Friday, April 20, 2007

Goodbye, Life

The Parade-like insert in the TL has died. Today marks Life's final appearance. Pour one out.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

First Imus, now Virginia Tech. Life is good for a "local" columnist who won't leave the building except to smoke.
Anybody got any more column ideas for next week?

Anonymous said...

You need to ask yourself what it is about Chris Kelly that you envy SO much that you continually make an ass of yourself here by displaying your obsession (in such an unimaginative and unfunny way) with him.

Anonymous said...

And the TL website still sucks.

Anonymous said...

"You need to ask yourself what it is about Chris Kelly that you envy SO much that you continually make an ass of yourself here by displaying your obsession (in such an unimaginative and unfunny way) with him."

Not that we're defensive or anything.

Anonymous said...

I'm not "Chris Kelly," but making fun of a buffoon doesn't make you envious. The real Kelly has done plenty to invite the ridicule, including that asinine "I'm burned out, send me your ideas" column.

Anonymous said...

Kelly invites ridicule because he has a plum job that gives him a rare soapbox to discuss issues of the day in the community and he squanders it by either writing columns about how uninspired he is or making obvious observations that other, nationally syndicated columnists make in a more eloquent and persuasive way.

Anonymous said...

Agreed with the last two. I'm not one of the haters in the newsroom, but I think the consensus among the rank and file is that Kelly jumped the shark when he became management. That's when his eccentricities stopped being funny and his work ethic became all the more noticeable.
It's a hard thing to do, going from being one of the guys to part of the management team, but I've seen people do it more gracefully than Kelly.
It hasn't helped that he still clings to the column, which has become ever lamer.

Anonymous said...

Kelly is a cautionary tale for just about everything that's wrong with modern journalism. He burned out and rather than move on, he moved up into management. Now he's stuck there until he retires. What other option does he have? It's not like he's going to be recruited by a major metro.

Anonymous said...

agreed with most of the above. a lot of us who like chris and think he's a talented guy are distressed with the creative dead-end he's maneuvered himself into. you're never going to come up with a column swapping bon mots with ed christine.

Anonymous said...

It's funny to imagine that Ed even knows what a bon mot is. He probably thinks it's a sexist or homophobic remark. "Yeah, I'm pretty good at those f***in' bon mots."

Anonymous said...

If I were in Times Shamrock management (which I'm not), I want Chris telling people what's going on in south Scranton and west Scranton and Old Forge and Carbondale and Dunmore and, for Pete's sake, the Abingtons. Kelly's armchair ruminations on Imus or Virginia Tech or Iraq, two or three days after the syndicated writers have signed in, doesn't add much to the sum of human knowledge.

On the other hand, if I'm with the competition: Chris, I love you just the way you are.

Anonymous said...

Give Kelly some credit for trying to broaden his scope. Today's column was a Bush-bashing piece pegged to something he saw while watching TV. Imagine the effort that took?

Anonymous said...

Wow, that guy's a regular Ernie Pyle. Next, he'll make an intrepid journey to the Steamtown Mall.