Welcome, but who the heck is John Baker?

Personal:

My name is John C. Baker -- that's me to the right. I have a common name (the "C" is for "Christopher"), so I must strive to be an uncommon individual.

I was born in Southern California and was educated there at Glendale College and Crescenta Valley High School. I then came north, settling for a time in rural northern California while I attended Humboldt State University (from which I graduated with a BA in journalism [minor in international relations]). I now live in South San Francisco, Calif., which -- as the name implies -- is just south of San Francisco.

The dot com "bust" hit this area hard, and the newspaper for which I most recently worked has gone out of business. But I keep busy with civic engagements (serving both on the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury and the South San Francisco Library Board). I also get some freelance work, clients for which include the San Mateo County Times. To bide my time, I'm also working on a history degree (BA in progress, master's immediately following) at San Francisco State University.

I'm now (as of early 2002) 30 years old, and married to a lovely woman, Claire Ramsey. She puts up with me when it suits her needs, and I really appreciate it. We don't get out as much as we like, but we'd like to take some international trips soon. Our most recent was to beautiful Prince Edward Island.

Previous publications I've written for include the HSU Lumberjack, the Glendale News-Press, and the Independent Newsgroup.

Information

Too many personal web pages are all fluff, and I wanted practical reasons for people to visit my site. So here's some interesting stuff:

History  Media build-up to the Spanish-American War A study of the press' growing war hysteria with Spain in early 1898. Particularly insightful, I feel, is the chapter about how the plight of ethnic minorities was covered during the build-up to war. Homefront: Redwood City How the opening salvos of World War II affected a typical San Francisco suburb. Historical documents, newspaper accounts and oral interviews provide a narrative about the dark cloud hanging over the West Coast. Italian Americans view Mussolini How Italian American saw Mussolini just prior to the United States' entry into World War II

Essays on other topics Astronomy and Journalism How difficult is it to inform the public on scientific matters? Science writers and astronomer Geoff Marcy examine the matter. L.A. to San Diego, by bus A travelouge about a trip from the L.A. suburb of Glendale to San Diego -- using nothing but mass transit.     Just because: Canadian Multi-cultural Theatre A paragraph (yes, you read that right) I wrote just to prove that anyone can write a paragraph about anything.

Resumé and C.V. John Baker's resumé: in HTML in Adobe PDF Newspaper clippings: Click here for an online selection of stuff John has written.   Yes I do have some fluff on the website: Click here to find out what ...

Contact me at: jcb10@axe.humboldt.edu (alternate e-mail: jcb10@hotmail.com)

Last Updated: Feb. 19, 2002. First Online: Aug. 7, 1998.

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