Monday, August 20, 2007

You should have just mailed it in, Katie

Did you hear the music that was playing when you opened your newspaper this morning, boys and girls?

Yeah, Spotty, what was that about? It was Wagner, wasn't it?

Yes grasshopper, It's the Entrance of the gods into Valhalla from, Spot thinks, Das Rheingold.

Tell us what it means!

It means of course that Katherine Kersten is back in town. She asked Tice to include the music chip in the paper. Katie's been gone, really, since the bridge collapse, and this was her first chance to "weigh in" on it as she says in Bridge collapse ought to unite us, not divide us. Here's the lede:

The Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi collapsed just before I left the country for 10 days. I hated leaving in the midst of one of our state's greatest disasters. Journalism, after all, is about instantly weighing in on important matters.

One can imagine Katie's angst at having to leave in the midst of it all:

Katie: Oh Mr. Tice! I'm sorry, but I have to go on vacation! Our tickets to Frankfurt are not refundable. I also have tickets for the birthplace of Pope Benedict and his attached Hitler Jugend memorabilia collection in Bavaria. Then there's our week's reservation at the cute little bed and breakfast in Berchtesgaden. I really have to go.

Tice: [thinking to himself: what's she really going to contribute, anyway?] All right, Katie, but you owe me.

Katie: Oh thank you Mr. Tice. You won't regret it!

Tice: [muttering] You're right; I'm sure I won't regret it.

The column that Katie produced for today was probably penned on the plane ride home. She certainly didn't have to be in Minneapolis, or anywhere else on planet earth, to write it. It's the work of a propagandist, not a journalist.

More than that, Spot will not say. He does commend to you the Wege's pithy remarks about Katie's column at Norwegianity.

[update] New kid on the block Suddenly South also observes the tag-team effort of Mitch Pearlstein and Katie on the same subject on consecutive days. Both spawn of the Center of the American Experiment. [/update]

No comments: