Old big daily friends, new blogs to talk about

/ July 25, 2014
I can still call her Judy Berman.

I can still call her Judy Berman.

Earthriderdotcom is up from Florida this week.

We’re part of this WordPress world that always comments on each other’s posts, so we’ve had a dinner planned for monnths.

Just 90 minutes prior, as happens, comes a wrinkle. My cell rings at work, but I can’t pick it up. As I walk down the stairs one hour before meet time, I listen. Angottis is closed Wednesdays. I call her back and suggest Rico’s Ristorante.

We all want Italian.

Back in the day, I called her Judy Berman, when I worked with her husband Dave at the big daily for 20 years while she worked at Central New York radio stations and newspapers and we all hung out together and talked lived news.

That’s what media types did in their 20s and 30s. Oh, yeah, sometimes we played softball and drank beer together, too.

Then we grew up and had families. I remember Judy bringing their little ones to those Saturday softball games sometimes.

My old big daily and softball buddy Dave Berman and I.

My old big daily and softball buddy Dave Berman and I.

Then they moved south some 15 years ago.

Dave still works in the newspaper industry, bless his heart, as a reporter for Florida Today. That’s good news. He was a talented editor at the big daily, and I suppose he was in Florida, too. The last decade, though, he, too, was touched by the industry shrinkage. Layoff. After eight months of freelancing, the same newspaper hired him back as a reporter. And he reports that he likes that change very much.

Judy changed her career to become a teaacher, but kept her hand in writing with her cool WordPress blog.

So there we sat at Rico’s, she and Dave and my dear wife Karen and I, and our fellow former big daily colleague Mark Murphy, talking old newspaper stories and new blog stories.

Sure, Dave recognized Karen from the days when she was stationed at the desk in the big daily lobby a quarter century ago. Judy recalled a police beat story for the Utica daily involving former Syracuse chief Thomas Sardino.

Mark Murphy, still in Syracuse, too.

Mark Murphy, still in Syracuse, too.

Mark, now a proofreader for Syracuse ad agency Pinckney Hugo Group and a blogger himself for another site with Murphy’s Craw, talked about writing an online profile as a favor, and how that site editor changed his lead without telling him before it was published. We all felt his pain.

Judy and I bellyached just a bit about how we’ve somehow both escaped the honor of being Freshly Pressed by the WordPress editors. How could that be? My shoulder may still ache a bit from patting myself on the back about how far I believe I’ve grown as a blogger since February 2013.

We talked about how much we like doing this.

Dave enjoyed sharing how their grandson gets a kick out of noting how people from so many different countries read Judy’s blog.

We smiled, and laughed, and the hours went by like the time between the first edition and final deadline.

Here’s the link to Judy Berman’s Earthriderdotcom blog.

Here’s the link to Mark Murphy’s Murphy’s Craw blog.

Have you had dinner with any of your blogger friends? Were you friends in real life first with any of your blogger friends? Would you pick Italian or Chinese to eat with your blogger friends?

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51 thoughts on “Old big daily friends, new blogs to talk about”

  2. Pingback: A Gathering of Friends | earthriderdotcom

  3. Definitely Italian: Texan Italian (you don’t wanna know…) OK; here’s a hint, ‘Frito Pie,’ AKA: “Texas lasagne.”

    I met up with a woman I met in a chatroom once. Neither one of us were bloggers at the time…
    (But that still counts, doesn’t it?)
    I guess I could ‘blog’ about that little rendezvous sometime.
    😉

    Great post Mark
    Cheers my Friend.

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  4. Not yet. I’m waiting to take a road trip to Syracuse. 😉 (And Italian, by the way.)

    As for your evening, HOW AWESOME! It’s so nice to see old friends and catch up after years! What FUN! 😀 Excellent post! Oh, and Happy Two Weeks at the new job! 😀

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  5. I would eat Italian or Chinese or Ice Cream or Bagels or uhm pretty much anything but kidney and lima beans.

    I have met Robin while standing at a Color Run waiting for our run to start in our toe shoes.
    I met Bill in Tampa for lunch and cake and palm trees and mansions.
    I met Kathy and her partner Sara at a coffee house then went to their home then went to a restaurant to look over the downtown events.

    🙂

    I should be having a trip to Syracuse in the next year or so! 😉

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    • I love every part of this comment, Colleen, especially the last part! Of course I read your great post about your day trip for lunch in Florida. I had no idea that you met Robin, though I should have figured my Ohio favorites would have gotten a brush-by at the very least … and back to the future, and, yes, we will have our time, my friend, we and our spouses!

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      • I have a feeling it will include food, music, and food. 🙂 And of course, that trademark smile of yours! Your Dear Wife Karen and my Incredible Husband David are so supportive of our blog worlds. 😉

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  6. I love when two people I follow on WordPress get together in real life! How cool is that? I think I came upon Judy via you!

