cloudy –
another classmate’s obit
in the paper
Tag: newspaper
haiku 322
fresh ink –
yesterday’s news
lands on the porch
Fiction: Personal Ad
I have never made a habit of reading the personal ads, so I missed the original publication. I learned of it quickly enough, of course, what with the entire city buzzing about it within hours of the Herald’s hitting the streets.“WANTED: Partner for suicide pact. Serious inquiries only. Respond to Box H3419.”
My husband, Murray, was the Herald’s editor then, and he was obliged to assign a reporter to tell the outraged world why the Herald accepted the advertisement.
Fiction: Staff Lounge
Owner and publisher Fred Koelpe didn’t see that he had a choice. One more issue of the Amidaville Banner before Christmas and then everyone got an unpaid two weeks off. There wasn’t enough money in the account to buy newsprint and keep the office open, so Koelpe did neither. He didn’t mind putting his small staff on the streets without a paycheck — never mind a Christmas bonus — but he did worry that all too few in the dying town would miss the weekly newspaper.
Koelpe was the first one out the door. He told his office and circulation manager, Sharon, to turn the thermostat down to 45 degrees before she left. Then he got away from the dirty looks and the general lack of understanding.
“Consider it a Christmas miracle I’m not just closing the place permanently,” he barked over his shoulder.
Fiction: The Library Patron
Doris Padmore had used the word “dapper” only loosely until Arthur Wyndham first walked into the library. Now, she knew, she was seeing the real thing.
He was slender and stood about 5 feet, 9 inches tall. His hair and moustache, both neatly trimmed, were a rich gray. He wore a brown necktie with his fine three-piece suit of tweed. He removed his coordinating summer fedora upon entering the library. His black wing tips were well, but not slavishly, polished. He wanted only an umbrella or a spaniel to be the very picture of an English gentleman.
Or, Mrs. Padmore thought, a refugee from a time when dressing nicely to go into public view wasn’t considered declasse.
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