Even though the Cleveland Press Club Hall of Fame induction for
current PD and former BJ entertainment critic and BJ columnist Bob Dyer,
perennial Columnist of the Year in Ohio, happened Friday, November 13, it has
taken me this long to get BOTH pre-induction videos for the two guys that I
taught everything they know as their editor.
Yeah, right.
I found BJ Managing Editor Doug Oplinger’s story about Bob giving
him hell for removing ONE comma from his story familiar.
I moved or changed one word in one of his columnists just to enjoy
Bob’s reaction. Sure enough, Bob came over and wanted to know why I had the audacity
to change a word of his work. It was equivalent to Moses re-writing the tablet
that God gave him on Mount Sinai.
I later figured out how Bob kept track of ANY change of his writings. If
Bob overlaid his original work with the edited product on the BJ computer at that time, there’s a key you could
hit that would flip back and forth rapidly between the two versions.
If it wasn’t a dead match, it showed up as an overlay that any idiot could spot immediately. That was the signal for
Bob to take on his editor.
Since we had lunch in the Blue Room together for two decades,
obviously we got along. We did have a defining moment. One day Bob realized I was
pissed at him. I don't hide my emotions very well, nor do I try.
He called me aside and said: “Do we have a problem?”
My reply: “Look, I don’t take crap from Gov.
Rhodes or all the management people that have wandered through the building over the years, and I’m not taking it from you either. You can do that to the other editors, but not to me.”
Rhodes or all the management people that have wandered through the building over the years, and I’m not taking it from you either. You can do that to the other editors, but not to me.”
We understood each other. End of crap.
The greatest columnist in BJ history and the greatest editor in BJ
history got along famously after that.
Now, click on the videos of Mark and Bob, and enjoy them as much as
I did. Their personalities may be as different as the Dalai Lama and Ghenghis Khan, but their talents both conquer literary mountains.
Mark Dawidziak Hall of Fame pre-induction video
Bob Dyer Hall of Fame pre-induction video
No comments:
Post a Comment