Not Necessarily the News
This anchor is a-weighing in on the media biz with e-mail updates
Five days a week, a few hours before he goes on ABC's World News Tonight, anchor Peter Jennings e-mails 60,000 subscribers a glimpse behind the scenes. (During the election fracas, he wrote, "[We prepared] three utterly different broadcasts.") Readers, who sign up at abcnews.com, often hit Reply. In December, recalls Jennings, 62, "somebody e-mailed that I seemed stern talking about [George W.] Bush and was therefore not a fan." Jennings denies the observation but took it seriously: "You realize people are looking over your shoulder." Now he has trouble logging off, even on vacation. Teaching his son Christopher, 18, to drive a truck during a cross-country road trip, he says, "we would stop at a diner, and I would write e-mails about him trying to downshift at an intersection." Tonight at 6:30: Coping with e-mail addiction?
My Favorite Sites
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
The 19-year-old, who plays Columbia University frosh Meadow Soprano on HBO's The Sopranos (now that's acting—she's really on a break from NYU), loves to window-shop online. "My favorite Web site is eBay.com," says Sigler, who recently slipped into the title role opposite Eartha Kitt in the national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Cinderella. "I've seen some Sopranos things—a signed jacket and pictures—but I'm not going to buy anything like that." In fact, "I never buy anything, but I like to look. I'm one of those." So that's why eBay's stock has been down.
Internet Manners
A friend asked if he should snail-mail or e-mail a certain photo to me. I e-mailed back, "Could you do both??????" He replied that he found my multiple question marks "profoundly offensive." What gives? I figure extra question marks just mean you're extra curious.
Your punctuational exuberance probably came across as extra pushy—as in, "Could you do both now, you lazybones?" (Still, if your friend was "profoundly" offended, he must be extra touchy.) One question mark is enough. Exclamation points require even more restraint: Unless you're an excitable teenager, one or two per message is plenty.
I know BRB means "Be right back" and:) is a smile, but sometimes I get e-mail or chat messages with abbreviations and symbols I can't interpret. Where can I find a list of what this stuff means?
IMHO (in my humble opinion), netlingo.com's guide to jargon, acronyms and silly smileys is super. You might even catch a sighting of 5:-) (Elvis).
Sign On. Sign Off. Sign a Record Deal
Brooke Allison could be the poster child for the 21st century. The 14-year-old singer (whose debut album is due May 8 from 2KSounds/Virgin Records) was discovered on music site mp3.com, submits schoolwork online and just released her first single, "The Kiss-Off (Goodbye)," featuring AOL's spoken "goodbye" sign-off.
A singer since age 3, Brooke let a pal post two of her songs at mp3.com in January 2000—and promptly got an e-mail from 2K president Michael Blakey, who was eager to sign her. These days, traveling with her mom, Jamie Adams, 38, between her native Texas and Los Angeles, she totes textbooks in CD-ROM form and e-mails homework to her school in Arizona. "If I need help, they have an instant-message system," she says.
But the highlight of her success has been not so virtual. Recently her friend, songwriter Majestik, showed up at her door at 2 a.m. with Brooke's idol at his side. "I went downstairs in my pajamas, no shoes—and Michael Jackson turned around," Brooke says. "They stayed 10 minutes, although I don't even remember the first five minutes of it. I was freaking out."
Click and Get it
Give PETA Some Bread
AllStarCharity.com regularly auctions items to benefit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, including: a sweater owned by Pamela Anderson(right), a green thermal shirt signed by Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder (through April 19) and a signed black bustier—pleather, not leather—worn by Alicia Silverstone (April 6).
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