Hello, readers, I’m back. Not sure if people actually miss my columns, or if folks are just glad whenever I don’t spam the space on the left side of page 4 with tedious poetry which may or may not be in the public domain (I suspect it’s the latter).
Anyways, I took some days off work last week to do a bit of sightseeing in St. Augustine, Florida, which is the oldest established city in the U.S, if I recall correctly from my motel’s complementary brochure. Long story short, it was a great family trip, and I highly recommend a visit. Maybe next week I’ll go into more detail on the cool things I saw there, much like how fellow BCN columnist Rafe Semmes does in his writings. But rest assured, I don’t think I’ll be taking his gig anytime soon; my PTO allotment (and bank account) this calendar year is already stretched thin!
But before I went on vacation, I had the utmost pleasure to meet up with my colleague Pat Donahue to chat about everything Adobe InDesign over iced caffeinated beverages at Three Lemons Cafe. Since his promotion to the role of Regional Executive Editor, Pat has been keeping a close eye on every Morris-affiliated newspaper, making sure we’re crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s, so to speak. As a young editor, I welcome the constructive criticism; what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger, to quote the wordsmith Kelly Clarkson.
Because readers, despite our outward differences (our outfit choices, hair volume, et cetera.), Pat and I share the same goal: to make our newspapers a cool thing to pick up, and to make local news special again. It’s why we both got into the business of news editing, beat reporting and occasional column writing. But as a young-ish professional who is nearing my quarter-life crisis later this month (the big 2-5!), advice is always welcome, especially if it’s accompanied with an iced chai latte.
As I move forward into my third year as a managing editor, I choose to take some inspiration from the recent form of the USMNT, which stands for the U.S. Men’s National Team (of soccer!). They’ve actually been doing pretty well in this year’s World Cup, all things considered, although at the time of me writing this column they have yet to face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32.
Hopefully, they will have won the game, guided by the support of a home crowd in San Francisco, some tactical nous from the coach Mauricio Pochettino, and the power of friendship. And some funny Ted Lasso memes for good measure. Believe!
Song of the Week: Apply Some Pressure Maximo Park
Despite my growing matronly hatred of technology and all things artificially intelligent, I have to give up to the Apple Music algorithm for helping me find this song and band, who are from a city called Newcastle, in the U.K. It’s a high-octane indie rock song emblematic of the 2000s, an era I wish I was old enough to appreciate more fully. In fact, that’s why I’ve slowly started converting to the analog tradition through collecting books, cassettes, CDs, fashion magazines, and World Cup Panini stickers. I want to actually own my own junk, not just clog up my phone’s storage space.
LYRICS: “What happens when you lose everything?
You just start again, you start all over again!”
Andrea Gutierrez is the managing editor of the Bryan County News. If anyone wants to swap soccer stickers for their World Cup album, do let the editor know ASAP.