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It's kind of hard to spend long hours trying to help people and then find out that the favorite game of the columnist is to sit back and second guess you and try to find something that you did wrong.

Don't commit to being a columnist unless you're willing to do it right. Report your behind off, so you have something original and useful to say. Say it in a way that will interest someone other than you, your family and your sources.

I don't usually comment on columnists' ideas of what I'm thinking. That's a dangerous game to get into.

I'm a journalist and author. I make my living by finding things out and writing about them.

I happen to have a public profile. Ditto newspaper editors. It's a result of what I do, not an end.

Newspaper readership is declining like crazy. In fact, there's a good chance that nobody is reading my column.

Report, report, report. Dig, dig, dig. Think, think, think. Don't stop being a reporter because you've become a columnist.

I come from a long line of people that write. My folks ran a weekly newspaper.