Sage advice

The L.A. Times has offered buyouts to some of its reporters. One of them, Rone Tempest, is a veteran reporter of nearly 40 years of experience, a good deal of which was with LAT. He served as a bureau chief in Houston, India, Beijing, Hong Kong, Paris and had many other experiences, including coverage of some of the world's hot spots. A couple of years ago, he shared in the LAT Pulitzer for coverage of Southern California wild fires. Mr. Tempest decided to take the buyout, but as a departing gift, left with some words of wisdom for all of us, as set out here:

4 Career Life Lessons from a Retiring Hack:

1)Never write a company-wide memo

2)In any foreign language the most important phrase is "My friend will pay" as in French "mon ami va payer" or Chinese "Wo de pengyou yao mai le"

3) Given a choice, Bordeaux red

4) Never get killed for an inside story.

Take heed, all you.

(An example of Mr. Tempest's work is found in this piece about Victor Davis Hanson)

(Another sample: here with an explanation of #4)