Trish,
I did speak to an occasional Hallmarker who had nothing but good things to say about the company. But out of the several dozen people I called, they accounted for only three of the conversations. And I had the impression, with all three of them, that they were worried about speaking to me and that may be why they were saying what they did. I'm glad you landed your dream job, but it seems like you might be in the minority there.
It's true that you're likely to get caught in hairballs in every company. Hell, The Pitch isn't safe from the occasional clog. But when you talk to dozens of people and they all say the same thing -- that Hallmark has difficulty moving ideas to reality -- it becomes clear it might be a bigger problem at Hallmark than elsewhere.
As for whether Gordon is dead, prior to writing this piece, I called the only two Gordon MacKenzies listed in the phone book in Missouri and Kansas and didn't hear back from either. There's no obit in the Star's archives or elsewhere that I could find, so the best I could say is what I heard from two former co-workers. If you know different, please post a reply.
Thanks for the catch, Joe. Plum tree it is.
This afternoon, Nicole Corcoran, Sebelius' press secretary, sent me this response:
"This law allows gun collectors to lawfully possess Class III weapons. Governor Sebelius carefully reviewed this bill, which is similar to the laws of 30 other states that require compliance with extensive federal guidelines. In addition, she was not inundated with requests from law enforcement to veto like she was with concealed carry. (As a matter of fact law enforcement actually testified in favor of the bill.) There's a heightened federal process that has to be met to own these weapons. The individual has to submit a form to the ATF for a background approval, and also has to have the local sheriff sign a statement that the person would not use the gun unlawfully.
To answer your question, Gus: Yes, we do monitor the comments here at The Pitch. But we don't censor them. So even though some of these comments sound written by the same person (is that you, A.O. Scott?), we don't take them down.
I've got a new appreciation for Chris Packham and his ability to be funny at 7:30 in the morning. I hear he has completed the latest portion of his travels -- pretending to hold up the Tower of Pisa -- so hopefully we'll have his wit back soon.
Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson called The Pitch today in reference to this. Branson said there wasn't much he could offer in the way of details in the case, because it hasn't gone to court yet. But he did say there wasn't one event recently that led to the charges, just a steady collection of evidence in the case.
Branson also explained why he couldn't be reached last night: a technical glitch shut down the DA's phone lines last night from about 4:30 to 11:30.
Re: “The Star Sends Jobs to India”
We'd like to follow up this story. If anybody here knows of someone laid off during the Star's outsourcing, please send them my e-mail: eric.barton@pitch.com.