Adventures in Writing - The Diamondback

September 23, 2025 (Vol. 19 No. 36) - That dapper young man sitting on the couch on the right in the above photo is Phil Jacobs, my friend and fellow housemate. The other guy on the couch with his head cocked to the right is me. That picture was taken in Fall 1973 in the office of the Chancellor at the University of Maryland. Phil, a second reporter - I believe his first name is Maury - and I were interviewing Chancellor Charles Bishop for the student newspaper The Diamondback. My experience writing and editing the student newspaper was a pivotal moment in my life. Up until that time, my focus was on launching a career in broadcasting. As I noted in a blog post 13 years ago (Vol. 6 No. 24), Johnny Carson was my hero. Journalism was not on my radar until I took an Introduction to Journalism class as a summer school elective. I was required to find, write and edit stories for the newspaper - something that proved to be very hard to do. But once I produced something the editors felt was worthy of publication - boom! - there it was in what we referred to as The DBK. Seeing my byline in the paper was like a magic elixir. I was hooked. I realized that I enjoyed being a storyteller. From that moment forward, my career path became a fusion of my two loves, broadcasting and journalism. I was so immersed in the journalism culture that I moved out of my apartment in nearby Langley Park and moved into a house with Phil and three other DBK journalists. The front and lower floor of the house was a bicycle shop, The Speed Shop, located on U.S. Route 1 in College Park. (Despite what the name suggests, no drugs were sold or consumed there.) It was the time of Watergate, Spiro Agnew's resignation, the Saturday Night Massacre and War in the Middle East. On campus, I covered a range of stories, including a scandal involving a vice chancellor's use of state employee labor for private purposes, a Board of Regents meeting in Baltimore and tragic series of suicides on campus. I also wrote some humor columns, including my favorite, "The Great Coffee Shortage." The premise of the column was that a 1973 coffee shortage was the result of the arrest Juan Valdez, a fictional character promoting Columbian coffee. I claimed that Valdez, who the commercials had depicted as the only person lovingly picking Columbian coffee beans one-by-one, had been implicated in the Watergate affair. (At least I thought it was funny!) My college journalism experience was challenging, fun and life-altering. It is also an example of the value of a liberal arts education. Without being exposed to the possibilities of journalism, I may have spent my life playing records on a small AM radio station in a rural town. There is nothing wrong with that, per se. But considering what I have accomplished since, that would have been a waste of talent. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.