Before there were staccato stream-of-consciousness blog entries and blips of thought on the news by way of 140 characters or less on Twitter, there was “three-dot journalism” in newspapers.
That technique was famously used by — and the term reputedly coined by — the late, legendary San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. He used ellipses to separate relatively tight entries about multiple topics, trains of thought or settings under one byline.
When I joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1984, some of us editors copied that style in compiling columns, sometimes exceeding 800 words, about multiple regional news events or reporter observations under the headings of “West Coast Report,” “Midwest Report,” etc.
Today’s tweets, though far briefer than those columns, are powerful in their ability to include embedded links to images and stories that more fully flesh out the news that inspired them — and are reminiscent of the three-dot column entries of old in their ability to touch on many topics.
So in the spirit of ending on a lighter note a year in which we all were serious about economic recovery, elections, commodity costs, superstorms and more, I’ll offer up some of my attempts to poke fun at the news from my @AJ_NRN Twitter handle in modern three-dot style:
10. “Nose for news & vice versa: 10 ways to stifle bad restaurant odors from NRN sister Restaurant Hospitality.” http://bit.ly/NTJeL1.
9. “Warning: Watching @RickBayless on public TV on Sat. mornings means chilied shrimp tacos with avocado-peanut salsa for breakfast.”
8. “Euell Gibbons would approve: Chris Kurth wraps sweetbreads in blue spruce boughs. [NRN’s] weekly ‘Cool Plate.’” http://bit.ly/WW3uPG.
7. “Kissy face = stuffy face. Among upcoming [Valentine’s] Day promos, Qdoba has buy-one-get-one offer 4 folks smooching at register.” http://bit.ly/zTPhfs.
6. “‘The Optimistic, The Cautious & The Hunkered-Down’ — A Sergio Leone spaghetti Western? No. NRA [research on] consumer categories.” http://bit.ly/yR6KNr.
5. “Dirk Montgomery, OSI Rest. Partners [senior] VP/CFO, adds chief value chain officer title. New productivity/supply/IT duties.” http://bit.ly/zlP0KR.
Tweet II — “Re: Earlier Dirk Montgomery additional title at OSI Restaurant Partners: Talk about workload — I got tired just listing his responsibilities.”
4. “NY Times piece suggests some online shoppers are tipsy. I’m guessing pizza delivery pros could validate that hypothesis.” http://bit.ly/z7qrfF.
3. “Headline: Wendy’s gets Toop! Stifle the hairpiece jokes. We’re talking vet SVP/general counsel R. Scott Toop.” http://bit.ly/yHId8o.
2. “Spa cuisine that grabs your attention — 8 times: octopus carpaccio w/smoked potatoes à la Eric Bauer.” http://bit.ly/U9OZG3.
1. “With his last name, duz @BrianMalarkey, exec chef at Enlightened Hospitality, ever feel the need to end sentences with, ‘No, I’m serious. ...’”
Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @AJ_NRN.