Joel On The Road

Who scotched the tale?

Joel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:14:09 +0000

By Joel Thurtell You never know who scotched the tale, Only that it didn’t run. No space! No space! You know that’s bull. You never know why the yarn got spiked, Only that it didn’t run. No space! No space! What a load of crap. One day your story was the greatest thing in News. Talk of the City Desk, Headed for Pulitzerdom. Next thing you know, [...]

Class party

Joel — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:58:30 +0000

By Joel Thurtell I’m still amazed at The New York Times thinking they can charge me to reprint a story I wrote for their newspaper 30 years ago. It stinks. They paid me seventy-five bucks in 1979, worth $211 in 2007 dollars. How much do they plan to charge me to reprint my own words? Five hundred twenty smackers! $520. More than [...]

Big Ed’s ghost

Joel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:34:43 +0000

By Joel Thurtell We at JOTR are firm DISBELIEVERS in any kind of occult happenings, yet the appearance of an e-mail purportedly from the Other World piqued our curiosity. Its claim to have come from the late Wayne County executive, Edward McNamara, by itself seemed to argue for its genuineness. Why in the world would someone [...]

‘Up the Rouge!’ talk and photo exhibit

Joel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:24:36 +0000

Redford District Library A collection of Patricia Beck’s photos from our book, Up the Rouge!, Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River, is on display at the Redford Township District Library now through November 14. The book, written by Joel Thurtell, was published in March by Wayne State University Press. On Saturday, November 7 at 1 p.m., at the [...]

Varnishing Detroit’s ‘Free’ Press

Joel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:07:14 +0000

By Joel Thurtell There was a time back in the 1980s when The Detroit Free Press killed not one, not two, but THREE editorial cartoons lampooning then U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese. Bosses were afraid those unvarnished drawings might prompt the AG to kill the coveted Gannett/Knight-Ridder Joint Operating Agreement between the Detroit News and Free Press, [...]