I Promised You Followup
Newspaper features editors (the friendly, beseiged folk in charge of the comics page) really do have the worst jobs in the world. How do I know? Because an almost throwaway bit of minor kindness cut through the usual heap o’ shit that features editors labor under, and had a tremendous impact. I wrote the following last Friday:
I realize that most letters concerning the comics page are unhappy ones for you [the features editor of the Newark Star-Ledger].
This is because people like the comics page to be static and eternally the same; any change is bad, and prompts angry letters to the features editor, demands that Captain Goofball be returned to its rightful place, threats of cancelled subscriptions. Of course, once Captain Goofball is returned, whoever always secretly hated it is outraged, and demands that it be killed again. Thus, I continued:
So let me break the usual pattern: I am writing to thank the Star-Ledger for having introduced a new comic strip, Diesel Sweeties.
The result of this five-minute courtesy? I got a reply that positively gushed with thanks, because I represent proof positive that a risky move did not, in fact, piss off every single person on the face of the planet. And (although this was not the purpose of writing), I’ve likely created a positive association in that editor’s mind between Diesel Sweeties and Made my day. Barring a member of the powerful Star or Ledger families ordering the paper to pull DS, it’s likely in for the long haul.
The moral of the story? If you’re reading Diesel Sweeties in your local and you like it, drop ’em a note of thanks. You might not actually become a better person, but you’ll feel like it.
Gary, Gary, Gary … you have my vote for Dalai Llama when the current one quits.
By rstevens on 01.08.07 8:03 pm
Boy I never thought about that. Seems that Newspaper Features Editor must be a pretty crappy job, like a horse proctologist or Bill O’Reilly.
By jeffrey on 01.08.07 8:17 pm
Boy I never thought about that. Seems that Newspaper Features Editor must be a pretty crappy job, like a horse proctologist or Bill O’Reilly’s Friend.
By jeffrey on 01.08.07 8:18 pm
…or Bill O’Reilly’s proctologist.
By robert on 01.08.07 8:52 pm
Or a caveman proctologist.
By L on 01.08.07 11:01 pm
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