The Los Angeles Press Club held its annual SoCal Journalism Awards last night and four AAN papers went home with honors.
The Weekly, competing with other large-circulation newspapers, won a total of 13 awards in the annual competition sponsored by the LA Press Club. Staff writer Christine Pelisek had a big night, winning first-place honors for Feature, Hard News and Investigative/Series (where she also received an Honorable Mention). Pelisek also finished second for Journalist of the Year. The Weekly placed first in three additional categories: Columnist, Entertainment News or Feature and Political Coverage. Syndicated "Advice Goddess" columnist Amy Alkon also took home a first-place win for Headline Writing in the large-circ category. Amongst the smaller papers, three AAN members were recognized for their work. OC Weekly won three first-place awards, for Design, Entertainment News or Feature and Entertainment Reviews/Criticism/Column. Pasadena Weekly won three awards, and the late LA CityBeat won one.
The rights to the syndicated columnist's book, Revengerella: One Woman's Battle to Beat Some Manners Into Impolite Society, have been sold to McGraw-Hill. The book will feature "true stories of the spectacular ways a self-described 'manners psycho' pranks cell phone abusers, telemarketers, spamsters, road hogs, and other bad guys out of being rude."
Syndicated sex columnist Amy Alkon knows how to get her man -- and manners. Recently, when a cafe patron sitting within earshot chatted too loudly on her cell phone, Alkon recorded and published details of the conversation, including the woman's name, telephone number, and plans for the afternoon. When the Wall Street Journal reported the incident but disguised Alkon's identity, Alkon wrote about that, too, taking credit for her coffeeshop intervention. She is scheduled to appear tonight on ABC's Nightline to discuss the "undermannered" and how to deal with them.
When syndicated Advice Goddess Amy Alkon used "polyamory" in a headline for a column on a cheating boyfriend that appeared in the Ventura County Reporter, Poynter contributor Amy Gahran took issue, pointing out the word's true meaning described consensually open relationships. Gahran's reproof precipitated a war of words between the semanticistas that MediaBistro's FishbowlLA blog is calling the "the on-line equivalent of a cat fight."
Amy Alkon isn't shy about expressing her opinion, as anyone who reads her syndicated column "The Advice Goddess" knows. In a July 13 blog post, Alkon offered her thoughts on a cancer-stricken teenager who was fighting a legal battle to take herbal treatment in lieu of chemotherapy. She was upset at the boy's "idiot parents" for backing him. Forrest MacGregor, the teenager's uncle, read her post and retaliated by purchasing the domain names AmyAlkon.net, AmyAlkon.biz, AmyAlkon.info, AmyAlkon.org, and AmyAlkon.us. The Advice Goddess posted an e-mail she received from MacGregor on her blog, and offered him the following bit of guidance: "Do I really seem like a good person to fuck with? Hmmm, real genius there, Forrest. Forrest, so I'm a big meanie. Don't you have a life or anything? Don't you have anything better to do?"
Syndicated columnist Amy Alkon, Advice Goddess, has some advice for SUV owners: ditch that roadhog and get a life. From her home base in Venice, Calif., she began placing small printed cards on the windsheids of SUVs that read: "Road-hogging, gas-guzzling, air-fouling vulgarian! Clearly you have an extremely small penis or you wouldn't drive such a monstrosity. " Since she wrote up the campaign in New Times Los Angeles, along with the responses she's been getting to a telephone number printed on the card, the movement has spread. She's been written up as far away as Britain.
