December, 2012
Presidio Sentinel San Diego
By Inga, Humor Columnist, La Jolla Light & Laura Walcher,
Humor Columnist, Presidio Sentinel
Inga: At the San
Diego Press Club Journalism Awards in 2010, the first year that my column in the
La Jolla Light was eligible, I won second place in the Humor division after
Laura Walcher, who writes for the Presidio Sentinel. Sensing (correctly) that she would continue to be my chief competition,
I hunted her down, er, looked her up, and invited her for
coffee. Annoyingly, she was
incredibly nice, and as she had been in the column biz a lot longer than I had,
even shared some hot tips.
Laura: Uh-oh. I was
only “nice” to disguise my cut-throat competitive nature. I’m hoping she really embraces my
long-discarded tips.
Inga: We put each
other on our distribution lists.
This was not altogether a great idea. One of Laura’s pieces would show up in my In-box and I’d
laugh myself silly, followed by a sober realization: Dang! I just
lost again! And sure enough, in
2011, she was again first and I was (again) second! Was I simply going to have to outlive her to ever get first? Now, I suppose I should have been
happy with second, but I’m a veteran of many years of youth sports. Second is the first loser.
Laura: “First” is SO
my favorite! If you’re going
to win first, best that you boot some super contender - that’s so satisfying!
Inga: Our Awards are judged by a Press Club in another city to avoid all the ugly
politics that are rampant in, well, politics.
Laura’s style couldn’t be more different than mine, definitely
more high brow. I feared that some
stuffy Press Club with pretentions, like San Francisco, was probably judging ours
(I don’t think they even HAVE a Humor category) and I was doomed in
perpetuity. The awards committee
won’t reveal which Club does the judging, probably to avoid the potential of
mail bombs from people who come in second (not mentioning any names). But surely Arkansas has a press
club? I could totally take Laura
down.
Laura: I am SO excited. “High brow” is
just not a word that normally describes me ...? Must be my New York City origins? Or, Inga just has more courage: she
sends up her neighbors, friends, family, pets SO high … mine would stop talking to me
altogether. Besides, mine provide less “material” all the time; now that my
grand-chldren are teenagers, they’re just NOT
THAT FUNNY ANYMORE.
Inga: Fortunately,
the kids live out of town and Olof is simply resigned to being fodder. The neighbor whose sex life I wrote
about used it to pimp dates. The
pets have retained counsel.
Laura: The thing we
have in common, though, is that we never write fiction. Life provides. What worries me, though,
is that, one of these days, she could have better material - I mean, just TAKE
Olof, her husband; he’s such a source ... (“Olof” - ? Hmm, to preserve the marriage, that name might be
“fiction.”)
Inga: October 23 was
the 2012 Press Club awards, and Laura was one of the first people I saw when I
got there. I thought I had some strong contenders (the Humor category is judged
on individual columns) but so did she.
This year, I got first and she got
second. I figured that if I
couldn’t be a gracious loser, I could at least be a gracious winner. I gave her my heartiest
congratulations.
Laura: Well, per
chronology, she could outlive me.
Then, she can try all my
tricks? But now, she’s finally
made a serious impression on journalism judges, probably because this year’s
panels have no sense of humor.
Inga: As for the 2013
Press Club awards? Game’s on! ###
