Off to a rousing start
This is our first edition of the year, since we take Jan. 1 off, so welcome to 2020!The Lunar New Year actually starts on Jan. 25, and it’s the Year of the Rat. Though Ann and I are were both born in the Year of the Rat, we really can’t relate, since we hate rats. Ever since the Great Rat War of 2014 on our Kenwood property, Ann won’t go near our barn, even though the infidel rats have not been spotted in some time. However, it takes constant vigilance!
There are lots of you Rats out there who are turning 60 this year (us included), so Happy Birthday!
The rat is actually the first of all the zodiac animals, and, according to Chinese culture, rats are clever, quick thinkers, successful, but content with living a quiet and peaceful life.
Sounds good, as long as they stay out of our barn.
The calendar year started out with a bang, or actually a break. Ann and our daughter were visiting our son and his wife’s family in Russia, when, on Jan. 1, Ann slipped on some ice and broke her right wrist. Yes, that’s the wrist she uses for everything important, like work, and opening up bottles of wine. It takes her twice as long to do most things, and some things are downright impossible, like unlocking the front door of the office. Just this morning she had to ask Armando from Kenwood Market to do it for her.
And, to add to this inauspicious beginning, our colleague for the better part of the last 13 years, Sarah Phelps, has taken a new job. Sarah was the Swiss army knife of our Kenwood Press operation – writing, putting together ads, layout, website work, keeping us on task, bringing us into the 21st century, and generally keeping the U.S.S. Kenwood Press on the right course.
We know many of you have interacted with her over the years – whether it was for a story or for advertising – and know her as a consummate professional. And with a sense of humor to boot, which one dearly needs in a newspaper job!
We tease Sarah, since her new job is in the marketing department of a local bike company, that she’s “gone to the Dark Side.” Maybe some day she’ll return to journalism (if there are any such jobs to be found.) The loss of her institutional memory when it comes to news issues large and small in Sonoma Valley is not insignificant.
We’ll miss her as a friend, co-worker, and fellow believer in the goals of the Kenwood Press and the importance of community newspapers.
Her computer misses her, too, as it’s gotten excruciatingly slow. We think it’s pouting.
The bright side, if there is one, is that there’s more dark chocolate for us here in the office.
– Alec
Editors & Publishers
Email: editor@kenwoodpress.com
