Erstwhile Pulp contributor Ellen Dalton, from Greenacres, reports that the Sun-Sentinel is tightening its belt in Tallahassee and that longtime capital writer Mark Hollis has been called back to South Florida. I haven't confirmed any of it, but Dalton also touches on Howard Goodman's move -- I'm told involuntary move -- from the printed page to the Internet:
So the Sun-Sentinel has ended its Metro column in Palm Beach County. (The columnist, Howard Goodman, remains with the news operation -- apparently in some blog-editing capacity) How can a publication that purports to be a major metropolitan newspaper (though it won't be if circulation keeps dropping) not have a columnist in its second-largest county?And, as of last week, the S-S told longtime Tallahassee bureau reporter Mark Hollis that it was cutting back the Capitol operation and that he'd have the option of coming back to So Fla to work to work for the mother ship.
Sounds like Earl Maucker needs a help team to figure out what to do for his sinking ship.
After the jump: DeGroot on Road Rage
And this comes from our other erstwhile correspondent, John DeGroot:
The Associated Press today reported that Miami is the Road Rage Capital of the United States.Now comes the fun part.
How will the local media report the story --- given it’s problems as a minefield of political correctness.
Like among the traditional Five W’s and H, will the local media seek an answer to HOW? And WHY? Miami has earned this dubious distrinction?
Fair question.
With a number of potential answers worth considering that might include:
A. Is Miami full of immigrants still driving like they did where they came from? B. Is the another weird by-product of the Bermuda Triangle and its dark, toxic votex? C. Or is Miami a national epicenter of mental illness. Personally, I like Item C – which I’m sure the local media will avoid like
Born Again Christians in a Whore House.
Fact is, Road Rage is a recognized mental illness psychiatrists have diagnosed as an “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” (IED).
More to the point, IED -- which causes Road Rage – has beem included in the manual psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness for more than 40 years.
Bottom line?
Miami is up to its ass in whackos.
Once more, mental health experts report people with IED (Road Rage) also suffer other emotional disorders and/or drug and alcohol problems.
National studies indicate the disorder typically first appears in adolescence – with the average age of the of IED onset at 14.
Finally, according to Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago’s medical school, IED (Road Rage) involves the inadequate production or functioning of serotonin, a mood-regulating abd behavior inhibiting brain chemical.
But not to worry.
Faced with the potentially disastrous politically correct aspect of this story, I’m betting South Florida’s media will blame Miami’s IED on heavy traffic – as opposed to a puzzling shortage of serotonin spawning a ton of highway crazies (with many of them armed).
