1st Person

The Domain Game by David Kesmodel

2008-07-27T08:37:35Z

In the acknowledgments section of his book, The Domain Game, journalist David Kesmodel thanks fellow journalists Carl Bialik, David Goldenberg and Michael Myser for their assistance, along with Peter DeMarco. Among those at The Wall Street Journal Online, he tips his hat to Bill Grueskin, Jason Ander and Marcelo Prince.

"My parents inspired me to chase my dream of being a writer from the early days of high school," Kesmodel writes. Lastly, he thanks his wife Tanya and his daughter, Greta, who was 7 months old when he began the book.

Personal Finance Editor Neal Templin Has 3 Kids and 3 Dogs - He Writes About the Dogs

2008-07-25T15:50:21Z

Andy is 11-years-old and along with his two siblings, is costing The Wall Street Journal's personal finance editor, Neal Templin, a fortune to raise.

Andy is a big-hearted beagle, who along with a Chihuahua and a terrier are the subject of Templin's July 24, 2008 Cheapskate column.

"After children, few living things will do as much to ruin your personal finances as dogs," writes Templin. "I should know, having three of each."

Templin notes that he bought Andy as a pup and has raised him on dog food purchased for $20 a sack from Sam's Club. He doesn't say, at least in this column, what he feeds his three 'other' kids.

The real expense of owning his dogs, Templin notes, has been in veterinarian bills and boarding. Once, Templin left Andy at a doggy spa while he was out of town, but Andy was so homesick and howled so much that the doggy resort asked him not to bring the dog back.

Order Neal Templin's Full NewsBio

No Batteries Required: Saul Hansell of The New York Times Built His Own, Early "iPod"

2008-06-13T05:57:15Z

Here’s one way I listened to the radio in grade school: I wound a coil of wire and connected it to a small crystal, a little yellow earphone and a few other parts nailed to a board. This was enough to receive WJR, then the CBS affiliate in Detroit, where I grew up. Batteries were not required.

Saul Hansell

The New York Times

June 13, 2008

Paranoid About Germs, But With Good Cause: WSJ's Laura Landro

2008-06-12T15:40:41Z

For my part, I have more reason for concern than most people. My obsession with microbes is rooted in my own vulnerability following a bone-marrow transplant 15 years ago to treat a form of leukemia. As part of my treatment, high doses of chemotherapy were used to suppress my immune system, and for several months I was without defenses against any type of opportunistic infections. People had to wear masks around me, and I needed one to leave my room. I wasn't allowed fresh fruits or vegetables for months. Even in recovery I had to stay out of enclosed spaces like movie theaters (hard one) and the New York subway (easy one).

Though my immune system has recovered sufficiently to allow me to live a fairly normal life, my paranoia remains. Attending a recent Saturday family barbecue in Long Island, I went into high-alert mode when I saw a half-dozen small children poking at a fascinating discovery in the yard. They had found a tiny nest filled with newborn field mice under a clump of weeds and grass. I yelled at the kids to step away from the nest and wash their hands immediately. Then I checked the CDC Web site. I learned that the hantavirus, which can cause a deadly pulmonary disease, can infect people "when they touch mouse or rat urine, droppings, or nesting materials that contain the virus and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth."

Laura Landro

Health Columnist

The Wall Street Journal

June 11, 2008

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal Lost His Ericsson T610 Phone In A Taxi

2007-11-27T20:33:23Z

If you happen upon one "candy-bar" sytle Sony Ericsson T610 phone in the back of a New York City taxi, please return it to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal.

Croal, a technology writer, misses his T610, he tells readers in a December 3, 2007 column. And while many of his readers assume that Croal must stay in touch on an iPhone or some future-tech Japanese communicator, he confides that he upgradesd to a Sony Ericsson 710a swivel after the unfortunate taxi incident.

"I remain resolutely determined to maintain separate devices for separate activities: my phone for calls, texting and checking e-mail; my PSP for music and occasional Web browsing; my Palm for scheduling and writing," Croal writes. "Never the three shall meet."

