Good evening, 919 Gang. I wish each of you a healthy,
happy, prosperous new year.
NANCY CLEELAND
writes:
Happy New Year to everyone in 919 land
I want to echo what Sandra Anderson said a week ago about
the community this email list has built. Thank you Jack for creating and
maintaining it. It's become an important part of my waking up and making coffee
ritual each morning. I love being connected to a time that was probably the
best in my life, remembering what it was like to walk through a newsroom full
of interesting characters and hearing them talk about their various adventures.
A time when I could dream up stories and then actually go out and do them,
sometimes with a photographer at my side. Ah,
those were exciting times. I feel lucky to have lived them.
My favorite entries here are about journalism back in
those good old days. I have a few stories myself, and I'll try to do better at
contributing some in the coming year.
Best wishes for 2018!
SUZANNE
MACK-LOEBER writes:
It's
the end of another year and wow, what a year. We spent part of Sunday morning
listing things we'd like to improve, change, accomplish. In 364 days we'll see
how well we did. It seems that every year "get organized" tops my
list.
I
wish all the 919ers a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2018.
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WALT BARANGER
writes:
Many
thanks to Welton Jones for noticing my photo credit on the story about Jane
Scott-Long.
Jane
became a bureau manager late in life — she unofficially ran New Delhi in the
mid 1990s and did so well that she was given a contract to run Islamabad when
her husband, John Burns, was sent there after 9/11. She was in her mid 50s by
the time she got to Pakistan and started her remarkable run of building and
managing bureaus in Islamabad, Kabul and Baghdad.
I
had known Jane since her early Delhi days, and by the time I was in Islamabad,
we pretty much worked as a team. Thus it didn’t surprise me when Jane adopted a
stray calico that our photographer, Ruth Fremson, named Purdah.
In
late 2001 I was dispatched to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan — a truly
miserable place, by the way.
I
returned to Islamabad about two weeks later and there was Purdah in a shipping
crate, ready for a flight to New York.
Keeping
a straight face, Jane explained that Purdah needed a permanent home and that it
would be cruel to abandon her when the staff moved to Kabul. So the
correspondents and photographers had drawn lots and Jane, acting as my proxy,
drew the short straw. At about this moment I knew I was had.
Jane
went on to explain that she had taken Purdah to a vet for shots and a health
certificate, then called my wife to explain that Purdah would be arriving soon.
So
I bid Purdah a temporary farewell (photo below) and Jane dispatched her on a
PIA flight to JFK via Manchester. Some 32 hours later, Purdah arrived in New
York.
A
few weeks later, another surprise: Kittens.
Purdah
is still alive and well and living in Connecticut. Jane, for the rest of her
life, denied fixing the “contest” or knowing that Purdah was pregnant.
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EMMET PIERCE writes:
It was fun to read Michael Cavna's comic strip commentary
about the changing nature of journalism. The ghost of Edward R. Murrow was an
inspired choice to stand in for George Bailey's guardian angel. I hope Michael
shares more of his work with us.
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BERNIE
HUNT writes:
Joe Gandelman’s reference yesterday
to having “interned” on the Hindustan Times in India – I take it he
meant they never paid him – reminds me of an amusing story from the late, great
Tribune reporter Martin Gerchen.
Gerch, or the Inspector, as one of
his many nicknames had it, evolved a scam to write off his frequent
international travels on his federal tax return.
Armed with the knowledge that the
expenses of seeking work were tax deductible, he would write to a major
newspaper wherever he was going to say he was looking for a job there.
Return letters inviting Gerchen to
drop in for an interview became, then, his ammunition to prove his case with
the IRS that his trip was an employment-seeking mission and not just a holiday
junket.
But his sally to the editor of The
Statesman in what was then called Calcutta drew this riposte – or words to
this effect:
“Dear Mr. Gerchen:
“You write to me from your home in
San Diego seeking a job at The Statesman. Are you mad? All of my staff want to
get jobs in California.”
Gerchen was an irrepressible and
mighty presence at the Tribune in my days there, a million years ago. He
has etched an indelible memory. I smile when I think of him.
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DAVID FARMER writes:
An
American official said China was caught "red-handed" doing something.
In my day,* anything any Chinese official said or did, no matter how
inoffensive, was caught red-handed. That's because China was a Communist nation
and everybody there was a Red. We even called it Red China.
The
term was to distinguish the huge country from Taiwan, an island that the US
recognized for a time as the "real" China. It was a bit like Puerto
Rico claiming to be the genuine heart of America when we know it has little
importance.
But
are the Chinese still Reds? (Taiwan gets a pass because they vowed they were
never Commies.) You can make a case either way. The Communist Party still rules
China, but its economy displays capitalistic traits that would have driven
Chairman Mao crazy. He'd have sent everybody to the countryside for re-education,
leaving nobody in the cities.
*The
40s and 50s.
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REBER: We start off the year wishing a
Happy Birthday, Jan. 1, to a very nice lady – Edna Whiteley.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
