Reporters as fans

Marisa Ingemi went to BU and she just got fired for being bad at her job

 

Larry Summers got fired from his job as PRESIDENT of Harvard because he was bad at that job. Doesn't have anything to do with the two schools.

 

Isn't that some sh .... ah, I can't finish it. Can't flush the thought, either.

 

Sure you do. Not questioning that (and, yes, that last post was a joke. Anyone who looks down on people in trades is proof that some village is missing its idiot).

But try telling that to two people who I worked with in my last newsroom, both of whom have five figures in student debt. Didn't exactly go to what are considered elite schools. Yet, both were toiling at $12-an-hour gigs where that four-year degree was supposedly necessary to have the skills for the opportunity at the $12-per-hour gig. Where both had been for two years without raises because the company has them in the "they're lucky to still have a job" BS mindset instead of actually rewarding them for doing solid work.

Small wonder both of them had second jobs. That's just a little messed up.

 

I have a nephew who owns his own plumbing company. He had no desire to go to college when he finished high school, so he went to a vocational school to learn the trade. He worked for another company for a couple of years, then went out on his own. He started as a one-man operation, now he has 5 crews and he mainly supervises. His company does no advertising, they only do plumbing for construction companies building new houses. He is rolling in work and rolling in dough. And he'll barely charge family for work that needs done. He installed a dishwasher for us recently and didn't want to charge us for anything other than the cost of the dishwasher. He has a 1-year-old daughter, so I wrote the check for extra and told him to buy things for the little one.

 

Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. are going to be making so much money in the future because none of us have any idea on how to fix anything. They live a much better life than journalists, too, I'd imagine.

 

Well then, it must be a joke of a school. One person losing a job is an accurate reflection of the merits of a school.

 

Simmons and Portnoy are entertainers and not journalists. That's not a bad thing.

You run a fan-boi podcast, blog, app or any social media stuff, have at it. Packers beat writer retweets Ohio State stuff? No problem. Retweets Arizona Cardinals stuff? Problem. Ohio State beat writer roots for the Suns or the Chargers? No biggie. Roots for UCLA? Keep that private.

And if you cover high schools, know the fucking colors of the teams playing because you don't want to be wearing any of those colors during the game. because half of the place will hate you.

 

Many if not most contractors end up crippled or worse. They don't all sit around managing crews. It's not the years, it's the mileage.

 

Such people are good with their hands, good at building things. Of course they're necessary in the world.

But let's not kid ourselves, either. There is a current backlash in society against the accumulation of book-learnin' and intellectual knowledge. (And it's mainly coming from one side of the aisle, while we're at it.)

And of course, the size of one's weekly paycheck is not the overriding definition of one's worth.