In a Pickle...

Three Hours at a Pickle Factory
By Maggi Stivers

From where I had been placed to work, it was impossible to see exactly where the pickles were coming from, but they had started slowly to pass by us on a conveyer belt. Kelsey and I and two other workers stood on a bench around a foot higher than the ground. Right in front of us was one of the conveyer belts, and then there was an empty space with a metal box underneath to catch the bad pickles. On the other side of the empty space there was another belt with another set of four employees doing the same thing as us. Approximately, seven feet behind them was the exact same set up.

We were the first human interaction that these pickles had since they came inside the factory. It was our job to pick out any bad pickles that passed by us. At first, there were only around ten or so pickles in front of us at a time, but quickly the entire width of belt was full. Every where I looked, there was a bad pickle. It was a quick process of seeing a pickle with a section missing or discolored, picking it up, throwing into the middle and repeating. From time to time, the conveyer would stop and force us to just stare the same pickles for what seemed like forever.

After the pickles had the majority of the bad ones removed and had past by all four of us, they would tumble down the belt and continue on the path to be placed in a jars at the end. I honestly have no clue what happens to the pickles after they pass by us. The factory seemed to have machines that would fill up half a football field. All I know is that at the end of the line, the jars of pickles were ready to be placed into a cardboard box, which is then placed on a pallet full of boxes and moved into the warehouse.

The Gedney Pickle sign
indicating the front entrance
of the plant. 

Gedney Pickle Factory is and has been located in Chaska, Minnesota since 1893. Originally the company had locations in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Chaska, Omaha and Kearney, Nebraska and Mauton, Wisconsin. However in 1958, the entire operation moved to a new warehouse in Chaska. This location is where I became involved with the pickle factory. My friend Kelsey had been hired earlier in the summer and told me that they were always looking to hire college students. All I had to do was call the boss,  tell her I was a friend of Kelsey’s,  and that I was interested in working there. After several unanswered messages, she called me back and invited me to come in for an orientation meeting and start working the day after.

The plant entrance, which was used by most factory employees, was the only set of doors along south east side of the building. This entrance was not only convenient because it led directly into the factory but also because it was located directly across the road from a trailer park where a large number of employees lived. At the start and end of both the morning and the evening shift, employees would cross the road in herds.

In a Star Tribune article, written by Janet Moore addressed how the Chaska area is being referred to as the "rural-Metro Hispanics" by demographers. In the 1980's the census determined that only thirty-five Latinos lived in the town. By the year 2000, there was 1000 and the population has continued to rise. The article attributes this to the discovery of cheaper housing available within the area. The trailer park, which housed both a  large number of both Latinos and Gedney Pickle Factory employees had been nicknamed "Pickle Pits." 

The floor of the factory was cement and different markings along the floor referred to different things. There was a thick red line surrounding all the machines, anywhere inside the line a person needed to be dressed appropriately which included gloves, a hair net and ear plugs. The pickles started out by passing on the part of the line where Kelsey and I had been placed.

The plant entrance of the Gedney Pickle Factory. 

When I had first learned about an opportunity working at a pickle factory, I wasn’t even considering looking for a new summer job. I had planned on working at the pool where I had worked since I was a junior in high school. At the pool, depending whether I was life guarding or teaching swimming lessons, my pay rate changed but I was making around $9.60 an hour. The only part that was slightly negative was that it was a fight to get hours with so many college kids being back. This fact is what pushed me to take the idea of working at the pickle factory more seriously. The pay at the pickle factory was only $9 an hour, but it was a full time job with some opportunities for overtime.

Before I had actually ever stepped foot inside the factory, Kelsey and I both heard different stories from people that we knew who had worked there. Kelsey’s brother had spent a whole summer working there in high school and her cousin worked there for an hour before throwing up due to the smell. Her brother had told us, that it was best not to let the Mexicans, who were a large percentage of the employees, know that you could speak or understand any Spanish. While we were working, I didn’t really know why we weren’t supposed to. However, I asked Kelsey about this more recently and she explained that if the Mexicans knew we could partly understand what they were saying, they would stop speaking. Keeping our knowledge of the Spanish language a secret allowed us to be able to spy on what they were discussing while at work.

As soon as the pickles began to pass by us, the smell was everywhere. There was no way to prevent you from this smell. I’ll admit I don’t like pickles, but I never thought they could produce this kind of smell. My first day of work I didn’t eat any breakfast and when I get hungry, I get terrible headaches. I had felt like my head from going to explode but I had to stand there for three hours feeling terrible. At some point, I realized that this was not how I wanted to spend my summer. I would rather work less; make less money than have to be a part of this organization. Meanwhile, the pickles continued pass by and at one point I began coughing so much that I couldn’t control it. I felt like my body wanted to throw up but I didn’t have any food in my stomach.

