Readers of the blog are going to have to wait until the Budgeteer prints my reply to read it. Newspapers don’t like to publish stuff that showed up somewhere else first.
But in rereading Doty’s column this morning I find myself chuckling. Oh, I’ll have to make amends to the very decent Art Johnston whose political instincts I panned. (A lot of folks like Art don’t like the slippery talk of politicians). I’ll have to hope that Judge Hylden will brush off my observation that judges are subject to elections as just that – an observation. Perhaps Sarah Horner, the Trib’s education reporter, will marvel at my private contempt for the service she has provided the School Board in minimizing the rapid deterioration of the Duluth Schools. (Although, I’ve never been sure if it was Sarah or her blustering Publisher Steven McLister, a Chamber of Commerce crony, who was calling the shots on the coverage of the Duluth Schools.)
I’m sure that JCI’s public relations man, Steve Greenfield, has provided every person in town that I commented on unfavorably with my out-of-context references to them. Regular readers of this blog will probably be able to guess at their identities because I’ve often referred to them here first with somewhat more diplomatic words. But frankly, I think Doty has plumbed the most outrageous stuff from my 1288 emails and I can’t help but ask myself: Is that the best he can do?
I referenced a peeing contest in the last post. A new metaphor comes to mind now. When I was in high school I routinely ran across urinals that some wag had written “follow this line” in with permanent marker. The line was drawn up the urinal and up the wall above it as high as the wag could draw it. I was mystified by the meaning of this for a number of years before I finally asked another guy what it could possibly mean.
Any junior high kid who ever tried to write his name in the snow in yellow or any mother who ever watched her little boy’s friends fence with crossed streams while they piddled together in a toilette bowl probably figured this out faster than I did. Let’s just say that anyone dumb enough to follow the line would quickly regret having done so without an umbrella.
Oh, and Mr. Doty. Thanks for advertising my book. I may be able to charge a little bit more for it with your help.
