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P.S. A Column On Things

BY PAUL E. SCHINDLER, JR. I am from Portland, Oregon, Beaumont '66, Benson High '70, MIT '74. Some things are impossible to know, but it is impossible to know these things.

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Washington Post Application Essay

Spring 1973 Washington Post Essay

Essay Question on Washington Post Internship Application

I was born 21 years ago in Portland, Oregon, and lived most of my life in one house, near the house my father lived in as a child. A top student in grade school, I was third in my class at Benson, the city-wide technical high school. I wrote several columns for the Benson paper about the Benson radio station, where I served as Chief of Staff. Broadcasting was more interesting to me that print at the time.

Refusing an admission offer from Cal Tech, I came to MIT in the fall of 1970 because it offered a wider variety of courses, especially in the humanities. My two freshman-year extra-curricular activities were a weekly campus newspaper and the MIT radio station. That took up too much time; after four years in radio during high school, I decided to devote all of my efforts to newspaper work at college.

ERGO, one of two weeklies on campus, was not much of a paper, so I moved to the older, established, twice-weekly newspaper, The Tech. It has become, in the years since, a consuming passion, and was at least partially responsible for breaking up my engagement with an MIT Co-ed who felt that more time was devoted to the paper than to her.

Exposure to the paper, and to Edwin Diamond, diverted me from becoming an electrical engineer by the end of the 72/73 school year. At that time, I decided to major in management, because it is the most flexible of MIT majors, in terms of degree requirements. Thus, I could continue to sample MIT's scientific and technical courses, learn about journalism, get a degree, all at the same time.

"Why go to MIT if you want to be a journalist?" The answer is simple: journalists have to know something. It is not enough just to know how to write. At MIT, the general requirements include physics, calculus, and chemistry, and even management majors have to take a respectable amount of science. Although science writing is not my first interest, science and technology are omnipresent in modern life. Some knowledge of them is important, no matter what field you report in.

In addition to the relevant jobs listed on this application, I have done research for articles that appeared in The Columbia Journalism Review, New York Magazine and The Readers' Digest. I am the Boston Globe stringer for MIT, and have written for Technology Review, the MIT alumni magazine, and NWJ, a Portland, Oregon journalism review.

My family, glossed over earlier, consisted of a father (milkman) and mother (high school teacher) married for 22 years and a younger brother (machinist), who provided me with a stable childhood atmosphere.

My hobbies are reading science fiction, playwriting, tennis and squash.

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Paul on the Top 5 List

  • Made No. 1 on the Top5
  • Made The Top 5
  • Paul on the Top 5 List
    I appeared frequently on the now-defunct collective humor site Top5. I have gathered my contributions in two groups: When I made No. 1 on the Top5 list and when I just made the Top5 List.

Love Songs

  • Paul Schindler Love Songs
    Check out my growing list of love songs!

Paul Schindler On TV

  • Paul Schindler on TV
    Starting with

    my 1972 appearance on WBZ-TV's public access show.

    and my 1974 appearance on WGBH (explaining the Alcator nuclear reactor),

    I've been on local and national TV numerous times, mostly as a game show contestant (I appeared on the game shows Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Scrabble , Win Ben Stein's Money and Merv Griffin's Crosswords) and as an author.
    Video of my game show appearances
    Pictures of my game show appearances Here are my journal entries for three of my game show appearances:
    Wheel of Fortune,
    Jeopardy,
    Merv Griffin's Crosswords

    Video highlights of my game show appearances

    Paul On The Computer Chronicles

    I was the weekly software reviewer for the late PBS program The Computer Chronicles (1984-1992), as well as a commentator (1987-88) and a regular on what was the Christmas show and became the Annual Buyers Guide show (1985-1999). The show went out of production during its 20th year, in December, 2002. 

