Cameo

Writer Jon Blackwell makes his first special appearance on my weblog.

Please join me in welcoming him.

=======================================

Valerie likes to hear my stories of writing headlines for The Post, a job that could be likened to limerick-composer or bathroom graffiti artist -- a lot of fun with creative writing, but hard to take seriously. Her chuckles at a good headline ("That's so droll" is a favorite) is one of the delights of the job.

Today I told her of a headline I wrote for a story about the unveiling of a design for Robert De Niro's new hotel. (In case you hadn't heard about it before, De Niro is the principal partner in a $43 million project to build the luxe development in TriBeCa.) It was pretty routine stuff, but easy to remember at the end of a busy day: "ANALYZE THIS HOTEL." Then I told her about my frustrations that one story I wrote a headline for never made it into the Post. This was about a team of experts who are digging up the body of Petrarch (13th century Italian literary great, namesake of the Petrarchan sonnet) for archaeological study. This one was PROFS TO PARSE PETRARCH'S BONES.

But when I segued from one headline to another, I apparently didn't make it clear I was talking about two different stories. So Valerie's reaction was: Why are they putting Petrarch's body in De Niro's hotel?