A few months back I wrote an article for our Daily Blatt on Mark Twain,
the Father of Fake News. It was a more timely subject then and, in his
early days as a journalist, Twain could out-pace the best of the Daily
Show or Dan Rather combined, seldom letting  facts get in the way of
readership. You know the famous ones: The Petrified Man, Indian
Emigrant raids and Dutch Nick's, but I added a few more such as the
Truckee Hay Wagons and his running taunt of fellow reporter Clement
Rice. However, in its internet-induced decline, our major daily,
reduced its features section from eight pages to four and the budget
for this story from a full page w/ pics to 600 words w/ no pics. So,
rather than edit down to nothing, I opted out. Now I've got what I
think is a good story with quite a unique slant to the man who wrote a
spurious article about a competing editor, "just to see him squirm,"
but no place to publish. I'm hoping members of the Forum could suggest
a pub that might have an interest in such a story, whether paid or not.
I'd be happy to share it with anyone who requests, providing you
promise a critique, but I'm not going to inflict it on the Forum en
mass. (FYI: For those of you who don't know me, I still have some
journalistic chops, having written for several national magazines
including Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Nation's Business,
etc. - none particularly inclined to feature Mark Twain in his fake
news days.) Any leads will be appreciated.

JERRY VORPAHL
Sacramento (The town MT called, "A city of saloons.")