All hail the “Throwback”

Dew ... old school.

I’ll try and make this brief, because it’s ridiculous I’m writing about this … and even more ridiculous you’re reading it.***

In the spring of 2009 (May 31 to be exact) I published a blog post entitled Beware the Throwback. Pepsi had released it’s limited run of ‘Throwback” beverages, including Mountain Dew. While on a camping trip in Tennessee, I purchased a 12-pack.

Upon my first taste of the Throwback Dew, I determined something was amiss … and I wrote about it. The folks at Pepsi had re-introduced real sugar to Dew, but in the process they removed the orange juice, … a cost-cutting measure I would guess.

The result was what I thought to be a weak beverage. The kick was missing. So I wrote about it. The Throwback drinks ran their limited time in the stores and were gone.

Well, as several readers have told me, Pepsi has re-released the Throwback Pepsi and Mountain Dew. And this time, the OJ is back. I held off on writing this until I could actually find some (they’ve been out since Dec. 28) and try it. And it was near perfect. (I haven’t tried Pepsi since I’ve always disliked it, real sugar or not. I’m a Coke man.)

This time, according to Pepsi’s all-things-Throwback Web site, the limited run will last until Feb. 22.  Go get you some.

*** My original Beware the Throwback post has received 2,200-plus direct hits. In and of itself, that’s not a large number. But when you consider I average about two dozen blog hits a day, most from family and friends likely, 2,200 in eight months is a significant number of hits. Thanks for the business.

A political columnist submits to 60 hours of hell

Last week, PoliticsDaily.com columnist Walter Shapiro, who is recovering from surgery on his leg, decided to commit to watching nothing but cable news networks for 12 hours a day for five straight days.

To some, that may sound not all that abnormal. But Shapiro, something of a dinosaur, gets his news from print media, and therefore is in no way acclimated to what he found on the boob tube.

Shapiro blogged each day for five days about his new experience with cable TV news. It’s pretty interesting.

Here are the five parts of his series:

Day 1: A New Survivor Show: Watching a Week of Cable News and Living to Tell

Day 2: The Cable News Patrol: Rounding Up the Usual Suspects and Subjects

Day 3: The Cable News Patrol: Sound Bite Skirmishing Silenced (Mostly) by Real Life Tragedy

Day 4: The Cable News Patrol: Glenn and Rachel Become My New Best Friends

Day 5: The Cable News Patrol: My Long National Nightmare Is Over!

Church group reunited with orphanage in Haiti

In a photo from the MSNBC.com story, kids at the Rescue Children orphanage watch a generator-powered television on Friday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The group from a Pennsylvania church and an MSNBC.com news crew reached the Rescue Children orphanage in Haiti on Friday.

The orphanage is supported by Spratanburg, S.C.-based Rice Bowls, a world hunger ministry, for which my wife Brooke works.

Here’s the MSNBC.com story with information about the 11 kids, who are all safe and well, and where the orphanage expects to go from here. There’s a cool slideshow, as well.

Once again, for those who want to give to relief efforts, here’s a list of organizations already working in Haiti.

Again, for those interesting in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Someone had to say it … way to go Keith

That was Keith Olbermann’s Wednesday-night response to the asinine comments from Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson on the liberal-slanted MSNBC.com show Countdown.

I won’t go over what Limbaugh and Robertson had to say on Wednesday and Thursday about the earthquake and relief efforts in Haiti. I’ll just say they’re making Sarah Palin look smart.

Heck, you know you may be out of touch when well-known social commentator Roger Ebert, … yes, that Roger Ebert, the movie guy, go off on you in his movie blog.

Here’s Olbermann’s Thursday-night response to Limbaugh when he acted even less human on Thursday …

Once again, for those who want to give to relief efforts, here’s a list of organizations already working in Haiti.

Again, for those interesting in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Rice Bowls and some good news from the earthquake in Haiti

Rice Bowls, the Spartanburg, S.C.-based world hunger ministry for which my wife Brooke works, supports an orphanage in Haiti.

In a bit of good news out of a country where the news only figures to get worse in the coming days, the 11 children Rice Bowls feeds are all alive and safe. (Read Thursday’s Herald-Journal story) Thank you God.

A group from the Pennsylvania church which runs the orphanage has traveled to Haiti with supplies with an MSNBC news crew in tow to chronicle their efforts. Here’s the initial story, when the safety of the children was still in question, and Thursday’s story telling of the group’s arrival in Hispaniola.

Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, had enough problems before this earthquake. More than 80 percent of the country lives in poverty and less than half have access to clean water. And that’s when things are going well.

My thoughts and prayers go out, not only to the Haitian victims of this earthquake, to those who have made their way to Haiti to help, those who are on the way, those who are giving to the relief efforts … but also to those who didn’t need an earthquake to try and make a difference in Haiti.

My wife, of whom I’m very proud, works for an organization that was already trying to make a better life for a handful of children in Haiti, among other places in the world. As a result of this catastrophe, their job has gotten a lot tougher. And a lot more important.

For those who want to help the orphans at the Rescue Children orphanage or help facilitate repairs to their home, donations can be made at www.ricebowls.org.

For those who want to give to other relief efforts, once again, here’s a list of organizations already working in the country.

Again, for those interesting in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

How to help Haiti

With Tuesday’s 7.0 earthquake devastating Haiti, the count of the injured and the dead are going to grow to staggering numbers in the next few days. And the need for immediate assistance is only going to be magnified.

Because of the likelihood that there will be difficulties flying in and out of the country, experts are suggesting that for those wanting to help, it would be best to support an organization that already has it’s feet on the ground in the country.

MSNBC.com has provided a list of organizations already working in the country.

Possibly the simplest way to give:

For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Even before the quake, only 46 percent of the population there had access to clean drinking water. After this disaster, that number will surely drop.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers.

And then comes the bad news

It figures that I post something positive about journalism and it comes back to bite.

The Columbia State newspaper, owned by McClatchy, announced they were cutting 12 newsroom jobs on Monday. Among the layoffs was a sports reporter who worked with me here at the Spartanburg Herald-Journal … someone I consider a friend, though not a close one.

My friend is very good at his job. And he has a wife and children to take care of. And you might think the first statement would ensure the second one is a mere formality.

But in this business that’s not so. My thoughts and prayers are with him.

A little good news, journalistically speaking

When I started this blog in the summer of 2008 when I was at the Maynard Summer Editing Program at the University of Nevada in Reno, Nev., the general idea was that I would write about being a father and being a journalist.

Obviously, you can look down my list of posts and know I haven’t stuck to the format.

Writing about the kids is one thing, but when it comes to journalism, there hasn’t been a lot of good news to write about.

But in the past two-and-a-half months or so, there have been two nuggets of pretty good news — one for the paper as a whole and one for the sports section.

At the end of October, the now-defunct Editor & Publisher reported (Read our story here) that the Herald-Journal’s combined print and online circulation had grown 10.9 percent in the previous year. That percentage represented the fourth biggest growth nationally, behind only Luzerne County Newspapers in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., (14.6 percent), The (Greensburg, Pa.) Tribune-Review (13.6) and the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune (11.4).

Then, just before Christmas, the Associated Press Sports Editors named GoUpstate.com a Top 10 sports Web site (Read here) for newspapers with fewer than 1 million unique visitors.

Of course, neither of these guarantees that my job won’t go away next week, next month or next year. But a little good news is better than none.

Stephen King is an angel … and he dislikes “Twilight,” to boot

Does this man scare you?

Well, I know that’s not the way most people, even those who like his writing, would describe him.

But Stephen King recently did something pretty cool. He and his wife, Tabitha, donated $13,000 so that 150 Maine Army National Guardsmen training in Indiana can come home for Christmas.

The troops, from the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit, are training at Camp Atterbury and are scheduled to depart for Afghanistan in January.

It’s a kind gesture that many of those soldiers and their families may never forget. Who knows how long it will be before they can return to their loved ones for the holidays … if at all. Those men and women shouldn’t have to spend their last holidays stateside a third of the country away from home.

The Kings actually gave $12,999 — because 13 is an unlucky number … who’d have though King was superstitious? — and a personal assistant chipped in $1.

If you’re a King fan, here are some other recent developments you may or may not be aware of:

Speculation that if King broke into the business today, he’d be less successful

A review of “Under The Dome”

SyFy turning King’s “The Colorado Kid” into a series titles ‘Haven”

King is considering a sequel to ‘The Shining”

King possibly teaming with Spielberg to bring “Under the Dome” to TV as miniseries

And my favorite … King trashes “Twilight” author Meyer, praises Harry Potter author Rowling

“Cause Cheap Is How I Feel”

Because I can.

The Cowboy Junkies.

I heart Margo Timmons.