The back side of the Gedney Pickle Factory.

This was my first and last day at the pickle factory, and I returned to my summer job at the pool as planned. It was really hard telling and explaining to people why my job there didn’t last. Kelsey had worked the entire first shift, but ended up quitting as soon as it was over. However, she had quit for totally different reasons then me. After I had left, several of the Mexican men had made physical references to her chest and spoke in Spanish about her body. She had even told the boss about why she was leaving, but was unable to do anything legally about it because she said she couldn’t identify which men had done the actions.

Her and I have still remained close friends after this experience, but what we wondered is how come only primarily Mexicans work there? The pay is equivalent to a decent part time job, making more than minimum wage. It’s definitely not the best job out there, but if it pays the bills what’s differences between picking out pickles to flipping burgers at McDonald’s?

Here is a video about the Gedney pickle factory which was featured on the television show, America's Heartland.

All Photos Taken by Krisitin Stivers

LAST BLOG POST!

Chapter 3 to 5

This week for class, we had to read more of the book Methland the reading told us several different peoples stories who were either smoking meth themselves or had their lives affected by the drug. Of the several different stories, which were mentioned, I found Lori’s the most interesting. Lori got her start in the world of meth when she dropped out of high school at age 15. Lori’s landlord let her trade paying rent or delivering illegal pills to the landlords clients. At age 18, she was married for the second time, and her real meth business began. Her husband’s brother gave her some meth, some for her to smoke, some to give away and the rest to sell. At this point, Lori knew she was this is what she was born to do. Lori eventually started dealing directly with the Des Moines middleman, rather than her brother in law. Soon after that she switched to dealing directly with the Long Beach supplier. Lori had made enough money to buy a car dealership, 52 racehorses with trainers and a horse farm. In the back woods of the horse farm, Lori was able to build her own meth lab, so she could make her own meth. However, after much “success” in the world of selling meth, Lori ended up receiving 10 years in federal penitentiary and as soon as she got out she went right back into the business of selling meth.  The story of two brothers, Clay and Charlie, who lived in Oelwein, Clay was a doctor who referred to the meth in the town as a “ sociocultural cancer.” Charlie ended up moving out of the town with his family because he could not deal with the meth taking over the town. Also mentioned in this section was one Mildred Binstock who was the owner of the The Do Drop Inn. The story told regards the history of the inn and meth.  Of all the stories which I read, I still can’t believe Lori’s, I would that someone who started out broker than broke but with a drop of her hat had more money than she knew what to do with. With this sudden change, I can’t believe that she did not get caught faster.

The Meth Epidemic

Chapter 6: Mirror Imaging

This chapter discusses the history of meth in the United States regarding the ups and downs of the number of meth users, the different drugs used to create the meth and the government, both state and national, attempting to end the meth epidemic. In our class, we watched "The Meth Epidemic" a Frontline documentary detailing the history of meth in several different aspects. The facts given in both the documentary and book are the same as they should be.  Off all the history regarding this drug, the most interesting is that to make meth; either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine can be used. They are a very similar drug which both can be used in cold medicines. There is a term introduced in this chapter called mirror imaging, which means the chemical’s molecular structure is reversed. When this process is done to pseudoephedrine it is equally effective when used in a cold medicine. When this is done to the drug, it cannot be turned into meth, and there are almost no side affects to the central nervous system. Unfortunately they were never able to produce the drug and bring it to the market.

Chapter 7: The Cop Shop

This chapter tells the stories of people of the town of Oelwein working to make the town as good as it used to be and attempting to get rid of all signs of meth.  Larry Murphy was the man who between the years 2004 and 2005 tried in several ways to run the small lab meth business of out the city. He didn’t get very far and soon turned over the reins to the police chief at the time was Jeremy Logan. Logan was ready to get meth of the city; he started with training the police force with a level of aggressiveness and canine unit including an impressive twelve thousand dollar drug sniffing German shepherd. Logan was always around town, along with his kids and wife. Different people in the town had different feelings about Logan’s work; some thought he should be kicked out while some praised the work he was doing.  In 2004, the police force kicked it up a notch pulling people over any one-thing wrong, even the small things. By 2006, the city had entered Phase II of Logan’s plan that included improving a seven-block area of the town to make it look good which was estimated to cost 4 million dollars. Secondly, he wanted to give the town a new sewer system, which would cost around 9 million dollars. With much work, including grants, higher sales tax referendum, and private donations the town was able to raise the money.

