Stories from Inside

The thing I like the most about any job, really, is learning the 'secrets' of the trade. Example: At the movie theater where I work (and presumably, most large cineplexes), the popcorn is actually made there. They've got two massive poppers and a constant stream of 50-pound bags of kernels. They pop them in back, in the kitchen, then load up the popped corn into a big plastic bag. That's taken to a storage room down the hall, and constantly throughout the day and evening, the big heater bins at the concession stand are refilled from these bags.

Along those lines (of 'secrets of the trade', not popcorn), I went to an intern lunch at the paper where I'm interning. Every two weeks or so (apparently), they get pizza for us, and a couple staff members (writer and editors) hang out with us in the conference room, eating pizza and talking with us about what it's like when you actually get paid for what you're doing. There were two seperate incidents mentioned in which one of the staff writers for the paper wrote an article about something, and then - due to other events - was summarily labelled as an "expert" by other media outlets, simply on the basis of the fact that they wrote a story about it. They, too, admitted to being guilty for doing it. Especially the local media: they'll take whatever they can get, slap on a label that's not an outright lie per se, and you'll likely never know the difference.

Which is why, of course, you should never believe anything you see in the media until you've read at least three agreeing but entirely-seperate sources.