Desperate Times ...

By Bob Norman Thu., Jun. 12 2008 at 6:44 PM

Well, this hasn't been my week blogging. I had the pictures of the Miami Herald Santeria rooster all day and delayed posting it, thinking that it would hold. Well, a blog called Random Pixels And Loose Talk From Miami Beach beat me to the punch. So it goes. My picture's better, though:
rooster%5B1%5D.jpg

A sign around the rooster's neck reads: "Brought in by a Santeria priest (the real deal from Hialeah) to help us save our jobs. Make an offering.'' The rooster is also wearing a Herald name tag with the name "Peter B. Sinclair." I'll let a Herald staffer explain that one: "Peter is a fictitious character here who gets a byline on virtually all going-away pages. He's actually made at least one byline appearance in the newspaper."

Let's hope this creates some good mojo for the boys and girls at One Herald Plaza. Hey, at least we know Sinclair's job is safe.

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It may not have been the first, but it's the only one that shows my old workspace. Thanks for the memories.
To "A Santera": Didn't the Herald write last year about the Santera practice of digging up graves and performing rituals on the corpses when a rash of such desecrations was occuring weekly near downtown? I remember one family in particular whose departed and dug-up member was Christian. Doesn't that count as making a mockery of other people's religion?
<p><blockquote>You know in this persnickity political society that we live in, it would be an issue....but onto bigger issues</blockquote> </p> For those of us that actually worship the Orisa, your cavalier attitude towards our spiritual and cultural traditions IS the bigger issue. You see the difference between Orisa worshippers and Christians is that we don't make mockery of other peoples' traditions. We also don't go to other religions in times of desperation. Ours works just fine.
Miami, bien entendu
dr, Res Ipsa Loquitur. and I do feel the loss of Tim Russert, Catholic or not as he might have been.
Santeria is appropriate in a lot of ways. Most of the people at the Herald I'm sure are familiar with Santeria but none probably practice it. That's common. There's a saying among Cubans "I don't believe in it, but I respect it." Santeria often includes rituals to cast or remove hexes. In this case they may not believe in it but they are displaying a gallows humor to say that they'd try anything to save their jobs.
Miami Esq, I think you might be reading a little too much into this "shrine"...if there was a Crucifix and holy water, sacred objects from my faith tradition, do you not think there would be an out cry about "why isn't there a Koran there?" "why isn't there a menorah there?" "why just Holy water and a crucifix?"...You know in this persnickity political society that we live in, it would be an issue....but onto bigger issues, Tim Russert has passed away suddenly and that indeed calls for a moment of serious religious reflection...
dr. I hope you are an atheist because you are taking a very cynical view of this, and if that's the case I really have no beef with you, otherwise fill in the symbol of your religion and see if you still think it was appropriate to use the rooster to "relieve the stress of the situation".
Yeah, but I think this was done more to relieve the stress of the situation, and a crucifix or Bible, etc would irritate those who were more "politically correct" i.e., why not a menorah, why not a Koran, etc...as it is, I am sure that a certain "blogger" is gonna call the ACLU in on it anyways....
Everyone is missing the point here. I wonder if it would be funny, or even newsworthy, if instead of a Santeria symbol it was a symbol of a more mainstream religion, a crucifix or a menorah for instance.
Wow! I hope we did not all lose sleep as to exactly how long the picture was actually in the Pulp's possession....but you have to admit, it IS a better pic!
exposing a liar: i went back and checked and you're right that i didn't have them "all day." Must have just seemed like it at the time. i had them for a couple hours before i posted and in the time i sat on them, they popped up on Romenesko. I was beat for sitting on my ass, which was the point of my post. i didn't see the Herald Watch post until you just pointed it out. so that is news to me. nice job HW.
For the record I did not post the above comment but thank the person who did for mentioning that there's other blogs out there covering the Herald beat.
TISK-TISK AND TUT-TUT! The metaphor is the message which is: Chickens serve as a desperate symbol of hope at the Miami Herald -- and editors at the Sun-Sentinel.
"I had the pictures of the Miami Herald Santeria rooster all day and delayed posting it." You are so full of shit Bob. here's a picture on the heraldwatch blog of the rooster abviously taken earlier in the day. http://heraldwatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/sense-of-humor-alive-and-well-in-herald.html he posted that at 3:09pm You'll notice that there are very few items surrounding the rooster. In your picture there are many more items which means that your picture was taken much later. for you to say you had the picture "all day" is a lie. You're just pissed because you got your ass kicked on this one! ;)
The funny thing (to me, anyway) is that's the counter where all the swag and freebies (books, CDs, food etc.) usually sits.