BEEP..., BEEP..., BEEP..., FLATLINE --------

Well, we've just finished reading our mail from the past month. Now, while some of y'all might think it's crazy to only read your mail once a month, Miss Vero somehow finds it liberatin that we are not a slave to most correspondence, which mostly, just wastes our precious time. Did we mention that we pay all our bills online?

Among the satellite tv offers, coupons for useless things and a Christmas card from President and Mrs. Carter, there were a stack of Verobeach32963, that we took the time to sit down and read.

Let's see what we found...Beautiful Beachies doin the Beautiful Beachie things that they do...Real Estate ads...Very good restaurant reviews that don't make us gag...Real Estate ads...Michelle Genz does a profile of our favorite Jose Lambiet, hmmmm, interesting....Real Estate Ads...Oh, and here's our favorite part - the Editorial.

We especially liked that an entire page, in the December 4th issue,was given to remedy the shameful way that Mr. Ken Daige was treated by the Press Journal, which could possible have lost him the election. We would have preferred to see Mr. Daige and the young fresh Mr. Kevin Sawnick, both able to serve Vero while Mr. Tom "running with scissors" White, got the boot.

Yet, the most interesting for us, was the November 13th editorial, "The Incredible Shrinking Press Journal", which Miss Vero found "ink spot on". Last Sunday, after we had emptied the PJ of all it's annoying advertising fliers, we noticed that the paper was tissue thin, hardly any bigger than the Hometown News. And yes, it seems to get smaller and weaker in physically size and journalistic content as each week goes by.

Perhaps the powers that be, at the parent company, E. W. Scripps, are just planning for the future by economizing on ink and paper. After all, way back in January of 2007, this idea was presented.

"...the company's management "spoke much more positively on the possibility of reducing its exposure to the newspaper industry" http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/10/scripps-newspapers-goldman-markets-equity-cx_rs_0110markets14.html


Just this week, E. W. Scripps has put a Pulitzer winning paper on the market, with little chance of finding a buyer:
http://www.westword.com/2008-12-11/news/the-rocky-mountain-news-is-going-down/

And more newspaper trouble a little closer to home, with news of the Miami Herald for sale: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3i686368ba4cd6a88c345fe88fd6cac2e9

We especially like the little blurb in Gawker that gives the Miami Herald -"Odds of survival: 2-1. If you do not consider a two-page weekly digest of Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen columns to be "survival," we lower its odds to 3-1.":
http://gawker.com/5104434/the-official-newspaper-survival-odds
(See? We told y'all that Mr. Hiaasen had lost his humor mojo)

And here's a final nail in the coffin from Editor&Publisher, "America's oldest journal covering the newspaper industry", who proclaim this week that -"'Several Cities' Could Have No Daily Paper As Soon As 2010...":
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003918781


While the VB332963 politely offers helpful suggestions to the PJ -"Hire some real reporters and editors.", but concludes that "we confess to doubts that it is going to happen in this difficult economy" and continues with the promise "we intend to continue our news coverage of the local area, particularly as it impacts the Vero Beach barrier island." (yes, we know y'all have to justify those Real Estate ads), we think the future of news is right in front of y'all.

Now of course, at this point we would give y'all a link to the VB32963 article, but we can't and here's where Miss Vero would like to offer a little suggestion to the VB32963. Update your online edition!

And while the VB32963 acknowledges their neglect of this, they counter that they are "focused on getting our print edition into your mailbox each Thursday." Because, guess what? Those Real Estate ads have got to get to you!

The unfortunate truth is that relying on advertising for print media is not a good idea and that if someone doesn't figure out how to make some muhlah on this internet thing (and believe me, Miss Vero hasn't figured it out yet, but we believe that Mr. Milton R. Benjamin is smart enough to), the future of news will be akin to neighbors talkin over a fence, better known as "blogging".

Cocktail in hand, we've got that covered!

MWAH!

missvero@live.com

CUBAN COFFEE TALK

Got a little tip over the weekend from our favorite South Beach Queen, who follows all things Miss Gloria, that the Latin diva would be in town this weekend at the Costa d'Este, to shoot a spread for People magazine. With this inside info y'all think that Miss Vero would be rushin right on over there to one of our favorite tropical spots, but no hunnies, we are not in the habit of chasin celebrities down (as we hear other local media types are actively doing). Having known many celebrities over the years we completely understand the need for privacy and usually do not hang around - unless of course we are invited.



