Apparently one of my favorite errors has been making the rounds on social media, as several students have come running up to me with their Instagram or TikTok accounts open and a “Have you seen THIS?” look on their faces.

“The minute I saw this, I thought about you!” one young lady said excitedly, before realizing exactly what she said.

“I mean… I saw the head thing and… I thought about…,” she said, continuing to turn a brighter shade of red as she fumbled her way through trying to explain what she meant. Eventually, we both burst out laughing.

That was just one moment that made me remember how thankful I am for the kids I teach. They actually think to share things with me and I apparently make some sort of an impact on them that they can’t wait to do so. Sure, it’s about pseudo-pornographic headlines or stories about people who stored dead bodies in an abandoned mall or something, but it’s nice nonetheless.

I remember telling one group of students that they kind of got screwed having me as a teacher, because if they had a normal person who covered something like the education beat, they’d hear stories about board meetings and first-graders who made hand-print turkeys for Thanksgiving. Instead, I’m starting every other story off with some reference to a dead body.

The next class, just before the Thanksgiving break, one of the more artistic students slipped this to be before she left class:

That’s still on my corkboard to this day, despite that student being long graduated and it’s highly unlike she remembers doing it at all.

With this week ending in a tidal wave of football and food, I wanted to start the break with a big thank you to all of you out there who read the blog and who use the books that it supports. I’m always amazed when I meet someone that I have long admired for their work and they turn around and say, “Hey! I’m using your book!”

(The feeling is only slightly undercut by the awkward feeling I get when I have to ask, “Nice! Which one?”)

I’m so happy to know that so many of you were interested in last year’s “Filak Furlough Tour” and can’t wait until the next edition of the “Dynamics of News Reporting” and “Dynamics of Media Writing” come out (Early next year for the former and August 2025 for the latter, God willing). I’m also eternally grateful to those of you who took a chance on “Exploring Mass Communication” for your pit classes and group sessions. It’s never easy to rewrite a course for a book, so when people actually do it and find that it was worth it, it really does make me feel great.

I’m grateful for my family and friends, who have somehow managed to tolerate me all these years through the weird work schedules and other general weirdness I produce. Amy is due for a canonization for sainthood any day now, I’m sure.

This break I’ll be trying to finish the last touches on the draft of a book and maybe even get a little family time in. It’s Thanksgiving at my brother-in-law’s house, which means twin 3-year-olds doing their ballet dance routine over and over again in the living room.

I could ask for much more, could I?

Thanks for everything. See you after the break.

 

Vince (a.k.a. The Doctor of Paper)