Jessica Swanson
is the managing editor of the Vancouver Business Journal.
Cindy and I have a running joke. It’s kind of hard to put into words, but I’ll give it a whirl. When one of us is getting a little hot under the collar or doesn’t have anything nice to say but also can’t say nothing at all, we tell each other, "You know, you could be a little friendlier."
The joke, of course, is that she’s the pot, and I’m the kettle. Or the other way around, depending.
I just got this new bird feeder. It’s got a roof on top and two little platforms on either side of an enclosed plastic seed container. As many as four house finches will perch on the thing at once, but what they prefer is to keep to themselves, one on one side of the seed container and one on the other side. Recently, two finches were having a hearty lunch on either side and loudly fending off encroaching eaters, as they hovered like hummingbirds around the feeder.
Cindy and I are like those two little diners, she on the sales side of the feeder and me over in news, fending off the competition – working together in our own territorial little ways.
Of course, she could be a little friendlier – and make a little less noise now and again. Said the pot to the kettle. Or was it the other way around?
Cindy Johnson – Vancouver Business Journal sales manager and account rep – will be flying the coop this week, after more than three years of the hardest work I’ve seen from a sales rep in ten years of newspapering.
For the first six months after I became editor, all I heard about was how the salespeople needed some kind of bell to ring when they made a sale. To help bridge the gap between sales and editorial, I went out and bought this sweet little bell, and put it on a nice handmade rope.
The bell, it turned out, was not nearly loud enough to be a celebratory noisemaker. It kind of made this little "tinkle, tinkle, tinkle" sound, and it didn’t come with a baton or anything to smack it. The salespeople used it, but I think only to poke fun at it – and me too – for how ridiculously soft spoken the thing was, and how totally inadequate for ringing in a sale. Eventually somebody picked up one of those plastic clappers that makes a wild racket. Frankly, it’s much more appropriate to what they’re doing over there – and I’m convinced it’s loud enough to drive away the competition, like those hungry little finches.
Well, I’m really muddling my metaphors here – the pot, the kettle, the birds, the bell. The point is you’ve got to celebrate by making a racket, fend off the competition at all times and pal around once in while with someone who’s just enough like you to make you uncomfortable.
See ya around Kettle, I’ll miss you. (We all will….)
Sincerely, Pot
Another person we will miss is Mr. Albert C. Angelo Sr. Former mayor, contractor and real estate mogul, Mr. Angelo passed away at the age of 87 on Friday, March 23. His legacy began in the 1940s, with his first housing development and continued until this year – he never really retired. His legacy and business spans the West Coast and has been expanded significantly by his sons and now grandson. We are excited to see what work will be done by current and future generations. A funeral mass is being held today, Friday, March 30, at noon at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 400 S. Andresen Road.
