Who’s Your Source on This One?

Work is hard. You spend most of your life in a little cubicle, dreaming about the things you’d rather be doing with your precious time. But still you keep at it, like a sucker, hoping your toil gets you ahead.

Unless you’re a mystery writer for the Globe’s City Weekly. Then you try to get other journalists to do your work for you. (Link via Universal Hub.)

Jessica Scarpati of the Brookline Tab posts an email she got from a reporter at the daily. It’s just as uncomfortably funny as an episode of The Office.

Hi Jessica,

I’m a freelance writer and assigned a Brookline-based story for the City Weekly section of the Globe. I was reading your articles from about a year ago when plans for Panera were just under way. Do you know how recently the place opened up? (I just noticed it about a month ago) Also, has there been much negative reaction or are people just kind of going with it?

If you have any info for me, I’d appreciate it. Personally, I think it’s a shame to see relics like the Coolidge Corner Theatre and Brookline Booksmith are being sandwiched by the flashy signs of commercial chains.

Cheers,
[name removed]

P.S. If there is any other news/controversy bubbling in Brookline that you’d like attention called to, do let me know.

We’re pretty lazy, but that goes well beyond our capacity for sloth. After some perfunctory clicking around, we found this press contact form on the Panera Bread website. And after taking a stroll through Coolidge Corner a couple of weeks ago, we’d say the chain has been pretty well-received, judging by the number of people eating in the restaurant.

There you go, anonymous City Weekly freelancer. If those meanies at the Brookline Tab won’t help you, we will.