I got the 2-year job by submitting 3 sample columns: Intro, Smarty Pants, Can-DoTeachers, and a cover letter.
I use a motley crew of fictional characters to allow multiple viewpoints and try to make the writing more interesting.
My favorite unpublished column was about deciding whether to become a Baha'i or not. The Faith of a Father
| September 1997 | |
|---|---|
| Hobbies, Jobs and Real Life | 9/9/97 |
| (Don't Die Like Di)
Di Could Boost Another Cause |
9/16/97 |
| Autumn Days Are Welcome | 9/23/97 |
| Drowning the 3.2 Bar Blues | 9/30/97 |
| October 1997 | |
| (The Writing Life)
Writers Best Left Alone |
10/7/97 |
| Your Money or Your Life | 10/14/97 |
| Relinquish that Painfully Perfect Season | 10/21/97 |
| (An Extra Hour for Reflection)
Adjust Attitude Along with Time |
10/28/97 |
| November 1997 | |
| Voting First Path to Input | 11/4/97 |
| Jury Still Out for 12 Angry Pickers | 11/18/97 |
| Gratitude Has Many Facets | 11/25/97 |
| December 1997 | |
| Post-Holiday: Eat, Drink, and Be Happy | 12/2/97 |
| Riding the Rails of Social Engineers | 12/9/97 |
| Holiday Spirit Still Sparkles | 12/16/97 |
| That Special Christmas Presence | 12/23/97 |
| Let the Sunshine In | 12/30/97 |
| January 1998 | |
|---|---|
| Not-So-Rocky Future Coming | 1/6/98 |
| Group March for Dignity of Individual | 1/13/98 |
| Our Indigenous Disney Land? | 1/20/98 |
| Final Score: Teachers 5 Broncos 1 | 1/27/98 |
| February 1998 | |
| Spirit Away Our Spirituality | 2/3/98 |
| Syntax of Self-Direction | 2/10/98 |
| Enough Blame for Everyone | 2/17/98 |
| Two's Company, Three's a Conspiracy | 2/24/98 |
| March 1998 | |
| Persian Gulf Ain't Over | 3/3/98 |
| The Winds Blow Him Away | 3/10/98 |
| Habits Are Interruptible | 3/17/98 |
| Hammering Away at Land Values | 3/24/98 |
| My Two Cents on the Tax Code | 3/31/98 |
| April 1998 | |
| The Sound of Racial Harmony | 4/7/98 |
| Subtle Science and the Magic of Your Mind | 4/14/98 |
| The Wondrous Spell of E-Mail | 4/21/98 |
| In Gold We (Must) Trust | 4/28/98 |
| May 1998 | |
| Let's All Play at Our DIA | 5/5/98 |
| Making Hay, Not Clichés | 5/12/98 |
| The Culture of Popularity | 5/19/98 |
| Indians: Savage or Noble? | 5/26/98 |
| June 1998 | |
| Bypassing Solutions? | 6/2/98 |
| Race War Is No Picnic | 6/9/98 |
| Pacific Bad Boy Reigns (El Nino) | 6/16/98 |
| Loose Ends, Broken Strings | 6/23/98 |
| Of Suicide and Heroism | 6/30/98 |
| July 1998 | synopsis | |
|---|---|---|
| Don't Fall for Tourist Trap | 7/7/98 | How we avoid enjoying our own backyard tourist opportunities |
| Cultures of Fear Will Melt | 7/14/98 | All the troubles we see today are growing pains of the one-world human race |
| Free Markets: the Basis of Business | 7/21/98 | Sue and I explain why the DOJ suit against Microsoft is bogus but why government in general does have a right to regulate the free market |
| Covenants Not So Neighborly | 7/28/98 | How the wording of legal documents can make us meaner |
| August 1998 | ||
| Pack Ethics; Go Camping | 8/4/98 | Seymour, Tanya, Sue, and Sloan argue the ethics of various forms of camping. |
| Don't Discount the Poudre | 8/11/98 | Seymour and I explore arguments for/against Wal-Mart and why we need a comprehensive plan to protect the river |
| Political Lies Will Continue | 8/18/98 | Various ways Clinton, Congress, and voters lie |
| Still an Age Old Dilemma for Us | 8/25/98 | Problems deciding what age to start school |
| September 1998 | ||
| Putting a Finger on the ER Problem | 9/1/98 | Mashing my finger with a rock and going to the emergency room |
| What Kind of Language is THAT? | 9/9/98 | How children use inventive language |
| We Should Encourage Initiatives | 9/15/98 | How politicians are bad and citizen initiatives good |
| The World Wide Web of Lies/Shame | 9/22/98 | Clinton, Starr and pornography on the web |
| Beware of Lady Lawyer with Ukulele | 9/29/98 | Concealed weapons and true self-defense |
| October 1998 | ||
| Ordinances Are a Vote for People | 10/6/98 | My desire to vote for the Fort Collins Human Rights Ordinances |
| Giving Credit Where Credit Is Really Due | 10/13/98 | True acknowledgements to people behind the scenes, appreciation of non-violent high school essays, and a delicious Clinton quote. |
| This Time, We Have a Real Choice | 10/20/98 | UNPUBLISHED: Lay folks like myself aren't allowed to endorse candidates. Only professional columnists can do that. |
| Issuing Forth on Ballot Issues | 10/27/98 | My view on some of the ballot issues facing Larimer County voters. |
| November 1998 | synopsis | |
|---|---|---|
| There Are Real Choices on the Ballot | 11/3/98 | How the election isn't a horse race. Don't bet on the safe choices. |
| Veterans of the Home Front | 11/10/98 | Why I honor widows, orphans, and even war protestors on Veteran's Day |
