Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A - Pike County Journal Reporter - Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Opinions
Geiger’s Counter: Near perfect football weekend
his past weekend
was near perfect
in my football
perspective. For the
record, 1 don’t watch the
NFL and am not aware of
even a single NFL score
though 1 did hear Matt
Stafford outplayed the
ageless Tom Brady and
that is a good thing.
My weekend began
with a trip to Henderson
Stadium in Macon Friday
night where the Lamar
County Trojans blew out
the Southwest Patriots
62-0 at their homecom
ing. It was LC’s highest
point total since 2011
and a joy to watch.
Lamar’s CJ Allen hit
the Patriots’ showboat
ing quarterback so hard,
he was knocked out of
the game and five min
utes late to the home
coming festivities from
which he staggered off
with a king’s crown on
his head never to be seen
again.
Saturday’s menu was
an early soccer victory
and then a day of football
on TV.
The Dawgs silenced
a lot of doubters with a
37-0 rout of the
#8 Arkansas
Razorbacks.
Coach Kirby
Smart had
challenged the
student body
to be there
for the noon
kickoff and
be loud and
they showed
up in force,
deafening the
Razorbacks on
their first two
possessions.
Several veteran fans
have commented that it
was the loud
est they had
ever heard the
crowd noise
in Sanford
Stadium.
The pun
dits who were
doubters are
now saying
this may be
the best Bull
dog defense
since 1980 and
that is saying
a lot. Over five
games, UGA
has outscored opponents
205-23 and that has taken
place with the offense
seriously shorthanded
by injuries.
The rest of the af
ternoon and evening
were left to channel surf
watching other contests.
Sweet victories included
Cincinnati topping Notre
Dame 24-13. Mea culpa,
my Catholic friends.
Kentucky took down
the Florida Gators 20-13,
quieting all the talk about
Dan Mullen being the
‘quarterback whisperer’
and greatest coach in the
long history of coaching
across all sports.
And finally, Pittsburgh
knocked the bloom off
the Georgia Tech rose
with a 52-21 rout at
historic Grant Field. To
quote the late, great
Lewis Grizzard, “We don’t
root for Georgia Tech
with two engines out on
the team plane”.
Here’s hoping next
week brings more of the
same.
Walter Geiger is the editor and
publisher of the Pike County Journal
Reporter and The Herald Gazette in
Barnesville.
v SO* i
GEIGER’S
COUNTER
Walter Geiger
Editor & Publisher
Words: some vanish,
replaced with new
KAY S. PEDR0TTI
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
Only someone who
has spent a lifetime
writing can understand
all the meanings of this
quote in Oscar Wilde’s
The Picture of Dorian
Gray: “Words! Mere
words! How terrible they
were! How clear,
and vivid, and
cruel! One could
not escape from
them. They
seemed to be
able to give a
plastic form to
formless things,
and to have a
music of their
own as sweet
as viol or of
lute. Mere words! Was
there anything so real as
words?”
Choose the wrong
word, and your narra
tive fails to accomplish
its purpose. There is a
special agony in diction
(choice of words), as
well as syntax (how the
words are arranged).
Authors who ignore the
nuances are doomed to
have disappointed read
ers. Qualifying that, the
readers may not have
enough understanding
themselves to know the
writer chose a word not
apropos to its common
usage, or used one word
when another word was
meant. English is so full
of nuanced words that
“almost” mean the same
thing, but not quite!
In the newspaper
business, it’s even
tougher. You have to
say your piece in as few
words as possible, and
make every one count.
Because small papers
need all they can print as
news or enlightenment,
folks like me have to
learn to develop a style
that is everything the
reader needs to know
but given in acceptable
lengths.
1 play with words at
home; 1 have a gigantic
old Webster’s dictionary
sitting in my living room.
Yes, 1 look up words on
the internet, but only the
old “unabridged” remem
bers the older words one
may encounter when
reading the classics. 1
constantly marvel that
so many words bor
rowed from other lan
guages are now
in common
English usage.
If one stops
to think about
it, our spoken
language is
probably the
most change
able and fluid
of all - which
is a mixed
blessing. Those
new to English do have a
hard time learning it.
Sometimes older
words, now no longer
in general use, can
be more specifically
expressive than some
of our newly invented
techno-language words.
My dad once used the
word “scantling” in one
of his columns - one of
its meanings is a board
that’s not quite a plank -
as in “take a scantling to
him for that behavior.”
No one in the newsroom
knew the meaning, so
somebody looked it up
and changed it to “stick”
instead of scantling. The
offender almost felt the
threat of a scantling from
my outraged father!
If 1 had my way, 1
would use at least one
word in every column
that somebody would
have to “look up.” But
1 can’t engineer that chal
lenge myself sometimes
-1 don’t have my Pop’s
million-word vocabulary.
Wish 1 did - words can
be really fun!
Kay S. Pedrotti has spent some
50 years writing for newspapers.
She is active in the Lamar County
community and currently serves as
the president of Lamar Arts. She
lives in Milner with her husband
Bob Pedrotti.
Relevance Project - connecting with community
Community
Forum
NATIONAL
NEWSPAPER WEEK
OCTOBER 3-9, 2021
MICHELLE K. REA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
New York Press Association/ New
York Press Service
When it comes to
saving local newspapers,
the solutions won’t be
found in web metrics,
ad rates or shrinking
news holes. The solution,
seemingly simple yet ter
rifying complicated, is for
newspapers to reconnect
with the people they’re
supposed to be serving.
