When I was a reporter, I spent half of my time taking notes at meetings, and the other half drawing in the margins of my notebooks. I still have my notebooks, and when I look through them, I’m amazed at the stuff I collected over three years’ worth of newspaper reporting.

First, there’s the caricatures of county commissioners, the mayor, the sheriff, the highway patrol officer, engineers, local business owners, and pretty much anyone who came to one of the hundreds of long, dry meetings that I sat through for years. There are post-it notes, still attached to photocopied press releases and other materials that I had to use for background information for stories. There are charts that detail expenditures and drug busts and FEMA payouts. There are satellite maps, and diagrams of wet lands.

And crazy notes and quotes I put in the margin that would never go in the article but are funny nonetheless. My notebooks are filled with the scribbles and comments and drawings. Things like “could this get any more boring!!!!” and “someone shoot me if he says ‘cold mix’ one more time!!!” and “powerpoint is evil!” and “what an idiot” — you get the idea.

For example, in the pile of stuff I’m sending out today, I find the story at hand to be about water drainage and wet lands, always a source of contention. Here are my margin notes, as written, taken from the real conversation of the moment:

Farmers should get cash $ for not draining wetlands. Those w/o wetlands should get same as those who don’t drain — R.

“I’d go out and buy a new pickup tomorrow.”

RE sample “A backhoe works pretty good to take a soil sample.” – D.

“Maybe LAND has one.” – jabs at USFW

I just laugh. If you’ve ever sat in on these kinds of meetings, you know what I’m talking about. Great source of comedy. Great source of drawing material.