| Here's a Way to Get True Representation | 11/17/98 | How giving up voting may provide better representation |
| Playing Is Best Done With Friends | 11/24/98 | Why I like jamming and how it's better than card games |
| December 1998 | ||
| Christmas Carols Keep Me and the Economy Humming | 12/01/98 | Why I need more stuff this Christmas |
| PLUS is not a MINUS | 12/08/98 | My take on Java, database design, and the county's Land Use proposal. |
| Every Birthday is Worth Marking | 12/15/98 | On my birthday, I celebrate real "birth" days. |
| The Gift Of Education Requires Knowledge | 12/22/98 | UNICEF should work on educating governments, people should help people |
| I Hope It's an Untrue Prediction | 12/29/98 | Year 2000 fears could be akin to fear itself |
| January 1999 | ||
| New Vision and a New Perspective | 1/5/99 | New glasses and a Baha'i New Year's resolution |
| Develop Your Own Philosophy | 1/12/99 | Why a philosophy debasing ranchettes isn't a good approach to growth mgmt |
| Education of, about People | 1/19/99 | Solve the programmer shortage using non-technical education |
| Hidden Impacts Can Occur | 1/26/99 | Unintended consequences and not giving blood |
| February 1999 | ||
| Opening Up Our Options | 2/2/99 | Why we should create more political parties to challenge the entrenched duet. |
| Love is ..., Like a Lot of Things You Know | 2/9/99 | The various forms of love and how they are all related |
| It's Time to Make Drugs Legal Here | 2/16/99 | How the war on drugs is actually a war on citizens |
| Leaders Inspire Us to Do More, Do Better | 2/23/99 | Leaders such as Janet, Scott, and Jessica don't have to be in charge to lead |
| March 1999 | synopsis | |
|---|---|---|
| Fabled Facts for the Future | 3/2/99 | How the new world order will be based on science |
| Don't Bag Our City Election | 3/9/99 | Why my book bag isn't a purse and how to vote drunk. |
| Location in which to Learn | 3/16/99 | One reason I like Fort Collins, and where to see the Baha'i Youth Workshop this weekend. |
| Growing Better, or Just Bigger? | 3/23/99 | Three scenarios for the future of Fort Collins: Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Michael Garman's Magic Town. |
| Life in the Fast Lane Can Be an Education | 3/30/99 | End of the Baha'i fast makes me glad for heaven on earth, and coffee. |
| April 1999 | ||
| Equalizers Don't Make Us More Peaceful | 4/6/99 | How concealed weapons make carriers edgy, and a bullet tax proposal |
| Learning from Labels | 4/13/99 | How we disenfranchise entire groups through thoughtless lack of labels. |
| It's Not Selling Out -- It's Just Life | 4/20/99 | How selling out works as you get older. |
| Government Not Answer | 4/27/99 | Why government-inspired solutions won't solve problems such as the Columbine High School murders. |
| May 1999 | ||
| Righting the Writes Not So Simple | 5/4/99 | Ads in textbooks and responses to letter writers |
| You Can't Measure Appreciation | 5/11/99 | Teacher appreciation and the measurement of school success |
| Writing Is Easy — Until It's Your Turn | 5/18/99 | Techniques for effective column writing |
| Both Sides Cause More Aggression | 5/25/99 | Deborah Tannen's The Argument Culture and it's relation to Columbine killings |
| June 1999 | ||
| Graduates: Rules and Tools for Your Life | 6/1/99 | Suggestions I would give if I gave a commencement address |
| Racism Is No Picnic | 6/8/99 | What the book Guns, Germs, and Steel has to say about racism |
| Literacy a Hidden Problem for Many | 6/15/99 | Why newspapers dumbing down news is not a bad idea. |
| The Green, Green Grass of Some Other Home | 6/22/99 | Why the Junior League Garden Tour is good even for professional gardeners |
| Graven Images and Craven Laws | 6/29/99 | My take on the 10 Commandments in school, guaranteed to irritate both Bible-thumpers and constitutionalists. |
| July 1999 | synopsis | |
|---|---|---|
| Learning to Not Hate Math | 7/6/99 | How we teach people to be proudly inept at math. |
| This Column Really Bytes | 7/13/99 | Ideas on atoms, bytes and memes. |
| New Orders for a Small World | 7/20/99 | Why a new world order is inevitable and how we should think of nations |
| The Soul of Science | 7/27/99 | How science led me to a belief in the soul. |
| August 1999 | ||
| Mothers of Abstinence | 8/3/99 | Why abstinence teaching is not necessarily good social policy |
| What I Learned on My Field Trip | 8/10/99 | How I treat my kids harsher than I treat others. |
| Thoughts Going into the Final Stretch | 8/17/99 | The best things about writing this column. |
| Teachers Can and Do | 8/24/99 | My take on an old phrase about those who can and those who can't. |
| You Too Can Write a Column for a Song | 8/31/99 | My attempt at writing a column out of song titles. |