Readers Chime In

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE! 

*   *   *

Flipping roles: readers do the writing

“Why struggle writing a column,” Chuck Thomas, my esteemed mentor and longtime steward of this space, liked to say, “when you can have others do it for you?”

Following his sage advice, I am taking the day off. Pinch-hitting are some readers who responded to recent columns.

*

“Thank you for the beautiful piece you wrote on the value of libraries!” emailed Marianne Coffey. “So many depend on our libraries each day and it is so difficult here in Ventura to garner City Council support for our libraries or a book budget.

“I volunteer at E.P. Foster Library and it is so heartwarming to see firsthand the early literacy activities enjoyed by the little ones, the Lego play times, the dance parties, Summer Reading Program, the Chess Club and Teen Activity Groups, as well as adult activities underwritten by all the Ventura Friends of the Library.

“We are blessed with a dedicated library staff and our libraries are a real lifeline for so many, helping many community members cross the digital divide.

“Our libraries offer homework centers, and there is a retired gentlemen at E.P. Foster that I watch in the afternoons tutoring Math. We have a great many unsung heroes in our community!”

*

Joanne Fields, herself an unsung library hero, offered this:

“You concisely cleared up the confusion many have about libraries being ‘outdated’ in this age of technology. In addition, you expressed the wonder that can be found in libraries.

“In my case, whenever I took a new job, the first place I located near my new employer was the library. My first job was as a page in the library and I am now recording secretary for the Ventura Friends of the Library. So my love affair with libraries and the knowledge they represent is unabated.”

*

By no means is my in-box always filled with unabated support, as this viewpoint from P.W. attests:

“Why throw into a column on impersonal musings, your personal dislike for Trump? Trump’s angry rhetoric is no worse than equally hateful/dishonest/unprincipled commentary from ALL the candidates.

“The election issue is not Trump, but a complete slate of people who are far from being the best and brightest our country has to offer.”

*

A handful of readers replied in regards to my personal “Theory of Pizza Imprinting,” but my favorite is from John Acevedo:

“Boy, did I get a lot out of your pizza column. My favorite pizza is from a place in Lincoln, Nebraska, named Valentino’s. We used to buy two and put one in the fridge for breakfast on Sunday. What crazy boys, we were!”

*

Howard Reich made me crazy happy with his note, and deed, that reversed the title of my book “Strawberries in Wintertime” into Woody’s Holiday Ball Drive in Springtime:

“Woody, I used a Sports Chalet gift card to purchase and distribute one football, one basketball, and two playground balls.”

*

Bob Pratt wrote in with a suggestion regarding something I mentioned:

“Maybe you could tell the story behind why -30- is used by writers at the end of a column in newspapers.”

Great question, indeed, for while I have typed -30- since first working on UC Santa Barbara’s The Daily Nexus in 1979, I never knew the origins of this journalism tradition. Prompted by Bob, I now do.

Its use apparently began during the Civil War era when telegraph operators employed a long list of terms – called the 92 Code of telegraphic shorthand – that each had a number associated with it.

For example, 1 meant “Wait a minute”;  27 was “Priority, very important”; 73 was “Best regards”; and 88 was “Love and kisses.”

And, of course, 30 meant “No more – the end.”

*

Lastly, one more library email, this one from Doris Cowart sharing a comment about her 5-year-old great grandson:

“When Dean got his library card, he called it his ‘Library License’ and he carries it in his wallet. Love that boy!”

Doris didn’t ask me, but she should send Dean this text: “27-88-30.”

*  *  *

Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden&Me_cover_PRCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”