My friend Ellen got a mention in the Wall Street Journal today. The article, while in many respects is a great intro to her language project, Words and Worlds of New York, also demonstrates that when you agree to be profiled, you never really know how you’re going to be portrayed to the world. I guess this is why I’m pretty careful when I write about people I don’t know that well, or at all. And why I’m so careful about to whom I grant interviews myself (Ha ha. Yeah. As if.).
Suffice it to say that Ellen does not aspire to be portrayed by Julia Roberts in a film. I could protest other points in the piece, but if you meet her one day you’ll be able to instantly recognize which ones were also sole products of the reporter’s fevered imagination.
Because the Wall Street Journal is stuck in the 19th century, they apparently do not include URL links in their web articles. I find this almost impossible to fathom. In fact, I still don’t believe it. My interpretation? They don’t want to “lose” readers by sending them somewhere else (note to WSJ: you can open a new browser window; code is “target=new”), so instead they irritate those readers by neglecting to provide them with information they probably want (“Sounds like a great project! I wonder what it’s called and where the hell I can go see it.”)
Anyway, I grumble.
Here’s the article: 13 Tongues, Three Years
Here’s the blog link: Words and Worlds of New York
Filed under: reading | Tagged: ellen jovin, retarded media companies, wall street journal, words and worlds of new york, wsj |
Races Like a Girl 
That’s strange, but I’d be surprised if they don’t want to lose readers. My take is they don’t want links to websites that are prone to changing and becoming dead links. I don’t like “target=new” as I’m not controlling the number of browser windows. Forward/back is better for navigation. One can’t go “back” off a new browser window or tab. If I want a new browser window or tab I like to right-click for it.