Herald to cut about 175 positions

This news is sickening but it will turn out to be the best thing that happened to Sarah. She is bright and hard working and talented and will go on to do much better things in this world than toil for these jackals.

 

Never got a PM from him. And he said he was signing off after his post. He's no fun.

 

Sarah did a great job and is a very, very nice person, too.

I'd say she deserves better, but there are so many people who deserve better.

 

If someone hammers on Mizzougrad or anyone else for being cowardly for not posting under his real name -- as Dave Barry did in his response on the initial blog -- then my thinking is, they must extend that assessment to anyone who expresses opinion or fact without attaching his/her name. At which point, why would they want to enable cowardice and have it infiltrate their work?

I guess that's what I was meaning.

 

And I saw the other thread, to which I'll gladly shift any further comments. Just didn't want to leave Simon hanging.

 

I think we all can understand where Michelle is coming from here, and I think we all are with her on this.

But by the same token, reading her response made me wonder why no one comes railing to the defense of Mary Beth King.

(For the record, I'm not a fan of what little I've read or heard about the Mary Beth Chronicles, but I would think the guiding principle would be the at least a little similar. In a sense, I guess you can say PK is asking for it -- but read Michelle's last line again, and see if it doesn't stick with you.)

This discussion also brings to my mind some strong thoughts I have about Dave Barry -- whom I revere. Seriously, the joy the man has brought to my life, I love him for it. But I do have some thoughts that might elicit a similar response from Michelle. And yet, I think it would be a healthy, productive discussion about one of the towering figures in our (my former) business.

So, post them anyway? PM them to Michelle first (in a don't-say-anything-you-wouldn't-say-to-someone's-face move) even though I know it might be hurtful? I don't want to be hurtful to anybody ...

We all agree with Michelle's sentiments. But do they stop at her because she's a "regular"? (Nobody's worried about Lupica's wife reading this board ...)

EDIT: I should say her sentiments, other than the "post under your own name" thing. I agree with others here who have said that can be -- and not saying you do it, just saying -- a form of big-timing.

 

I couldn't say anything bad about Dave. The few times I got to work with him directly, he was a total pro in every way, just seemed completely unaffected by his status. But, c'mon, he has to realize that he's bulletproof compared with 99.7 percent of the industry. He's probably just pissed that his family got dragged into it.

 

OK.

I see what you are getting at.

 

OK, OK, I'm not a message-board guy, as you can tell by my 45,000 posts, but let me just clarify one more time before I go another 6 mos. without posting. I'm not hinting that Dave has done some sinister thing or is a bad guy or anything like that. Seems like a great guy. I was just saying that I had some thoughts that Michelle -- as his wife -- might not like to hear.

Oh screw it, I'll just come out and (kind of) say it. After years of reading his stuff and his using his family as beloved characters (making them figures for public consumption in a way), I was a little crushed to realize there were "two Darrins." (More than two, actually, I think.)

Now, personally, his family is none of my business. But as he'd shared them with me for all of these years, it does bug me.

That's it. No offense.

 

True on every account.

Jeff Shain is one of those guys who you could call up and ask to throw in something in his notebook and he would move heaven-and-earth to oblige if he could.

To give you an idea how damn conscientious Jeff is, last year, he drove 5 hours from Miami to Hammock Beach (between Jacksonville and Daytona) a few days after covering the CA Championship at Doral just to interview Gary Player at my Champions Tour event.

That, so he could have something in his paper on a golf tournament happening in his state. One his paper forbade him from covering.

This is the same paper that had no problem making Jeff shag ass all over Florida covering the Seminoles. I mean covering Florida State from Miami? Is anyone home?

Word I heard that the only way Jeff keeps his job is if enough folks take buyouts. So between Mile High and Jeff on a personal level -- and dozens of others on a professional level -- this business continues to shed IQ points at the management level like a dog sheds fleas.

 

Yep, that sounds like Jeff based on the little direct contact I had with him and what I've heard about him from his co-workers at the Herald.