Scribbles & Bits and Fat Wallet Award

Do you remember those old employee publications designed to show us how badly we screwed up on stories or what a nice job we had done.

The illustration is a June 1985 issue of one called “Scribbles & Bits” which talks about a Fat Wallet Award, supposedly a $100 prize for good work. This one, however, only offered a free lunch “which should be worth more than a 1/20 share of the $100 prize.”

The lunch, we hope, went to a group of reporters for their work on an attempted hijacking at Cleveland Hopkins Airport: For deadline performanece, Yuvonne Bruce, Jim Dettling, Dennis Haas, Rich Henson, Melissa Johnson, Marilyn Marchione, Bill Sloat, Randy Smith, Susan Smith, Lew Stamp, Ed Suba Jr., Paul Tople, Ted Walls, Giny Wiegand, Bruce Winges, Bonnie Bolden, Carol Camp, Donn Gaynor, Bob Dhyer and George Davis.

From the same publication is a column called “More bright passages” which contains leads that make you wish you could read the rest of the story.

From Bill Osinski: "The fur on the auction block - thousands of pelts with hides turned inside out - was raw and exposed, like the nerves of the two brothers."

From Bill Canterbury: "The dead still rest in peace in a hilltop cemetery in rural Holmes County. But to their survivors, the scenic, century-old burial ground has become a matter of unrest."

From Bill Hershey: "Mahoning County Sheriff James Traficant came to Capitol Hill last week, walking softly and not even carrying a stick."

From Frank Badillo: "At 115, Charles L. Marks has no reason to lie about his age these days. But about 60 years ago, a pretty 16-year-old girl named Ida gave him a reason."

From Jim Carney's description of operations at the recycle energy plant - before it exploded:
"What comes out is what life in the 1980s is made of - dirty paper diapers, beer bottles, plastic milk jugs, burned-out light bulbs, bald tires, dirty motor oil, broken toys and an endless stream of green and brown plastic garbage bags."

From Charlene Nevada: "The turning point in Charlie Lemon's life probably came the day he lay down in the street in front of an oncoming van."

From Rich Henson, Randy Smith and Melissa Johnson, who followed an attempted hijacking in Cleveland with this lead: "The beginning of the end started with a prayer."

From Paul Bailey: "Slingshots lost their effectiveness when matched against missiles.
Translated, that means the rest of the field didn't stand much of a chance against Bill Elliott in the closing stages of Sunday's Daytona 500."

The Scribbles & Bits also contained a coach's corner on writing. Geez: You mean they had writing coaches even back then?

[Thanks to Bob Downing for sending us the Scribbles & Bits]