SFJ arranged helpful snacks and an open bar for the reception tonight— crudites and crackers for me, food on sticks for carnivores. Clutching two crackers, I bailed at 9 p.m., after only three hours.
I would say about 20 people, but there‘s this V-chip for numbers in my brain, so there might have been more. I counted four times and forgot the count four times.
After an afternoon wandering around this ridiculously underdocumented hotel — hello, why not list your amenities on a piece of paper in the rooms so guests don’t have to pester total strangers in your elevators with questions they can’t answer either? — It was relief to be greeted immediately by Valerie Schremp Hahn and her co-workers from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, including Gabe Hartwig and Aisha Sultan, who used to work with Charlie Frago.
We couldn't remember Charlie's name, just that he is tall and speaks Portugese. I promised Aisha she would recall it before I did, but I just woke up remembering, so, Aisha, looks like I win.
Elisa Crouch isn’t there anymore. And she has a married name. Which they told me but I forgot.
Diane Smith of King Features told me about her day to day, which she likes even though I wouldn't. It involves a lot of answering the phone. The syndicate still takes on young artists and gets them a market, in part because there are burned out artists who decide they aren't willing to work so hard for tiny income.
Connie Nelson of the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis got here a day early and collected information for a travel story — Kansas City by light rail. Connie works for a family-owned paper.
Christopher Wynne of Dallas Morning News says our former child co-worker Jerry Bokamper is married and no longer at the paper. Laid off, and he saw it coming. Christopher manages 8 arts critics. Eight. Critics. For now. There's writing on a wall that has him counseling some poor woman to diversify before she has to become part-time.
Shawna Van Ness of Newsday boggled my mind with her description of a market big enough that it has restaurant wars. Because her company also owns Penny Shopper, it can guarantee delivery to virtually every family on the island. Newsday rents out its delivery staff as delivery guys for companies like Lands End. Now there’s an idea.
Crystal Schelle of the Hagerstown, Md., Herald-Media talked a lot about the civilians she recruits as freelancers. She is proud of helping them escape life traps and use their gifts. I couldn’t figure out what kind of market she has, apparently it involves parts of four states and used to be agricultural but has now all gone over to fentanyl. She seems to be working way too many hours, but she says this is a much healthier job than she had a decade ago.
It was a hoot to see Terry Scott Bertling, whom I first met in 2010 on a SuperShuttle to St. Petersburg, and to be able to dazzle her with the fact that I remember sentences from that conversation. I didn’t admit I remember because I was scared, adrift and clinging to any scrap of information.
And it was lovely to give Jim Hagg a hug — retirement has him looking rested — and to hear that Lucy Lu’s team was so inspired by his work on a history piece about yellow fever they're working up a series on polio. I’m not the only features person who has turned to digital archives out of expedience and fallen in love with all that late-breaking history.
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