Posted on 02/25/2010 9:05:12 PM PST by SmithL
“Hello? Daily Planet? I think you should get a photographer over here to North Berkeley because there is a UFO hovering over Solano, and you need to report on it.”
“The city is chopping down this really beautiful tree on my street and the neighbors are all out here in tears, and we want the Planet to stop the buzz saws.”
“There are some really nasty-smelling barrels that someone dumped on the corner and they kind of look toxic, so can you figure out how to get rid of them?”
This last request to the Daily Planet newsroom phone was actually solvable. Nabil Al-Hadithy in the city’s toxics department was able to arrange to have the barrels removed. Some calls resulted in news stories, more often a kind of counseling session ensued, with advice offered on other groups to turn to for help. The calls produced a snapshot of a city and its residents, the fires and accidents, the outrage and, frequently enough, the comic and the absurd.
I have sat at the front desk in the newsroom of the Daily Planet for seven-plus years, often wishing I had kept a record of the phone calls and visitors we had, as it would have been fodder for a great soap opera. But I didn’t—though I did manage to be entertained.
We had some nasty phone calls, too. If you are a regular Planet reader, and seen the vitriol in the letters section, or an advertiser who has been subjected to it, I am sorry. I got the same stuff at the front desk. I wish we could find a way toward peace in the Middle East, but the hate, from one side in particular, that I have listened to, has soured me on the subject.
But within our little space of an office, we had a wonderful life. We made some great friends (we miss the woman who came by with sweet potato pies), and celebrated each other’s achievements, even though Justin won the most. We celebrated marriages. We had children (Production Manager Ken was first with Lauren, then Michael with Daisy). We won awards, we were in the news, we hosted staff from other media (once a local TV crew needed a restroom); we celebrated with another crew when Obama won the election and they interviewed our neighbor Don at the barber shop. We mourned the death of friends: Fred Lupke, Denise Brown, Mr. Sugimoto and his wife Kay, Al Winslow and others.
We had a home. We brought in food for each other, and Joanie, from our circulation department, was especially wonderful for bringing us fresh fruit. We had a note over the sink admonishing folks to wash their own dishes, and we had a particularly difficult time with a mouse that terrorized some of us, but was acceptable to others. Sometimes we didn’t like one other, and sometimes we had major disagreements. We also laughed a lot. We were a family.
The garden flourished under the attentive care of our landlord, Mr. Sugimoto. And after that kind and gentle man passed on, Andy Liu and Mark Lilios helped us continue with the garden, with beans and tomatoes galore, kale (which last summer fed the office in the form of kale quiches for weeks), cabbages and even some weird squashes, which we never actually harvested. We raised three puppies under the front desk. Our children and grandchildren, passed in and out of the office, drawing for us on our endless supply of paper to be recycled, and we always hung their artwork prominently.
We survived the years of Bush and Fox news, and many of their egregious errors ended up on our wall of shame and fame, a partition covered with news clippings, and photographs, in the newsroom, which always entertained our visitors.
We had some great parties, with all the usual suspects in attendance, and several luminaries who graced our doorstep and our pages, and to whom I am so grateful for their friendship, especially Peter Selz, Peter and Annette, and Arthur Blaustein.
I apologize to the many people who called with really serious problems that we were not able to investigate, or to help you with. Unfortunately, this will get worse as community newspapers die off. To whom do you turn to when the city will not respond?
I am very sad to leave this front desk, my colleagues, and my work here. The Planet will continue to publish online, and I hope you continue to send in letters and commentaries. It is only with an informed public that democracy will survive.
Thank you all.
OK, I'm over it
If you are a regular Planet reader, and seen the vitriol in the letters section, or an advertiser who has been subjected to it, I am sorry. I got the same stuff at the front desk. I wish we could find a way toward peace in the Middle East, but the hate, from one side in particular, that I have listened to, has soured me on the subject.Aw, their support of terrorism didn't bring world peace.
We survived the years of Bush and Fox news, . . .Actually, Bush and Fox News have survived, but the prognosis for Beserkeley's Daily Planet is not so good.
All that Moose love went to waste because of the Bush hate... *sob* *weep*
Buh Bye!
So why didn't they get a darn cat already
It was the mouse connected to their Apple.
Because that wouldn't be acceptable to the 'others' lol
Look on the bright side - we’ll still be able to ignore these self-absorbed drama queens online.
Good-bye and good riddance. Any so-called newspaper that is nothing but a bunch of whiney sob sisters deserves to fail.
And then farther down the page, this...
We brought in food for each other, and Joanie, from our circulation department, was especially wonderful for bringing us fresh fruit. We had a note over the sink admonishing folks to wash their own dishes, and we had a particularly difficult time with a mouse that terrorized some of us, but was acceptable to others.
There used to be a something called a Bad Writing Contest. Had these passages been entered, they would have been difficult to beat.
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This was too funny! What a bunch of tools. These people actually published something? Was it one of those papers the panhandlers get for free to try to sell you to instead of simply begging for money?
This looks like it was produced by one of those web sites where you just put in a few subjects, and it spits out some kind of text...here would be my entry for "The Berkeley Daily Planet Writing Style Contest":
"We all cried together when Michael Jackson died. It was the saddest day of our lives. We had our differences, but we knew that world peace was the most important thing, and that the most galling thing to us was having our taxes being spent to support the military industrial complex. We laughed together, we cried together. With pride, we supported the gay, lesbian, transsexual, bisexual, cross-dressing communities, because so many people were having their civil rights trampled on. We laughed, we cried, we hugged each other, together we dreamily watched the rainfall patter on our windows..."
As Nedry famously said in "Jurassic Park": "See the stick? Stick stupid! Ahhh no wonder you're extinct. I'm gonna run you over when I come down."
Thanks for posting this obit
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