 40 miles an hour and the big question is not only whether you're going to make deadline, but whether you're going to freeze to death first ... well, I've never ever had writer's block).

I was also a music writer for a number of years. I think what I learned from that was more personal than professional ... how important good work is in your life and how to pursue that despite what may seem to be insurrmountable obstacles (here are a few musicians who have slept on my couch back when they were to poor to get a hotel: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Walter Hiatt and countless sidemen, including Natalie Maines' dad).

I've also covered news ...cops and courts. Mainly that taught me how lucky I was to be able to do other things.

[hollywood]

Wow! The Flatlanders! Not all at once, I suppose.

[russ parsons]

Well, actually ... not all sleeping but all playing. Jimmie Gilmore is one of my oldest and best friends, my daughter's godfather. In those days, Joe was the only one with a record deal. Jimmie was living with his mom and dad still. I was about the only one with even marginally regular employment and certainly the only one who owned his own house. So it became a kind of Motel Zero for folks who were passing through (to get that joke, I now realize, you have to remember that Motel Six was originally named because the rooms were all $6 ... some days I just feel so damned old). Those were some really terrific times, even though I was working at a really awful, soul-devouring job and living in a place where the highest spot was a freeway overpass. As WC Fields once said: "Ah the good old days, may htey never come again."

[tanabutler]

Hey, that's cool about the musicians. I did the same thing, though in a small scale, for what we 'round here call "the KPIG people." Jimmie Dale Gilmore is pretty big around here (Santa Cruz), along with Robert Earl Keen and a whole bunch of others like that. I interviewed Southern Culture on the Skids, Junior Brown, and (dream come true) Rosanne Cash.

Sounds like your time in Texas brought a lot of unforeseen blessings, which is good if you have to endure Texas (I did myself, once upon a time). I'm delighted to hear about the other things that fill out your life.

So tell me, do you drawl at all?

[russ parsons]

I interviewed Southern Culture on the Skids, Junior Brown, and (dream come true) Rosanne Cash.

Sounds like your time in Texas brought a lot of unforeseen blessings, which is good if you have to endure Texas (I did myself, once upon a time). I'm delighted to hear about the other things that fill out your life.

So tell  me, do you drawl at all?

"You tell me you're trying to cure the seven-year-ache, see how much your old heart can take."

I only drawl when I drank.

[Mayhaw Man]

I was also a music writer for a number of years. I think what I learned from that was more personal than professional ... how important good work is in your life and how to pursue that despite what may seem to be insurrmountable obstacles (here are a few musicians who have slept on my couch back when they were to poor to get a hotel: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Walter Hiatt and countless sidemen, including Natalie Maines' dad).

I think it would be more accurate to describe Lloyd Maines as Natalie's dad. After all, he got her the gig . No Llloyd...no current model of the Dixie Chicks.

Do you have any hints on a good way to get a kid to start reading the paper? I have a thirteen year old boy who is big on the news and sports, but gets all of his info from computer, tv, etc. There are plenty of papers around the house (New York Times, Times Picayune, etc.) but he still goes for the new fangled services.

Do you think that that is just the way kids are going to be getting their news in the future? I mean, I write for the Picayune weekly along with the occasional feature and have pretty strong opinions about the worth of papers in society, but the young people I am around don't seem to feel the same way. Any thoughts?

[russ parsons]

I'm not sure I agree. Natalie was always a performer (saying this based on my experience with her, which ended when she was, oh, 12). I don't know htat anyone has really told that story yet. But she's the third generation of a very devout country music family (kind of like Rosanne Cash!). Lloyd and his brothers had their own band (in addition to his work with Joe Ely), and their daddy and his brothers had their own band, too!

I'm not sure what to tell you about getting kids to read the paper. My daughter never did. She's starting to now. She's in college in a (very political) small town with a pretty poor paper and when she comes home she devours the Times: "I can't believe you guys cover all this stuff."

I think all the newspaper fuss about getting young people to read the paper is well-intentioned but may ultimately be self-destructive. In a lot of ways the things they don't like about the paper are the most important things we do (serious, measured journalism isn't pretty). And when newspapers try to adapt, they almost inevitably end up looking like grandmas trying to do hiphop. I think the newspaper habit may be something people have to grow into.

[msp]

My children were required to read the newspaper (NYT) every day in grammar school, and were tested on "current events" once a week. Through sixth grade, they were able to converse about a broad range of topics (as long as there was no real depth to the conversation).

When they moved on to middle school and were no longer required to read the paper, they both stopped. And didn't replace it with any other source for getting the news. As proud as I was of my little fourth graders, I think the school did a disservice by starting them before they were really interested.

I'm hoping they'll rediscover the world beyond their friends and their teenage interests by the time they go to college. In the meantime, I will blame both their grammar school and the hormones that surge through most kids from 13-18 that enable them to make adamant, sweeping statements about how dumb and wrong most polititians are without having to read the newspaper.

Russ, you give me hope.

[tanabutler]

She's in college in a (very political) small town with a pretty poor paper and when she comes home she devours the Times: "I can't believe you guys cover all this stuff."

Here is how to get a kid to read the newspaper.

Arcata Eye Police Report

That guy should get a Pulitzer.

[russ parsons]

Ha! that's the exact town she lives in.