Paul: Thank you for a marvelous, up-close-and personal portrait of Walz - more revealing than anything else I've seen or read elsewhere. Minimizing your role as an opinion columnist in favor of archival newspaper clips lent the portrait an objectivity and authenticity often missing in such portraits. Well done! (Is Gwen Whipple related to the Mr. Whipple who begged us not to squeeze the Charmin?)
I'm in full agreement with Greg Dawson, Paul. This is well done on several levels: the informed observations of China and Walz's reactions (he chose quite a year to go there); the comments on local newspapers and their portraits of Walz; the inclusion of what elements news outlets have been picking up now. Your thinking shapes the post, but it does read like a news feature article (but with detailed reference notes--I wonder where you dug up that Times-Herald image). I had seen only one or two sentences about Walz having taught in China before.
Paul: Thank you for a marvelous, up-close-and personal portrait of Walz - more revealing than anything else I've seen or read elsewhere. Minimizing your role as an opinion columnist in favor of archival newspaper clips lent the portrait an objectivity and authenticity often missing in such portraits. Well done! (Is Gwen Whipple related to the Mr. Whipple who begged us not to squeeze the Charmin?)
I'm in full agreement with Greg Dawson, Paul. This is well done on several levels: the informed observations of China and Walz's reactions (he chose quite a year to go there); the comments on local newspapers and their portraits of Walz; the inclusion of what elements news outlets have been picking up now. Your thinking shapes the post, but it does read like a news feature article (but with detailed reference notes--I wonder where you dug up that Times-Herald image). I had seen only one or two sentences about Walz having taught in China before.
I'm going to pass this on.
Thank you to both! It means a lot. It's nice to be able to do the work and share it immediately.
This is a wonderful piece! Really enjoying the recent archive driven posts.