M, my editorial contact at the paper, has left to pursue other goals. She gave me the names of two editors who will oversee the mail contributions and the Op-Eds and I wrote to them to introduce myself. I didn’t hear back. I wrote again and one of them responded that I should send my material to Letters to the Editor. That is akin to saying don’t call us, we’ll call you.

I wrote M -- she had given me her new e mail so we could keep in touch. She said we should get together and today she came by and we sat on the pool deck and talked for two hours. She said the paper has dumbed down and she is glad to be moving on. She also said the editors whose names she gave me were inclined to run whatever was short and convenient. She had given them a list of contributors they should consider important, my name included, but believes they will ignore it. M had always taken great care to shape the opinion page and mail page for a cohesive dialogue. The replacements have a laissez faire attitude toward the work. I think it interferes with their break time. She was shocked to learn that three letters dissing me had appeared in the same edition. She didn’t think their ignoring me was personal – it appears it’s the way they operate. So, writing to the paper will not be the satisfying effort it has been in the past. I’ll send a few more opinions as time wears on and wait to see what they do with them, if anything. But it may be I’ll have to find another outlet for my fulminations.

Meanwhile M, who has degrees in journalism, economics, English and pastoral theology (she despises organized religion), may well start her own newspaper on line and she is receptive to my contributions.

I am so very pleased to have met her and anticipate a continuing relationship. She is leaving on a trip to Europe but on her return, we have plans to get together. She is studying Israeli dance and said she would take me to try it. By then we should both have healed – she has just undergone surgery for meniscus repair in both knees.


Ed joined us for the second hour and we had a lively three-way conversation. We have many interests in common. She studied once to be an opera singer. I am so pleased to have a new friend who is on the same page politically and is smart and has many interests.

xx, Teal