Dr. Spaulding

If you’ve been in Baltimore long, you’ve probably seen the billboard, the courtship commercial and the wedding ceremony. This genius campaign was created by MGH Marketing for Smyth Jewelers, which resulted in a 15 percent increase in diamond sales. Last November, the blog The City That Breeds asked readers to write the back story of the [...]

Congratulations to all of my students who completed fall internships this semester. My favorite internship evaluation came from Tyler Green, who wrote: The internship opened my eyes to how thrilling working in the city can in fact be. For future interns, I offer this one piece of advice. Go in with an open mind, and [...]

… who works in a tattoo museum. … who knows the recipe for Faidleys famous crab cakes or a Berger cookie. … who stands vigil at the Poe grave every January trying to catch a glimpse of the famous Poe toaster. … who can spend a year as Baltimore’s best hon and write a book [...]

J-student Jeremy Bauer-Wolf stalks the perfect photo of Edgar Allan Poe, aka poet and actor Mark Sanders. Of all the photos I took on our Reporters’ Tour of Baltimore, these two are my favorites. (Click to enlarge.) Thank you Thank you to all of the guests who made this field trip possible: Tour guide David [...]

We toured Baltimore today with former Sun reporter and editor David Ettlin, with stops at the Mencken House, the Poe Grave (with special guest Mark Sanders) and Lexington Market (crabcakes…yum.) Several MCOM 257 students tweeted the trip, including Brandi Bottalico:   View the story “@brandibot tweets the Reporters’ Tour of Baltimore” on Storify] And Skylar [...]

The Reporters’ Tour of Baltimore Friday Nov. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bus leaves from the entrance to the 7800 York Rd. building   Bring $10 for lunch, and a buck or two for the Pennies for Poe campaign   Sign up by emailing Dr. Spaulding Sign up now for the repoters’ tour of [...]

In honor of Mencken’s birthday today, a selection from his autobiography Newspaper Days on “the gaudy life that young newspaper reporters led in the major American cities at the turn of the century.” I believed then, and still believe today, that it was the maddest, gladdest, damndest existence ever enjoyed by mortal youth. At a [...]

Learn more about the house at 1524 Hollins Street at the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House website.

“I am simply a journalist trying to tell a story and the stories I tell are about books and authors.” –Michael Dirda, Washington Post book critic and Pulitzer Prize winner, giving the 2011 Mencken Memorial Lecture today at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Last year, Dirda reviewed a new edition of Mencken’s Prejudices. He said [...]

Next Monday is the birthday of Baltimore newspaperman Henry Louis Mencken (Sept. 12, 1880 – Jan. 29, 1956) who said his early career as a reporter in Baltimore was “the maddest, gladdest, damndest existence ever enjoyed by mortal youth.” If you’re a journalism student in Baltimore, you should study your Mencken: Consider attending the Pratt [...]