OUR BLOGGERS ARE SAYING…

How bad is the economy?

From publisher Sherman Frederick:

This little Internet ditty crossed my computer this weekend. Not sure where it originated, but there's a lot of truth to it, I'm afraid.

"The economy is so bad that ...

"-- CEOs are now playing miniature golf.

"-- Even people who had nothing to do with the Obama administration aren't paying their taxes.

"-- If the bank returns your check marked 'insufficient funds,' you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

"-- Obama met with small businesses to discuss the Stimulus Package: GE, Pfizer and Citigroup.

"-- McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

"-- Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

"-- A truck of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

"-- The most highly paid job now is jury duty.

"-- Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

"-- People in Africa are donating money to Americans.

"-- Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.

"-- The Mafia is laying off judges.

"-- Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 congressmen."

And finally ...

"-- Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Hey, neat! The guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $750 billion disappear!"

For more, visit www.lvrj.com/blogs/sherm

Cronkite thought he was finished as a journalist

From editor Thomas Mitchell:

It is reassuring to each generation that many of the giants we admire and respect had humble beginnings. That means there is still a chance, a reason to aspire, to work hard and achieve.

Walter Cronkite was such a giant.

But there was a time that even he had his doubts about whether he was destined for a career in the field of journalism. He told this anecdote in 2002 at the Washington convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Cronkite began his storied career in newspaper journalism in Texas, first in Austin and then his hometown of Houston, where he was a cub reporter at the Houston Press. This was in the 1930s. ...

But this was also the age of the autocratic editor whose bark was his bite. Cronkite's was Roy Roussel.

"He called me up, and he was livid with rage," the great newsman recalled the scene from his youth. "He said, 'You had a mistake in the clearinghouse numbers yesterday.' Now, the Houston clearinghouse number was how much money cleared through the Houston banks that day. We printed it in the last edition of the paper. It was a one-line item with a one-line head, Clearinghouse. The line was, 'The Houston clearinghouse returns today were ...' In this particular case, I think I wrote $5,732,342.67. He said, 'You had an error on the clearinghouse number. That number was 64 cents, not 67 cents. My God, man, don't you understand what you're doing here?!' It was such a bawling out that I went back to my desk pretty convinced that was my last day at the Press and that I'd apparently blown the entire economy of Houston."

He could not for the life of him understand why he was so upbraided over a 3-cent error.

It is hard to conceive of Cronkite as ever having been naïve, but it took awhile for someone to get around to explaining to him the gravity of his inaccuracy and the cloud it cast over the reputation of his newspaper.

"As near as I could tell I was through at the Press, and I didn't know what I'd really done," he recalled. But later at the Prohibition-era drinking hole: "I asked the first reporter I sat next to, 'What was this all about, this three cent error I made?' And he looked at me with that look of a senior looking at a freshman with this obvious naiveté I had shown. He said, 'Well, kid, you know why we print the banking clearinghouse numbers, don't you, each day?' I said, 'Well, no. I kind of wondered that.' And he said, 'It's the number on which the local lottery pays off.' "

For more, visit www.lvrj.com/blogs/mitch

NFL challenges sports betting spread

From columnist John L. Smith:

In Nevada, we take legalized sports betting for granted. A sports book is as much a part of the casino experience as a poker room or bingo parlor.

Elsewhere, however, sports betting is the past pariah gambling activity in the nation, only slightly more upscale than taking action on cockfighting.

Delaware and New Jersey are trying to change that and add to those states' recession-depleted coffers. Each state faces different hurdles.

Delaware is at a greater legal advantage because it has a partial exemption from the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. In fact, Delaware lottery officials plan to begin taking legal game bets in time for the upcoming NFL season.

That is, if the NFL and other sports leagues aren't successful in blocking the move.

Meanwhile, New Jersey officials have filed a lawsuit challenging the Protection Act's prohibitions. Hey, they reason, if it's good enough for Delaware it ought to be good enough for Jersey.

Las Vegas long ago should have made better use of its uniqueness as a sports betting center. But it might be too late for that now.

For more, visit www.lvrj.com/blogs/smith