Michael Paterniti

Two other sources:

175 Things A Man Should Do Before He Dies: Get Married

I found this using Esquire's search bar

The Hero of Nanjing

I found this by searching Paterniti's Byliner.com account.

Michael Paterniti is quite the descriptive writer. What I enjoyed about his style of writing is his ability to go back and comment on elements of his story he has already introduced without sounding redundant. In The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy, I'd argue that the main character of the story is not a person at all, rather the ocean that takes the lives of the 229 people onboard Swissair Flight 111.

Paterniti begins, ends and scatters throughout the middle the specific location of the ocean. I'd say his transcendent quality is being able to talk about the specific element of the ocean and lighthouse without making it seem dry. The green light may just be a green light continuously revolving around the lighthouse, but as I read, the green light took on a new quality each time it was reintroduced. It's importance and symbolism grew. No longer was it a green light, but a sign of identification among the sea, then a sign of warning and danger, then a sign of a specific and emotional memorial.

His voice is soothing and calming during these stories. Even during a plane crash and marriage--two different extremes--Paterniti's voice remains the same. The soothing quality gives the reader a sense of reassurance, that no matter what may happen in this f*cked-up world, everything will somehow be OK. I didn't enjoy that quality with the Swissair story. It didn't match the overall tension of the narrative. However, his voice matched perfectly for the marriage story. I can't think of a better match. I completely pictured the entire scene. It was as if I was reading a brief movie script.

The structure of the stories worked well. Even though the events were mostly organized chronologically, there were anecdotes lingering throughout. I enjoyed the scattered memories of the father (i.e. when his daughter was fishing for the goldfish as a child). The anecdotes blended nicely with the overall story. They never took away anything, rather they offered a new dimension to the story rather than just writing the events from beginning to end.

To comment on The Hero of Nanjing, I really didn't like it at all. I think it was just more of a news story about this man saving people who try and commit suicide on the bridge. Although it still is very descriptive, I was unlucky in that I could not really find that much of a transcendent quality. Poor choice of reading on my part.

Rewriting for Power

1. Kopchak heard it was foolish to challenge lions with eye contact. They are more inclined to chase after you. That's all he knew about them for being a retired seventh-grade science teacher. The lion watched Kopchak and Red as they trotted lightly to the barn. Kopchak looked back and saw the lion was still on the other side of the pseudo barrier. The animal kept its stare.

2. The five of them were urgently redeployed to the southern end of the property. They used the truck to elevate themselves above their prey. They engaged with animals seventy to a hundred yards away two shots at a time until they went down. A male African lion managed to run between some junk cars after the first shot. Dozens and dozens of old cars and RVs and tractors mixed with scattered weeds gave the hidden lion a second chance at survival. Kanavel's strategy was to aim for the head, then move on to the body. "I was sick, shooting these animals, because they didn't ask to be there," he says. "And, you know, I'm a cat person."

3. The 911 operator asked for her first name. Mrs. Kopchak was known as Dolly for 84 years. She responded with "Dolores" instead. That's how it was written on her birth certificate.

Her son remained trapped in the barn looking out the north window. The menagerie grew.

Shipwrecked

I initially thought it was a questionable decision to tell the story in a first-person point of view, but have it written by another author. I doubted the authenticity of how the story would be read as a whole, since the man who actually experienced this highly tragic and dramatic situation would not actually write the story.

My questions were put to rest when Gabriel Garcia Marquez provided the story of the destroyer actually flipping and sinking into the Caribbean. Marquez’s account of Luis Alejandro Velasco falling overboard and attempting to rescue his shipmates was full of physical and emotional stress. The dramatic tension included in the few pages dedicated to the wreck was set as one of the highs for the entirety of the book. I realized it was probably the best decision for Velasco’s story when I stopped thinking about Marquez. I think forgetting about him is probably one of the goals the book had, if there were any.

Up until that point, Marquez builds up the tension by highlighting Velasco’s nervousness and how it is shared with the rest of his shipmates, especially his bunkmate Luis Rengifo. His continued attack reminding readers of Velasco’s uneasiness toward the sea is daunting. I felt a connection to Velasco (credit given to Marquez), and his feelings transferred into my own body as I read through each page.

The tension set up a scenario in my own reading of the book where I kept asking for more from the characters. The lifeboat scene is the first thing I think of when any thought of dramatic tension flashes in my mind. Why the hell didn’t Velasco do more? He has four shipmates floating around him, meters away, and they all end up dying. Maybe that is a bit selfish of me to ask, but I can’t help thinking how Velasco could have done more to save his friends, especially Rengifo. I picture that scene in my mind over and over again. I imagine Velasco sitting, steading his raft, allowing the wind to thwart his attempt at saving his bunkmate. I wanted him to jump off the lifeboat to help. Obviously I’ve never been shipwrecked, but for the sake of the story, I wanted him to do more. Marquez makes it seem that Velasco was too confident that Rengifo would survive. I thought there would be more emotion.

The dramatic tension also allowed time to stop. I thought that the particular shipwreck lasted hours, but in a matter of ten minutes it was clear that Velasco would be the only survivor. Marquez added detail of continual reference to Velasco’s watch is helpful, but when the shipwreck starts and the watch checks stop, time is immeasurable. Once readers are told only ten minutes have passed, it’s almost hard to believe. Instead of time slowly going by, I experienced the opposite.

Altogether, this moment in the book made it OK in my mind for Marquez to write Velasco’s story in first person. The tension kept me tied to the story not only for this section but others as well. This section was just the most memorable.

GQ v. Esquire (Quinn, Lauren, Mollie and Myself)

Overall: GQ had a more complete coverage of the overarching story, but Esquire did well with an in-depth analysis of what happened that night. GQ gave a great deal of background, while Esquire shaved down their focus.

