LATimes: A Bit of Hope

I can count on our once local paper, the LATimes, to be a source of disappointment. With the last change in ownership, it was clear I'd wake up every morning to an even skinnier paper when it was already looking close to being diagnosed anorexic. With that, it was obvious there would be more bleeding of staff positions.

One very public cut was my favorite curmudgeon who writes eloquently from Topanga Canyon, Al Martinez. I have always thought of him as an essential local voice, one of us, and if he got cut from the LATimes, I would consider the newspaper lost, completely gone soulless and corporate. Yup, completely soulless, as you can see here:

The editor of the section of which my column is a small and barely visible part telephoned on an otherwise uneventful afternoon to say that my column, in its present form, is ending and that I am being given a buyout.

No one asked if I wanted it. I would have said no. I would have said I'm not ready yet. My prose is strong and my mind is clear. I'm still climbing upward. There is still a summit I haven't reached, a sunrise I haven't seen.

But they didn't ask.

Today, however, I see Al Martinez is back writing for the LATimes, Inc. Glad to see him back.