Behind The Scoreboard - Claude Vinson


Thursday, July 14, 2011
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Behind The Scoreboard
By Claude Vinson

Milestone

Thank you, dear readers, for the comments about the Wimbledon columns. And to the person who inquired about the final outcome, Petra Kvitova of Czechoslovakia (ranked eighth) defeated Maria Sharipova of Russia for the women’s singles title and Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal for the men’s. Caroline Wozniacki had been ranked number one in the world for the women. This was a milestone since a Williams sister was not in the finals for two years out of the last 12.

And here at The South Reporter, we reached a milestone of sorts about a week ago (talk about mixing apples and oranges). If you read Linda Jones’ column, then you know that Barry Burleson has been our editor-publisher for the last decade. Yep, he turned “10” last week. They had a luncheon to commemorate the occasion. Unfortunately, I was not in town but it occurred to me that this would have been a great opportunity for a “roast.”

You see, when Walter Webb sold his shares of the paper, Barry was hired and he inherited us and we sort of adopted him. Looking at Barry, I am reminded of a joke about a traveling salesman who was looking for some laid-back, out-of-the way community in which to retire. He stopped in a quaint little town, not unlike Holly Springs, and encountered a senior citizen and asked him what he thought of his town as a retirement community. The old codger looked wistful for a moment and said, “Why, you couldn’t do better. When I first came here, I couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk, couldn’t feed myself and could barely see.” The stranger said, “That is remarkable! How long have you lived here?” To which the senior citizen replied, “Oh, I was born here.”

The tenure has seemed very short; however, if you have noticed Barry’s temples lately, you can’t help but notice the slightly graying effect which he doesn’t hesitate to blame on us ( his staff).

Sometimes when a person is being feted or honored it is customary to use letters in his name to form a litany of praise, so I thought I would revive the practice for this occasion. Let’s see, ‘B’ could stand for “boring.” Naah, strike that and use “bravery” instead. He will brave all types of inclement weather to get the pictures which he wants. ‘A’ could easily be “arrogant” but “aggressive” would probably be more appropriate and best describe the manner in which he pursues story leads and attacks the layouts. The pair of ‘Rs’ have to be “rastameniuos and risterprevious” (please don’t go scurrying for your dictionary, they are not real words), actually “reserved and receptive” would be better choices. He is always reserved in demeanor and receptive to new ideas. “Y” has to be for “Yetta” (I have no idea what that means. I couldn’t think of anything flattering to use for “Y.”

In truth, it has been a real pleasure to be associated with Mr. Burleson the past decade and he has been a solid shot of news adrenaline since his arrival. He edits and publishes a very respected tabloid. And like his colleague who runs the “Daily Planet,”(Superman’s newspaper), we hope he will be around for a long time.

P.S. At the time this is written, yours truly is vacationing on Dauphin Island and won’t know if I have been fired for this article until I return next week.

P.P.S. Mrs. “J” (Linda Jones), Walter Webb asked me to join his staff in October of ’93 and I started in November, so I make that nigh on to about 19 years.

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