Cue the dueling banjos! We’ve got another young columnist in town taking on the well-worn phrase and attitude that Salem, OR is really “So lame.”
It’s the Statesman-Journal’s Kelly Williams Brown — entertainment beat reporter, Ginger for the New Millennium, and all around sugar and spice and everything nice.
Kelly’s first column ran last weekend. She’s calling it “Not So Lame,” and it was all about the awkwardness of Valentine’s Day.
Speaking of… my husband and I spent Valentine’s Day with another man in bed with us, our now 8-week old baby Dash. Can I get an AWKWARD…
But back to Kelly. Can I just say that it is high time that the Statesman countered Salem Monthly’s culture column with one written by their own effervescent young writer-on-the-rise? And they even one-upped us by offering up a little tart who is about ten times as cute and vivacious as yours truly.
Grumble grumble.
Yes, I can’t say I’ve always liked Kelly. She is a reader of this blog and invited me to lunch during my first months in town. When I met her, she reminded me of the sparkly young twenty-something I once was while tromping the streets of our nation’s capital. She was loving life, the world was her oyster, and her joie de vivre was writ large on her unlined face. Also, she has impeccable fashion taste, one of those Somethings Seldom Seen in Salem.
Naturally, I hated her from the start.
Holding an attitude like that would make for an awesome columnist rivalry! Sadly, Kelly is one of the sweetest people in town — my lord, people she does stories on baby llamas! — and I am happy to call her my dear friend.
You could say she’s the special sauce the Statesman has been lacking. I wish her and her column many incarnations.
Now Emily – when we met you we thought the same thing.. joie de vivre! sparkly! unlined! about YOU! and we still do. Make Kelly your alter-ego, freeing you up to go to the dark side when you want to.
That’s awfully nice, Sarah. I’m going to make her the Waldorf to my Stetller, the Siskel to my Ebert.
Sarah is 800 percent correct, Emily! Thank you for the lovely post — it is I who finds you sparkly, vivacious and, also, and, hatefully talented.
Not to rain of the love fest (or mix a metaphor), but is Kelly sending a secret message by the way she’s holding a certain finger of her left hand in her column photo ?
Rain on us all day, Nick. And several people have noticed that. I will go on record here as saying that it was completely unintentional — it slipped by me, the photo editor and page editor. I haven’t flipped anyone off since middle school, and if I had subliminal hatred for Salem, I hopefully would be able to come up with something more creative.
Or look at it this way. If you think I’m giving you the finger, you probably did something wrong.
I love Emily. I love Kelly.
I don’t count my wins or losses.
But don’t you think the Journal’s got
maybe some other special sauces?
Awwwww. You’ll always be my Sunday Sriracha. I guess you do report things through your poems, but I was talking girl reporters. Hope I didn’t hurt your Ialac sign.
http://www.nncc.org/Prof.Dev/build.s-esteem.html
[...] placement at #82. As adorably self-deprecating as Kelly’s column is, let us not forget that SHE IS MYLOCAL COLUMN-WRITING NEMESIS and wouldn’t dare rank me in the top [...]
Hate to tell you Emily, but neither you or Kelly were first. That would be me
I started the first entertainment and young people’s column in Salem, from 2001 to 2006 held that honor. Cheers, Angela
I have no illusions about being the first about anything! Also, I don’t consider myself young… though I find if you put “fugly” in a column readers assume you’re 23.
Well, young in Salem generally means younger than 50…