Brian Thompson’s “Life in a Nutshell” column, which runs weekly in the St. Augustine Record, won a first place award in the Florida Press Club’s 2011 Excellence in Journalism Competition for commentary writing in class C, which is daily newspapers with less than 40,000 circulation. This is the third year in a row the column has won an award in the commentary category, and the fourth Press Club award for it. The three columns that won were: • Things you Never … EVER … Do with a Kid in the Room • Every Moment Now Precious for a Dog with Cancer • Answering the call of the ice cream truck
Pondering the loss of brain cells thanks to the Internet
The Internet is making me dumb. I be dumb thanks to the Internet. Damn, you, Internet, damn you! Not it fault, I know. We’re to blame really. The Internet is just a … well … what the heck is it? Microchips and wires? Bits and bytes? A fancy box with endless photos of dogs dressed like Darth Vader and generic Viagra ads? Truth is, the Internet is a vast catalog of searchable information, 98 percent of which will turn your brain softer than the carved pumpkin dissolving into a puddle of goop on my front porch.