Chapter 8: Waterloo

This chapter started discussing Nathan, once again. At this point in time, he was having a “Girl Problem.” He had moved to Waterloo with Jenny, the girl he had loved who he met at school. Nathan’s parent didn’t approve of their living together before marriage. This continued on until Larry Murphy called to offer Nathan a position as assistant Fayette Country prosecutor and he moved to back Oelwein. The couple stayed together, but Jenny remained in Waterloo. However, the couple continued to stop talking less and less. When Nathan’s brothers died, he brought a local girl Jamie to the funeral. Jamie worked for the Iowa Department of Human Services. Soon, she lost her job, as 9 out of 10 socials in Iowa had. Jamie had taken a bartending job in a town 20 miles away, but also moved in with Nathan. He didn’t tell him parents that Jamie and him were living together. He continued to visit his parents without her, but he would visit her family on holidays.  At the same point in time, Clay was entering a hard phrase of his life. Often he would play a show, have a few too many drinks, and then drive home. Clay was also upset because of the story of a man named Allan. Instead of going to jail for meth use, Allan wore a wire and continued to live him life as normal which included talking to several meth dealers, which the police overheard all the conversations. One night Clay was pulled over and ranted to the officer about the story. The cop claimed that Clay had verbally assaulted him and physically threatened him.

Chapter 9: The Inland Empire: Part Two

This chapter brings back another meth smoker and producer, Lori. After she got out of jail, she moved back into her parent’s house, and got herself a job at the plant trimming hams. While Lori was in jail, the meth world had completely changed. People were relying on local dealers who could only produce small amounts and there was never enough for everyone. Mexican super labs had helped with this problem, they had access to the drug but sometimes they had a hard time getting a customer base because the people of the town, both smokers and non-smokers didn’t like the Mexicans working at the plant and also they didn’t speak the language. Lori was doing well, as not going back to her old habits. She was working hard to be able to move out of her parent’s house, pay her back taxes and every few weeks she had urine tests to send to her patrol officer. Until one night when she went to the bar and had eight beers to remember her eight years in jail, a friend that night that offered her a small amount of meth and she took it. This sparked her addiction to meth again. She started selling small amounts of meth to make quick money, and soon enough she had brought a house, paid her son’s debt and had a boyfriend who she was going to marry soon. Lori herself had also started using the drug herself and paying a co-workers daughter for her urine for her urine tests. All was going well, until Lori sold to an uncover officer. She ended up with seven and a half years in a medium security federal work camp for women. The world was meth was picking up again.

Chapter 9: Las Flores

This chapter contained a ton of information in regards to what was going on in the meth world and continued efforts to stop it. However, I think the most fun part to read about the Las Flores, it was a new restaurant that had opened up in Oelwein. Reding (the author), Larry Murphy, Nathan Lein and Clay Hallberg had all gathered for dinner one evening there. Reding spent several paragraphs describing both the building that restaurant is located in and the people who work there. The temperature of the restaurant is kept so cold that most people keep their parkas on and the walls are covered with random artisanal mementos.

Chapter 10: Algona

This chapter, I found to be super cool because Reding was able to take his own family history and apply it to the meth world, and also his father’s story of being able to get out of the town that we was born and raised in which was Algona, just down Highway 81 from Oelwein. Reding’s father was able to get out of the town simply because he had so many scholarships for room, board and books to Iowa State in Ames (I have friends who go to school there!) He was on the baseball team, although drafted by the Yankees he took a job with Monsanto in St. Louis with his engineering degree, he met his future wife while working there. Working for this company, which was a powerful one, helped end the small town life in America because of their ability to improve the farming world with modernization the system. I really enjoyed this chapter because I love learning about history of people and besides going into details about Reding’s father, he also went into details of how his family came to America.

Chapter 11: El Paso

Malcom Gladwell

MALCOLM GLADWELL!!! I freaked out when I read about Malcolm Gladwell, I find everything that he says or does brilliant. In this book, Reding used a piece that Gladwell had published in the New Yorker in 2008. The article was about the world shifting ideas, which tend to occur to more than one, more but only one person is credited with the concept. An example relatative to the meth story is Lori Arnold, who had a huge effect on the meth world, but without the help of the horse super and others who knew the drug routes she wouldn’t have been able to do what she did. While Jeffery William Hayes, a man of Oelwein was trying to do the same thing, but didn’t have the resources that Lori did. Malcolm Gladwell is known for lots of things, but my current favorite is a TED Talk that a friend showed to be which can be found here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIiAAhUeR6Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player. Here is another TED Talk by him, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpiZTvlWx2g.

The chapter also had a lot of other information regarding the story of a former Mexican drug trafficker named Rudy and the fact that less meth was being made in the USA due to the drug laws.

Chapter 13: Disconnected States

In this chapter, the most intense thing that was written about meth was comparing it to the common flu. As long as the drug world keeps changing and makes the government figure out what they are doing, the system will continue on in this way. This system doesn’t just apply to meth, but it did to LSD, PCP, cocaine, and crack. As long as the drug world keeps shifting, the meth problem could go on forever!

