My Career Aspirations

The three people whose careers I would give anything to have, in no particular order:

1. HUNTER S. THOMPSON -- The most feared journalist in j-schools throughout the country, he embodies the opposite of almost everything they teach here. Or is he? He is, first and foremost, a seeker of the truth, even if it was not the truth he was sent to find. Also, there is perhaps not a more transparent writer in journalism. As he was a prominent character in almost all of his stories, -- another no-no -- he gave the reader the distinct advantage of not looking to far to find his reporting methods. While his cult fame and more palpable notoriety made for a legendary career, there are important factors that makes the Good Doctor completely different than the gentlemen to be named later. A) The drugs aren't important to me. They were important to him, the 60s were clearly a different time. B) There cannot be another Hunter. He was clearly a one of a kind, and trying to be Hunter is to be doomed from the start. It is his staccato beat and distinct word usage is intriguing. You can report the news without sacrificing style.

2. TONY KORNHEISER -- Mr. Tony to his fans, has managed to report on sports and lifestyle throughout his career. He wasn't stereotyped as just a sportswriter; he was a good enough writer to move throughout the journalistic world. Mr. Tony is an outstanding columnist who can blend comedy into his sports columns. Perhaps, the Dave Barry of the sports world, another writer I enjoy thoroughly. Mr. Tony also has parlayed his writing into, first, a successful syndicated radio show, then the ESPN hit, Pardon the Interuption. Kornheiser has been a success in all forms of the media.

3. ANTHONY BOURDAIN -- In yet another piece of personal information divulged, I love to cook. I get more joy out of cooking for others than I do eating the food. I've been told I'm pretty good. If I weren't in j-school, I'd be in culinary school. Bourdain is a surly chef who has had the best of both worlds. He has a successful restaurant in New York. But he doesn't just sling fries, steaks and tuna tartar, he is also a excellent writer. He has turned his love of food into a column about food. And that column inspired a book, a failed TV sitcom and a more successful TV show on the Travel Channel. The show, called No Reservations, has Bourdain travelling the world tasting local delicacies. Not that I want to travel the world eating reindeer blood sausage in Sweden and washing it down with bear bile in China, but the Sweden and China part would be nice. Someone once suggested that I become a food critic, and use both my cooking and writing. I laughed and scoffed that food critics are only a lowly steeping stool of journalism. And let's be honest they are. I would hope to avoid such a fate. But someday, when I'm not chasing the story anymore, and have hopefully settled into my column, I hope that I might still feel up to cooking on a larger scale. Or at least, travelling the world seaching out the food like Bourdain.