That being said, if we did happen to be in the presence of Mrs. Estefan, we would probably be interested in the progress of her new movie, where she is slated to play the underrated and now probably forgotten, Miss Connie Francis. http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/estefan%20to%20make%20francis%20movie_1078382


Seems like the Costa is gearing up for a fabulous season. Since we stayed there in June and continue to lunch, cocktail and dine there, management and staff have settled in or departed. It's no big secret that Benchmark Hospitality is currently looking for a new GM for the resort:

http://www.hcareers.com/seeker/search/view?jobAdId=1EAE4E1779B24DF7&type=partner&source=indeedorganic



We just hope that we'll continue to see Monica Smiley and others who have always made us feel very welcomed.



MR. HASKINS DETAILS MEETING WITH MISS VERO

Miss Vero told y'all about Mr. Michael Haskins' book signing in Vero on October 3rd. Well, on his blog this weekend, he posted details of his Vero Beach adventure, his friendship with local radio guy Bob Soos and his encounter with Miss Vero!:

http://www.chasinthewind.blogspot.com/


If y'all recall, we first meet Mr. Haskins when we read about his potential travel to Vero for the Vero Beach Book Festival this year that was, of course, unceremoniously canceled . Y'all might remember that we wrote about it way back in our May 27th post, "Write It Off". The PJ had printed a little blurb written by someone we didn't recognize by the name of Robin Roup, who actually had some manners and replied to our inquiry, unlike many other PJ staffers (including every editor we have ever written to), who seem to think of Miss Vero's correspondence as of no consequence! How rude.

Here's the original post and all the links, we think it's an important enuf story to be repeated and for those of y'all too lazy to look it up:
http://missverosbeachhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Vero%20Beach%20Book%20Festival

Come to find out that this story was given to Robin, who was a summer intern at the PJ and there has been no follow up. So sad, when the Book Festival was just getting some major attention for the literary community and the downtown location was such a pleasant reminder of what Vero can be. Suppose we'll just have to hoof it on down to My-am-ah to get the real deal and catch Dave Barry and the Rock Bottom Remainders:
http://www.miamibookfair.com/


Well now that we finished our morning Java, time to see what manner of things we have planned for our week and see if our friend, the South Beach Queen has something more valuable for us than Gloria gossip. Like maybe, a guest room for Miss Vero in that South Beach Condo during Book Fest week!

MWAH!

missvero@live.com

GEORGE BLESS YOU

Thank goodness George Carlin has taken over for God. We prefer worshiping George anyway, he absolutely makes more sense and there's no question about what he looks like. We were wonderin when somebody would finally challenge those God billboards. Here's a clever you tube thingy called "Dueling Billboards":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mziE5zu_Z0U

Now y'all might think this is some picture Miss Vero got offa the internet, but children, Miss Vero done took this photo our self! The Palm Beach playboy's generous birthday gift to Miss Vero last year was a super cool digital camera and we are enjoying takin and postin pictures for y'all. This particular billboard is on the east side of I-95 headin south, just before Indrio Road. There's another George Carlin quote headin north, just after the Fort Pierce exit. Why? We don't know. We can't find out a thing about them, but we like 'em well enough to take a picture.

Imagine, Miss Vero stopped by the side of the road snappin a picture, like some fool tourist. First we had to drive to the middle of nowhere to find the side road, so we wouldn't be stoppin on I-95 and then we had to get out of the car in an old orange grove, which we do not like one bit. Here's our biggest fear:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/05/16/giant-python-florida.html

With a twist from Dave Barry:
http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2005/10/python_vs_gator.html

And too close to home:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/dec/11/3016-foot-python-bushwhacked-by-roadside-mower/

So y'all better appreciate that we postponed our cocktail time and stood in tall grass to get this picture.

We are sufficiently spooked now by all this slitherin talk, it reminds us too much of politics. Best to sit down and mix up a batch of martinis, that oughta quiet Miss Vero's frail nerves.

MWAH!

missvero@live.com