When you're writing a deadline column it's like walking into a kitchen every day, and having no idea what's in the cupboard. All you know is that by five o'clock you must produce a gourmet meal. A lot of times the whole column will blow up at four o'clock if a big story breaks. But you can't plan news. Every time you try to do it, it ends up exploding in your face.
News is a highly perishable commodity with a short shelf life.
You've got to get it in the paper now. Shister is equally aggressive chasing a story as she is on the basketball court. She spent the first two years of her undergraduate studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario, playing guard on the women's varsity basketball team. Transferring to Brandeis, she divided her time between the gym and the library. I can't believe how hard I worked, and how much I read, and how much I learned.