Fire threatens homes in Viera, but firefighters come up big; the real casualty of the blaze? palm trees

Firefighters spray water at the fire, above, and at the trees on someone's lawn, below.

Update: My employer linked to my Floridatoday.com blog from the home page. The Offlede is going mainstream. Uh oh. They also made a photo gallery with my shots.


When I got out of work around 1 a.m., I heard that a fire had burned 60 acres in Viera. It sounded like a good photo op, so I set out to chase down some flashy lights and orange glows.

Driving along Murrell Road, I saw several TV crews doing pretty little standups with the orange sky silhouetting the homes in the distance. So I knew Murrell Road wasn't where the real action was. As usual, the TV guys were miles from the scene. They dared not get their feet wet.

So, I found my way to Starling Way, a little street in a large subdivision with expansive, expensive homes. The fire was burning the pines, palms and palmettos just feet from the buildings. Poor trees.

Then, I got my feet wet. A sprinkler came on as I walked by one house. It soaked my pants, my socks and my shoes.

But I didn't care. I snapped photos like crazy and forgot about it. The heat from the fire dried my clothes anyway.

A group of about 10 youngish-looking individuals were watching the flames behind the homes. Some said they live in the area. Others were the residents' friends who just came to watch a good show.

But apparently, someone forgot the marshmallows. Or do they just not do that here in Florida? Does anybody know about s'mores?

The firefighters stood around and watched as the flames shot 30 feet into the air. They occasionally soaked a tree on someone's lawn or the screening around several of the homes' covered patios. Luckily, the wind was blowing the fire away from the homes and into land that had already burned: It had nowhere to go.

The fire burned southward behind the homes lining Starling Way. It probably burned 400 yards in the few hours I was there.

When it reached a pond, the men stood between the blaze and the marshy area. They spritzed it a few times with their mighty hose. A large stand of palms and palmettos crackled into flames. It reminded me of that bonfire I went to a few years ago when the Red Sox won the World Series.

But that was all. Around 3:15 a.m., there were only small flames, and the firefighters were ready to ship out.

The owner of the house closest to where the fire stopped was grateful.

"I'm so glad it didn't go any farther," he said. "We have a beautiful view of the pond, and I wouldn't want the fire to ruin it."

"Thank you, guys," he said to the firefighters.

"Oh, no problem," one firefighter said. "That was easy."

I took 858 photos, or 1.73 gigabytes of disk space on my new Mac. Looks like an external hard drive is in my future. I'll post video later. I should get sleep first, though.

My first shot when I arrived. This is where I started to get my feet wet.

A couple of concerned residents near one of the more modest homes of the neighborhood. The flames were only feet away, but the wind was blowing them away from the homes.

People, including myself, got close enough to roast a few marshmallows. It was quite safe because of the wind.

One of the younger residents climbed onto his roof to snap a photo. He probably got better shots up there than I did on earth.

One of the less modest homes here. Just after I shot this, the flame flared up two houses down the street, threatening a house. These people scattered when that happened.

Firefighters hosed down the screens of this house's patio area.

Viera = hell?

Nope. Not hell. Firefighters don't go there. Viera, you're off the hook.

The fire brought together a bunch of teens from the neighborhood. Some good, clean Thursday night entertainment! I was talking with a homeowner in the area, and she asked what caused the fire. I didn't know, and then one of these guys said that teens had set the recent brush fires in Brevard County. He said he had no part in any of them, though.

I think the teens had more fun taking photos of the fire than I did. This one used his cell phone.

The burning carcass of a palm tree. RIP. ... Not.

This was the firefighters' last stand. Once this palm was dead, it was done. Good night.

Taking a photo is the only excitement on my 'weekend'

I'm a boring guy on my days off. That's probably because there isn't much to do in Brevard County, Fla., on a Monday and Tuesday, especially during the hours I'm up and at 'em (5 p.m.-2 a.m., when all the elderly inhabitants are calling it a day).

Oh, the agony of being a night copy editor.

