… is … is … is …

As mentioned previously, the SPJ is currently posting their 2006 award winners as the names come in, but stripped of the information of exactly what they’ve won until May 13’s award ceremony in Riverside.

The list is still very incomplete: I’m not seeing any Daily Press reporters listed (other than for sports), and it’s so unlikely that no one from their newsroom would win an award, I can only conclude that only sports, layout and photo awards have been judged so far.

Having said that, my name just appeared on the list (notably on April Fool’s Day). For what, I don’t know. I did submit a photo submission and a sports story submission this year, so that could be it. Crazier things have happened: I still can’t get over winning a 2005 award for police coverage for what was, really, a feature story that simply happened to be about volunteer police officers.

I’m sure we’ll see the likes of Gretchen Losi, Peter Day, Kate Rosenberg, Kathleen Stinson, Stuart Kellogg and Tracie Troha on that list before long as well.

In the meantime, I can shift to deciding on what I want to eat this year. I’m thinking the gorgonzola chicken at the moment, since salmon can either be done so right or so very, very wrong.

Derailed

Derailed is full of surprises, not the least of which is that Jennifer Aniston, freed from romantic comedy, both on television and film, is an actress of surprising weight and darkness.

This point is driven home early, when the sexy flirtations give way without warning to something different, in a sudden change of direction, and the film has more on the way.

The film’s not perfect — Clive Owen’s protagonist does several very dumb things along the way, when the alternative really isn’t much worse, and in one case, what he does is almost unthinkably worse than what he’s been threatened with — and the big secret of the plot can be put together before Clive’s character stumbles on it, but it’s still an effective and affecting thriller.

Strongly recommended for thriller fans and especially for anyone who thought that maybe, just maybe, Jenifer Aniston had more of a future ahead of her than just an endless series of Meg Ryan-style romantic comedies.