Chapter 14: Kant’s Redemption

This chapter details Reding’s last trip to Oelwein where he had to deal with the harsh winter and slows of the area including having his plane being delayed and driving in a cars that take half the time of the drive to heat up. Reding had revisted Nathan and Jamie, who had gotten a job in a nearby town in her field of work, so she didn’t have to work at the bar anymore. However, Nathan still had not told his parents about her and Jamie wanted to get married and have children. Reding went to work with Nathan in the courthouse one day where a man was back again for violating his probabation was given three years in jail, but everyone knew that he would be out in six months due to over crowding of the jail.  Clay Hallberg had worked to open the Iowa Children Health Specialty Clinics to offer help to child of meth attics and Clay himself had been sober for 18 months. New business had also opened in the town including Lou Ann’s Quilt Garden and Larry Murphy was reelected as mayor for his fourth term.

Chapter 15: Independence

On Reding’s last night in Iowa, he had traveled to visit Major in Independence. Major was doing so much better and currently meth free. He and his son Buck was were doing well, however Major had a free that at some point in time Buck’s long term health could be affected by being around meth as a young child, but these effects haven’t been determined yet. Major was still attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings, had a job and only six more months till he could drive again, but Major still didn’t feel as “happy” as he did when he used meth. However, he was doing much better than other people who’s stories were in this book, Lori Arnold was supposed to be getting out of prison for the second time in June 2008.

Nick Reding

Epilogue: Home Again

I think that the meth world just follow Nick Reding around or maybe it was just one of those right places at the right time things, but after moving to St. Louis in 2008, the local newspaper ran stories about a murder who killed eight people and the entire time he was high on crank. Within the first two weeks of living there, several other stories were run about meth manufacturing within the county.

Another update on the town of Oelwein is that in April 2008, Nathan was elected to the city council, Major graduated from college and his son Buck begins kindergarten in the fall. Lori Arnold was released but within one week she failed her first mandatory urine analysis and was sentenced to five years probation.

Afterword

This gave several numbers regarding meth, drug bills, and different things about Oelwein, but I think that I found to be most unique was that after the book had been published and was on the New York Times best sellers list, Reding traveled back to Oelwein according to Clay, Nathan and Murphy no one from the town had even read the book. The closest bookstore was thirty miles and the library’s three copies of the book had a waiting list of 46 people.

Overall, after finishing this book, I just can’t believe how many people Reding must have talked to this get all these stories and how he connected different things happening at the same thing. This book is a very impressive piece of literary journalism, which clearly would take a TON of effort and impressive memory and note taking by Nick Reding.

New York Times Examples:

A great example of literary journalism was published in the October 27^th edition of the NYT. The story was in the travel section and titled “36 Hours in Cape Town.” The article was separated into different times on each of the days spend in the town. Each of the time periods involved participating in a different event that could be done by visiting. The layout of the article was different than a typical news article due to its arrangement.

A wonderful example of literary journalism could have been found in The Arts section of the November 3^rd edition of the paper. The article was titled “Painful Baby Boom On Prime-Time TV” and written by Neil Genzlinger. First of all this article was written in the first person, which I still cannot believe that these news stories can make it into the NYT. Anyways, the article starts by addressing the fact that several prime time shows have shown several pregnancies.  The article goes on to explain six episodes that involved pregnancies on recent prime time shows. The article also address the prediction the current population being able to maintain the current number of people in the world after watching all these shows which can show the process not always in the best light.

“An Action Hero Who Needed No Words,” was tucked away in the middle of the Weekend Arts section of the Friday, November 4^th edition of the paper. The article address the “not so shaggy dog story with the appeal of a folk ballad or a children’s story” Rin Tin Tin was a dog who has made several different aspects of the world; possibly he was the most famous dog franchise. This article discusses a book written by Susan Orlean about this dog, titled “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.” We have read about Susan’s Orleans work in a different book for this class and also a sample of her writing. I cannot believe I found this example of literary journalism relating to an author who is widely known for work within this field.

In hopes of my idea of doing my own literary journalism piece on a specific person, I wanted to find a sample like in the NYT. Recently the New York Marathon took place and there were several stories about different people who participated in the event. The title of the article is “26.2 Miles to Be Faster at 3.1” which details Lauren Feshman, who was known for finishing seventh in the 5,000 in the world championships. She thought training for the marathon would help her running at the Olympics. The article details exactly what Lauren did the morning of the marathon and the process of how she got the idea for running this race. I really liked this article because they gave so much details and it showed much how much detail there can be in a literacy journalism piece.

I really like how literary journalism pieces can be used to help people realize that there are things that they should have in case of emergencies. This story was called “Dark with Envy: After wild weather, the generator emergences as a status symbol.” The article details what different people did during a power outage, when they didn’t have generators so they would have to spend the night at friends house who had generators or for some families this wasn’t possible because of a larger family.  However, after telling all the stories of how these people were affected with either having or not having a generator. The story continued onto the inside of the Home section of the November 10^th, 2011, and right next to the original article was an article about finding the right generator for you. I think that this can be really helpful because people can be inspired to make sure they have the right generator can reading about people who were affected about their decisions towards generators.