My "weekend" usually consists of a trip to Starbucks or Panera Bread for some coffee and a little reading or blogging.

To shake it up a bit today, I stepped out of my car near the Panera in Viera to snap a photo of the rays of sun shining onto one of the expensive housing developments that typify this neighborhood. It's odd because the homes are built on grassy expanses dotted by short palm trees.

Panera is a great place. I get free and unlimited coffee refills, and that's good because I need the heat to keep me warm in the overly air-conditioned cafe. My first cup is caffeinated, then I usually switch to decaf.

Starbucks is quite awful, but it's getting better. The franchise's locations are supposed to introduce free wireless Internet access sometime this spring. But until then, I'll stick to Panera, where the Web always has been free.

I should do a live blog at Panera sometime. Maybe that would be exciting.

So you think you know everything about copy editing?

in review
Smokin' ACES
Denver national conference
a blog series by Andrew C. Knapp

This is a summary of some of my professional experiences at the 2008 national conference of the American Copy Editors Society in Denver. These posts range from the theoretical - ideas about the direction of copy editing - to the practical - a step-by-step guide to editing and headline writing on a tight deadline. This series is directed toward my co-workers at FLORIDA TODAY, other newspaper editors or just anyone who wants to learn something about copy editing.



Copy editing honcho rails against 'wacko' ideas and the people who think them out loud

ACES President Chris Weinandt of the Dallas Morning News kicked off the ACES conference with a little rabble-rousing - well, as much "rabble-rousing" that is possible for copy editors. The idea to outsource copy editing is just ridiculous, everyone agreed.





Newspapers must get dumb to make us smart
Our eyes float toward the visual. Alternative story forms aid comprehension.





Know-it-all copy editors ask, 'What's RSS?'
Copy editors are supposed to know a lot. We are the masters of all. But many at a session I attended were clueless as to how programs such as iGoogle gather headlines through RSS.





Life after journalism would be the death of me
Being a low-level celebrity and meeting high-level celebrities such as Dan Rather are cool parts about being a journalist. These moments make journalism a difficult career to abandon. But there are ways in which copy editors should diversify their skills and knowledge.





Copy editors are stuck in middle of new media
It's difficult to say what role copy editors will play in this new-mingled-media landscape. Will we be editing more? Will we be sitting on the sidelines? Or will we be stuck somewhere in the middle?



Ex-Freep editor is fond of the weird and short
Alex Cruden, longtime editor at another Gannett publication, the Detroit Free Press, reflected on his 40 years in daily journalism. He talked about how it's important to accentuate what makes news, news, and to use short sentences. He provided a step-by-step guide to copy editing.





Words will be words, unless your dictionary says otherwise (but it probably doesn't)
Dictionaries offer some fuel for debate and are often the main weapons of copy editors when attempting to shoot holes in a reporter's deranged word usage. But copy editors should remember: Just because a word is in the dictionary, we don't necessarily have the right to use it.

Trimming fat is big part of copy desk's job
This post is pretty straightforward. Copy editors often are charged with trimming large stories into smaller ones, sometimes considerably smaller ones. Here are a few tips.





Florida Today, small papers stand among giants of online editing
Surprisingly, many smaller newspapers do just as good at editing online stories as the larger papers. I talked about online editing at FLORIDA TODAY.





Premier editing professor Ed Trayes gets it
Temple University professor Ed Trayes has spent decades training young journalists. He knows that it is the flexibility of copy editors in adapting to new media that will determine our future. His keynote address offers several points for us to ponder about the changes in the industry.





Rocky Mountain News-Denver Post tour
On the final day of the conference, a few nice guys from the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post took a large group of editors on a tour of their not-so-humble abodes. Our two guides each tried to convince us that their half of the building was better than the other.

The lighter side of Denver

The following are some of my personal experiences at ACES. These posts are directed at anyone who cares.


Offlede visits real city, can't escape tropical 'plants'
Living in Florida makes me miss real cities with culture. Denver was nice, but I couldn't escape tropical trees.





