“It’s a sad man, my friend, who’s living in his own skin and can’t stand the company”

It was a day of great rejoicing in my head a couple of months ago when one of the local papers fired columnist/talentless hack/general miserable wretch Dan Ruth. For years this guy has written columns that are meant to be the humorous voice of reason, the snarky conscience of the good people of The T. In reality they are the thoroughly non-entertaining musings a bitter old crank who clearly has no love lost for this town. Given all this, you can imagine my chagrin upon learning that the other local paper recently hired him as a weekly columnist. It is one thing to be the voice of dissent regarding corrupt local pols and shady big business, but it is quite another to be thoroughly dismissive of everything good about this town in the process. It is beyond me why a local newspaper (a dying breed to begin with) would employ a “writer” (I use quotes because he is really, really very bad) who so openly disdains the town in which he lives and works. But I guess if that old hack can get work putting pen to paper (or finger to keypad as the case may be) there is the hope of gainful employment for all of us.