Saturday Night/Sunday Warning S2E10: Conflicting prurient interests

Another instalment of weekly recommendations and miscellaneous items.

This is the weekly round-up of things I liked in the past seven days + extra content for paid subscribers.

6 Things I Actually Enjoyed This Week

1. REFERENCE TOOL
The lost language of newspapers
A glossary of old and new newspaper terms by Neil Benson

You don’t have to be a media obsessive like me to enjoy this glossary. Here are my three favourite definitions:

Bastard measure – Width of type that’s not a single column or a multiple of it (e.g. 1.25 or 1.5 columns). This provided a subtle visual variation for the reader and ‘stopped the text looking like a string of washing’, as an old chief sub of mine used to say.

Dog’s cock / dog’s dick / screamer / shriek – An exclamation mark on the end of a headline.

Scamp - A rough sketch of a page design (usually by the editor or deputy editor) which would be handed to the chief sub or art desk to turn into a detailed layout. Depending on the originator, scamps varied from almost perfect to 'Who drew this - a three-year-old child?'.

I drew a lot of scamps when I worked on magazines. I do a good scamp.

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2. EP
Sunrise Band Ur Head Against Tha Wall — Nia Archives
Apple Music | Spotify | Vinyl

The ideas and inventiveness crammed into this six-track EP scarcely seem believable; Nia Archives sweeps from meringue light melodies to Jungle breaks with an assured touch that can leave you breathless. It’s Sunday morning music for the Saturday night that came before:

There was a good New York Times profile of Nia Archives last week.

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3. NEWSLETTER
Explain how you handle a conflict of interest
by Mollie Muchna for Trusting News

A good tip for the hacks reading this but useful advice for anyone navigating professional conflicts of interest:

While most journalists will acknowledge these potential conflicts when reporting, we often acknowledge the issue without explaining what it really means, or how we’re working to ensure it doesn’t affect the integrity of our work. 

What if instead of hoping a disclosure goes unnoticed or doesn’t raise too many questions, we used it as an opportunity better explain our decision-making process and how our newsroom works to keep situations ethical and fair?  

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4. A SHORT (BUT NOT SWEET) LISTICLE
11 Sexting Acronyms From the 1930s
by Alyson Sheppard for Mental Floss

7. BURMA
Be Undressed/Upstairs Ready My Angel

8. NORWICH
(k)Nickers Off Ready When I Come Home

9. ENGLAND
Every Naked Girl Loves A Naked Dick

I’m writing to you today from Norwich and realising that “lie back and think of England” might not mean what you assumed it did.

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5. PODCAST
Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On
by Gordon Corera, John Murphy, Ellie, House & Clare Bowes for BBC Sounds

I’ve referenced this podcast several times in newsletters this week. Corera speaks to many of the key figures in the push for war and what followed. It’s most striking for his willingness to question his own reporting, views, and decisions from 20 years ago.

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6. ARTICLE
The Incredible Tantrum Venture Capitalists Threw Over Silicon Valley Bank
by Edward Ongweso Jr. for Salon

This really upset the VCs. Good.

… venture capitalists like PayPal co-founder and Elon Musk buddy David Sacks [begged] the Federal Reserve to force a merger or a bailout, then [insisted] he was not asking for a bailout while again asking for a bailout. This may have seemed a bit strange considering Sacks’ previous disparaging of handouts (specifically to Ukraine) and reactionary vitriol for liberalism itself. But then again, Sacks is a longtime associate of investor Peter Thiel, who believes in free markets but not in competition—in capitalism so long as the rules are attuned to satisfy his own interests first and foremost. It was Thiel’s Founders Fund, by the way, that helped kick off the bank run that sank SVB in the first place.

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Updates, Corrections & Clarifications

None this week besides a few typo corrections.

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Here’s where the paywall arrives. What lies beyond? Not dragons but paid subscriber content including the micro-essay, the newsletters I nearly wrote last week and the bonus recommendation.