I can see the bumper sticker now:

"My penis is a Libertarian, and my penis VOTES!"

I would do: Probably around 60-70%, going on looks alone and erring (if at all) on the side of low standards. This isn't that many, though, as most of the people I deal with day to day are of the wrong sex (*sigh*).

Would do me: None.

Sycamore: I believe him. Philadelphia is an ugly city, particularly on public transportation.

That I am. A New Jersey native transplanted to Manhattan - I am a living cliche. Now I work for the AP, the mother of all news companies out there. I don't do nearly as much as I did at the Courier Times, but I somehow feel more ... important. :)

Basically I write about 40 or 50 200-300-word spot news briefs every day. And when I'm not writing I stare at my boss' ass, which is incredibly firm and beautiful. And the woman who sits next to me, who has enormous knockers. I would totally nail both of them, preferably at the same time.

Once again, this morning on the subway I sat across from an incredibly hot woman with no ring on her finger ... but it didn't look like she was going to work, just shopping on 5th ave. Hrm.

Fancy giving some career advice breakingnews? I'm considering a change of career - want to become a writer (freelance), news/articles/reviews etc. Any tips? (That said tips not tits. Tips. Hello? Stop staring at her!)

he'll give you a tip, and if you don't like it, he promises to take it out.

Sick, very sick, LJ.

Kind of reminds of that line ... "You got any chinese in ya? You want some?"

Anyway, career advice? Just get out there and do it. Be willing to work anywhere and do anything, especially if you're only breaking into the journalism business and don't have much experience.

Best way, in my opinion, is to freelance for bigger local newspapers. If you're fortunate enough to string for a larger publication, you'll undergo the same editing and advising as a staff writer, which is something you need to become familiar with early on. If you prove your ability, they'll even start calling you to cover the big stories when the regular beat reporters can't go.

Smaller pubs are great for getting published, but typically they're understaffed and will likely run your copy untouched, which isn't always a great thing for trying to improve.

All writing starts from the basics, which I think is newspaper writing. Once you're comfortable with that, then start approaching magazines and newsweeklies, or get your hands into whatever it is that you want to do.

i thought you might appreciate that. it IS the sexuality thread. just trying to head off an imminent threadjacking.

Thanks, bn. Lj, I'm ignoring you ;)

I don't think I want to work for a paper - or be a journalist as such. I want to work for myself. Think I am more drawn to the idea of writing whatever I want, without criticism, in my spare time, on a beach, gaining rave literary reviews and earning shitloads for it.

Btw didn't mean to turn the thread into a 'lets-talk-about-meee' opportunity. Back to the topic at hand. What percentage of people who you do want to fuck do you think you have a chance with? And this is different from the how-many-people-would-want-to-sleep-with-me question - look at it as your rejection quotient.

Depends how/when/why you meet them really doesn't it?

I hear having a fatwah issued against you can help raise your profile ;) (I'm a huge rushdie fan, just couldn't help that one)

I'm trying for one over in the philosophy corner... :rolleyes:

Do they read your Cellar posts?? :angel:

I think ... there are very few people in this world that inherently write well. One is a journalism professor/friend from college who won a Pulitzer for her coverage of the civil war in the Philippines. She claims writing is a torturous process for her, but she will write, off the top of her head, 500 words of the most concise, brilliant, mind-blowing prose I have ever read.

Even if you don't want to work for a newspaper, I strongly recommend writing freelance for some periodical, just as practice. It will teach you a) how to structure editorial pieces, and b) how to approach your topics in different ways. I'm not a huge fan of ESPN.com's Page 2 or 3 because they let their columnists write 3,000 words of incomprehensible shit (Hunter Thompson included). Short and simple writing has been proved time and time again to be the most effective way of getting attention and, subsequently, a fan following. Then as an artist you can fill in the gaps with flowery language.

That will be especially helpful for reviews - good ones require a certain knack for compression without losing catchy language. And if you begin a rant with a 400-word introduction about *why* you're writing that rant, I promise I won't read it. :P

I hope not. But I think they can see in my eyes (and in the saliva trickling from the corner of my mouth) the pervertedness that my 23-year-old self has for older women. Especially women in the workplace. Grr baby.

So did you do a straight journo course? How did you end up working for AP? I'm moving in a similar direction and curious to see how you did it.

I fink I is defnininantly one of those peepols.