My Own Ideas:

After my previous post on this blog about ideas for my second literary journalism piece I have been thinking a lot of who would fun to read about. I thought about maybe possibly doing a story about an RA on campus. Most RA that I know are so busy, it’s hard to do anything social with them. It might be a unique topic to know exactly what keeps them so busy. However, I’m not one hundred percent sure I would want to write this piece. I really want to make my own literary journalism piece something that both I would enjoy writing and the audience would enjoy reading.

However, I have officially decided to write my literary journalism piece on my experiences working at a pickle factory that I worked at this summer. I hope to include many details of the smells and sights of what I experienced. Also I want to include details of how I got the job. I hope that it will be a great piece, but I’m nervous about getting it down on paper. 

Photo Links:

Meth Epidemic: http://www.findinternettv.com/images/movies/f/frontline-the-meth-epidemic.jpg

Malcom Gladwell http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Malcolmgladwell.jpg/180px-Malcolmgladwell.jpg

Nick Reding: http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1243355919p5/484608.jpg

A Super Day:

Inside the World of a Comic Book Convention

By DJ Haffely and Maggi Stivers

Progress Center, the home to Fallcon 2011. 

 Around the corner of the Progress Center at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and about a football field away from the one entrance, the line slowly moved. People of all shapes and sizes shifted back and forth; a small woman in a black hoodie, a tall man of large girth with an impressive beard, two overweight guy friends with matching Captain America shirts, and many more stood nervously talking. They tapped their feet and waited with anticipation. The line inched a little further. The guys behind us seemed to be walking encyclopedias on this event. They spoke of heroes, villains, and stories that no common person would know. The line inched again. The people who just got to the door were greeted by people in costume. They were referred to as “Blackhawk Soldiers” by the guys behind us. The line moved again and we approached the door. Displays and people in costumes could be seen inside the gateway to the convention. Finally we got through the door and saw everything.

The "Blackhawk Soliders" welcome

guests to Fallcon 2011. 

Fallcon was a convention of superhero stories and the event archives back to August of 2009. People dress up, baught comics, movies, posters, action figures, and much more. Quickly, we emerged ourselves into this new world that neither of us had experienced before. We would find out for ourselves why people came here and why this is drew so much popularity.

DJ: I veered to the right side of the building, as I passed booth after booth. Comics, action figures, and posters lined all the walls of the building. A giant sheet of paper sprawled one of the walls. Here people drew characters to put on display for all to see. People drew demons and heroes on this giant sheet of paper. I even added a drawing of my own. Drawings covered the surface from top to bottom. Some drawings were innovative, some not so much such as mine. The sketches revealed some truer intention of bring together these unique individuals from around the state and beyond.

Comic book artists working hard at Fallcon 2011. 

Maggi: As soon as I paid my entrance fee and donated a canned food item to save a dollar, I headed into the building and found myself surrounded by tons of different tables all displaying several different types of artwork including sketches of characters, comic books, buttons and even puppets. One thing these tables had in common, their artists sitting behind them, proud of their work.

Several boxes of comic books filled the

Progress Center. 

DJ: What was next? Rows and rows of comics. Everywhere you looked comics could be seen. They varied in cost. Some expensive, and some for only 50 cents sat there on the tables and in boxes. Hard core collectors and people there just to see, walked around aimlessly. Many companies of comics could be found there; Marvel, DC, and independent comics. The booths displayed new comic books and old comic books; one box labeled, “straight out of a collector’s attic!”

An attendee dressed up

as the Joker.  

Maggi: One man took the term “costume” to a new level. He looked exactly like the Joker, making funny and creepy faces at all those who looked his way. He seemed to be the best dressed there. His friends also dressed up in costumes like a pirate and a “Watchman.”

The father and daughter looking at

boxes of comic books together. 

DJ: A father and his daughter that was no more than six or seven years old, stood by the action figures. The girl dressed like Storm, from the X-men. She wore a long white robe that had yellow trimming and displayed the “X” logo on her left shoulder.  She begged her father to get her a Wonder Woman doll. She held the doll like her life depended on it but was careful enough not to damage it. She jumped up and down as she pleaded. I could tell by the way he smiled at her that he wanted to get it for her but it costed too much. She walked away disappointed but not discouraged. She continued to flip through the rest of the figurines and some comic books with her dad.

Maggi: I stood near a table filled with boxes and boxes of comic books, pretending to know what I was looking for. A man in his mid-twenties walked up next to me, determinedly looking at the comics in the box beside to me. He seemed to have found what he was looking for. He turned around, showed his friend his discovery and immediately paid for the comic book. He walked away gasping the book so tightly, it looked as if he will never put it down. A smile spread across his face from ear to ear.

