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Subject:Learning about a far-away town From:Arthur Comings <atc -at- CORTE-MADERA -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 27 Jul 1994 10:30:33 PDT
> When I was engaging in a continent-wide job search, I found that a very
> effective way to get a "feel" for a distant place was to subscribe to the
> local paper. You can get names and phone numbers for virtually any
> publication that accepts advertising from the Ayer Guide to Publications,
> which is available in most libraries and is organized by city.
> Content-Length: 499
> For this purpose, the advertisements are more important than the news,
> though something like "Twelve Die in Drive-By Shooting" or "Local Company
> Indicted for Waste Dumping" probably warrants attention. The apartment ads
> are especially valuable.
> FWIW,
> Doug
> ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com
Good advice.
I always like to read the Sheriff's Calls, for papers that print
them, but I guess they'd give you an unnecessaily negative view of a
town, unless you read them for each town.
On the other side of the coin, the ones for a small town on the coast
west of me are generally pretty funny in their tameness and insularity.
there's an occasional car broken into, but they generally go like this:
Homeowner reported hearing strange noises in her driveway.
Deputy investigated a report of teenagers having an illegal beach
party.
Neighbors complained of loud noise coming from a bar.
-- I think the low point was when they threw eggs at a tourist bus.
Well, back to tech writing, eh?
Arthur Comings
GeoQuest
Corte Madera, California
atc -at- corte-madera -dot- geoquest -dot- slb -dot- com