Fond Farewell, Warm Welcome:

It's a sort of chicken and egg question--does a stable core of experienced workers make a good workplace, or does a good workplace encourage workers to stick around. Either way, NCPR will not be the same without Kathleen Fitzgerald, longtime membership director and NCPR staffer for more than 22 years. Kathleen is returning to school to prepare for a new career in nursing.

Speaking of eggs--welcome to our newest listener--Scott Ronald Pike Ahlfeld, born on Father's Day to our operations manager Shelly Pike and her husband Bob Ahlfeld. Mom, Dad and baby are all doing very well. Strong work, Shelly!

If Grass Could Run:

Why did they put Fathers Day next to the longest day of the year? Is it the yard work thing? My father (more than ten years gone now) was a terror in that department, haunting yard sales to secure the most decrepit mechanized gear imaginable, which he would bubble-gum and baling twine into fitful operability. One of these hybrid devices, employed as a favor on a neighbor's yard, gave it such a mowing as resembled the haircut given WWII collaborators. Who knew a lawn could bleed? After that, the neighbor volunteered to cut ours. I now hire a guy to mow our yard--but watching him out the window, up in the catbird seat, cheerfully destroying everything in his path, I remember Dad.

How to make a Zen Garden

Web guys aren't noted for their hectic social lives, but this invitation included a Zen garden party--which piqued my interest. So I dug out some fern and moss and vinca from various shady parts of the yard as my contribution to the "potluck." After the ceremonial, meditative and gustatory portions of the event were concluded, everyone else fled, leaving the host and me to manage the garden part. The site, it turned out, had lately been half of a garage, sawed down the middle and demolished, leaving the standing half for a kiln shelter. Somewhere, Tom Sawyer was smiling...

First, smash the pavement;
then dig out the cinder blocks.
Water well with sweat.

It's Your Dime:

While media people in general (myself included) tend to talk too much about the media, it's not all narcissism. There are ongoing debates about the nature, duties, fairness and relevance of broadcast journalism that are worth a look, and maybe a second look. As public interest journalists, it behooves NPR and other public broadcast news operations to be extra careful in this regard. In a recent study by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), NPR takes heat for elitism, conservative leanings and underrepresentation of women. A recent PEW report takes both commercial and public broadcast news to task for liberal bias. We have gathered together both reports and some commentary on them on a new comment page How Public is Public Radio? Please visit and add your voice to the debate.