A friend noted my wish for more real news stories in the media and passed along a couple really good ideas.

One is to do a deep dive with one of the people or families at street corners asking for money to help them.

It would take a good reporter and some effort to gain their trust, but it would payoff to find out who they are, what is their circumstance, how much do they raise on the corner, what do people say to them, stories from their interactions, and what the future holds. And that is some of the curiosity we all must have when we see them on so many corners.

The other idea my friend passed along was to do a deep dive into movie theaters. How is business. Are people watching more at home and pickier on what they go out to see? How is the experience changing and what might the future hold. Picking one theater and spending a day with them could offer plenty of insights. A sidebar I am curious about is how people sneak in their own food and drink to avoid concessions prices. Is it prevalent, what do the theaters do about it, what do they see on creative and bold smuggling. It would be interested to interview a smuggler on what the bring in.

Again, I haven’t seen any of these stories and in terms of what is out there and what people are interested in, it is the tip of the untapped iceberg.