Comic relief

I'm finding a new role in my life. Of all things, I'm providing the comic relief.

Jess was "strongly recommending" I make an entry onto our wedding blog site, mentioned elsewhere in this blog. She said she needed something on there from me, since I served as "comic relief" on that site.

I might be comic relief in her life, but most people never get a chance to see that side of me. I'm often reminded of something a girl in high school said to me on graduation day: "I never knew you were funny. If I did, I might've talked to you more."

For some reason, I've never been that comfortable letting people see my silly side. I don't know if it's some sort of deep-seeded fear of not being taken seriously or what.

Yesterday Jessica's mom and sister were here for a bit when they returned with Jessica from Columbus. All of a sudden, her niece Emma asked me if I liked spaghetti. The adults said, "Yeah, let's hear your Mr. T."

Lissie, our 4-year-old, and I have several silly games we play with one another, usually involving me making silly voices. One of those is when I act like Mr. T, the gold chained macho man from the 1980s series "The A Team." And for some reason, Lissie loves to hear me say, "I pity the fool who asks me if I like spaghetti. Mr. T HATES the spaghetti."

It's one thing to be silly in front of a child, but you feel REALLY silly doing that same impression in front of adults who, up to that point in time, probably respected you.

But it reminds me of a more valid point: I'll be embarassing Lissie for the rest of her life. It's time I get used to the humility aspect of it now.

Bigger and better things

I'm taking the week off for vacation. We don't have too much exciting stuff planned to do; Jessica and I both need the time to relax a bit, get some work done around the house and get ahead on wedding planning. (Feel free to visit the wedding blog at http://jessica-david-wedding.blogspot.com/.)

When I get back, I'm in for a new challenge. I'm returning to the ranks of management, where I'm paid more for people I work with to dislike me. I'll be supervising our reporters as the Senior Content Editor, planning out our printed coverage as well as our online coverage.

Online coverage remains one of the great mysteries of newspapers. Generally speaking, newspaper reporters and editors are terrified the Web is going to make them obsolete. That's probably a true statement one day, but we should embrace it.

I become somewhat concerned though that some newspapers might try to be everything to everyone. One example is trying to become a repository for some of those silly movies we all like to look at on the Net. While I'm glad there's that sort of thing on the Net (look at this blog... I love that stuff...), I'm worried about newspapers and newspaper Web sites losing that seriousness that separates them from the competition.

I think it's important to have fun with your words; don't get me wrong with that. But ultimately, news is the job at hand. You have to do your best to make the world make sense to people.

I'd be delighted to come back in a few days and see a healthy batch of comments about what a newspaper Web site ought to be. Knock me out with great ideas.

A Meditation on the Speed Limit

An interesting video link was forwarded to me by a friend, which could just as easily be labeled "Civil Obedience... What happens when people obey the law." Check out the five-minute video here.

The setup is basically this. A bunch of college kids are driving on Interstate 285 in Atlanta and show what happens to traffic if all of them actually drove the speed limit, 55. These kids lined up on all four lanes of traffic, holding everyone to the speed limit (aside from a few aggressive drivers who make fools of themselves in the videos).

I drive a fair amount of time and genuinely enjoy the experience. I'm probably described as a "plus-five guy," as I'll go about five miles per hour over the speed limit. I've often wondered how much more smoothly everything would go if we all drove the speed limit, and this offered an interesting perspective on it.

The video reminded me of one of my biggest annoyances while driving. I hate it when the signs warn you everything merges into one lane, yet there's some imbecile who waits until the last 25 feet to make the merge. I always merge early and tend to let people merge into my lane ahead of me, so long as they plan ahead a little.

I theorize that there would be no backup whatsoever if everyone drove like I did. The line always gets backed up from people having to slow down for the last-minute planners getting over at the very end.