So long, and thanks for all the fish

Dear readers,

I joined the Chicago Tribune in 1998 with the hope of bringing some of the immediacy, personality and utility of radio news to the Web. Thanks to many talented journalists, we did just that with Daywatch, which launched in March 1999 as a continually updated Web page -- a blog before that word existed, and in many ways a precursor of today's Chicago Breaking News Center.

As the rest of chicagotribune.com itself began to take on more of those characteristics, Daywatch was reborn nine years ago this week as a daily, e-mailed news briefing.

Since then, tens of thousands of you have made Daywatch and chicagotribune.com part of your daily routine. You have told us so with your clicks, and I can't overstate how rewarding that has been.

For a journalist in the Internet age, your attention has been a priceless gift -- one I will cherish as I leave Daywatch to become news and public affairs director at the Tribune's sibling radio station, WGN Radio 720.

I leave Daywatch in the hands of my great chicagotribune.com colleagues. I will continue to read it faithfully, and I hope you will, too.

But this is not goodbye. I'll be working closely with the Tribune staff as we move to reinvent radio news for the 21st Century. Please tune in often. If you do, I think you'll hear much of what you've come to like about Daywatch.

Again, thank you all.

Charlie

P.S. In this era of iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys and other increasingly smart and entertaining devices, radio faces many of the same challenges that have rocked the rest of the media world. We know you have many options for getting information, and only two ears and 24 hours in a day. So I ask your help again: Please use this form to tell us what it would take to get you to go out of your way to tune in to an AM (or Internet) radio newscast. And what now makes you tune out from radio news?

P.P.S. Follow WGN Radio News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WGNRadioNews

P.P.P.S. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Meyerson

P.P.P.P.S. My e-mail remains the same: cmeyerson@tribune.com

Daddy and the Santa Claus dilemma

(Originally published in the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest, Dec. 22, 1992.)

By Charles Meyerson

I'd run the scenario through my mind hundreds of times. I was certain I'd be ready when the moment came.

But when the fateful question emerged, I panicked.

"Daddy, is Santa Claus real?"

I'd heard similar questions before and parried them with ease:

"Do you believe in Santa, Daddy?" he'd asked.

"Do you?" I'd replied. He'd say yes, and that had been that.

But where the Socratic method was enough to sidetrack him a few weeks ago, it didn't seem to work with a question fired point-blank.

"Is Santa Claus real?" The only retort that bubbled to the surface of my feverish brain was the totally inadequate "Are you?"

I mumbled something like "I've seen a lot of people I thought were Santa Claus." But that was a dead-end, so I excused myself and scurried downstairs to consult the family's real expert on Santa: Mommy.

"Ask him if he believes," she said.

"Too late in the conversation for that," I said.

"Tell him you've never seen Santa personally," she recommended.

"No good," I said. "That'll leave him wondering who he's been visiting all these years." Besides: his younger brother was in the room with him.

"Then lie," she said.

But I'm a terrible liar. And I wasn't ready to sign off on the end of innocence for our first-born.

So I returned to the bedroom with a book from my childhood.

"Almost a hundred years ago," I explained, "a little girl asked the same question in a letter to the editor of a New York newspaper. Brush your teeth and get into your jammies, and I'll read you her letter and one of the best answers ever written to the question you asked me."

The brushing and dressing went remarkably quickly, and soon we were all jammed into bed.

And I read the words eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun in 1897:

Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus.... Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

And I read the inspired answer from the paper's editor, Charles Dana:

"Your little friends...have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.

"The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see....

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist....

"He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

Dana may have been right. Maybe he was wrong.

But the important thing is that, by the time I was done reading his answer, the kids had forgotten the question.

So Santa makes glad the heart of childhood in this home...for at least one Christmas more.

--30--

E-mail Charlie Meyerson

Journalism, c. 1988

Dave Barry's account from 20 years ago reminds us things haven't changed all that much: "The Associated Press and United Press International ... judging from their names ... are vast, omniscient, information-gathering machines, but in fact they consist mostly of caffeine-crazed individuals sitting at computer terminals and hastily rewriting stories out of their local newspapers."

You don't need to suck up to someone who owns giant printing presses

"You don't need a broadcast license, you don't need to own a huge antenna, you don't need to have a TV studio, you don't need to suck up to someone who owns giant printing presses, you know, all you need is a computer or a library card that will get you access to a computer, and ... you have the potential to connect to an unlimited audience." -- The Power of Connections: Media Meets Mission, panel discussion at The Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management.

Frisbee pioneer dead

Listing "Frisbee" on my resume helped me get hired at WXRT (thanks, Neil!), so I mourn this passing more than many others.

Pioneer DV-C503 DVD player acting up?

Pioneer DV-C503 DVD player acting up?

Do a little Googling and you'll find that a common problem with these 5-disc changers is that they simultaneously develop two problems:

1. When one opens the drawer to add or remove a disc, the drawer opens and closes automatically before a disc can be moved.
2. The machine won't read any discs. It shows "Play" onscreen, and then shows "Stop," with no indication it recognizes a disc.

A thumbs-down to Pioneer's Web site, which seems to offer no tech support or easy way to contact tech support.

For those who may have the same problem -- and who see nothing to lose by fiddling with the innards of an out-of-warranty machine (I bought mine in March 2001) -- here's what seems to fix the problem.

As always, be careful working around exposed electrical parts.

1. Unplug the unit.
2. Unscrew the lid (four black screws on right and left side, three silver screws at the top pack. (It hinges up from the machine's back, and then up and out from the front.
3. Plug the machine in.
4. Insert a disc -- preferably one you're willing to lose should this experiment go south -- either the usual way or by dropping it in from the "inside" of the machine.
5. Press PLAY and then wait for the disc you've inserted to move into place.
6. Manually give the disc a spin -- or several -- to get it going.
7. If the machine reads it as usual (front-panel display shows disc index numbers, etc.), you're in good shape. Stop the player and remove the disc and again unplug the machine.
8. Get some compressed air in a can and give the spindle mechanism (both the top disc and the inner motor drive) a several good blasts of air to remove any dust or other stuff that was probably keeping the thing from spinning up.
9. Plug the machine in and see if things work as they should.
10. If they do, unplug the machine and reassemble it.
11. Enjoy.

'The worst president of the 21st Century'

Mad's mad about Bush

Mad magazine has ridiculed every president since Eisenhower. But it's taking presidential irreverence to a new level with what it bills as a chance to "savor the final days of a stirring presidency."

Squirrel joke

A few years ago, at the dinner table, I asked which family member had left the garage light on.

One of my three sons, all of whom have been well trained to question authority -- and me, too (ba-dum!) -- accused me of making an unwarranted assumption: "Maybe it was a squirrel."

"No," I said. "Squirrels don't glow like that."

Testing again

Sent via MMS.

Midlife crisis?

Rode bike to hardware store this afternoon -- without helmet!