Slacker reporter

Maybe it's a case of post-vacation blues, but I've been ping-ponging between extreme work and extreme slackerdom.

One day, I'm madly rushing to cobble together a 25-inch centerpiece about a wilderness preserve, hiking in the morning to look for toads, then working the phones to get all the environmental, historical and financial information that I need.

The next day, I finish my daily contribution to my paper in a mere two hours.

Today was the latter sort of day, but I justify it by working on a publication for one person.

This person is retiring after a 27-year career in which she has worked long hours and covered a thousand different kinds of stories, only to never get the full credit she was always due.

As is tradition, one of her going-away presents is a mock front-page, replete with stories about her and her adventures at our paper. I felt obligated to do the main story, the one that sums up her career.

What's fun is that I've sought out a bunch of former staffers and even this woman's first editor, way back from 1979.

One thing about being a longtime newsroom hound, I just love old newspaper legends.

I hope it'll be the best front page, delivered to one.