The past two weeks have been busy at The Star. The Labor Day East magazine is being readied to go to the printer, and we have hosted a pair of student writers who are taking part in our summer program for high schoolers.
This year because of several late cancellations, the class has had just two participants, Timothy and Miller, both smart kids and quite different in personality and interests. Timothy is into sports and business — he says he reads The Financial Times in the morning. Miller is more arts-oriented and said he is thinking about law school after college.
Our program takes the students through newswriting basics: the inverted pyramid, how to write a lede, what makes a good story, and how to interview and self-edit. We pitch these lessons as teaching portable skills, ones that will translate well to whatever paths they take in their professional lives. The idea is to give them writing experience and spare them too much dull lecturing.
An annual highlight is attending Town Justice Court. The day we went, Justice David Filer showed us around the court, then seated us in the jury box to watch. Cases generally are grouped by type; the day we went was for vehicle and traffic charges, speeding and driving without a license. Unfortunately, in the opinion of the boys, we had to get back to The Star before the more serious matters, such as driving while intoxicated, came before the bench. Justice Filer stopped by the office later to tell us we had missed seeing two defendants nearly get into a physical fight because one of them thought the other was looking at him funny.
After getting a grasp of the fundamentals, each student gets to work on individual writing projects. Miller wrote about an upcoming mental health discussion at Bay Street. Timothy is asking experts if there really is more marine life in the ocean nearshore and, if so, what is the explanation.
There is a joint project, too, the Lord of the Fries, in which we sample the French fries from top-rated takeout places, pitting Sag Harbor, East Hampton, and Montauk against one another. The contestants are ranked by wait time, price, taste, presentation, and texture. So far, our samples, from awful to great, have come as a surprise. Look for the results on The Star's Instagram, where we plan to announce the Top Fry over the weekend.