DJ: Some tables displayed explicit content. Half naked super women posed on the covers of the fanned out comics. It definitely gave me a clue to why so many grown men attended. 

Maggi: Besides, the grown men, I noticed several older women dressed as  “Cat Woman,” a costume that included tight leather pants, tops and heels some could barely walk in.

DJ: Once through the maze, I ventured to a booth where an artist drew some pictures. His face was round and perched on his nose were rectangular glasses that he kept adjusting as he hunched over his work. He made single paper cartoons. One featured a bird next a campfire in the middle of winter whose wing had gotten caught on fire. The caption above read, “Why birds fly south for the winter.” Another, presented a cartoon Mars and a cartoon Earth. This drawing included Mars talking to Earth saying, “eww, you have people on you!”

The table displaying the puppets, along with several

Fallcon attendees listening. 

Maggi: The table that I most enjoyed seeing included a couple whose display included puppets. They also presented a television playing a DVD of a television show that starred the puppets. I overheard a discussion about them searching for a station or a place to air their product, but of course copies could be purchased. 

DJ: A lottery drawing attracted my attention.  I didn’t exactly know what it was I was trying to win but I knew I wanted to win it. I threw my name in the box with my fingers crossed, and a little kid in a Spiderman outfit was smiling next to me as he inserted his name too.

A poster displaying Fallcon 2011. 

Maggi: I also entered the drawing, but the last question on the entry form asked,  “what’s your favorite comic book?” I had no clue how to answer this question; I never read comic books but, I wrote down “superman” seeing a man walk by with a huge letter “s” on his shirt and figured that would be a good enough of an answer. 

DJ: After the completion of the touring, there was one thing left to do. . . buy something. Being a fan of Archie I walked away, happy with my fifty cent Archie comic book.

Maggi: After walking around the entire building, I realized that there was nothing in room that I would consider spending my money on, not even a comic book for a quarter. However, I did enjoy a free sucker that I picked up from one of the tables.

Leaving the Fallcon Convention was like stepping from a bizarre of supernaturalism back onto the streets of our everyday lives. The place sells people stories where good always wins and there’s always someone to catch you when you feeling down. They sell them worlds that they will never see. All these escapes were sold here and now that it’s over, all they can do is wait until the next one and then dust off their spandex costumes once again.

All Photos Taken By Maggi Stivers

Blog #6

This week for literary journalism we started reading a new book, it is called “True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism” by Norman Sims. Each chapter in this book starts by talking about some specific part of literary journalism and then provides an article written in literary journalism style. Chapter 1 introduction included details of how literary journalism has evolved throughout history. Examples include some authors who were not one hundred percent honest in their articles, including James Fry’s “A Million Little Pieces,” the book was so well written Oprah had made it part of her booklist. However, on air on Oprah’s show, he confessed that he had made up several different parts of the book. The introduction also includes names of several literary journalists who were known for their work. Lillian Ross is one of those people who was an  American journalists who has worked at The New Yorkers magazine since 1945. In her writing, she tries to make the narrator invisible.

The literary journalism piece included with this chapter was called “The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy” by Michael Paterniti who wrote a piece regarding a plane crash. He started the piece in a very unique with discussing what other people were doing that lived where the plane crashed when the plane went down. He then went back into the past and discussed different people who were all going to be boarding the plane later in time, but were completely disconnected at this time. There were very few names given to characters (real people) in this article. People were identified either by physical description, occupations or family members. The hard part to think about a story like this is that the reporter and author had to talk to so many different people to figure how exactly what took place that day because he himself was not there.

The next week we had to read another chapter from the same book, Chapter 4. The introduction discussed how newspaper during the depression did not report on what was going on. The only places stories were published about the depression were the different magazines. Although this chapter started off and later used a quote that I think really sums up literary journalism. Harry Hopkins told this to his reporters before they set out, “go out around the country and look this thing over. I don’t want statistics from you. I don’t want the social-worker angled. I just want your own reactions, as an ordinary citizen…Tell me what you see and hear. All of it. Don’t ever pull your punches.” I think this quote can be applied to my own literary journalism writing because I need to add more detail and explain exactly what I do see and hear and feel is going on with what I am doing a story on.  The article included with this chapter was titled “The Jumping-Off Place” by Edmund Wilson. The first two and a half pages are describing a hotel; there is so much description and detail in this article. This article also links back to the quote and can inspire me to write with more detail, and there is no much thing that too much detail.

