You go Will Fleet!

After laying off longtime Glendale photog Scott Roby, my former paper has decided to hire an accountant to be a general manager for the Glendale News-Press. The introductory memo from publisher Will Fleet:

Today it is my pleasure to announce that Simon Tam will be joining our TCN management team as General Manager of the Glendale/Burbank/Foothill operation, starting on January 23.

Simon is a CPA and brings a wealth of community newspaper management experience. With National Media, Inc., Simon served in various executive leadership roles, including publisher of the Palos Verdes Peninsula News and CFO/Chief Operating Officer of NMI corporate. Simon and his partners sold their newspapers to Copley a couple of years ago.

For the past year or so, Simon has been working in Financial Planning at the Los Angeles Times. Among other tasks, Simon has worked closely with TCN Business Manager Debbie Feyerabend on TCN financial matters. He will now oversee all day-to-day operations in Glendale.

In my view, this could go either way. Having an accountant could definitely be bad, and possibly result in more layoffs, because we all know that accountants look at the bottom line. However, an accountant could be good – if he’s a truly ethical accountant, then the overtime abuses will be corrected.

Hey, Mr. Tam – here’s some advice. Have your hourly employees start clocking in. Really.

…but my buddy Mark Madler during a broadcast story about Burbank day laborers. That’s him, behind the guy in blue, with his entire hand covering his mouth.

I don’t know about anybody else, but it seems like Burbank and Glendale have had long histories of trying to curb the susbsequent problems of day laborers (including urinating in neighborhoods, being drunk in public and drug use, according to the cops I’ve interviewed about this issue in the past). I did one story about this issue, that is available on the GNP site .

In fact, that story probably was my most widely-read story (besides the ones about the Glendale Police sexual harassment trial) – I got more emails about that story than any other. Here’s one:

Ms. Barrientos — I enjoyed your story on Home Depot and illegal aliens. I stand behind the protestors 100% and am have been personally boycotting Home Depot ever since I learned they employ illegals. The costs that illegals impose on our nation in terms of emergency room and health care, crime, disease, high birth rates, and so, are destroying our country and must be stopped.

I would also add that Ms. Navarette’s comments about her La Raza group are lies. Everything I have read about her La Raza group indicates that they are clearly a Hispanic/Latino supremacist group. Ms. Navarette’s comment about “integration” is a lie. Their group is about promoting the interests of
Hispancs/Latinos to the exclusion of other people.

Thanks again for posting the story.

v/r
[Name taken out to protect the emailer]
Alexandria, Virginia

What does v/r stand for? Here’s another one:

I read your article “Protesters rip retailer.”

I thought it was very well balanced! Thank you for allowing our protesters to be quoted accurately in your article.

You balanced our statements with folks from La Raza and Home Depot, which demonstrates you actually REPORTED on the event.

Again, thanks for covering this story accurately!

Robin Hvidston (who I quoted in the story)
Upland, CA

Later I wondered how people in Virginia had seen the story. Turned out the Immigration Blog, hosted by Michelle Malkin, picked it up. Go figure. By the way, my posting those emails does not mean I condone or endorse their views whatsoever. Thanks.

Everyone who knows me seems to think I’m a tech-addict. I pick up on electronic/technological things quickly, as a user, but a tech-addict I am not. So, after years and years of reading and hearing about eBay, I am biting the bullet and selling a purse.

(Have I ever mentioned the story of this purse? I had bought a different purse in January/February of 2004, a black leather number whose straps began to wear out even before I used it for a year. Of course, I contacted Tommy Hilfiger to get them to remedy the situation. I hemmed and hawed and finally sent the purse off to them during the spring of 2005, and got this number back instead of my original purse in the fall of 2005. This purse is so not my style (too much decoration along the bottom, plus its too big) so I contacted Tommy Hilfiger again to get them to take it back, they said they would, get the number of something you would like, I got the number of something I liked, then they said, oh yeah, we can’t replace a replacement. The color of the thing I want isn’t even available anymore. Bastards. I’ll never buy Tommy Hilfiger crap again. The original purse I bought was a stretch.)

So now, I’m selling the thing on eBay. However, here are my questions – should I make the purse available to international buyers? It seems I would infinitely open up my base if I did, but international shipping rates seem prohibitive. Should I reserve/not reserve? Should I make the opening bid less than $5 (its current opening bid)? I have so many questions. Anyone have any answers? I just want to get rid of the thing so I don’t have to worry about Kip messing with it anymore.

I’m constantly taking pictures of everyone, especially candids (snicker), and my cats – the many I’ve had over the years – have, to their chagrin, always been on the main receiving end. For some of my more ancient cat journal entries and photo pages, click here, here, here, and here. For some of the recent pictures I’ve snapped of Krazy Kip (who apparently likes salad; one day, he and I fought over a slice of tomato I was saving for a sandwich, recently, he got into a colander of lettuce sitting in the sink and my husband came home to lettuce all over the kitchen floor and Kip chewing on lettuce. One of the days, though, I have to get a picture of Kip and my husband fighting over fruit snacks – Kip seems to think contents of the crackling plastic are his treats), click here, here, here and here.

Recently, I’ve been lurking on sites like KittenWar.com and CuteOverload.com. On Cute Overload, my favorites are between the cats reclining in the sink and the mad, fluffy puppy.

Anyway, it turns out Jake Dobkin, publisher of the Gothamist sites that are fond of writing in the we form (heheh), has a fluffy cat named Thompson. Thompson has got to be the fluffiest, sullen looking cat I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing. I am such a fan now.

And so, I bid you all good night with this photo. I’m not posting the photo on the blog, because Trini would kill me. :-D

After having the book since early December (hey, I was busy), I finally finished Anne Rice’s “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” tonight and honestly – I was left with my heart beating fast and a tear in my eye.

I’ve always been an Anne Rice fan. I’m not one of those people who rave on and on about her Vampire Chronicles. If anything, I loved her series of witch novels most, but if I had to pick one book, my most favorite ever was “The Mummy.” I think the only book of hers I have not read, which includes the ones under her pseudonyms Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure, is “Cry to Heaven.” I think the problem with trying to read that book was that I was 12 years old at the time. Ah well.

Anyway, the book is utterly rich in description as so many of Anne Rice’s books are. The sweet, naive humanity of the boy Jesus, (spoiler warning!) who is eight years when he discovers countless babies were slaughtered in King Herod’s maniacal search for Him, is so refreshing and helps those who believe in Him (and I count myself among them) in awe of how powerful He is, yet so sweet, sincere and thirsty for knowledge.

And with this book, I even did something I had never done before – I read the Author’s Note in entirety. I suppose I wanted to know why and how she came to produce this novel. The author’s note was a little harder to comprehend than the actual novel itself, but I got through it. However, reading the Author’s note was useful because she goes through the many, many books and authors she used to write “Christ the Lord” – I’ll definitely be looking for some of those resources myself when I next go on a book shopping spree.

However, what blew me away was this passage in her Author’s Note:

“I offer this book to those who know nothing of Jesus Christ in the hope that you will see him in these pages in some form. I offer this novel with love to my readers who’ve followed me through one strange turn after another in the hope that Jesus will be as real to you as any other character I’ve ever launched into the world we share.

After all, is Christ Our Lord not the ultimate supernatural hero, the ultimate outsider, the ultimate immortal of them all?”

Man. That one truly got me in the gut, because it was so true.