    I’m friends with a couple of bloggers before WordPress, one of whom encouraged me to start a blog! I have met one blogger from BC. Would love to meet more – if any of my readers are ever in Calgary, Alberta, I will gladly play tour guide and go for Chinese food… or Mediterranean…or Indian… Greek… 😉
    Diana xo

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  7. I met a blogger for lunch one time. She was great company, so it sucked that it was cut short because I had to get back to work. I couldn’t drink Bud Light Lime and be myself. Lol. Looks like you had a great time catching up with friends.

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    • Yeah, it was a great time. You shouldn’t have met when you had to go back to work, Don. Next time, make it Bud Light Lime Friendly when you meet a fellow blogger, if you can.

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  8. I’ve met a number of people from the message board I’ve been a part of for 14 years, a few of us who meet up each year in Oklahoma for a show one of them performs in. I have not met anyone from WP yet, though in fairness, the ties I have with my fellow bloggers aren’t yet as strong as the ones I have with those from the other forum who I’ve known for over a decade…

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    • That’s pretty cool, with the annual Oklahoma trip that’s developed from the forum friendships, ESN. I could see that happening with some of the friends I’m making here on WP, but the miles between us …

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  10. First of all, I have never been Freshly Pressed, that I know of, either! I am not sure why, because there are times, where I feel I almost got the post to be how I wanted it! I will sometime have 100 views or more, than I wonder… What made me special on that day?
    Second of all, I have not been part of anyone’s dinner list, but have a few promises, if they head towards Columbus, to get in touch with me! I loved this post with Judy, Karen, Dave, Mark B. and Mark M. all together again! Lovely and fun gathering!! So happy that you included the photos, so now I know more about Judy, too! I follow her and we occasionally leave replies…
    Lastly, like most hostesses (with the mostest’s) I would ask my guests which they would like. If it were Italian we have a “Warehouse” (Not Spaghetti Warehouse) in Delaware, Ohio, we have an Old Bag O’ Nails, where the fish and chips along with the outdoors patio, with music on weekends, is great, we have “Canton” which is my favorite Chinese restaurant ever!! and we have my son’s restaurant that he is cooking at, “Son of Thurman’s” where the burgers are huge and its roots are from German Village’s “Thurman’s” which has made many magazines for their quality sandwiches. I would let the guests pick, but would like to give my son’s restaurant the business! This is rather long… but a complete essay is now off to be posted! ha ha!
    Enjoy your weekend, Mark and Karen!

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    • They picked the one that closed, and I kept the Italian theme. I think you are right, guest’s pick the flavor and you can steer to the best place, Robin. Of course you should urge us all to go with you to your son’s restaurant when we visit! Karen and I would love it, I bet! 🙂

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  12. How fun, meeting up with old friends, and friends you manage to keep in contact with over the blogosphere. Good friends, good food, lots of laughs and memories. Doesn’t get much better, does it?

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  14. I’ve met one blogger friend and then several other online-forum friends, all have become offline friends ever since.

    I think we would choose Chinese, so we could all share and try each others’ dishes easily 🙂

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  15. We had a wonderful time with you, Karen and Mark Murphy. Rico’s was an excellent choice. We have just two days left in Central New York, and I’m missing it already. Thanks for the shout-out for my blog. It’s always great to see our old friends again.

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  16. I had vague journalistic dreams when I was in high school. I wrote a concert/album review column for the school paper. But that’s as far as it got. Now, it’s just a blog. I respect anyone who’s able to make a go of it.

    I used to be almost bizarrely obsessed with being Freshly Pressed but I’m happy to report it was a passing phase. It’d be nice, but I don’t think about it as much as I used to. That’s healthy, right?

    I’ve had several blogger meet-ups. Lots of folks, sooner of later, pass through NYC. I’m happy to report that every meeting was a pleasure. I wish there were more of them.

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    • Glad to hear that you let go of both dreams, Mark: newspapering and Freshly Pressed. The first was great until its time gave way to this medium, and the second is a slippery slope.

      I’ll shout out if I go down your way, for sure.

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  17. This is so great, Mark. You and Judy are favorites of mine and I love seeing the two of you together — old friends celebrating good times, past and present. Long before I started writing my own blog, I regularly followed a blogger who was coming to Richmond to give a talk. I was nervous about meeting her, to tell the truth. Would the virtual us be as simpatico as the cyber-selves we had come to know? Never fear, it went smashingly, and we are now dear friends. Blogging is awfully good at connecting kindred spirits.

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  21. what a wonderful chance to catch up and continue the relationships you all began so long ago. italian all the way, on this one – comfort food, like old friends.

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