SBC 2008 Day 4 - There's One Thing. One Thing.

My roommate came in this morning at 2. He had told me he was planning on arriving at 12:30, but because he was running late and because he’d forgotten that he was crossing into the Eastern Time Zone, he was later than he expected. I stayed up waiting for him, so I’m a little drowsy this morning.

Before we turned out the lights, Mr. Roommate (a freelancer who is a pastor in St. Louis), fished out the room service menu. “I just can’t get going when I’m away from home without eggs first thing in the morning,” he said, as he proceeded to place a room service order for 7:15 a.m. of two eggs over easy, toast, hash browns, milk and coffee. I was more than a little bit shocked, but I didn’t say anything because I was falling asleep and didn’t feel like giving a lecture in stewardship.

I’m always very conscious of my spending when I’m staying/eating on Missouri Baptists’ tab. If I had my way, I’d be staying in a Motel 6. Whenever I dine out while on convention business, I’m very careful to never eat anywhere I wouldn’t eat at if I were paying for it myself. Do I want to eat at Ruth's Cris Steak House tonight, of course. I just can't justify spending Missouri's CP money that way. I don’t care if Mr. Roommate normally does order room service when it’s his credit card number on the bill, it’s just not cool to do it when you’re spending little old ladies’ tithe. Especially not when it’s $15.97 for a plate of eggs plus the tip, and especially not when it’s being posted to my expense account.

At the moment I’m in the press room and it’s a pretty cool set up. There’s probably seating and tables for 100 media members plus a bank of printers and closed circuit video feed from the convention floor. We’re also issued radio headsets so we can listen to the audio from the convention floor if we want to, or we can turn it off and write in peace. The radio broadcast isn’t top-notch and all the voices are tinny. It’s like listening those old recordings of Hitler. Without the book burnings or the Jew-killing.

Of course this headphone thing also means I can plug into my laptop and listen to iTunes instead of the preaching/business sessions…

Ha! In line with my earlier comment on stewardship, they just ran a video promoting stewardship. It was set to Pink Floyd’s Money. I promise. Rock on, SBC. Rock on.

And from Pink Floyd we roll right into the Gaithers. I’m not knocking the Gaithers (I’ve met and was very impressed by Gloria), but how can they follow Pink Floyd?

Holy crap, now they’re playing from City Slickers. What kind of convention is this? [Note: did anyone else realize that Jake Gyllenhaal played Billy’s son in City Slickers?]

SBC 2008 Day 3, continued – And who do I make this out to?

No, this isn't really the author of The Baptist Way.

Today was pretty uneventful. It’s just the Pastors’ Conference, which means I’m pretty much off duty. I more or less cruised the Exhibit Hall looking for the good swag, and, to be honest, this year’s crop isn’t that great. I snagged a few nice pens and a crappy OBU mini Frisbee and that was about it. Oh, and I entered a drawing for an iPod Nano.

My only assignment of the day was to shoot (with a camera, not a gun) a professor from SBU signing his book at the bookstore. The sad thing was NOBODY was buying his book. There was another author sitting next to him and she was quite popular. I guess there’s just not a huge market for The Baptist Way, even at the SBC. I felt really sorry for him. Heck I would have bought his book if I didn’t already have it for my polity class last fall. After about 20 minutes he persuaded a woman to buy a copy for her husband and I was able to snag the pic. Thank goodness.

It rained for a good portion of today, which isn’t good news for most of Indiana. It also hailed, which makes me wonder if Mr. Valet Parking Man parked my car in an indoor garage. Hmm.

At 6 I trekked across down to the Marriott to meet my boss and associate editor for a dinner hosted by the Association of Baptist Newspapers. To answer your questions, no, we are not an exciting or dynamic group of individuals and yes, we do have fashion sense rivaling that of retarded spider monkeys. My favorite is the super-short tie that doesn’t make it 2/3 of the way to the belt buckle (which, according to GQ, is the proper resting place for the tip of a tie). To answer your next question, yes, I was probably the only one there with a subscription to GQ (not that you would be able to tell by my style, but at least my tie looks decent). Then of course there’s my editor who rocks the bow-tie, complete with the wrinkled cotton suit.

My hotel (no, I’m not in the Hilton anymore ☹) is housed in the old Indianapolis Union Station and it is still a working Amtrak station. It’s really cool and has two trains of about five cars each that each house suites. It’s pretty suite. Sweet. Sorry. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.

Ta ta for now!

Just one more reason to love the USPS

Postal Service Honors ‘American Journalists’

Postmaster General Dedicates Stamps, Celebrates National Press Club Centennial

WASHINGTON, DC — They broke barriers, influenced nations, changed American history and played their lives on an international stage.

Five ground-breaking, distinguished reporters were honored today, their work and legacy commemorated by the U.S. Postal Service, as Postmaster General John Potter dedicated the “American Journalists” stamps:

• Ruben Salazar, the first Mexican-American journalist to have a major voice in mainstream media, whose work chronicled the evolution of Mexican-American politics.
• Martha Gellhorn, a ground-breaking war correspondent who covered the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War.
• John Hersey, whose most famous work documented the story of Hiroshima; the book was named the top work of journalism of the 20th century by New York University.
• George Polk, a CBS radio correspondent who filed hard-hitting reports on the civil strife in Greece in the aftermath of World War II.
• Eric Sevareid, broadcast journalist, commentator and writer, whose work influenced a generation of reporters.

“These stamps recognize the contributions of American journalists to the betterment of American society, who exposed and explored the people, processes, challenges and accomplishments of a country, its people and its role in the world,” Potter said.

Working in radio, television or print, they reported, often at great personal sacrifice, some of the most important stories of the 20th century. They were drawn to hot spots, and their description of conflicts and issues helped people respond more intelligently to events.

Potter was joined by esteemed journalists who spoke on behalf of the reporters commemorated on the stamps: Eleanor Clift, contributing editor at Newsweek and a panelist on “The McLaughlin Group”; Frank Sotomayor, Pulitzer Prize winner and associate director of USC’s Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism; Daniel Zwerding, Peabody Award recipient for NPR; Jeff Price, foreign correspondent and cousin of George Polk; and Bob Schieffer, anchor of “Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer” and CBS News chief Washington correspondent.

The stamps were dedicated at the National Press Club in recognition of the club’s Centennial Celebration. Donna Leinwand, National Press Club vice president, acknowledged the sacrifices made by journalists, many of who lost their lives covering conflicts around the world and in cities across America.

“The distinguished journalists honored on these stamps deserve this place in American history for having shown great courage in the pursuit of truth,” Leinwand said.

The stamps feature a photo of each journalist and a few lines of types that are meant to suggest newspaper print headlines of articles by or about each reporter. Art director Howard Paine worked with designer Fred Otnes of West Redding, CT, to create the stamp art. The abstract backgrounds were meant to imply the “wordliness” of the subjects, without referring to specific events.

The Postal Service previously has issued stamps honoring other journalists, including Edward R. Murrow, Ernie Pyle, Walter Lippman, Henry Luce, Nellie Bly, Ida May Tarbell, Ethel L. Payne, Marguerite Higgins and publishers Adolph S. Ochs, Henry Luce and Joseph Pulitzer.