Croal, who has been at Newsweek since early 1995 and is an aspiring short film maker, describes himself as a change-averse person "who fiercely resists adding new devices to his regular rotation." The proof? He still listens to his music on a PlayStation Portable. iPod? What's an iPod?

Houston Chronicle Biz Columnist Loren Steffy Wants O'Neal's Old Job

2007-11-27T12:43:23Z

In his column on November 9, 2007, Houston Chronicle business columnist/blogger Loren Steffy published his open application for Stanley O'Neal's old job at Merrill Lynch. No word yet on whether his application was accepted.

Excerpts:

     "I've been interested in working for Merrill Lynch for some time -- about two weeks to be exact"

     "What attracted me to your firm was the humongous payout you gave to the previous CEO, Stanley O'Neal. According to my research, O'Neal will receive about $161 million."

     "I believe that I would be a good choice to run your company because I would lose less than the $8 billion that O'Neal did on bad mortgage investments. Given my lack of experience, qualifications and knowledge of the job, I believe I would lose no more than $5 billion."

'Active' Video Games Get NYT's Tara Parker-Pope to Stand Still

2007-11-27T07:32:35Z

There is a difference between the kind of video games people play sitting on their couches and those that require users to get off the couch and dance, exercise or otherwise move.

Thus, The New York Times' Tara Parker-Pope (married to Portfolio magazine journalist Kyle Pope) found herself on the hunt for the latest in video games.

"As a new parent eight years ago, I swore never to buy a video game system, certain that my child would spend her leisure time reading and playing outside," Parker-Pope writes in her November 27, 2007 Health column. "I recently remembered this vow while waiting in line for two hours outside the Nintendo store in Manhattan. Like hundreds of other parents, I was trying to get my hands on the Nintendo Wii, a popular video game system and on of the season's hottest toys."

Parker-Pope explains her conversion by noting that so-called active video games actually encourage players to get off their duffs.

FORTUNE, Columbia Journalism Review and More on NYT's David Carr's 'To Read' List

2007-11-26T10:48:23Z

In his Monclair, New Jersey home, New York Times Business Day columnist David Carr keeps the latest high tech gear out of his living room.

Instead, visitors will find what Carr describes as "a large comfortable chair, a good lamp, and a magazine rack groaning with the fruits of American journalism," not to mention his wife Jill's accordion.

Carr intends to use his living room as a reading room, although he confesses that he rarely has much time to read anymore. "The bounty is undeniable. There are nutritious morsels there -- a piece in the Columbia Journalism Review calling for a nonprofit newspaper model, a Fortune article about a high-powered chief executive who regrets his ruthlessness on the way to the top, and a New York Times Magazine article on Hugo Chavez's brand of nationalization," Carr writes in his November 26, 2007 "The Media Equation" column.

Carr goes on to sing the praises of The Week, a magazine digest that he says "riffs through all the content in the known universe and digests it into a form that can be disposed of in 20 minutes."

"Am I A Pushy Mom?" Wonders The Wall Street Journal's Sara Schaefer Munoz

2007-11-22T15:46:58Z

She doesn't want to be pushy. The thought of asking other parents why their kids don't include her nursery school daughter in their play dates concerns her, lest the other parents think she is pushy. Yet The Wall Street Journal's Sara Schaefer Munoz says she can't help but question the reasons why her daughter is often not included.

Posting on "The Juggle" on October 12, 2007, Munoz, who is the blog's lead writer, suspects the fact that she is a working mom who can fully socialize with the other mothers does have an influence on the number of invites her daughter gets.

"My husband usually does the pick-up from school. While everyone is perfectly friendly, moms usually gravitate towards one another," says Munoz. She adds: "One reader even wrote on our 'manny' post that some neighborhood moms shy away from having their kids over to play with just the stay-at-home-dad there.

