Though dead these 11 years (as of Feb. 20, 2009), the Nashville Banner, Music City’s conservative afternoon daily, enjoys a resurrection of sorts at the “Nashville Banner RIP” Facebook page. With 56 members as of this posting, the site helps staffers keep up with colleagues and also to meet Bannerites from other eras.
Though deeply conservative in outlook, the Banner made history among major unsegregated Southern newspapers when, in 1950, it hired Robert Churchwell to cover the African-American community. I never knew him, but had heard of him and was sad to see he recently passed away.
Most of us have discovered life after the Banner, which served as a training ground for many aspiring, ambitious and scrappy young journalists, and as a career for quite a few who stayed on. You don’t have to look far around Nashville and Middle Tennessee to find Banner alumni in prestigious positions. Some still work at the Banner‘s erstwhile liberal, Democratic competitor, The Tennessean, though as newspapers writhe in the new communications era, more of them are moving on to other places.
I was at the Banner from July 1982 until late August 1987, moving from a night beat (which included covering Metro Council meetings sometimes and newly discovered corpses a lot more of the time), to the federal courthouse beat to a slot as an assistant editor on the city desk. We had three deadlines a day and most of us (except the night beat) rose in the dark and were on the phone to groggy public officials long before decent folk should be awake.
For a time I shared a desk with a chain-smoking writer who could have been in the Spanish Inquisition — he never let someone go without a comment. I met celebrities, though the person who most impressed me was Dr. Albert Sabin, inventor of the oral polio vaccine, who in his 70s came to a Rotary International convention here to kick off a world-wide effort against the paralyzing disease. Stars and politicians were easy to come by, but a man who had saved millions of lives?
I also wrote an article about the arrival in Nashville of the first Macintosh computers, whose descendants have served me well for more than 20 years. This was shortly after their introduction in 1984, and I thought at the time, “that’s cool, but who needs a home computer?”
Today, the question is, “who doesn’t?” and my Macs make possible the pleasure of communing with my old Banner buddies via Facebook (and playing the occasional game of Wordscraper or Lexulous with them).
I left the Banner a few years before its last edition, with its classic “End of Story” screamer headline.
I don’t know who owns the rights to the Nashville Banner name and eagle logo, but it might be fun to put the Banner back together again, online. But dear God, not to get up at 4 a.m. every day.
The dozens of awards Hammock Inc. has won over the years for its design work attest to the talent concentrated in our art department. But in what well do they find inspiration for the seemingly endless flow of fresh, invigorating designs for our print and web work? Turns out, inspiration springs from all around:
With a new year Semper Fi Magazine takes a look under the armor of a new set of wheels destined for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army. Fast-tracked for development, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) will eventually supersede the venerable Humvee for many uses where speed, agility and troop protection are of paramount concern.
When we began working with the Marine Corps League in 2006, we didn’t realize that we would begin a tradition here at Hammock Inc. — that of saluting the United States Marine Corps’ birthday every 10 November.
Of course, each November-December issue we produce of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, is designated as “The Birthday Issue” – in capital letters! This issue’s cover is a stirring shot of the Marine Corps Memorial whose bronze Leathernecks stand watch over the nearby Nation’s Capitol. Inside is a pictorial of Marine Corps League members celebrating the birthday last year.
USMC tradition holds that the Corps was born on 10 November 1775 at long-vanished Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, where a recruiter began carrying out instructions issued that day by the Continental Congress to create “a Corps of Marines.” Marine recruiters carry on that legend today (though not in taverns), looking for a few good men and women to comprise the next generation of Marines. Ordered to expand the Corps to 202,000 by fiscal 2001, Marine recruiters are—of course!—ahead of schedule, as we report in this issue.
Battlefield medicine has of course come a long way from the crude and often lethal care provided those early Marines. In our feature “Corpsman Up!” author Otto Kreisher examines how brave medics are working ever closer to the fight, and bringing more Marines home alive.
Each issue reports extensively on League programs. This issue marks the 50th anniversary of the League’s Young Marines Program, which helps high school students find discipline, order and purpose in their lives. We also report on the League’s Youth Physical Fitness Program, which encourages boys and girls from kindergarten through high school to get fit and stay fit. It’s offered free to any school. There is also a program that recognizes high school band students’ talent.