We as a class opted to read, “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town” by Nick Reding. After reading the Prologue and the first two chapters, I really was not too enthused to have to continue to reading. There were so many facts about meth that I had to force myself to continue reading. Also lots of events described that took place regarding meth were terrible to think about. An example of this would be the story of Roland Jarvis who to avoid going back to jail and to cover all evidence of his meth lab in the house of his mother, poured everything (all his chemicals) down the drain and then light a cigarette. This led the house to catch the fire. Jarvis kept running back into the house and even started to help. At the end his has lost his fingers and his nose. However, he still  found a way to smoke the meth rather than inject it because without his fingers he didn’t possess the physical ability to inject it into this body.

For my own ideas, I have been seriously considering something that would actually be possible and fun to read for my own literary journalism piece. I would really love to do a piece on my dad who has been in the military since he has been 18, but my dad is not a very talkative guy when it comes to this kind of us stuff. Over the years, I have heard bits and pieces of things that he has experienced but I think it would take a lot of persuading of my dad to get those details.

Great examples of literary journalism can be found in the dining section of the New York Times. In this weeks paper, there was a great article titled, " There's the Wrong Way and Jacques Pepin's Way." The article is a great example, the article started on the front page of the section but later on had a full page of several photos of the chef and even a few of his recipes.  The article starts with a very catching unique topic of how a the kitchen sounds when this great chef is cooking. Then he moves into the topic of knives being used for cooking, which I learned than several amateur cooks tend to keep their knives to dull for proper use. He also explains the proper way that a knife should be used, then the author mentions that he himself traveled to the the chef's house. I found this aspect to be very unique because (even thought at this point I have read several literary journalism sample pieces) I still find it hard to believe that this would ever be okay in a news article, but literary journalism is about breaking the rules. Next, the author mentions that the chef has a new book coming out, which is the overall point of writing this article. I also learned that most literary journalism pieces need a lesson learned or have a reason for writing.  Overall, this was an awesome example of this kind of writing.

  

PHOTO LINKS:

True Stories: http://robaroundbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/True-Stories-by-Norman-Sims.jpg

Methland: http://www.emorycfde.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/methland1.jpg

Blog #5

Jon Krakuer was the author discussed into this week’s assigned reading. Krakuer discovered one of his main subjects of writing and a lifelong obsession of mountaineering due to his father. The pair first attempted to climb a mountain when Krakuer was only eight years old. However, his father had also wanted his son to follow his career path as a doctor, but while interviewing at the schools on the east coast, a fellow applicant informed him of Hampshire College which was just in its second year of operation. It was an experimental school that led to Krakuer doing his senior thesis creating a new route on an Alaskan mountain.

Climbing mountains led to his writing career because he was soon asked by a magazine to write about his climbs which had never been explored before him. Soon, writing took over his life and he quit his job. Krakuer is mainly known for three pieces of work including Under the Banner of Heaven regarding the Mormon lifestyle, Into the Wild about a man whose body was found in the Alaskan wilderness, and Into Thin Air which discusses his own experience with a group climbing Mount Everest.

From the interview section with Krakuer, I really liked the way he described how to would approach his interview subjects. He said that he would approach a possible subject by sending them a letter or even a copy of one of his books. He hopes that his gives the impression that he is no threat and just a mountain climber or have been convinced to talk to him after reading one of the books. I think this is a very classy way of going about introducing himself than just calling and having them be put on the spot.

This week we were also assigned involved reading the introduction of the book.  The part I really enjoyed about the introduction was when they described literary journalism more as a more of storytelling rather than strictly reporting events and typical events. Also how long each of these stories can take including some that involved more than a decade worth of research.

This week, I also read the interview with Susan Orlean, one of the few women authors from this book and who do this kind of writing. The part that most interested me about this author was the fact that two of literary journalism pieces have been made into movies. Blue Crush was the first film based on one of her articles about teenage surfer girls and Adaptation was the second movie that was based on her writing.  Blue Crush was a movie that I had previously seen but I had not known that it was based on a piece of literary journalism. A section of the original piece of work can be seen by clicking here! I really how the article started which was just simply talking about the hair of these Maui surf girls. After reading this, its crazy to think that so much details could be used explain the hair of a few girls. Literary journalism, I'm learning is all about detail, detail, details. An author cannot have to much detail in a piece on any subject. 

My Own Ideas:

My most recent idea for a literary journalism idea involved a concept called “Extreme Couponing”, which is also the title of a television show that  features people who use coupons in such a way that there bills are very minimal in dollar amount. The last episode that I watched involved a lady whose bill was around $150 with no coupons, and by the end she had a 75 cent credit to the store. There are websites to help find coupons available for people to want to try this at home. However, the process does take a long to plan what exact items to buy and also planning a menu with those food items. Basically I would attempt to “Extreme Coupon” here in Bemidji but also include the fact that I am a college and primarily cook for one, sometimes two.

