Medical ailment interrupts interview

Evdoctor.jpgery once in a while, the grind of reporting throws you a gem.You may see only frustration when someone cancels an interview you were going to conduct for a story you were writing. Indeed, at first, I did, too. But then, I got an email from the company’s communications director explaining why, and his words were, indeed, far more meaningful than a 25-minute line of questioning.

Christopher

We have a problem. [Name] has an emergency doctor’s appt [sic] this morning as he either has a broken foot or gout. I couldn’t even make this up and don’t even know what gout is…

…I am not making this up. Seriously. Hilarious.

How celebrities recover from scandal

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In a stellar example of evergreen journalism, the Philadelphia Inquirer also had a little fun.

Tired of celebrities, politcians and other public figures taking the same route of recovery after some scandal, most usually of their own making? Well, apparently so is the Inqy.

They’ve set up a “Redeemability Quotient,” a mathematical formula to see how well or if at all someone could clean their name up after a public relations stumble.

Check it out, well worth the time.

Why do people hate Stephen A. Smith?

The outspoken sports commentator, former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and all around scourge of a whole lot of people gets a whole lot of guff here in Philadelphia, and elsewhere.Not the least of which are his being annually taunted at the NBA draft.See video of it in 2006…

And 2007…

So, even after being canned by the Inquirer and derided elsewhere, he launched a blog to defend himself, I suppose, or at least take media coverage of his into his own hands. What gives? Why do people despise this man so much?