I'm from Florida; what's all this white stuff?
It snowed in Denver. Co-worker Beth, who has been stuck in Florida her whole life, has never experienced snow to such a large scale: 1 inch.







What food is Denver known for? Mac 'n' chicken, apparently
I was looking for something different on the menu, and I found the mac 'n' chicken, pasta shells smothered in a few types of cheese and mixed with chunks of white and dark chicken meat. It was weird, but at least the carrot cake was good.







Not cool: Hot shower burns at Marriott in Denver
The stream of hot water it spits at me each morning at the Marriott Denver City Center is quite enjoyable, until things go south. About twice during each shower, I have been burned by a burst of extremely hot water.






Copy editing = great; copy editing with a view = even better
I just wanted to pass on a few photos of the view from atop the building.







Denver food disappoints; Burger King has its number
I didn't see any Rocky Mountain oysters (bull testicles) on the Rialto menu, but I still wanted beef for my lunch. It would have been a shame to leave Denver without having beef. So I went with the "Rialto Burger." It was burned and dry.





So long to Denver's mediocre food, time difference, cold air
My blood obviously has thinned during my seven months in Florida. Denver's cold, dry air didn't go over so well.

Smokin' ACES: Rocky Mountain News-Denver Post tour

On the final day of the American Copy Editors Society conference in Denver, a few nice guys from the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post took a large group of editors on a tour of their not-so-humble abodes. Through a joint operating agreement that formed the Denver Newspaper Agency, the two papers share a $100 million, 318,400-square-foot building they moved into in August 2006. (For more about the building, go here.) Interestingly, neither of our guides had seen the opposition newspaper's side of the building (or so they said). Their business ends may cooperate, but they are not allowed in each other's space. Their editorial independence is obvious, too: They guard and pride their own journalism.



Even the elevators display the papers' journalism history. Behind the elevator directional arrow is a collage of historic front pages from the Rocky.

The first stop on our tour of the Rocky was in the break room. The Rocky doesn't print a paper on Sunday, so it was empty on this Saturday. But imagine having a view of the Rocky Mountains, including Pikes Peak, while you're chomping on your bologna sandwich or dry leftover spaghetti. I wouldn't mind. (The view, that is. I could do without my own "cooking.")

John Boogert, Internet news editor at the Rocky, was our tour guide for his part. He participated in the same panel about online editing that I did. He was determined to show us how much better the Rocky's side of the building is. Each paper designed its space independently of the other. Above, Boogert points out the view from the rooftop of Pikes Peak and the assorted government buildings.

The Denver newspapers are right in the thick of the capital. Above are some more government buildings with the mountains in the background.

Here's the gold dome of the Capitol.

I was leaning over the side of the building to take a photo of the mounted statue below when the people walking by it thought I was trying to shoot them. They stopped and posed, so I had to take the photo.

The lone stool in the middle of the Rocky's photog studio has a simple beauty.

This is the view of the Rocky newsroom from the online department. They have nice TVs. But they aren't as nice as my roommate's.

Apparently, every good newspaper must have a Mardi Gras bear. The caution tape probably is hiding all the beer stains.

The Rocky displays its Pulitzer Prizes proudly. The above composition is of the Columbine shootings.

The walls in the newsroom lobby at The Post are covered with punctuation marks. But I don't see an interrobang on this wall?!



Each newspaper did some interesting things with lighting. Above, wall lights line the passageway to the Post newsroom.

Marc Chamberland, head of business copy editing at The Post, was our guide for his part of the building. Above, he stands next to the copy desk.

My bias shows in the number of photos I posted of each newspaper. The score is: Rocky, 10; Post, 3. The Rocky definitely had the polished, sleek, cool newsroom. Sorry, Post.

Smokin' ACES home

Smokin' ACES: Premier editing professor Ed Trayes gets it

Temple University professor and Offlede mentor Ed Trayes delivers the keynote address at the 2008 American Copy Editors Society national convention in Denver.

