Articles and Writing Samples Anita Bartholomew

Articles and

Writing Samples

Narrative Whale of a Rescue: On this mid-December Sunday morning, charter fishing and whale-watching boat captain, Mick Menigoz, got an unusual distress call from a crab fisherman, far out at sea. A humpback whale was entangled in the thick nylon ropes of commercial crab traps, and fighting for its life... Link to full article.

Personal finance Field of Schemes: Florida real estate has long been synonymous with speculation. In the 1920s, get-rich-quick dreamers bought up property and then, quickly sold it for a profit to someone who hoped to earn as much selling to the next guy. After the 1920s bust, some properties stood half-finished for years, eyesores that eventually had to be torn down. In the boom that got rolling around 2003, people who heard about properties doubling, even tripling in value, believed that the market could go nowhere but up. The boom-bust cycle was about to repeat itself....LINK TO FULL ARTICLE.

Science French Quarter Feeding Frenzy: Something utterly alien hides deep within the French Quarter of New Orleans. And it has so unnerved the locals that, rather like the vampires reputed to haunt these streets, they zig-zag to avoid streetlamps, lest the menace drawn by the lights follows them home. Link to full article.

Science Tunnel Visions: In recent years, medical advances have allowed doctors to revive clinically dead people who, in earlier times, would have been irretrievably lost. What no one could have anticipated is that a surprising percentage come back with tales of out-of-body experiences, travels down tunnels, and visits with deceased loved ones. Link to full article.

Narrative Life in the Balance: "A man named Jim called from the outskirts of a town on the Mojave Desert," says Chris Neame (caller's name and other identifying information have been changed to protect privacy). "He said he was sitting in a hotel room. He had a gun on the table. And he was going to shoot himself." Neame is a volunteer crisis counselor at the Suicide Prevention Center of the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in Los Angeles. It's one of about 300 such centers that take calls through the nationwide 24-hour hotline, 1-800-SUICIDE. Link to full article.

Inspirational true story Creek Of Redemption: Ten years after John Beal got back home to Seattle, Washington, he still carried Vietnam around with him. The screech of artillery fire still echoed in his ears; the once lush jungle, scorched dead by Agent Orange, still haunted his conscience. War memories clawed their way to his heart, gripped and squeezed. Within seven months, John Beal suffered three heart attacks. Link to full article.

Health Are Your Kids Making You Sick? : The morning bell rings, and 25 or so adorable five- and six-year-olds enter their bright, tidy classroom. It’s a typical day in a typical kindergarten. And the boys and girls are doing what they typically do. They select toys and felt-tip markers, then several kids stick their selections in their mouths. One little girl rubs her eyes. Two other children wipe their drippy noses with a finger and sleeve. link to full article.

Drama In Real Life Shootout In Dade County: The air hung so thick and still over Florida’s Interstate 75, you could slice it with a butter knife. But with the top down on her new BMW convertible, Edith Silver created her own breeze. It whipped through her short blonde hair, making her feel young and carefree. She could almost forget the birthday coming up. link to full article.

Personal finance Bull Marketing: I met Amanda in the ladies’ room of the Marco Island Radisson. The 11-year-old with her strawberry blond braids had piqued my curiosity. Why was she sitting through the two-day “Wall Street Workshop,” a Wade Cook seminar on stock market speculation? Couldn’t her parents find a sitter? Link to full article.

Health/Science Mad Cow: Coming Soon To A Dinner Table Near You?: In 1993, 15-year-old British schoolgirl Victoria Rimmer was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a fatal illness that causes sponge-like holes to form in the brain. Getting CJD at any age was rare — statistically, about a one-in-a-million risk. For those under 30, the risk was thought to be almost infinitesimal — roughly three-in-a-billion. Rimmer was the first teen diagnosed. But she wasn’t alone for long. Link to full article.

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ANITA BARTHOLOMEW

Writer - Editor