A laughing matter

To put a smile on someone’s face is a real gift. I’d love to have a daily cartoon to enliven this blog but in the meanwhile the best I can do by way of furnishing a grin would be to point you to The Joke Project, a daily oral history that tells jokes and tries to understand the joking process. Oh, and if you don’t find it funny, blame the Poynter Institute which passed on the reference to me.

When you’re smiling: Joe Murphy commented on a recent blog post in which I opined that many media workers seem to be neurotic and unhappy. He sent me a link to a National Journal article that asks: Is anyone in journalism having fun any more? The answer: if not, we should be. Thanks for that reminder, Joe.

I missed BlogggerCon Drat. I was sick, working and the dog ate my homework. Those are the only excuses for missing the blogger confab that was attended by a bunch of great people. For those, like me, who missed it, Chris Preimesberger of EWeek wrote a charming reporter’s notebook with some color from the event.

Truly Paid Content Rafat Ali’s Paid Content is a bootstrapped operation that has become a mainstay of many, like me, who follow new media. Yesterday Rafat announced that he had some support to expand, and today he reported some of the feedback, my favorite being a quip from Jeff ( Buzzmachine) Jarvis to the effect that small is the new big. In that case there may even be hope for those who are merely mini.