Giant puffball generates phone calls, much interest

Resslin'Around By Casey Ressler

Every Tuesday and Friday, when the Frontiersman comes out, it is always interesting to sit back in the newsroom and listen to the feedback about that edition's stories. In the morning, a few phone calls trickle in to the various reporters, and then during the afternoon, the phones come alive as more and more people read that day's paper.

We welcome those calls, but sometimes, they are not the stories you'd expect to hear back from that most people are talking about.

A strong editorial taking a stance on a local issue, such as zoning or Hatcher Pass, will generate a phone call or two. A hotly debated school-issue story will bring a call here and there. The sports pages bring two to three calls religiously.

There are stories you write and just know, without a doubt, you will be hearing from tons of people when it hits the streets, but then only one or two calls trickle in. Some stories you write and know you won't hear anything about - and you are dead wrong. Such is the puffball story.

All you have to do to ensure your phone never stops ringing is write a puffball story. That's what works for me.

It's always the funny, innocent stories that seem to intrigue readers the most, for some reason.

Last Wednesday, for Friday's paper, I wrote a "Real Person" story - a once-a-week feature focusing on normal, everyday people - and the subject, Debra McMahon, had found a giant puffball. It was a seven-pounder, and it was quite impressive.

I'll admit, I was a puffball moron before I saw the giant puffball and started writing about McMahon's incredible find.

I had no idea a puffball is a white fungusthat people eat, before it matures into a brown orb that, living up to its name, lets out a "puff." I didn't know people actually ate these things, until McMahon started sharing her favorite recipes.

Even then, I don't think I'd actually eat anything with a name like puffball, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Evidently, a lot of people care about puffballs, judging by the number of phone calls I got Friday. People wanted to share their favorite family puffball recipes with me, an 86-year-old woman on her birthday who knew they used puffballs as medication way back when left a voice mail message, and other people with large puffballs gave me a shout.

Friday, between phone calls trying to research an important story about Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), I answered puffball questions from readers. One second, I was asking people about the challenges of being a volunteer in a system filled with children who are abused or neglected, and the next second, I was telling people how much puff was in the puffy puffball.

The responses didn't end with the phone calls, however. Coworkers came up to me and asked if I had ever tried puffballs before. Much like the readers, they only saw the puffball photo and story in the paper, it seemed.

Hearing from readers is one of the joys of working in the newspaper business.

Readers basically sign my paycheck twice a week, so I welcome talking to them about whatever they feel they want to talk about - even if it is a giant puffball.

Casey Ressler (ressler@alaska.net) is the Frontiersman Valley Life editor. Today is his birthday, and he is celebrating with a giant steak, not a puffball.