Category Archives: Joel’s J School

Faces of Matty

By Joel Thurtell   What a friend we have in Matty. A benefactor, really. After reading the April 11, 2010 Detroit Free Press “I’m a benefit to the city” spread on billionaire trucking magnate Manuel “Matty” Moroun’s land dealings, readers … Continue reading

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Killing the monster

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are … Continue reading

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Lord of the Lies

By Luke Warm Professor of Mendacity University of Munchausen There comes a time in the career of every Professor of Mendacity — even those of us who have earned multiple PhDs in the fields of Duplicity, Mendacity, Deceit and Diversion … Continue reading

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Maunderings of a media mogul

A play in one act By Joel Thurtell The hero of our new unillustrated, eponymous comic strip is the head of a once huge media company hard-hit by an economic recession. He is struggling with the same moral issues that … Continue reading

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Those Gannett sweeties

By Joel Thurtell They’ve done it again. Honchos at America’s Number One Newspaper Chain surpassed themselves. I’m talking greed, of course. Who else does it as well as Gannett? Can you believe Gannett CEO Craig Dubow banked $4.7 million last … Continue reading

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Eighteen stories deep

A Short Story By Joel Thurtell The Old Man sat slouched in a tall-backed leather chair. He looked across his glass-topped desk at an array of toys that usually took his mind off anything that might trouble an octogenarian trucking … Continue reading

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Henry the 8th and all that

By Joel Thurtell What this country needs is more historians. Or at least, people who THINK like historians. Thinking like a historian involves two different kinds of mental concentration. First, a historian understands that, according to the laws of physics, … Continue reading

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‘A+’ for deceit

By Luke Warm Professor of Mendacity University of Munchausen My purpose in lecturing you today is to explain how it’s possible for a journalistic essay to be judged inferior or even given a failing grade according to conventional standards, when … Continue reading

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Fair to poor

By Joel Thurtell Fair to poor. That’s what I think of the February 5, 2010 Detroit Free Press editorial about the need for a new bridge across the Detroit River. By the way, those are the same words an engineering firm, … Continue reading

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Scraping ‘hope’ from rubble

By Joel Thurtell One week after the disaster that left Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas in ruins, the toll on this country has been measured almost entirely in lives. But Haiti’s institutions, weak as they were, have been grievously wounded too. … Continue reading

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