A Brief Note
Greetings Cafe-ers!
So, Clay is in a conference this morning and his first Book Club post will be going up later this afternoon. In the meantime, I wanted to write all of you to introduce myself and say hi. (Hi!) I've taken over editorship of TPM Cafe (though Andrew is still by my side-- my girl Friday, as it were). I started out as an intern at TPM Cafe this past March (working on mostly news and video for the front page), and this is a really exciting transition for me.
One of the things that sets me off a little from the rest of the TPM crew is that I came to my love of politics-- specifically the breaking news of politics-- a bit later in life. I went to The University of Chicago, and I've always been a great books person-- since I was a little kid, literature came first, everything else came second. It wasn't until I'd graduated from college and started working for Bill Moyers, on his 2006 documentary Buying the War, that I really got turned on to the political scene.
Spending 3 months combing through the devastating evidence-- how the press had really bungled again and again on the road to Iraq-- that time when the role of the fourth estate really, really mattered-- I changed my priorities. Let someone else write the English PhD thesis on Nabokov's synesthesia. I wanted to be a Journalist. Which brings me to now, at TPM Cafe. I'm excited about expanding the reach of Cafe-- bringing in more broadly cultural and literary topics-- without losing the driving force: a place where we can talk politics and keep a watchful eye on what's happening in Washington, and around the world.
I want to get to know all of you, so feel free to drop me a line in the comments section here. Or email me at Lila@talkingpointsmemo.com. Great to be here!
And it's great that you're here. It's good to see a female face in a TPM editor post. Andrew I'm sure is a very able girl Friday, as well as a great editor and technical problem attendant.
June 16, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I beg you to consider the idea that once upon a time management here created a subdomain specifically for that purpose called TPM Election Central, and it was a different subdomain from TPMCafe.
And, once you get your bearing and feel confident enough to do so, I beg you to ask your bosses to try and remember what they originally created a separate site called TPMCafe for. Or, if they never did figure that out, to finish thinking about that which they were thinking when they created it. Or whatever. I must say I do vaguely remember a day when there weren't so many posts repeating the front page of TPM here, there was even a post by Josh Marshall along the lines of "how do you all like that new HBO series Rome?" and *gasp*, the really really scary stuff, even a few contributors who wanted to talk about not what was going in the U.S., Israel or Iraq, but what was going on in Europe.
Good luck to you. :-)
June 16, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Art, that's definitely part of why Lila was brought on. As she said, her interests are broadly literary and political, so she'll steer the site according to that.
Also, keep in mind that I was steering Cafe while keeping up w/ my job as Deputy Publisher. Lila will have more time to devote to cultivating the community's tastes and pushing it farther out of the specific day to day politics than the other sites might normally go.
June 16, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds awesome.
June 16, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brave woman to take you up on it!
And BTW, I could see you trying, and I could also imagine you being given 5 minutes out of the day to do that trying. It's understood that this kinda thing is like a public service endeavor and doesn't pay the billz. :-)
No need to respond....
June 16, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like Josh was lucky to get you.
Welcome to the rumble.
:)
I hope Andrew still drops in every now and then.
June 16, 2008 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're not getting rid of me that easy. I'll be around, just hanging out here for fun like the rest of you as opposed to putting up with your guff as my job ;)
June 16, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
A heaping double serving of guff coming up. (Where'd I put that ladle?)
Glad to hear it.
June 16, 2008 11:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you'll prove to be a terrific addition, Lila.
Welcome aboard; enjoy yourself. And don't take any crap off anybody. ;-)
June 16, 2008 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Congrats on the new gig. Good luck and great success to you. I had to laugh a little at the "later in life" quote below an image that makes Ezra Klein look like Walter Brennan .. err .. Ian McKellen. And speaking of prior generation actors, I can't think of any way in which Andrew reminds me of Rosalind Russell, but then who could.
June 16, 2008 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm interested why anyone would luv politics, other than Tweety Bird. Perhaps you could write something on how politics and politicians are today vs what they should be, because the US is in deep kimchi in large part due to politicians.
June 16, 2008 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Perhaps you could write something on how politics and politicians are today vs what they should be, because the US is in deep kimchi in large part due to politicians"
Do the people get the politicians they deserve? And/or do the people get the politicians the system creates?
(The only thing democracy has going for it is what it precludes...)
I think the limited two year Congressional term is disastrous. It means by definition that reps are back into election mode almost as soon as they've been elected. To put some guts and ethics into their decisions, at least a marginal ability to make policy based on a broader interest than narrow district, the term should be extended to four years.
Welcome, Lila. I hope you'll enjoy your new job.
June 16, 2008 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Welcome Lila!
June 16, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Welcome from one UC English major to another!
June 16, 2008 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've taken over editorship of TPM Cafe
Does this make you the lucky recipient of our importunities re:edit/preview (where is it?) private email system (we miss it....) nice to *see you (no offense Andrew)
*As they say in court "Cuter than the law allows..."
June 16, 2008 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good Luck.
Pick me, pick me, pick me. :)
June 16, 2008 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh...and: Wow! You've been "turned on to the political scene" since waaaay back in 2006.
Only in America.
But, sincerely, good luck.
(Please try not to hold my sarcasm and honesty against me when you rifle through the sundry posts "That Got Away.")
FB
June 16, 2008 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nabokov had synesthesia? Do tell. Inquiring minds.
What's that smell?
June 16, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nabakov! not Proust! You philistine.
See, "Portrait of My Mother," Speak, Memory, Chapter II? Fyodor in The Gift? And himself, Véra, and Dmitri?
Note: Proust is odor (maybe); Nabakov is grapheme to color (so he said).
June 17, 2008 2:45 AM | Reply | Permalink