The Wall Street Journal's Karen Damato Shares Her Passon For Horseback Riding With Her Teen Daughter

2007-11-22T13:47:27Z

In an October 12, 2007 on The Wall Street Journal Online's "Juggle" blog, Karen Damato writes she uses horseback riding to keep her connection with her 14-year-old daughter close.

"Scheduling has gotten tougher since I switched from working part-time to full-shortly after her 12th birthday," Damato writes.

One recent family tradition Damato tries to adhere to is going away for her daughter's birthday. Damato favors camping. But this year the family settled for spending a Saturday night "at a gracious old hotel near a park where we went hiking the next day."

Now Here Is An Interesting Topic: Me!! (Volume 1)

2007-11-18T23:27:55Z

Wall Street Journal Reporter Who Lost Money In The Markets

I'm lovin' it.

My portfolio has lost a boatload of money in recent weeks, and I couldn't be happier. The reason: This sort of market turmoil scrambles valuations and creates opportunities.

Jonathan Clements
Getting Going Columnist
The Wall Street Journal
November 18, 2007

Business Week Correspondent Multi-tasks Even in His Leisure Time

It's actually getting hard to write about advertising, because most of its still so awful that I don't see it. I began watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares last night in my usual manner--taped and 20 minutes into the broadcast so I can blow through the ads. What did I do with the time? I went on Facebook and made my two Scrabble moves in the two games I am playing with friends online.

David Kiley
Senior Correspondent, Detroit
BusinessWeek
November 15, 2007

Do As I Say, Children, Not As I Do - FT Editor

My children aren’t allowed to watch TV at home. They think this is oppressive and unjust. I disagree about the former, but can’t deny the latter, because I watch television all day long at the office.

Chrystia Freeland
US Managing Editor
The Financial Times
November 11, 2007

NYT Pulitzer Prize Winner Didn't Always Avoid the Editor's Sword

When I worked for [Forbes's Editor Jim Michaels] in the late 1980s and then again in the mid-1990s, he routinely spiked articles that played it safe. (Pity the reader was his refrain as he rejected an article that drew no conclusion.)

Gretchen Morgenson
Business Columnist
The New York Times
October 7, 2007

Business Columnist 'Roughs It' As He Tries Heli-Hiking

It helps to be fit [to participate in heli-hiking], but it’s not an absolute requirement, and it helps to know a little about hiking, but that’s not a prerequisite either.

Other than the experience of the helicopter itself, there isn’t so much as a whiff of danger. (You also don’t have to be rich: not counting the airfare, I paid $2,400 for my trip.) Indeed, too much hiking experience might well be a drawback, since hard-core hikers seem perfectly happy sustaining themselves on beef jerky and sleeping in tents.

Heli-hiking, by contrast, falls into a travel category that the industry calls “luxury adventure.” Which is to say, after a day of semi-roughing it, you get to take a warm shower, eat a good dinner, drink a fine bottle of wine and sleep in a real bed. Myself, I can’t imagine any other way of going about it.

Joe Nocera
Business Columnist
The New York Times
September 9, 2007

Fortune Staffer Consumes $12,168 a Year in Media & Communications

So how much does it cost my family to stay plugged in? Before I get to the actual numbers, a few disclosures. Because I am a journalist who writes about high tech, Fortune pays all the bills related to my Palm Treo 700p smart-phone - roughly $90 a month - plus a few business-related publications (Business Week, Wired, Forbes and Newsweek) and annual online subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal ($99) and (The New York Times Select premium content ($50). When I'm on the road, the magazine pays for the occasional Wi-Fi wireless-connection fee. But other than that, it's up to me.

All told, my monthly subscription nut comes to $863.09. On top of that, I spend $1,812 a year on magazine and newspaper and online services, ranging from satellite radio to NBA League Pass to New York Times crosswords. That's $12,168 a year just for subscriptions. I wish I'd never counted.

Brent Schlender
Editor-at-Large
Fortune
July 11, 2007