Of the scores of employees who have left the News-Press since July of 2006 perhaps none has gone out with more panache than copy editor Lara Milton.
Somehow, somebody managed to sneak Lara's "farewell address" into the beginning of the on-line version of Dr. Laura's Sunday column that appeared on the News-Press website.
And boy, was it a doozie! She starts out quoting the memorable exit line (which is the heading of today's post) from the fictional character "Hildy Johnson" of the movie "His Girl Friday" and by the time she's done she's not only taken a predictable swipe at the News-Press, but he's also lamented the Santa Barbara that used to be and expressed her disdain of what our town has become.
Here's an excerpt of what she said:
And I'm feeling pretty snappy patter and all charged up right now, especially about all the changes in Santa Barbara. It used to be a nice town, you know, pretty houses, pretty people with pretty bank accounts, but in a quiet sort of way.
No more, and let me agendate what I mean.
Now it's just filled to the gilded brim with the stinking rich people: trust-fund babies, L.A. movie people, divorcees and generally people who have driven up the cost of living and the arrogance factor. . .
I love how things used to be, when my dad worked at the News-Press. Me and him would talk about the paper and what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told him that I wanted to write and work at the News-Press, too. . .
Now I don't want to get all mushy and gushy about the politics and style, back in the days when the paper was a goddamn real paper. Back when we used to have parties at the Biltmore Four Seasons Fess Parker Resort Hotel and we had a staff of 500. And when a misses could be called Mrs. without anyone making fun of her.
There was more, but in the interests of staying well within the confines of "fair use" I better leave it out. Anyway, you get the idea.
What was amazing (and I don't know if it was an error or an out-and-out coup) was that it remained on the News-Press website as late as 4 pm Monday. As of Monday night it had been taken down. It never appeared in the print edition.
Anyway, Lara is moving to Oregon to take a job with a paper up there. She's a second generation News-Presser, following in the footsteps of her father who worked on the copy desk for many years.
Lara was described by former colleagues as a very professional, detail oriented, person who cared about the product.
She will be missed.
Contrary to what I reported yesterday, Mike Klan is not leaving KEYT.
Although the weekend sports anchor has not been on the air in over a week, he is staying on at the station.
I know it was reported elsewhere that Mike was out with bronchitis. While that may explain why he didn't return my call that's not the reason he's been off the air.
Mike was given the option of leaving or being the main anchor on the weekend broadcast and doing general assignment field reporting three days during the week. As reported here previously, KEYT moved long-time weekend anchor Tracy Lehr down to the Ventura bureau five days a week and moved Rosemary Orozco from weekday mornings to weekend anchor duties. However, Rosemary wants to do weather. She just received her meteorological certification and didn't want to do weekends. She is now moving out of the area.
The bottom line is that Klan is staying and that's a correction I'm happy to make.
Klan, who has told friends that he hopes to continue to report on the occasional sports feature story, will begin his weekend anchoring duties on Saturday, December 8.
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