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MANAGING EDITOR of THECOLUMNISTS.COM |
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HERE WE COME! |
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What a year this has been for TheColumnists.com! We survived a couple of heart attacks, several sad family deaths, the absence of several valuable columnists and a series of webhost failures and computer crashes, but we still managed to keep growing and reaching out to a widening audience of Internet readers eager for a website that each week presents a rich and varied menu of commentary, reviews and humor from a wide range of perspectives--and all without pop-ups or ads for mortgage loans, email order brides from Russia, Viagra prescriptions and offers to enlarge various organs. Perhaps the most welcome trend is the addition of several younger columnists, filling a gap in our range of perspectives and stirring up the opinion pot quite a bit. Kevin Craig of Canada joins the crew this week with a hmnorous column that should appeal to young married couples. Meanwhile, Raphaella Cruz has returned from leave after the birth of her first child and is now writing about motherhood and newlywed challenges, along with her usual interests, and Patrick McFadden continues to include his comic observations from the perspective of a young lawyer finishing his training and starting his career. As longtime readers know, this is a sea change for TheColumnists.com, which began in 1999 with the columns of four men in their late 50s and early 60s--Murry Frymer and yours truly in their first year of retirement from the San Jose Mercury News and the Knight Ridder News syndicate, along with Gerald Nachman and John Stanley, who had recently retired from the San Francisco Chronicle. Our initial effort was to continue the columns of established newspaper columnists who had retired, but still had a large following of readers who missed them terribly. Most of our early "stars" fell into that category--the two great New York sports columnists Maury Allen and Stan Isaacs; Kinney Littlefield and Donna J. Plesh, two respected television critics from the staff of California's Orange County Register; former AP writers Chuck McFadden and Michael Johnson, and many more. But we began to branch out early, seeking new voices with unique perspectives, such as Ann Jillian, the beautiful and talented star of stage and screen, a natural writer who had never done a column before; Gina Gallo, a former Chicago policewoman who had begun to make her mark as a distinctive author of columns and books; Paul Hertelendy, the poet and former music/dance critic of the Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News, who's our "poet laureate"; Andy Murcia, Jillian's husband and manager, a retired Chicago policeman with pungent views and great column ideas; Andrew Penner, the golf humorist from Calgary, Canada; and a number of freelance writers like Audrey Yeager and Patricia J. Geister, who impressed us with their offbeat columns. By adding Michael Johnson, our first regular columnist based in Europe, we fulfilled the promise offered by our first early experiment along that line: Publication of Karen Sharpe's book-length story of her move from Berkeley, California, to full-time residence in Paris, France ("A New Life in Paris"). We now have added Englishman Robert Taylor, joining American Michael Johnson in London, and Kenneth Dreyfack, who's our "American in Paris." These writers offer unique, regular perspectives on America from Europe. Perhaps our most significant addition was the extraordinary work of staff artist Jim Hummel, whose cartoons are among the best being done by anyone on any publication, print or Internet, in the U.S. Hummel has a very busy schedule with lots of freelance work assignments piled up, so we always consider ourselves extremely fortunate whenever he has time to give us something new. The result of these additions and changes, in my opinion, is a much more interesting weekly magazine of the Internet that isn't predictable from week to week. Still, it isn't easy to produce so much work from so many talented writers on a weekly basis when we're presenting it as a non-commercial service. (The one "ad" we run, from lawyer Stephen Gruber, an experienced webmaster, is our ongoing "thank you" to him for helping us with the launching of our website and for his frequent technical advice.) It would not be possible without the voluntary work of all involved and our devotion to our mission: To provide our readers with a place to find our current writing and to communicate with us directly via the Talkback page. As for the events of the past year, the "heart attacks" really shook us. First, the one suffered by co-founder Gerald Nachman just as he was starting his national tour for his new book, "Seriously Funny." Nachman recovered strongly, finished his book tour, wrote about his medical crisis for us ("Another Heartfelt Saga," March 10) and joins me this week on the "It's About Radio" presentation at the American Museum of Radio and Electricity in Bellingham, WA. The second heart attack was suffered by Andy Murcia just as we started preparing this special Anniversary Edition. I'm happy to report it caused no permanent damage and Andy is recovering nicely at home. He had completed his column before being stricken and it's in this edition. He was doing so well, in fact, at deadline time that he actually finished a second column, telling all about his medical ordeal--and it's in this edition, too. He's very important to all of us, so we're rooting for his speedy recovery. Nearly all our regular columnists are represented in this special issue, but a few had to pass on this one for special reasons. Co-founder John Stanley has shifted to "emeritus" status due to the press of his work as one of the busiest Elderhostel instructors in the U.S. He still manages to write one or two special columns for us each year. Kinney Littlefield is on academic leave, but promises columns to come. Elias Castillo is writing a book and keeps busy with op-ed newspaper pieces about U.S.-Mexico relations. Kenneth Dreyfack will be back with us soon, but his father, Ray, takes up the slack this week, contributing a special fiction piece for this issue. Joanne Engelhardt, who just joined us in November, is off on another travel expedition, gathering material for her next column. And Ann Jillian, who's working on a column about her experiences portraying the immortal Mae West in a famous TV movie, has been busy on the lecture circuit and, most recently, with the care of her Andy, following his heart attack. To make sure everyone remembers these great writers are part of our package, we've presented them in a special "classic columns" section. In these annual anniversary columns, it's always important to take a look ahead at our future. Right now we're hoping to make major improvements on the technical side in 2004 and to do some crucial upgrading of the package in terms of presentation. More about that later. We'll be back with another major package on the Academy Awards in just two months and we're looking forward to the 2004 national election season and the delightful duty of turning our political humorists loose on that wild and crazy scene. We're also hoping to launch a separate DARK CORRIDORS website sometime in 2004 for fans of mystery, horror and the world of noir. In the meantime, we can't help feeling rosy all over at the very thought that we're actually still here after four years. That's about as long as it takes to get a college degree and about twice as long as most marriages last. Hey, we're impressed--and we hope you are, too. --Ron Miller |
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