Hammock Inc. recently received word from the Custom Publishing Council that work we have done for the National Federation of Independent Business and for the Daughters of the American Revolution made the finals in the CPC’s 2008 Pearl Awards. The winners will be announced Nov. 13 at a ceremony at the legendary Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
The CPC didn’t specify which entries were in the running. However, our entries in the contest included work on a special NFIB Web site and a department in NFIB’s member magazine MyBusiness, and editorial and design creative for the DAR member magazine American Spirit.
One of the perks of my work at Hammock Inc., is the chance to visit interesting, often unusual places in order to immerse myself more fully in our clients’ activities. Or maybe embed is a better word to use when describing my trip to the annual Modern Day Marine Military Expo aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA.
Co-sponsored by our client, The Marine Corps League and the Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM), the event brings together Marines of all levels of experience and military suppliers for three days of equipment inspections and discussions.
The show has grown steadily over the years, and took an enormous leap this year, growing by 30 percent over last year, with 400 vendors and 8,200 attendees. Besides producing the League’s member magazine, Semper Fi, we also produce the Expo directory; we increased the number for this year by 16 percent, and they were all gone halfway through the three-day show.
Besides attendance, this year’s show may be regarded as a turning point because it occurred as the Marine Corps reshapes itself for future challenges. Every few years, The Marine Corps steps back, looks at the world in which it has to function and makes shrewd calculations about how that world will change in the near future and what the Corps must do to adapt.
This year, the Corps’ new Commandant General James Conway signed off on the Vision and Strategy 2025 report.
Traditionally, the Corps has been America’s “First to Fight” force, moving first and fast to trouble spots to take and hold positions, then turning them over to more permanent forces such as Army troops. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, however, the Corps has maintained an ongoing military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s not unheard of for the Corps to play this role, but it’s not their preferred modus operandi. The Corps’ leaders are looking forward to relinquishing that role in the near future and resuming its “expeditionary” function – with Marines based on ships close to potential trouble spots and areas with critical American interests at stake.
The report sees the Marines of 2025 as lean, agile and flexible – able to fight or conduct community and ally building activities or both at the same time. And, as General Conway said at a formal dinner during the Expo, the vendors have to bring the Corps the tools it will need to turn that vision into reality.
Those tools will include new land, sea and air craft, new weaponry, new armor for vehicles and troops, integrated and protected digital communications that will give corporals battlefield awareness and intelligence that today’s commanders lust after.
They will also include robots – which were a special focus of the show, at an “obstacle course” where ‘bots ranging from lawn-tractor sized automatons to toy-like devices the size of shoeboxes. Far from your sci-fi robots such as that on Lost in Space or “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” these machines can nevertheless save lives by doing reconnaissance, bomb detection and disposal, retrieval of wounded and, yes, fighting.
As for the Marines at the show, their interests seemed to correlate with rank and experience. Junior Marines – including a number of newly minted lieutenants, boggled at all the “toys.” Many went for personal items – knives, boots, lights, weapons, flame-resistant apparel. Older, more senior Marines spent more time examining critical tools for battlefield success; their recommendations could soon show up in their hands.
There was a celebrity sighting – R. Lee Ermey, of drill instructor fame from “Full Metal Jacket” – is a regular guest at the show, playing in a golf tournament and signing autographs to help raise funds for the Marine Corps League’s Young Marines program.
More photos of the event may be seen here.
The Hammock spelling bee team swapped paint with 10 other great teams in the 15th Annual NALC Spelling Bee on Sept. 9, and, after sustaining some sheet metal damage, finished out of the money for the first time in 4 years.
The evening’s theme was NASCAR, so the track was littered with racing terms. Hammock ran into trouble on the word “monocoque,” literally “single shell,” which is a term used in auto and other kinds of design. We overcorrected by spelling it “monococque,” and spun out in the “chicane,” another racing word we heard last night.
A non-racing word that quickly became the most-uttered term of the evening was “Pshaw,” a somewhat archaic interjection that was more polite to say as teams fell by the wayside than what most of us were thinking.
The winner of the evening was the law firm of Neal & Harwell, who ran neck and neck with Davis-Kidd Booksellers until nosing ahead on the word “inchoate.” They sealed their victory by correctly spelling “shibboleth.”