Writing: After reading both pieces, it seems like Esquire took more liberties as far as artful writing goes. Even though both stories started of at a similar point in the event, the lead, “The horses knew first,” in Esquire was a great attention grabber, as opposed to GQ’s “A little before five o'clock on the evening of October 18 …”

We had some disagreements in which we thought was the better piece overall, but we both agreed that Esquire's quality of writing was a cut above. It read more like a feature, rather than the more traditional journalistic, reporting sense we got after reading GQ's.

Multimedia: GQ made good use of the statistics regarding the price of exotic animals, as well as other facts. Although, we did find problems with the amount, as well as the quality, of pictures placed throughout. There weren’t many, and the three pictures on page two were pretty small, maybe if we could've clicked on them to make them bigger it would've made a difference.

Just like their writing style, Esquire's pictures were artful and intense. The black and white images went along perfectly.

Transcendence: GQ asks the reader, what kind of person does this? Also questions the relationship between humans and animals, and what kind of varied connections there are between them.

Esquire appealed to readers at a personal level, painting a really good portrait of policemen making hard decisions in the heat of the moment.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

He has played “beer pong” with celebrities such as John McEnroe, Helen Mirren and Betty White on national TV in a game college students flock to crowded and steamy frat houses during the weekends of their undergraduate career.

He has competed against First Lady Michelle Obama in a fitness competition including dodgeball, tug-of-war and a potato sack race all to promote her “Let’s Move” initiative to fight childhood obesity.

He’s known for his spot-on impressions ranging from Jerry Seinfeld to Charlie Sheen, but his best are when music is involved. I challenge you to watch his own impersonations of Justin Bieber or Neil Diamond and not laugh.

He’s a giant kid in a man’s body, has his own late night talk show five nights a week and his name is Jimmy Fallon.

If you weren’t able to catch Fallon’s live special (normally his shows are pre-recorded) after the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, you severely missed out. His parody of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” opened the show with an enormous amount of enthusiasm in front of a packed Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, Ind.

Fallon kept the excitement at a high with interviews from Giants players who had just won their own Super Bowl rings a few hours before the show at neighboring Lucas Oil Stadium. Actors and comedians Adam Sandler and Andy Sandberg rounded out Fallon’s interviews while singer-songwriter Flo Rida concluded the night with his hit “Good Feeling.”

He offered a national audience a chance to see what he is capable of, and he was rewarded with all-time high ratings.

It was no surprise after watching Fallon during his “Saturday Night Live” tenure from 1998 to 2004 that he had something special to offer to those who watched. His seemingly effortless ability to make someone laugh was impressive, and his musical talent on top of that made him invaluable.

After his departure from the sketch comedy, Fallon’s attempt at a film career failed, to put it nicely. Let’s just say a movie about a taxi starring Fallon and Queen Latifah didn’t really fulfill what fans were looking for in the next chapter of his life. A return to a live audience was exactly what his fans needed.

Fallon began “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” in March of 2009 with mixed reviews. Many critics said he was too nervous, but benefitted from Steve Higgins, a longtime writer and producer for “Saturday Night Live” as his announcer and “The Roots” as his house band, a hip-hop group well known for their home ties to Philadelphia. Fallon was much more relaxed as the show grew with time.

What makes Fallon different from Letterman and Leno is his ability to connect with the audience through the skits and games he plays with celebrity guests and audience members. You haven’t lived until you’ve watched him play “Lick it For Ten,” “Competitive Spit-Takes” or “Battle of the Instant Dance Crews.”

There’s only one problem. Fallon’s broadcast doesn’t come on regularly each weeknight until 12:35 a.m. I’m sure I’m not the only one getting ready for bed, if not already asleep.

After the circus that followed NBC’s dealing with Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien in early 2010, it seems like it will be a challenging path for Fallon to climb up the ranks, but out of any other option, Fallon is the lone star contender.

I just ask that someone please find him a slot on primetime. The proof is in the pudding, and Fallon’s pudding can be seen all over TV and the Internet.

There’s an opportunity to bring a man on the rise to an even greater audience. It would be foolish not to take advantage. Release Jimmy Fallon from the bars of twilight TV, and provide him the opportunity to do what he does best: to make people laugh.

300 Words -- My Dorm

The serpentine of Christmas lights slide along the far wall of my pressed dorm room, through a pinned collage of old friends, past memories and scattered inspirational quotes jotted down on scrunched yellow memo pad paper from Barack Obama to William Faulkner, each item with it’s own distinct level of importance. The blinds are shut, but do a half-assed job at its objective, especially after 6:00 p.m., when sheets of mischievous fluorescence from across the street invariably sneak somehow onto my eyelids, no matter how many times I attempt to block them. Clothes are strewn into four piles: dirty, not dirty enough that I can’t wear them again without a trip to the washer, clean and clean but yet to be folded. Jeans almost never make it to the dirty gathering; any guy knows that jeans don’t get dirty, and a wash is detrimental if you want them to keep that ever-so-valuable personalized hug to your hips. The desk hides under an intense amount of clutter with no intention of being found. Notebooks from classes, past and present, filled with hundreds of lectures, presentations and slideshows take advice from the clothing and fall into separate piles that only I know the difference to. “Is it the black or blue spiral I need for tomorrow’s class?” I ask myself. I refuse to answer and put both in my backpack, mainly because I don’t want to run back to my room later the next day rather than making sure I have the correct supplies for class. To an outsider, my room poses as a problem. It’s not Hoarders-worthy, but I’m about a dozen cats away. It may look disastrous to some, but it makes sense to me. Among the chaos that inhibits my personal sanctuary from it being the relaxing paradise it should be, the outside world offers me another chance to make that a possibility. I just haven’t had enough time to screw it up yet.