I wrote about music and the arts for The Cincinnati Post for 23 years. I will remember the knot in my gut writing on deadline Friday nights,
the twinge every time I checked the paper the next day and the
constant, uphill battle of making the Post matter to the social
register mentality of Cincinnati’s arts community.Post reporter Rick Bird cleaning out his desk
Dec. 31, 2007
Most of all, however, I will remember the people at the Post, the best informed, most courageous and high-minded colleagues I have ever worked with. I have so many precious memories: sharing hazelnut coffee with theater/art/dance writer Jerry Stein who taught me how to do my job, chatting about “the pantry of life” with the best food/home editor in the world Joyce Rosencrans and about music and media with the Post’s genial pop music/media expert Rick Bird.
l thank the people who have put up with me: my features editor, the patient, eminently tasteful Maureen Conlan, the less patient, but sharp Keith Herrell (former features, now managing editor) and on the copy desk, the unfailing, steady-as-a-rock Jack Schicht and early bird Tom Consolo (re Tom, how lucky can a music writer be to have a musician edit your copy?).
A toast to those who have moved on: former features editor Wayne Perry who always took “the high road” (his mantra) and who gave his heart and ultimately his life to the Post, Amy Culbertson, entertainment editor par excellence, now at the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, editorial cartoonist Jeff Stahler, now at the Columbus Post-Dispatch, whose equanimity and insight I admire extravagantly, and former managing editor Mark Neikirk, now at Northern Kentucky University, who helped me make one of the most important decisions I have ever made as a journalist.
Post features editor Maureen Conlan
Here’s to the guys in sports who tolerated me around the witching hour on Fridays, especially Terry Boehmker who yielded his terminal to me so I could get to work as quickly as possible. Thanks to the peerless photographers and above all, copy editors Mark Braam, John Seney, Dave Schumacher, Myra Calder, Tom Consolo, Mike Kaiser and the many others over the years, who have added headlines to Beethoven and Penderecki on deadline. Bravo and brava to all.
Copy editor Tom Consolo (left) and his quartet at the Cincinnati Post Dec. 31, 2007
(first published in The Cincinnati Post Dec. 31, 2007)