Salute to a legend

I know this Blob is supposed to be for sports and other toys of that ilk.

But tonight I'm calling a moratorium on all that. My blog, my rules, remember?

Tonight the news comes down that Craig Klugman, the only editor I knew in 28 years at the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, is retiring after more than three decades in the editor's chair. And so attention much be paid.

Know this, first of all: Craig and I did not always see eye-to-eye. I was never averse to saying what I thought, even if it wasn't what Craig always thought. This made me a pain in the ass to him on more than one occasion. Actually it probably made me a pain in the ass more times than I ever suspected.

But here is the thing: No matter how many times I disagreed with Craig, I always respected his adherence to principle.

His allegiance to basic journalistic tenets, first of all, was total and unequivocal. He was a First Amendment absolutist to the nth degree, and 99 times out of 100 I agreed with that. The man was steadfastly committed to getting the story and getting it right, and to hell with who it might tick off. He was, over and above everything else, a by-God journalist.

You work for an editor like that once, it's a privilege. You get to do it for 28 years, it's a blessing.

And so, I lift a glass to him. Hell, I lift half a dozen glasses to him.