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A Greenhorn's View of a Big City Boss

 An Essay About Ray Hartmann, creator of The Riverfront Times and St. Louis Magazine I started at the Riverfront Times as a fresh out of college greenhorn. At twenty-four, I did have four years of working at a daily newspaper in my small hometown under my belt, but getting this job as an ad designer was almost a fluke.  My schooling didn't really prepare me for the new dawning computer age newspapers were growing into. One QuarkXPress design-a-magazine class and my ability to old-school paste-up the classifieds sealed the deal. I couldn't tell you if my new big boss, Ray Hartmann was in that initial meeting or not. It was my first big trip to the city and I was about to have a crash course in reality. Honestly, I didn't see Ray as much as many others did. But what I did get to glimpse of him showed me that he really cared about his employees. Many of our deadline days went long into the night. And when there were concerns about the safety of employees going to their cars, R...
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Maple Hollow and the Bird Sanctuary Dispute

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  Maple Hollow and the Bird Sanctuary Dispute A Gia and Faith Healing Mystery The rain drummed a steady, rhythmic beat against the tin roof of the potting shed, a sound far more soothing than the sharp chirp of a dying smoke alarm battery. Inside, the air smelled of damp earth, dried lavender, and the cedar shavings Gia Doyle used to line the nesting boxes for her neighbors' hens. Gia sat on a weathered wooden stool, her fingers tracing the edge of a vintage tea tin she’d repurposed for storing seeds. Outside the window, the Maple Hollow sky was a bruised purple, the kind of heavy atmosphere that usually signaled a sudden drop in temperature—the sort of weather that made your bones ache and your throat feel a bit scratchy. Across from her, Faith Waters was leaning against the potting bench, her eyes closed as she breathed in the scent of the rain. Faith had arrived twenty minutes ago, looking like she’d been through a metaphorical (and literal) storm, complaining about a "con...
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