Housekeeping

Two quick items for you:

1. Some of you have written me over the past week or so, saying when you try to comment on my blog, your comment is bounced back as spam. I've done some homework, and my good buddy Albert F. one of the Web gurus here at the Miami Herald, tells me that the naughty word filter we use is so intense that it sometimes finds naughty words where there are none. For example, the filter recently blocked a comment from our friend Claudia, 'cause it isolated "ass" in the name Claudiasskippingstones... Yeah, I know. That's harsh. At any rate, Albert is working on loosening up the filter so it doesn't block comments that way. And for those of you who want/need to cuss in your comments, you know me: I don't really care as long as what you're saying isn't blatantly, mean-spiritedly racist, sexually violent, or insulting to my wife...or my mother. So if your comments have been blocked, email me and let me know, so we can do something about it. In the mean time, until we get that filter fixed, if you must say anything stronger than "damn" try to use the watered down version of whatever word that is.
2. I used to do a better job of sharing my articles with you guys. But I got lazy. So if you're not a South Floridian and didn't read the Miami Herald or MiamiHerald.com on Monday, here is a link to my most recent article - a profile of a former Saturday Night Live cast member-turned-author.

Comments

[The Sarcasticynic]

I don't know if this comment will go through or not, but my former employer's filters banned "Parts Express," (www.partsexpress.com,) an online retailer of audio/video products, because it found "sex" in the URL.

[claudia]

Gosh darn tootin!! :P

[Sharon]

Yay for filters & other designed forms of watchdogs!

Trouble is, we know what we mean, we just have difficulty explaining it to the stupid program.

[ceo]

I guess that the paper really wants you journalists to play it straight, and the rest of us too.

[James B.]

Monty, that's probably part of it. But honestly, much as I take jabs at the "corporate machine," they're pretty easygoing about blogging. I think the unwritten rule for reporters who are also bloggers is that they never get so carefree on their blogs that it will cost them their credibility when they're out reporting a real story.

[The CEO]

I don't know if it's because my best friend gThis is why I'm not a journalist.rowing up was a newspaper journalist who then also went on TV or just instinct, but I have come to think of you as a normal human being outside of the blog and the newspaper gig. I know that the paper has to worry about appearances, but there's no substitute for personal responsibility, and I mean the kind that you talk about in the blog. That's probably the longest, and worst two sentences ever written.

[James B.]

Monty, thanks! Not a lot of people have called me normal. And your sentences were fine. I write 'em clunky all the time.