Look who we found on Facebook

Photo of Cathy stolen from Facebook

We found former BJ staffer Cathy Strong in a kayak on Facebook under an assumed name and asked for an update. Here it is:

In some ways it is same-oh same-oh for me. I kayak all summer and snowboard all winter. I'm still racing on the snowboard and winning neat prizes. I'm still lecturing at Massey University, although that comes to an end in May when they drop back in staff. The big thing is I'm working on my PhD in journalism. These things take several years, but as a convergence journalist at heart I want to get it off my plate NOW and be onto something else this afternoon.

Daughters have put me into a new social field. Oldest Rebecca is still an officer in the NZ Navy but she also has two little daughters, the joy of my life. Second Penelope is in Boston trying to pretend to be an American with her Kiwi accent. She keeps me up with the realities of the recession we read about. And youngest Amanda is Radio New Zealand journalist, last year worked for SBS Broadcasting in Sydney, and off to Taiwan soon to learn mandarine. Now that she is getting to be a proficient journalist we have made a pact that we won't ever work in the same newsroom. She doesn't want her Mum showing her up and I don't want my daughter to show me up!!

Oh I'll tell you a funny story. I recently ran into some old papers I've kept in a box for 3 decades. I showed them to Amanda and she was stunned by the little notes I had from editor John Olesky from the early 70s. They were all in rhyme... little poems. Because I worked night and he edited in the morning we had to correspond by notes, not email. He apologised for introducing an error in my copy in a poem, and told me off for a grammatical mistake in a poem. Until I found these notes I'd forgotten that we had these exchanges, and that I would respond in rhyme too. Daughter Amanda was stunned, and impressed. She reckoned that if more editors did that today perhaps young people wouldn't flee the newsroom so fast.