My Journalism Final - in all its Glory.

` Gee, that was a quick break! It turns out that MAL was just making excuses for a couple of days about why he didn't want me on the internet: He just needed a rest.
` Incidentally, you might want to know about my non-technological delay for my post, which includes running around on mountains wearing underwear, high heels and a cape, freezing my butt off. Weee hoo! It was fun! And sexy.
` Photos of alien kittens licking things aside - temporarily - I must abruptly make room for something I've been waiting literally since last June to post (though I've tried to make up for it) - my final from Journalism class (Spring Quarter). ...Because we all know mad scientists require a well-balanced education, right?

` The written portion is transcribed as follows, based on fake 'notes' taken of events that presumably never happened. I think. And there's three parts:

` 1) The Hard Lead.

` Unable to locate a runaway suspect, an officer's quick thinking led her to follow a nearby garbage truck to a landfill where she found the trash-covered suspect in the back of the truck.

`2) The Soft Lead.

` It's best to find the owner of lost money, we all know. Especially when the owner turns out to be close to home.
` Tom and Nancy Dooner of Mukilteo learned this lesson recently when they found a lottery ticket while recycling plastic grocery bags at Safeway. It turned out to belong to their daughter, who was away serving in the Coast Guard.

` 3) The (horribly tragic) News Article:

` Powerful waters capsized the canoe of two Snohomish boys at some expert rapids near Peshatin. Only one has been rescued.
` Brothers Jeffrey Cline, 14, and his brother Richard, 12, were on a camping trip with their parents at a Chelan County Park in Monitor. Their father, Chuck Cline, suggested dropping the boys off upstream in a canoe. Though they were not familiar with the river, the boys had heard from friends that this was a fun canoe trip, so this sounded like a good idea.
` Chuck dropped the boys off at Peshatin Elementary School, where they paddled off into the Wenatchee River.
` But, according to sheriff's deputy Roger Shore, they had gone too far upstream. The area they were at contained Class III rapids.
` Just after one in the afternoon, concerned whitewater rafters saw the ill-prepared boys heading into the treacherous Rock 'n Roll Rapids. They followed suit. When they saw the canoe drop into a large dip called 'Satan's Eyeball', it overturned.
` The rafters, quick to spot Richard, grabbed him below the 200-yard stretch of rapids. They looked out for Jeffrey as well, but they never saw him surface.
` "Man, that's a tough buck for experienced kayakers," said the rafters' leader, Strawberry Fields, a North Bend woman. "Hard to imagine what those boys were thinking."
` Without any means of phoning an ambulance, the rafters landed near an irrigation dam where one of them flagged a motorist who drove off to notify authorities.
` It took perhaps an hour before the deputy sheriff and rescue volunteers were on the scene, actively searching for Jeffrey. Divers combing the areas above and below the rapids have turned up nothing, although one volunteer found what seems to be Jeffrey's life vest on the bank.
` "At this time, the older individual, Jeffrey Cline, has been officially listed only as missing," said Deputy Shore at about 7:30 p.m. "If it hadn't been for the quick actions of the rafters, his little brother would probably have drowned, too."
` Richard Cline is currently at Chelan hospital in serious condition with his mother, Rhondella Cline. He has suffered a concussion, a broken arm, and multiple contusions. Chuck Cline is still out searching for Jeffrey.

` That's all I had time to write - in 45 minutes - though there would have been more details to that article if I'd had more of it.
` Still, it looks pretty good, doesn't it? Hard to believe I got a C- in that class!