I just uploaded my fourth Not Eudora column to the Reader Weekly. So far its been easier for me to write them than I recall it being five years ago. Perhaps that’s because I’ve gotten so used to pounding the keys for my blog.
The Reader has made life a little tougher for me. I used to get the column in about three days before publication. Now its a full week. I’ve also had to be more succinct. That is a bigger challenge although I brought the next column in at just over 600 words. Years ago I pushed a thousand words regularly. I’m not sure that the “soul of wit” is yet mine.
All my new columns were begun a few days ahead of time and Friday was only needed for serious editing. When I come up blank some future Friday it will be a much bigger challenge to both compose and edit. I beat the deadline by about two hours so I have an afternoon to do some yard work and maybe even answer the questions the Trib’s education reporter sent me. I haven’t looked that them yet or even the deadline she gave me.
It was the reporter who warned me that I’d missed my meeting with the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board told me the Reporter thought she got along with me OK. Well, of course I do. I never blame the reporters for the blunders of the Editorial Board!
And that reminds me of one thing I found humorous when the Editors interviewed me. When I mentioned that Superintendent Dixon got the hell out of Duluth before “the shit hit the fan” they all, ALL, laughed. They are not twits.
But Chuck Frederick played devil’s advocate with me after my comment. He said some people had argued that if Dr. Dixon had only stayed in Duluth our District wouldn’t be in its present financial straights because Dixon would have straightened things out. That was so ridiculous that I’m surprised I didn’t laugh at it.
Not at all, I told Chuck. Dr. Dixon sewed the seeds of the disaster, himself, by rushing contract agreements that the District would not be able to sustain without major staff cuts. He did it to keep the staff quiet when the Red Plan was under the greatest assault and spun the settlement as proof of the good will between staff and administration. Besides, he kept adding more expensive baubles to the Red Plan like Judy Seliga-Punyko’s new one-million-a-lane swimming pools that would have to come out of future operation’s expenses. The pools sure looked like a reward to Judy for knocking me off in the 2007 election and giving Dixon a free hand with his adoring and compliant School Board.
Dixon knew when to jump ship alright. No captain he to go down with it. He was the first rat off.
