RIP William Safire

Sad news. Mr. William Safire died at a hospice in Rockville, Md. this morning. He was 79.

My first real introduction to the New York Times was William Safire's On Language column during my senior year at Madison High School in San Antonio. Our teacher, Mr. Bob Richmond, sent me to the office one morning with a progress report stating that I was the master of the double entandre.

Huh?

After looking the meaning up in the dictionary I talked to Mr. Richmond about how I'd always been facinated by lyrics with double meanings, slang and word origins. That's when he pointed me to the New York Times and Mr. Safire's column.

After reading today's NYT article I was suprised to learn that even though William Safire was a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who also wrote novels, books on politics and articles on language, he was also a college dropout.

Read the entire article over here: William Safire NYT.

Happy Trails and rest in peace Mr. Safire and thanks again Mr. Richmond!

That's Right,

HMK

Movable Type

The New York Times Company Debuts "Moveable Type"

Movable Type is the awesome new permanent art installation in the lobby of the newspaper's new Renzo Piano-designed headquarters building on Eighth Avenue and 41st Street.

Artist Ben Rubin and UCLA professor/statistician Mark Hansen have created a multi-media installation of 560 small screens, mounted on two walls, which display information culled from the newspaper's archives and live feeds. Information is parsed and displayed by algorithms created by the artists.

That's Right,

HMK

Faces of the Dead

Wow. This is an incredibly sad but clear example of the power of interactive graphic design.

It's entitled Faces of the Dead and graphically illustrates members of the U.S. Services who have died in Iraq.

Each pixel square represents one soldier and when clicked on highlights the name, age, branch, state and hometown of the brave soul.

Note to self: This is exactly what newspapers and magazines ought to be doing online.

NYT: Faces of the Dead

That's Right,

HMK

Also check out this pictorial representation of the key words used in all Bush's State Of The Union addresses:
NYT: State Of The Union

The Crystal Ball: Ads 2007

As the New Year approaches, advertising executives are busy divining the future, compiling lists and predicting hot brands and consumer trends.

Not surprisingly, many agencies are focusing on how the digital world will continue nudging the offline world in new directions, and consumer-generated content is in the forefront of everyone’s mind.

But ad executives also say they think companies should pay attention to shoppers’ interest in knowing more about the products they buy and to their desire to turn their cellphones and BlackBerrys — gasp! — off sometimes.


That's Right,
Read The NYT Aricle

HMK

Thanks to Louise Story at the NYT