Y Files

Call me a snob if you'd like, but there's something fascinating about the idea of a newspaper so small towney that it's prepared to report on a MetLife blimp coming to town:

The airship was making its way from Kansas City to Baltimore where it will appear at next weekends Preakness horse race. Crew chief Cory Yglesias said the airship can travel for seven to eight hours before it needs to refuel.

Exciting!

Comments

I would love to ride in a blimp when I grow up

Posted by balzar | May 13, 2007 1:39 PM

Auto-googling again, I see.

Posted by jim | May 13, 2007 1:45 PM

Okay, you're a snob and apparently, proudly so.

One day you may even become a broder, the true voice of the people.

Posted by jerry | May 13, 2007 2:10 PM

Normally I'd jump on the snarkwagon with you, but in fairness to the Fulton Sun, the paper wasn't so much reporting on the blimp as much as it was filling space with the picture of it.

Having worked for a couple years at a small town paper (and having written a regrettable story about a local hot-air balloon company), you learn to take what you can get.

Posted by br.ian | May 13, 2007 2:12 PM

An excellent book on the subject of such airships is Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon.

Posted by Garuda | May 13, 2007 2:13 PM

I think you need more posts about blogging and vlogging than about people that have figured out how to get paid for traveling around the country riding around in a blimp 8 hours a day.

Posted by jerry | May 13, 2007 2:14 PM

You have no soul, Yglesias. Blimps are awesome.

Posted by Christmas | May 13, 2007 2:18 PM

Why hasn't anyone talked about the real reason MY posted this? Is it because Cory is Matt's relative? Or just that the story mentions another Yglesias?

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | May 13, 2007 2:21 PM

Well, don't get too snooty.

but there's something fascinating about the idea of a newspaper so small towney that it's prepared to report on a change in the elementary school lunch menu in some nearby town, and on the front page of their website too!

Posted by JimPortlandOR | May 13, 2007 2:57 PM

It's not small-town if it just covers the town. Our local paper is the same for the whole damn county, and even covers part of the next county:

http://www.plumasnews.com/

Posted by Kurt Montandon | May 13, 2007 5:57 PM

Matt doesn't even realize how big a snob he is. This is Fulton, Missouri in a nutshell: Matt Yglesias scoffs, while Winston Churchill makes speeches for the ages!

I've been there and it's a perfectly nice place.

Posted by Steve | May 13, 2007 10:09 PM

Thanks for the useful info! I saw that blimp on Saturday and wondered what the hell it was doing out in the middle of nowhere. Now I know.

And, yeah, the Fulton paper is pretty small towney, largely because it's a small town paper. The Kansas City and St. Louis papers cover the national news for those folks, and the two Columbia papers cover the mid-Missouri beat, so stuff like this is about all that's left for the Fulton guys. Well, that and high school sports.

Posted by Mike | May 14, 2007 9:58 AM

Matt, I used to work as an intern at my hometown's weekly paper, the Duxbury, Mass., CLIPPER (as in the ship; this is ironic, since the introduction of technologically-advanced, deep-keeled clipper ships destroyed the town's thriving ship-building industry in the 1850s; but I digress); and you really have no idea how little news occurs. There are certain big weeks or months -- the Town elections and Town meeting in March come to mind -- and certain big events -- high school sports or, insanely enough, the Prom -- but on a day-to-day basis, not much happens. There are days I would have killed for a blimp to cover instead of the Yacht Club Swim Meet for children aged 8-11 or some other such crap.

On a related note, this really is a pretty snobby post, betraying a total ignorance of life anywhere outside of Manhattan, or, more recently, Cambridge and DC. It even rubs an avowed Eastern (albeit rural) elitist like myself the wrong way.

Posted by Ben Cronin | May 14, 2007 11:18 AM

How ironic that this post is immediately preceding one where Matt talks about the traditional entry into the journalism world.

Not everyone is so lucky to jump straight into the elite world of punditry. For most of us early, 20-something recent college graduates, we have to start out at a Fulton Sun. That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm covering 5-year-olds who play classic rock covers in family restaurants, homebrew beer tasting competitions, and charity fundraisers hosted by local motorcycle dealerships. Is it really that foreign a world?

Posted by Mickey | May 14, 2007 12:03 PM