That’s the purpose of
The Relevance Project, a
national effort intended
to make local journalism
so relevant to people’s
lives that papers will once
again become an essential
purchase. The Newspaper
Association Managers, a
coalition of trade associa
tions serving daily and
weekly newspapers and
new websites in North
America, is coordinating
the project, which was
launched during National
Newspaper Week last
year.
The focus on lo
cal newspapers was
prompted in part by
frustration that indus
try leaders were too
focused on the major
players - the papers run
by corporations and big
chains. That approach
overlooks the more than
8,600 local newspapers
covering the parades, the
school board meetings
and the soccer games of
small-town America and
Canada.
The problems those
papers face mirror those
of the bigger players: De
clining revenues and ris
ing costs that sometimes
force closings. But for
independent local papers
with shoestring budgets,
the financial burdens fall
proportionately harder:
Cutting a position from a
four-person newsroom,
for example, is a lot more
difficult than cutting one
from a newsroom of 40.
Newspaper associa
tion managers across the
United States and Canada
think the public is paying
so much attention to
media companies such
as The New York Times,
The Washington Post and
Sinclair [Broadcasting]
that they’re forgetting
that there are vital, com
mitted newspapers in
their local communities.
As a result, small papers
with few resources have
been left to fend for
themselves as the ground
shifts under them.
The Relevance Project
grew out of that frustra
tion, with the Newspaper
Association Managers
collectively retaining
rebranding expert Andy
Cunningham of the Cun
ningham Collective to
help diagnose problems
and develop solutions.
Working with papers
from around the country,
Cunningham’s research
took stock of all the
industry’s warts, from
public mistrust to falling
page counts, rising sub
scription costs and poor
ly functioning websites.
From the newspaper
association managers’
perspective, the results
were a much-needed slap
in the face - newspapers
weren’t doing the right
things by their readers.
The Relevance Project
is working to reassert
newspapers’ relevance
to their communities by
building on the credibil
ity they already have. It
aims to remind people
that newspapers serve
as a trusted community
forum and as a resource.
A newspaper’s strength
and future rely on its
local community; fortify
ing that relationship will
fortify the paper.
To do that, the project
is coordinating efforts
and supplying resources
for newspapers across
the continent working to
find new ways of building
reader trust and commu
nity engagement.
The key to the proj
ect’s success will be its
focus on concrete tools
that even papers with
limited resources can
adopt.
The project’s super
power is the thousands
of local newspapers who
may choose to par
ticipate. With potentially
8,600 local daily and
weekly newspapers par
ticipating, there’s a huge
opportunity to reinvent
the community forum, to
re-engage communities
to collectively address
issues, and to make a
substantial impact both
for the readers and the
newspapers.
Pike County Journal Reporter's letter printing guidelines
The Pike County Jour
nal Reporter welcomes
letters to the editor.
For a letter to be con
sidered for publication,
include the writer’s ac
tual name, address and
telephone number when
submitting it. We publish
name only. Letters from
individual authors will
be published no more
often than every other
week.
Limit letters to 250
words or less. Shorter
letters are appreciated.
All letters are subject to
editing.
Personal attacks on
private citizens, political
endorsements or letters
that are racially divisive
will not be considered.
Drop letters by the
office on the court
house square, mail
them to P.O. Box 789,
Zebulon, 30295, fax
them to 770.567.8814
or email them to
news@pikecounty-
georgia.com.
For additional
information, call
770.567.3446.
Pike County
Journal
Reporter
www.pikecountygeorgia.com
P.O. Box 789
16026 Barnesville St.
Zebulon, Ga. 30295
770.567.3446
The Pike County Journal
Reporter is the official
organ of Pike County, the
cities of Zebulon, Moiena,
Meansville, Williamson
and Concord. It is
published weekly by
Hometown Newspapers
Inc. Second class
postage is paid at the
Zebulon, Ga Post Office.
Publishers; Walter and
Laura Geiger; staff:
Jennifer Taylor,
Brenda Sanchez and
Rachel McDaniel.
© www.davegranlund.com
AT PIKE
BY DWAIN W. PENN
100 YEARS AGO
October 7, 1921: Two news items: Ginned cot
ton in Pike County prior to September 25: 3,601
bales, an increase of 1,665 bales over 1920. Mr. and
Mrs. W.J. Mangham of Lifsey Springs welcomed a
new boy this week, William Decatur.
75 YEARS AGO
October 10, 1946: Annie Willis of Concord won
a prize in the statewide spelling contest in Atlanta.
In a field of 60 students, Willis was eliminated in
the second round to rank between 18th and 27th
best speller in the state.
50 YEARS AGO
October 8, 1971: Fincher United Methodist
Church announced Laymen’s Day for Sunday Oct.
12 with former member Lamar Clark from Alabama
preaching Sunday morning. Williamson UMC mem
ber Bryan Whitehurst preached Sunday evening.
25 YEARS AGO
October 9, 1996: A front page photo showed
gardener Delton Rea of Williamson climbing a
ladder to pick fruit from 14 foot tall tomato plants.
Delton and his wife, Charlotte, harvested 235
tomatoes since July.