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gary smith does it again

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by shockey, Apr 4, 2007.

  1. Thank you, Boots. Count me among the many who had no idea Gary Smith began his career as a preps writer. As a preps writer who often wonders if and when I can move up in this business, it's inspiring to find out that a legend in our field has worked his way up from the same bottom run I am currently at.

    Ragu, et all: lighten up.
     
  2. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    chances are many folks you look up to began covering preps. especially if they began in major markets. keep on trucking, people. even the almighty lupica began at some boston underground rag. may even have been a weekly.
     
  3. boots

    boots New Member

    Shock, it's nice to see that you understand where I was coming from. Right now, I want someone to define what the hell is big timing. PLEASE!
     
  4. Wait a second. I'm old enough to remember Gary Smith covering the Eagles for the Philadelphia Daily News for at least two or three years in the late 1970's -- after the now-legendary (at least to Boots) Gene Banks caper. Then, as Shockey mentioned, Smith was hired at the NYDN, went to Inside Sports, and the rest is history. So I think he had "space and opportunity" in Philadelphia before he went to New York. In fact, I'd be willing to argue that the Philadelphia newspaper portion of Smith's career was more memorable than the New York newspaper portion.

    Whether or not Smith worked hard from his days as a high school reporter isn't really the point, anyway. I don't think Gary Smith getting beaten by Julius Thompson on a story in 1976 has anything to do with his latest SI piece, which I'm sure I'll enjoy reading. I think all of us know someone who worked hard to get to the top. I've noticed Boots does this all the time -- take a thread in a different direction by dropping in anything he knows about a person and/or place, then making some kind of banal summary statement, like, Smith is an example of how far you can get if you work hard. He's not big-timing; he's name-dropping.

    Which is my way of saying to KidPresentable: Good luck, and I hope you get where you want to go. But if you think you're getting there because you started by doing the same thing as Gary Smith did, you've got a few things to learn. It was clear that Smith was enormously talented when he was covering the Eagles, and he was only in his mid-20's then.
     
  5. The "Boston underground rag" you reference is The Boston Phoenix, which, the last I heard, was making somewhere around $10 million a year. More than a few people you've heard of started there. Just sayin'.
     
  6. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Sirs, Madames,

    At twenty-five or thirty years out, I don't really care much where Gary Smith started. I don't care if he was editor of his student newspaper. Or an alter boy or Eagle Scout. Doesn't matter. Gary Smith is just Gary Smith.

    The thread was billed to be about a great story and a great idea--it is great on both counts--and all we get is a pissing match.

    I'm writing this thinking that I've come a long way since I wrote a story for Canadian Hairdresser.

    YHS, etc
     
  7. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    precisely. boots is a master. i still hear from baseball players i wrote about for my h.s. paper 33 years ago. they e-mail and say, "hey, are you the same shockey who wrote about me for the hodgepodge h.s. paper in '74? wow, glad to see you made it."
     
  8. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    That was you? I loved your postmodern deconstruction of narrative convention. Especially the flash-forward dream-sequence with the colorist.
     
  9. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Mr macg,

    It's true. For my 600-word story I got a gift certificate for a shampoo and cut.

    YHS, etc
     
  10. boots

    boots New Member

    There's no need to name drop or as you say big time whatever that mean. If you don't think Gary worked hard, guess again. Yes, he did cover the Eags for a brief moment but again, he didn't get it because of his good looks. He got it because he worked hard. That's the name of that tune. Trying to make it anything else is simply ludicrous. Again, why is a thread going so crazy is beyond me.
     
  11. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    And have been in the vanguard of literary and tonsorial style ever since.
     
  12. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Mr boots,

    So Gary Smith covered the Eagles. Frankly, I don't care if he played for the Eagles or owned the Eagles. What he was matters not. What matters is his writing. 'Course who wants to talk about stuff like that? What did you think of the story or have you read it yet?

    And Mr macg,

    Like the Significant Other said about your blurb -- "stylish, well, maybe if you don't look at the hair and the sandals."

    YHS, etc
     
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