Reg Reporter Heads To New York Times. Sort Of.

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Alright! Orange County journalist can move up in the newspaper world! Check it out: Veteran Register reporter Greg Hardesty is in the pages of the New York Times.

I mean, ok, he's not writing for the Gray Lady. He's just a source in one of those horrible trend stories that make us embarrassed about the NYT being our nation's paper of record. The trend? Texting, duh. Kids these days! They text a lot!

Still, some parents are starting to take measures. Greg Hardesty, a reporter in Lake Forest, Calif., said that late last year his 13-year-old daughter, Reina, racked up 14,528 texts in one month. She would keep the phone on after going to bed, switching it to vibrate and waiting for it to light up and signal an incoming message.

Mr. Hardesty wrote a column about Reina's texting in his newspaper, The Orange County Register, and in the flurry of attention that followed, her volume soared to about 24,000 messages. Finally, when her grades fell precipitously, her parents confiscated the phone.

Reina's grades have since improved, and the phone is back in her hands, but her text messages are limited to 5,000 per month -- and none between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. on weekdays.

Yet she said there was an element of hypocrisy in all this: her mother, too, is hooked on the cellphone she carries in her purse.

"She should understand a little better, because she's always on her iPhone," Reina said. "But she's all like, 'Oh well, I don't want you texting.' " (Her mother, Manako Ihaya, said she saw Reina's point.)

I guess I missed the saga in the Reg earlier this year that came out of Hardesty's original "my daughter texts too much" Morning Read article (to be clear, 14,285 texts in a month is a lot). This caused an "international media frenzy," according to a follow-up piece.

And now, the New York Times has gotten to it. Makes sense: The NYT is usually a little behind the curve on hot trends like Sriracha and, uh, hugging.