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Book Release This Friday

XcommLaunch.jpg

Please join us to celebrate the release of

Jim Heffernan’s Cooler Near the Lake and Tony Dierckins’ Crossing the Canal

Friday, November 14, 2008

Somers Hall, College of St. Scholastica

6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Author Introductions & Brief Readings: 7 p.m.

(Jim will read a few pieces from his book and Tony will give a brief presentation--"The Duluth Ship Canal Dig: Truth vs. the Myths")

Book Signings to Follow Readings

Refreshments Served

Open to the public – everyone is welcome!

More about both books at www.x-communication.org

Thanks for putting up with this shameless self promotion.

Members of Tangier 57: Your color palette for the evening is silver, "essex green" (the lift bridge's original color, a deep green), and olive green (the color of the transfer bridge). If this clashes with Baci's eye color, consider maroon and gold, as Jim is a proud Denfled grad.

Comments

Congrats to both on their releases.
I miss Jim in the DNT!


I also miss Jim's weekly writings.


Purple, am I going to see you there then? Twice in one week, we are indeed women of distinction!


Frankly, I was glad to see that guy gone..gettin' rid of hef really brought the DNT into the 20th century.


I didn’t read Heffernan’s columns very often, but I believe his columns were well liked by some of our older folks in the community. Wasn’t Heffernan on the DNT editorial board for a while? That is where he is missed. The DNT editorial board is really out of touch now—evidenced by their list of who they would like to see replace Reinert.


I thought his columns were overwhelmingly archaic and not even a little bit funny. They just seemed really out of touch, the whole "ethnic editor" thing came off as a bit patronizing and even racist since it was so clear that he was oriented entirely toward the northern European ethnicities and no one else. Still, I did read a lot of them, so there was something. One of his best lines was actually when he said he was stepping down, but made it clear that some corporate hack had their knee in his back so he was just gonna walk away with his integrity intact. I just didn't "get" that sense of humor. I think he must've done a good job on the DNT editorial board 'cause look how they're doing now. But he wrote and editorial that had something to do with me and it gleaned some mis-information from a DNT story and he never bothered to contact me about it and get the straight story and that really stuck a nut in my craw. I wonder how many other editorials he wrote without getting the story straight first? On a positive note, i have met his wife and she is awesome and also I had a fairly substantial crush on one of his daughters in high school, but she was far out of my league and I never even bothered to talk to her ... or make eye contact for that matter.


Oh I forgot, congratulations on finishing your book Tony, I hope it does well. And I hope Hef's does, too. Who knows, now that I've gone all negative on him maybe I should buy it and read through them to see if I still feel that same way. Maybe I was being to harsh. Probably. I'm like that sometimes.


Thanks, JP. I'm sure Jim wouldn't take too much offense to your comments. All humor is subjective (I know: with the Duct Tape books I essentially wrote the same joke several thousand times, to the point where I no longer found any humor in it), and keep in mind Jim wrote between 1 and 3 columns a week for 34 years--and he knows you can't bat .1000 all the time. (Please note, former Ripsaw columnists, that not one of those columns started with "I'm drunk and it's past deadline and my editor is screaming for my column, so I'm just going to spit out some schlock...") Your problem with his humor may well be generational, as Jim's work skews to an older audience. Columnists are not acting as reporters when they write in the first person, as Jim' always did in his columns--it was the job of the reporter who wrote the initial story' involving you to get the facts straight in the first place. Jim's colums was reactive, as most editorials are. As for the "Ethnic Editor, Jim explains all about it in the book; he is Scandinavian himself!

On another note, it's hard to blame those in the DNT newsroom or even editorial board for the current state of the paper: most of what's going on over there is driven by the powers that be at Forum Communications, likely including the cuts they made to staffing (gee, the ultra-conservatives at Forum Comm let go of Jim and Ann, arguable two of the more vocal liberal voices...hmm). I don't agree with much of the change, but I'm willing to be patient with the DNT as they and ALL newspapers struggle to survive in the age of Craigslist and other online sites that have sucked away their classified ads revenues, etc. So, I could complain when the DNT told me they simply don't have enough staff to do a story on the first book on Duluth's aerial bridge ever published (!), but instead I am trying to feel grateful that their limited staff was able to do a story on Jim's book. I can only imagine what Forum's policy's have done to the moral of that newsroom. If you think you're unhappy with the paper, imagine those young, idealistic journalists who are getting a taste of the reality of working for a big business with absent, frightened conservatives at the helm: "freedom of the press belongs to those who own one." And never forget that the first mission of any newspaper is to make money for its investors.


Heffernan continues his writings in the Duluth Superior Magazine. So subscribe!


You are correct, Scribbler! Jim also has his own blog updated weekly if you can't hold out for a monthly column: http://www.jimheffernan.org


That was a lot of fun last night! Thanks Tony! And what a crowd, looks like you sold a lot of books, I saw people buying up multiple copies. But, next time, um, could you not put out wine in a box? It offends my wine snob sensibilities.


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