Seussical!

I previewed a local show thats being performed this week, called "Seussical". It's a mixture of many popular Dr.Seuss books, all in one musical theater production.

This was a fun one to write. It was for the encore section (entertainment section) instead of news, so I wasn't quite used to the writing style, so I had to make some story edits. But its all good. Sometimes, especially in stories like this, I think I may write like I have a bias towards the organization. I make performances and events seem very must-see. Well, I'm a fairly optimistic person. I hope they break a leg!

Read my story:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/07/16/13104183.txt

Note- I now don't like covering entertainment events. I have been getting calls non-stop by grandma's who want to take their grandchildren to "my show." It's hard to explain that I am not involved with the production, I'm just a reporter for the Times! Aw well, it doesn't take me long to look up the showtimes online for them. It's pretty funny, really.

Surf and Turf Festival

This story made me really hungry for crabs. I still think I may go to this festival, it sounds delicious and lots of fun. The Carroll County Farm Museum is adorable. And it is one of the most read stories today on the website!

Read my story:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/07/16/news/local_news/4surf_and_turf.txt

Hometown Hero Recognized for Saving Draft Horses

Photo submitted by Christine Hajek

I feel like I tend to have to interview very busy people. That can cause a bit of an issue when you're on deadline. This woman, Christine Hajek, saves horses and people on a daily basis. And lets just say when the story needed to come out, there were a lot of horses and people needing to be saved (lots of fires and starving horses).

So, I finally got in touch with her after much persistance, and I finally got her to submit a picture just two hours before deadline.

I really like people who are like this. Always busy and motivated and doing good things, but never complaining and wouldn't have it any other way. Makes me want to me more ambitious. Again. I've got to get on that.

Read my story:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/07/13/news/local_news/5_founder_hometown_heroes.txt

Maryland Junior Miss Competition

Photo by Kyle Nosal
I enjoyed this story, because the Junior Miss participants were the most genuinely nice people I've probably ever spoken to. Cheri Poklemba, the chairwoman, said I had to put all Junior Miss sponsors at the end of my story, but that would be strange. That was the only really ridiculous demand I received. Usually there are a ton per story (it's amazing how people don't really understand newspaper policies).


Read my story:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/07/11/news/local_news/4_junior_miss.txt

My Job in Pictures

Hard at work at the carnival:

Talking to the nicest lady ever (Far left: Mrs. Lee). Note the blackberry hanging out of my pocket. It makes me look like I'm important.

Talking on the phone to Dylan, the photographer.

Talking to some bluegrass lovin' sisters from "the mountains", as they said, which is the Emmitsburg area.

Talking to Leonard Bower, carnival chairman for the fire department. I think I was asking him a real toughy.

------

Thanks, Kels! The picture of all the rifles wouldn't upload...how ironic.

Photos by Kelsey McDonald

Fun at the Harney Carney

So, Kelsey and I had a really good time at the carnival! We ate delicious crabcakes and french fries. We got there early, so there wasn't much going on yet. (Just a disclaimer that I wasn't neglecting my job by eating the amazing food. And Kelsey, my friend who I drug along, was not a distraction but instead a great help.)

I ended up writing about the bluegrass band. People claimed seats early to watch them- the CB Pickers.

The only problem was I got the story in pretty late again. Dylan was business taking pictures of something else so he didn't get there until 8 p.m. Usually the story is due then, but I'm used to waiting for the photographer to see what he takes a picture of, just in case I should interview the people he may photograph.

It turned out that I didn't even really need to wait for him, he just took a general picture of people on a ride and of the band.

I rushed home (well, back to Kelsey's) and got my article in by 9:15 p.m. Pretty impressive, I think.

Kelsey took a thousand pictures, so I'll upload them when she gets them to me.

Read my story:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/07/07/news/local_news/1_harney_carnival.txt
Photo by Dylan Slagle

Harney Carney Tonight!

So, tonight I'll be heading out to Harney, a little town near Taneytown that's right on the mason-dixon line.

This is the second carnival I've been assigned to write about. This is because I'm a willing and eager intern, ready to help out in any way possible, which means endless carnival coverage. My second day, my co-worker said to me, "Well, I hope you like covering carnivals." haha. As you can see, the times writers are pretty burnt out by carnivals, which are a weekly occurrance in little old Carroll County.

Last year, the guy who wrote about this carnival wrote a small piece on how they served fried oreos and people liked them.

...

So, I'm nervous I'll have some trouble finding anything good. I already called and asked if I could talk to someone about the carnival, preferrably someone who was involved with organizing it, and she's like "Hm, I don't think there here. Not really sure when they'll be here. Food starts at 430, though."

So, my plan is to stalk the carnival grounds at 5 or 530, looking for someone who looks like they know what their talking about and also people who look like they're having a good time. This is a perfect story to prove myself- despite bad odds, I can find an angle! See, I am a reporter!

Fingers crossed.