    Paul Schindler Pans Mac
    Supercut of my chronicle reviews
    Software Piracy

Damn Shame

  • Stephen Michael Schindler, RIP March 8, 1954-May 21, 2020
    My brother's obituary

Stories of a Young Journalist

  • Stories of Journalism from a Young Journalist
    These are stories from early in my career

Recent Posts

  • Start of November 27 Column. More or Less Continuous News Service since 1998
  • Thanksgiving and Gratitude without either word
  • College Jobs: WBZ
  • Things My Mother Said: Grandmother Edition
  • What Counts?
  • This and That
  • Right Column Redux: Journalism Books
  • Book Review: Luck Off and Fly
  • End of November 27 Column (No. 906)
  • Start of November 20 Column. More or Less Continuous News Service since 1998

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Blogrolling

  • Outboard Sagas: Disaffected geezer tells about his life
    Steve. this blog's only non-aquaintance reader, has started an excellently written blog.
  • Robert Violino's Embracing Gratitude
    A long-ago CMP colleague of mine is writing a most-excellent gratitude blog. Have a look.
  • Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American
    An historian offers a calm daily look at the news.
  • Brendan Leonard: Semi-Rad
    A runner/travel writer's consistently brilliant three-dot blog with funny artwork
  • Richard C. Gross at Counterpunch
    Lucid commentary from a former UPI colleague
  • Phil Albinus
    The personal, professional and political musings of my friend and former colleague of the same name
  • David Strom's Web Informant
    David Strom offers IT industry news and analysis.

Favorite Movies

  • My all-time favorite movie:
    Groundhog Day. I have created a fan site that is universally acknowledged to be the best on the Internet dedicated to this work of art.

    All the rest of my favorite movies (Deadline USA, The Paper, CitizenKane) are Journalism movies.

Paul's Poetry Corner

  • Index of Poems

Paul's Reading Here

  • My Reading List
    As Paul's book list has grown, he has moved it

Statcounter

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    website statistics

    since Oct. 16, 1998.


Paul's Permanent Content

  • Worst Review Ever
    Worst Review Ever

    Clive Barnes reviewed Drat in The New York Times. You have to read it to believe it.

  • East Side Boy
    East Side Boy

    A White Guy Rap about living in NE Portland

  • Dormphone Days

    Dormphone Days
    I worked at the MIT’s internal telephone system; these are my stories.

  • Jon Carroll Cat Columns

    Jon Carroll Cat Columns
    Jon Carroll, who succeeded Charles McCabe in 1982, wrote the world's best personal column for 32 years. He wrote many columns about his cats. I have compiled a listing.

  • Techweb Audio
    Techweb was one of several attempts by CMP Media to create a successful web site. Before it failed, I was the audio guy.

    Techweb Profiles

    Byte Week in Review

    =====================================

  • Paul on the Top Five List

    Paul on the Top5 List

  • Rest In Peace

    Richard Parker Tribute

    Edwin Diamond: An Appreciation

    Edwin Diamond at INS

    Ross Snyder Valedictory

    Norman D. Sandler Tribute

  • Elsewhere at Schindler.org

    Paul's Prairie Home Companion Script

    Paul's Lo-Cal Peanut Buttter Substitute

    Paul on Merv Griffin's Crosswords

    Paul on Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune

    PS...ACOT BACK ISSUE archives

    Journalism Movies

    Journalism Quotes

    You COULD Pay For This Column

    Journalism Books

    Larry King: Letters From Europe

    Kevin Sullivan on Teaching

    My Prarie Home Companion Script

    Groundhog Day: Best Film Ever

    Women in Journalism Movies

    Larry King: British Journalists

    Paul's Tales of Teaching

    Sam Patch, The Greatest Story Ever Told So Far

    The New Eugene Oregon Show

    Audio Editing Hacks

    Fun with electronic editing. At WTBS, these were called hacks. Back in the 70s they were done with spliced magnetic tape. Now they can be done with electrons.

    Alphabet Medley

    Frank Sinatra/Ella Fitzgerald Duet: I've Got A Crush on You

    Alphabet Song from single sung syllables

    Ian Shoales: The Internet Years

    Schindler Jingle/Dream of a Lifetime

    Parodies By Paul... and Robert

    Yes, I am the Paul Schindler who predicted, in 1985, when the Macintosh was a year old, that it wouldn't be a success in business. I stand by that opinion. You can see Paul Schindler Pans Mac .

    I did an audio summary of my career in radio and on podcasts: 35 Years Before The Mic .

    I won Karl Kassel's voice for my answering machine because I won the listener limerick challenge on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me .

    I, Paul E. Schindler, Jr., am driving my stake in the ground right here. I invented the podcast in March 2000 when I worked at Byte.com for CMP Media.

    Index of Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe appearances in PSACOT .

    See how I looked in a Computer Systems News house ad in 1979

    Paul Schindler Quote Page .

    Paul Schindler Spotify Page .

    Paul Schindler iTunes Page .

    Pages

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