In Which There Is A Flapple Over Apple

The deed was done a year ago; the news
Came from the Patent Office last month, and
Was in the New York Times today. "Let's fuse
Our lovely tech with advertising! Grand!"
Quoth Randall Stross (I paraphrase) by way
Of summing up his thought's on Apple's move,
Applying for a patent on, they say,
A gadget highjack, quite against the groove
We think is Apple's. Make your iPod freeze
Until you prove you've watched the ad it's shown?
Anathema! Yet cooler heads say "Please,
Is this indeed the Apple we have known?"
Perhaps it's just a measure to prevent
Some others making real what we'd resent.

BONUS SONNET: In Which I Celebrate Decades Under The Sun

When I, for one, think of the 70s

It smells of printer's ink. And what I hear?

A newsroom all abuzz with cursing bees,

The clinks and clunks of linotype. I fear

That I am marked for life by all those days

Spent after school on Main Street at the Sun.

How else explain my decades-later craze

To come back home and join the staff? What fun

To have a byline where my Mom's had been

Chuck's, Candy's, Starley's, Cheryl's, Lori's too!

To take the Wallace Biggs again and win

Like they did. Would that I were there with you!

I'm proud to be a Togie writer, glad

That Dick Perue was there, an extra dad.

In Defense of Social Networking Sites

I know some people love to brag about
Deleting a Facebook or MySpace page.
And print and broadcast pundits boasting clout
Just love to act bewildered that the age
Of Twitter has arisen. We're all dupes
Or followers of some pied piper's song,
Fashion victims, or just simply snoops.
The fact that we're ungodly numbers strong
Newsweek et al point snidely to as proof
Of herd mentality, or just no life.
I say let's let the snide remain aloof.
These media are lovely, ripe and rife
With opportunities unguessed to find
New friends, old loves, life weirdly redefined.

Bonus Sonnet on the Casper Star-Tribune

Reducing costs by cutting back on staff
Instead of on the less essential things,
Has come to be so common I can't laugh
To learn that a newspaper also clings
Fast to the thought reporters aren't a need.
That they are what the news can't do without
A quaint idea held just by those who read,
But one the publishers can surely flout.
Cut to a scene just days after the news
Came out and cops and ambulances and
Whatnot were all on scene searching for clues.
But it was no ex-worker out of hand.
"You lost your job? Well here, just have some blow"
Some joker thought, and mailed it, as we know.