White Escape

You don't see too many of them around here. No, I'm not talking celebrities, rattlesnakes or tsunamis. I'm talking white fire escapes. This one is on the backside of the old Portland Press Herald offices. Before they moved their entire operation out near the Maine Mall, I was one of 15 or so selected to attend monthly community liaison meetings in this building on the 6th floor. Each month there was a section of the daily or Sunday paper that our group took a look at. Each meeting usually started with a brief talk by reporter or editor on their role at the paper and then the floor was open for questions or concerns about the daily operation of getting out the news. Most evenings the talk was quite interesting, as the group discussed the role of photographs, the 'politics' or slant in the paper's stories, the breakdown of the various sections in the paper, how editorials are chosen and who puts them together among other topics. I thought they took our concerns, criticisms, and questions quite seriously. I really looked forward to those meeting on Thursday nights, and oh yes, I almost forgot. They served use food too! There was no escaping that.