Comments on: Proposal Advice?

By: John

John — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 08:19:14 +0000

Ah, coals to Newcastle and all that. I read too hurriedly last night–but found an excuse for my Youngstown anecdote!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 05:38:47 +0000

Actually, John, I was talking about the call at the very bottom of the page, for the essay collection on Considering Class. Youngstown is pretty well-known among folks doing stuff on class because of the Center for Working-Class Studies, and I know it as another rusting steel town just a short ways from Pittsburgh. A friend of mine spent what he might characterize as a somewhat dissipated adolescence in Youngstown, contending that “There’s nothing to do there, except drugs.” I haven’t been there for nearly ten years, but it was pretty grim-looking the last time I visited.

Anyway — thanks for the best wishes and advice.

By: John Lovas

John Lovas — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 03:24:21 +0000

I’m not sure that the CV is a screening device. While it could be, it could also be a source of program info. They might want to do short profiles on presenters. Give it your best shot and see what happens.

The Youngstown venue intrigues me. My last college roommate was from Youngstown, so I got there a couple times in the late 50s. The most memorable occasion was the first conference I ever attended, the Ohio Collegeiate Newspaper Association annual event, when I was a junior and News Editor of our campus paper.

The featured speaker was the head of NBC’s Washington bureau at the time. Before he spoke, the mayor of Youngstown greeted us. Now this mayor had been disbarred as a judge before being elected mayor. He told us a story about big fish and little fish and how as journalists we should go after the big fish (i.e., the crooks in Washington were more important than the crooks in Youngstown). Then the NBC guy got up and told his own anecdote about the big bear and the little bear: the point was either way you got eaten up.

The following year a classmates father was elected as the reform mayor of Youngstown. And since the Forty Niners have been owned by Youngstown folks for a long time now, the place stays in my consciousness.

Also, Richard Pryor has a hysterical bit about being stiffed my the Mafia owner of a Youngstown club and tries to insist on being paid.

Good luck on the proposal, Mike.