“He’d worked for and alongside all kinds during his nomadic career: with dogged, hard-nosed reporters whose writing skills were barely serviceable; with elegant scribes but lazy, unreliable news gatherers; and, with quite ordinary tradesmen like himself who, despite modest skills, made themselves employable with a tireless work ethic and steely perseverance. . .Some reporters were content practising stenography, the he said/she said of reportage. Others wanted to change the world, almost all of whom exited the profession on realizing they never would. Anyone with a bland face, good teeth, and nice hair gravitated to higher-income TV, or at least auditioned. Few in print possessed the total package, and many who did find their way to alternate careers. Also numerous in the news business are ambitious but feckless hacks inept at all of the above. “Many of them,” he’s been heard ranting at the bar, sometimes to himself, comfortably transition into the “spineless ball-washers and panty-sniffers” populous in today’s media management.”

From “A Change of Skin”

(To purchase, $20 plus postage, see Contacts)