Recently THE WORDWRIGHT set out to write only good news, or at least prod himself to concentrate or prioritize efforts to find good news to write about. Interestingly enough two readers of THE WORDWRIGHT made contacts that demonstrate that good news is still alive and well.

Philip Wheeler, from Dallas, Texas, e-mailed informing me the good news he “heard a Glen Beck story last week that stated that CNN has reduced it's wartime reports by 96% since January 1. Some would suggest that it's because the presidential campaigns are garnering the limelight. Glen suggested that it's because we are finally winning the war and there's not as much anti-war rhetoric to propagate.

THE WORDWRIGHT readers may recall the comment by JC Lamanna, of Syracuse, NY, and how he decried the faulty news gathering of today because all they seem to want to talk about is the presidential hopefuls. The good news is, there are other events going on in the world and our two people – one in Dallas, Texas (a professional pilot) and a transplanted Ohio Buckeye in Sweden who remembers a part of the “good old days” when a former Ohio State University college professor of French used to play “The Song of India” on his morning radio program, “The Early Worm.”. It sure was good news to uncover this information and take our minds off some of the hackneyed news that can boggle the mind.

Another way to describe the good news that surfaced during the last four or five days is to be assured that it is still a small world after all, and the joy of finding a handful of people who rekindled some forgotten facts in our minds proved the good in what might be called the 8th wonder of the world – the Internet. I have written a lot of letters in times past and if I were to be involved in a similar project using the means at my disposal 15 years ago, I would not have even gotten a response from my first contact mailed March 30 – and here within 4 more days the mystery is solved; and I have been informed that a new found friend in Sweden is listening to a copy of the recording made by Tommy Dorsey of “The Song of India”. Who knows, there might be a real jump in that song’s popularity. Those of us who remember Irvwin Johnson, would really find reason to swoon were we be able to replay some of The Early Worm’s actual programs, but that seems to be something that wasn’t meant to be. (There are some old-time radio serial programs “in the can” but a local program like Irwin Johnson’s unfortunately was not in the cards.)

This experience of bringing memories back for a former (Columbus, Ohio) WBNS-TV employee, now in Sweden, was given a special tweak when I looked back into my copy of Robert MacNeil’s “Wordstruck”, and this passage from Page 23:

“Laid down is a term with many associations—the keel of a ship to be built; fruits preserved for the winter…It is the term they use in sound and videotape editing when one track or sequence has been recorded and others will be added and mixed together. It must be with words as it is with music. Music heard early in life lays down a rich bed of memories against which you evaluate and absorb music encountered later. Each layer adds to the richness of your musical experience …harmonic patterns embed themselves in your consciousness…create yearnings for repetition, so that you can relive that pleasurable [time] for the soul. Gradually, your head becomes an…instantaneous recall and cross-referencing, far more sophisticated than anything man made.”

YES!! And it sure helps to have the Internet around to find those almost lost-to-our-memories of Tommy Dorsey’s great sound of “The Song of India.”

I just about forgot – now there is one more person who will be receiving June Bassemir’s GOOD EGG AWARD -- a very helpful research librarian in Worthington, Ohio! A GOOD EGG AWARD will soon be on its way to Worthington. If you know of a special person who you think deserves a GOOD EGG AWARD, let me know: billvenrick@thewordwright.org and I will get the word to June Bassemir who makes up these unique awards.

THE WORDWRIGHT