New York Time Examples:

The front page story in the Thursday, September 29^th edition of the NYT was a great example of literary journalism. The article was titled “In a Quiet Village, Catching Up to a Hijacker,” the article begins telling the reader about the Captain of the plane and his thoughts the morning of the flight. The article continues on to tell the story of what happened and eventually how the hijacker was found. Another story of literary value which was in the same edition was in the Arts section and discussed a photographer and mountaineer who is now using his artwork to focus on global warming. 

Photo Credits:

Into the Wild Book: http://litcirclescla.edublogs.org/files/2010/02/both-into-the-wild1.jpg

Blue Crush Movie: http://www.sweetslyrics.com/images/img_gal/22752_blue-crush-347848l.jpg

Extreme Coupon: http://dealseekingmom.com/files/2011/04/Extreme-Couponing.jpg

Blog #4

Alex Kotlowitz-

This week for our literary journalism class, we started reading our third book containing examples of literary journalism. Each book that we read is totally different and I have no idea what to expect when I open the book. This week’s book is titled “The New New Journalism, Conversations with America’s Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft,” by Robert S. Boynton. After reading the back cover of the book, the book seems like it will approach different authors on their methods, writings, and careers.

http://www.chicagonow.com/eye-on-c
hi/files/2011/08/16182_kotlowitz_alex.jpg

The first article we had to read was called Alex Kotlowitz. The article starts discussing a piece that Kotlowitz had written that turned into a book about two black children who were raised in poverty. Kotlowitz’s second book was two towns on either side of a river in Michigan, a drowning took place in the river and each town had their different stories of what happen.  Overall, Kotlowitz’s writing deals primarily with race.

After the introduction, the book transitions into a question and answer interview session with Kotlowitz. This set up is a prime example of literary journalism, also in the answers Kotlowitz’s discusses the way to he works to produce his articles which are examples of literary journalism.  I really enjoyed reading the answers about how he finds story ideas, since I have struggled with this concept in writing literary journalism pieces and several other writing classes.  Another question I found unique was what type of journalism he clarifies his writing to be because there are so many different types of writing, especially news writing. When Alex starts to interview subjects, he asks the subject to tell him a story instead of asking questions right off the bat, I think this is a very helpful option when starting a story especially when your subject is a child. 

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc-

http://www.simonandschuster.net
/images/authors/1862118.jpg

All the articles in this book are set up the same way, starting with two or three pages in prose introducing the author and their topics of reporting. The second article I chose to read was about Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, an author who is known for writing about a family who was affected by drugs, crime, life and love. After reading the interview section about LeBlanc, it is clear that she likes writing about children because they can make things “uncluttered.”  I also enjoyed learning her writing and editing. First, she organizes all her research into files, separated by events and placed in chronological orders. She writes emotionally rather than chronologically, and attempts to make the connection between all the events that took place. Also after writing her first draft, she makes an outline to make sure everything works as it’s supposed to in the order she wrote it.

Clearly, the way this article is written is a literary journalism example, but the things that are discussed in what way this author writes and works is literary journalism. Her technique of writing and method of reporting combined make a wonderful literary journalism piece. LeBlanc involves herself with people who are going through something worth writing about.

My Own Ideas-

http://www.waconiapatriot.com/articles/20
10/10/28/waconia_patriot/news/news03.txt

Colin Faust is a graduate of Waconia High School, where I also graduated from. He was serving as a corporal in the United States Marines in Afghanistan when he stepped on an improvised explosive device and was nearly killed. His right leg and left arm were both damaged, and his left leg was ripped apart. He has now had multiple surgeries and is now living at home with his parent. He is still taking part in physical therapy. The story I would write would be about the story of his siblings, Cassie and Bryan, and his parents Sonja and Pat and how they found out about his brothers/sons injuries and how this one event has changed their lives.

New York Times Examples-

An example of literary journalism in the Wednesday, September 21, 2011 edition of the paper was on the front cover. The article was titled “Marines Hit the Ground Running In Seeking Recruits at Gay Center.” The article discusses how Marines are allowing gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual into the Marines. The articles start off with an example of a man who had his plan and even had his van parked so he could have a getaway vehicle if needed. The article also discusses how the Marines are known for being macho and manly. They hope that this will make them better than the other areas of the military due to their openness and acceptances of these people without having a don’t ask don’t tell rule. However this will be a slow transition as the article states that there was no huge line waiting outside the recruitment center. The article is an example of literary journalism because it explains in detail each person that arrived and signed up during the first day of that this change has been implemented.  However, there are also specific requirements for being a Marine, you must be a healthy weight for your height, can’t have asthma nor attention deficient disorder.

Another article in the same paper was called “Nickel Sales Just the Tonic For a Soda Foundtain’s Revival,” which tells the story of a fountain store recently opened where you can get an ice cream cone, soda or coffee for only a nickel. The piece is an example of literary journalism because its details the whole past of the building and even the students that come to the store each day for there after school treat.