“You cannot squeeze water from a rock…”
September 10, 2006I’m starting with an aside, since this is front of mind at the moment. I’ll get to my actually rant in awhile.
“You cannot squeeze water from a rock.” I heard that line first from B. I suppose it comes from being a sports journalist for so long. You either learn to reconcile the existence of “different intelligences,” or you can’t have a career in journalism, 
sports or otherwise. I’ve learned that for every great interview, there are a couple of dozen mediocre and sometimes seemingly repetitive ones, and a couple of completely terrible ones. And I’ve learned not to bitch about it anymore, because it doesn’t help and it’s just a waste of energy because eventually you have to work around your issues (because you’re not willing to make a crappy article anyway).
I’ve become a believer of sorts in multiple intelligences, which has helped me become a lot less judgmental about my interviews and a lot more able to craft a better story around it (or at least I’d like to think so). I’m lucky to get a lot of eloquent, insightful and intelligent artists, writers, businessmen, designers, managers, etc. who know what they want to say. But on the other hand, I’ve had occasions where their ability for communication is the biggest barrier to my writing the articles. Which isn’t to say they aren’t insightful or intelligent, but that they express themselves differently. Multiple intelligences play a big role in that, I would suppose.
(Aside of an aside: I wrote about a fairly new but rather successful school in Baguio grounded on the theory of multiple intelligences. It’s a controversial method in the world of education, and most often misunderstood as lacking the roundedness of traditional education. The theory actually applies to how we learn rather than what we learn. It’s a whole different thing, read the articles on the Berkeley school or about multiple intelligences theory.)
Now then, what I’ve been rambling on in my head about for the last week is a little different, although rightly enough, it rings even truer that “You cannot squeeze water from a rock.” This isn’t about interviewees. This about writers. Specifically people who use the word journalist very loosely. And I’m not just talking about problems with content, I’m talking about problems with composition and grammar as well.
Read on here if you’re interested in my ranting, and check out for yourself what shitty piece of writing I’m ranting about.
Comics borrowed/taken/yanked off my absolute favorite cartoon site, Cartoonbank.com. (Their prints make great gifts!)
—————————————————————
On a lighter note, I came across this cartoon in Cartoonbank.com. Funny.
“We are interested in a cultural exchange. We will give you one of our writers, and you will give us Salman Rushdie.” (Iranian mullah speaking on television to American audience.)