If it weren't for a single person, I wouldn't be where I am today. I might be reporting at some tiny community newspaper in North Dakota.

But because of Temple University professor Ed Trayes, I'm a copy editor. And I'm proud of it.

I had the privilege of being taught by Trayes for two weeks as part of my training for The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing program. As a fund co-founder, he has led more than 50 such residencies.

After that boot camp last spring, I spent the summer at Newsday as probably its last Dow Jones intern.

It's because of Trayes that I value my role as a copy editor more than I would as a reporter. Copy editors are the quality controllers. We know a lot so that nothing will slip by us, whether it's about Brad Pitt or George Bush.

It was appropriate that Trayes was the keynote speaker for my first American Copy Editors Society national convention. And for a guy who has spent decades training young journalists, he knows that it is our flexibility in adapting to new media that will determine our future.

"No journalist's job has changed more than the copy editor's," he said. "And no group has handled change better, been more nimble, ever going forward, ever adapting, succeeding."

Trayes said that some publications have shot themselves in the foot by trying to attract all audiences through the "slicing and dicing" of content. A focus on a broader readership results in a poorer diet of news.

"So often the competition is we - ourselves," he said.

Today's world is one of shorter attention spans. Instead of actively seeking it, readers want the news to come to them. Commuters at metropolitan train stations will check a box of free newspapers, find it empty, then walk away disappointed - all as a box of 50-cent papers sits full, forlorn, almost untouched.

Trayes said publishers should give away newspapers. Maybe then, we could make those commuters happy.

But the greatest challenge to newspapers, to journalism, is not price; it is time. Technology has trimmed the news cycle from 24 hours to 24 minutes, "probably less," he said. But copy editors will not, must not, get lost in this frenzy.

"Technology ... will not kill us," Trayes said. "As long as there are words to be written, there will be copy editors with whatever at the time is the technological equivalent of a sharp pencil. ... With this in mind, technology and the lifestyles of today - how people choose to get news and information, how they choose to spend their time - will change us."

Technology certainly has changed me.

In the past several months, I have gone from a copy editor of words to a copy editor of media. The new tools that make the news richer - tools such as video, photos, blogs and the general wide world of the Web - must be viewed with the unique and critical eye of a copy editor. We know the genuine from the contrived, the worthy from the weak. When I trained in video editing, I said it is a job that is natural for a copy editor because video is also about details.

After Newsday, I took a job at a company with forethought, with a vision for the future's journalism that is dominated by new media. Copy editors' jobs have changed from the strict editing of words to pagination and design. Now, we must adapt to the online world. And we can't sit back. We must speak up to ensure quality.

"It is up to each of you to meet the challenges as they come while taking an active role in determining what copy editors can and must do in the years ahead," Trayes said.

Some people have criticized my views that traditional copy editors have fallen behind because they have not met the challenges of today's technology. They do not understand how to use it. They do not even understand its uses.

"For at least some of you, if not most of you, the next great battle is online editing," Trayes said. "Editing for Web sites and other venues must have the same standards as print. There is no doubt about copy editing being under attack in this area."

Trayes arrived the morning of his keynote address at the convention's host, the Marriott in Denver. He attended the panel discussion about online editing at which I spoke. I thought his presence would make me nervous, but it put me at ease: I knew he would support, if not agree with, what I said.

In my closing words, I said, "Because of the scrutiny that our Web sites are subjected to, it’s absolute that the next generation of online news producers should be us – traditional, well-grounded, smart and unreasonably critical copy editors. Our reputations are at stake."

In his closing words, Trayes said, "Readers, online and otherwise, count on, depend on, what copy editors pass along as true, accurate and fair."

We may be ignored, but we are not insignificant. We are not powerless.

We are copy editors. We balance the scales of journalism justice. That will never change.

Bill Connolly, formerly of The New York Times, spoke after Trayes.

Trayes and I after his keynote.

Smokin' ACES home