Beemasters were author Ann Patchett and her husband, Karl Vandevender. Both of them struggled at times with pronunciations and joshed with each other throughout the event, which was entertaining—when it wasn’t distracting.
Hammock congratulates Neal & Harwell on their victory, but cautions them not to get too attached to the traveling trophy. We’ll be back next year to reclaim it.
Awards contests are the term paper/finals of the publishing industry. As a custom media company, Hammock enters a number of contests each year, and we’ve done well. Entering a competition is a true team effort – at the minimum you involve at least one editor, a writer, and a designer, More often, you have to pull everyone in and engage in serious discussions about your product and about strategy.
That takes a lot of time – and the fact that competition sponsors often extend the deadlines testifies that most companies go down to the wire to get the job done. If you’ve done it, you know. If not, I’m here to help you through the process.
Over more than 21 years with custom media firms, I have somehow regularly drawn the award entry wrangling duty. So I feel that I can speak as an expert when it comes to making it to the FedEx collection center just before closing.
Here are my tips for my fellow competition wranglers:
The basic building block – the DNA, if you will – of the United States Marine Corps as a fighting force is the rifle squad. And in an era of asymmetric warfare, the Corps is reshaping and re-equipping its squads to do more and do so with greater autonomy.
As described in the latest issue of Semper Fi, the member magazine we publish for the Marine Corps League, “The Marine Corps is the only military service in the world that uses a 13-man infantry squad … The squad is the lowest element in the Marine Corps that can actually receive a mission.”
The new issue of Semper Fi explores how the Corps is modifying its DNA at a new facility called “The Gruntworks” aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA. With the assistance of field-proven Marines, the Gruntworks crew is working to lighten, toughen and make more efficient every ounce of gear carried by today’s Marines. That’s a tall order – typical equipment loads can weigh 100 pounds or more.
Elsewhere in this issue, we begin exploring the history of Camp Lejeune, NC, and the Marines presence in the Carolinas. The flat, sandy coastal beaches have seen innumerable practice assaults as the Corps developed and continues to perfect its signature amphibious attack methods.
Semper Fi also revisits Beirut, Lebanon, where 25 years ago this Oct. 23, terrorists bombed the Marine peacekeeper barracks, killing 221 Marines as well as other military personnel. Many regard that as the first open shot in today’s Global War on Terror.
We also remember another iconic moment in Marine history – the 90th anniversary of the bloody, WWI battle of Belleau Wood, France, where tradition holds that the US Marines earned the nickname “Devil Dogs” as they ferociously defeated a larger German army and turned the tide of that war.
Fans of the old Kung Fu TV series (who get the joke of David Carradine advertising the Real Yellow Pages), will recall the tagline description of the Shaolin warrior-monks: LISTENED FOR – they cannot be heard. LOOKED FOR – they cannot be seen. FELT FOR – they cannot be touched. Which happens to be the description of an A-1 interviewer.
Fortunately, unlike Kwai-chang Caine, you don’t need to spend years of meditating and splitting boards with your hands to comprehend this. You don’t even need to get dragon and tiger brands. Lessons are all around you:
How many times has your spouse said “Are you listening to me?” and you’ve mumbled “Uh-huh.” You were being truthful – your ears were working, but your mind wasn’t. Listening is a physical function; hearing is a mental one.
Similarly, how many times have you looked for your wallet or keys, only to give up and then spot them … in a place you had looked. Again, looking is a physical action, while seeing is a deliberate mental action. You overlook things (like keys on the counter – and typos!) because your unfocused mind lies – it’s already said, “They can’t be here.”
How about touch? Back to those elusive keys – you patted your pockets, the newspaper, the sofa. You get the drift by now – your mind was lying again.
What does this have to do with interviewing? If you only listen, look and feel (a sense that is usually not that much used in interviews), you will come away with what you expected to … and possibly miss things that could have added detail and depth to your final product.
The more you can push back your preconceptions, the more room you make for what’s actually going on in the interview. This is especially important in personality profiles and human interest stories. But it’s something to practice in every interview situation – think of each opportunity as a Kung Fu Interview.
We have more interview tips elsewhere on Hammock.com. Put all these together, and over time, you will find that you have learned much, Grasshopper.
