The blog is, in large part, the work of Matthew Kauffman, one of the paper’s most accomplished investigators, and it has the kind of high-quality content he regularly provides his readers.

Such must be the origin of this tweet by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

The indefatigable Carole Goldberg’s support of writers and writing is a precious gift to the craft — and readers. Steve Courtney’s kindnesses are so valuable and so appreciated.
Next up thereafter at the Twain, the estimable Susan Schoenberger on March 3rd.

Here’s a copy of  former Courant copy editor Steve Courtney’s  press release about Horgan’s upcoming visit:

For many years, Denis Horgan has delighted Connecticut readers with his mixture of gentle musings, subtle but rapier-like wit, and occasional rage against the insanities of our world. For more than two decades he did

this in the pages of the Hartford Courant, providing a place you could quickly turn to for a bi-weekly fix of insight. For the past nine years this work has been online (www.denishorgan.com), and in recent times he’s turned his hand to fiction.

On Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 5:30 p.m., Horgan brings his compelling skill in relaying information to the stage at The Mark Twain House & Museum.

It’s an appropriate place. Horgan combines the laidback, self-effacing qualities of Sam Clemens’ neighbor, journalist and essayist Charles Dudley Warner, with the fire that led Twain himself to warm up his pen in hell.

Horgan’s latest book is “Ninety-Eight Point Six …and Other Stories” (Ladder Press), a collection of tales that relate to the story of human identity — how people are “defined by happenstance, by odd decisions and accumulations in their lives.” He will read from the book and speak on the subject “Storytelling: Our New Golden Age.”

“Yes, I will read from the book as well as discuss writing,” says Horgan: “both my own richly varied experiences and the opportunities now open to everyone that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. As traditional publishing lumbers along in some Dickensian business model, the world of the Web and its razzle-dazzle gear has created a golden age for storytellers.”

The event is free, and will be preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. A booksigning will follow the talk.

“Ninety-Eight Point Six” includes 13 brief, O. Henry-esque tales of human beings finding out, in odd ways, who they are — or wondering if they’ll ever know. The driver of a junker loaner car finds people treat him with a new respect, if not fear. A man meets his identity thief. A woman sets up a new life for herself on Facebook.

Denis Horgan says he was “born in a Boston taxicab during a Thanksgiving snowstorm which didn’t quite make it to the hospital on time. Whether auspicious or merely suspicious, such a beginning is likely to shape how you look on the world.”

After college and the Army, he started as a copyboy at the Boston Globe, and worked as reporter, editor, columnist for publications including the Bangkok World, the Washington Star and the Courant. He is the author of the essay collections “Sharks in the Bathtub and Flotsam: A Life in Debris” and the novel, “The Dawn of Days.” He has won many awards and honors for his work, and says his “principal vice is an addiction to the Boston Red Sox.”

http://writingatthemarktwainhouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/denis-horgan-speaks-here-february-8.html

David Carr, the New York Times reporter who has exposed the Tribune Co.’s many errors and wrongs, wonders about that.

Just guessing, you could buy the entire Hartford Courant for less.

Meanwhile, those of you contemplating your political leanings might want to put this excerpt in your equation:

The end-of-the-year tally for American Crossroads included $100,000 from Sam Zell, whose properties include Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times. Zell gave an additional $50,000 to the super PAC backing Romney.

(And given the number of times Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman declines to comment, I’m thinking his is one salary the company could do without paying. )

I have to admit I did not know his first name was really John  and that he was a PhD.

Services are Jan. 25.

Readers may not know (or care) that Hartford Magazine — recently acquired by The Courant — is run by the company’s marketing department.

Courant writers and photographers, however, are more than a little irritated that they are being made to contribute to the publication. Certainly the line between news and marketing has never been more blurry.

Such is the plight of the modern journalist/survivor.