spelling gone to pot because
copy editors gone,
writing for a living gone,

writing for catharsis,
writing for confession,
writing in search of meaning,
vindication, revenge,
writing to prove writing is possible,
when writing has been bought out,
retired, fired–
in the retired, the bought out,
and the fired–writing to prove–
writing is not gone-
in the writers’ project–
for a flitting time–writing not gone.

But Monty–gone,
Said, “Writing should be crisp, terse,
paperless, interactive,
improvised, bite sized,
easy on the eye,
summarized,
for the attention deficit crowd,
writing should be fast, fluid,
flippant, effervescent,
old, rigid, slow, profound,
no, no, no, no–out!”
Monty said, ” Dinosaurs,
poor performers, one trick ponies,
will be–should be-
inevitably–buried,
in journalism,
there is no place for laggards or dullards!”

Monty said, “You gone, he gone,
she gone, they gone,
everybody gone gone,
except the man who’s ready to move
from sports to fashion,
the woman who can go from fashion to crime,
or from news local to news national,
the man, woman or child who can go flying
from topic to topic, jack of all– master of none,
that’s the one–not gone!”

But Monty himself gone!
You gasp, why Monty gone?
By writing gone,
by crisp, terse,
paperless, improvised,
bite sized,
vexing, texting, sexting–
says the grapevine,
Monty given the boot –gone–
says the grapevine,
Monty couldn’t curb it– gone–
says the grapevine–
Monty victim of his own success,
victim of his own sermons,
gone, gone, gone,
in teaching, in university,
where Monty went,
says the grapevine–
Monty was tripped by Cupid,
No–cupidity,
No–stupidity,
vacuous, fatuous,
fast, fluid, flippant,
flew his piquant message,
to a woman averse to fast, fluid, flippant-
says the grapevine-
Monty, the apprentice, was fired by the dean
who thundered, “You have done that woman wrong.
Be gone!”

What goes around, comes around,
Round Robin Round,
Before it is gone, gone, gone!

Usha Nellore

spelling gone to pot because
copy editors gone,
writing for a living gone,

writing for catharsis,
writing for confession,
writing in search of meaning,
vindication, revenge,
writing to prove writing is possible,
when writing has been bought out,
retired, fired–
in the retired, the bought out,
and the fired–writing to prove–
writing is not gone-
in the writers’ project–
for a flitting time–writing not gone.

But Monty–gone,
Said, “Writing should be crisp, terse,
paperless, interactive,
improvised, bite sized,
easy on the eye,
summarized,
for the attention deficit crowd,
writing should be fast, fluid,
flippant, effervescent,
old, rigid, slow, profound,
no, no, no, no–out!”
Monty said, ” Dinosaurs,
poor performers, one trick ponies,
will be–should be-
inevitably–buried,
in journalism,
there is no place for laggards or dullards!”

Monty said, “You gone, he gone,
she gone, they gone,
everybody gone gone,
except the man who’s ready to move
from sports to fashion,
the woman who can go from fashion to crime,
or from news local to news national,
the man, woman or child who can go flying
from topic to topic, jack of all– master of none,
that’s the one–not gone!”

But Monty himself gone!
You gasp, why Monty gone?
By writing gone,
by crisp, terse,
paperless, improvised,
bite sized,
vexing, texting, sexting–
says the grapevine,
Monty given the boot –gone–
says the grapevine,
Monty couldn’t curb it– gone–
says the grapevine–
Monty victim of his own success,
victim of his own sermons,
gone, gone, gone,
in teaching, in university,
where Monty went,
says the grapevine–
Monty was tripped by Cupid,
No–cupidity,
No–stupidity,
vacuous, fatuous,
fast, fluid, flippant,
flew his piquant message,
to a woman averse to fast, fluid, flippant-
says the grapevine-
Monty, the apprentice, was fired by the dean
who thundered, “You have done that woman wrong.
Be gone!”

What goes around, comes around,
Round Robin Round,
Before it is gone, gone, gone!

Usha Nellore

He rarely writes about anything other than R&B/Soul and Jazz
 

As any college newspaper editor or alt weekly reporter will tell you, 60 people (especially if they’re former pros) is enough to start a very decent regional weekly publication with daily Web updates. For example, I believe the Examiner had a newsroom of around 90 before it closed, and while it wasn’t on the level of the Sun, it put out some decent daily stories, with many bundled into multi-day packages to circumvent space limits. Sites like IV, BB and the Center for Independent Media work with even lower staff levels, so there should have been abundant new journalistic startups, especially considering how much talent was floating around after the Examiner shutdown.

Unfortunately, these 60 supposedly dedicated journalists have instead taken a year to create a thin scrapbook of bellyaches against the past, when they should have volunteered to work gratis for a couple months, recruiting some interns and forging the future of Baltimore journalism with a new publication. I consider those who sat idle to be pathetic, over-entitled and fully deserving of their lack of work (or warmed-over PR jobs, as the case may be).