Face cards

One last ACES conference post: These are business cards I amassed; each has
a little story worth passing along.

Mike Fuhlhage teaches copy editing at the University of Missouri and helps
get the student paper to press. He’s the guy who went to the Southern Culture
on the Skids show with us. He’s a tall, baby-faced guy in his mid-30s who looks
to be about 22. I consoled him that the upside is that when he’s 85, he’ll look 70. One
of the funniest dudes I’ve met in quite a stretch, reassures me that copy desks
needn’t be mountains for the morose.

Mary Ellen Slayter works on the financial desk at the Washington Post. Probably
the rockingest woman in the profession — she had a story about the Skids that
cemented my determination to see them. I forget what it was because, well, there
was too much wine in me. She also has a way-cool tattoo on one arm, which I
took as proof that the newspaper biz may achieve coolness by the time her grandkids
are old enough to work in it.

Patricia Marroquin used to work at the Mercury News, which is where she and
my boss, Linda, became friends. She’s also worked at the L.A. Times and the Dallas Morning News before taking over the copy desk at the Ventura paper, where her husband’s in charge of design. Patricia was part of the posse I declared Coolest in America after the Skids show.