Lee, letters and lighting up

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 29, 2002

Fresh off his seven-month leave while touring the Swiss Alps and the South Seas, Lee Bonorden returns to the Herald on Monday.

Friday, March 29, 2002

Fresh off his seven-month leave while touring the Swiss Alps and the South Seas, Lee Bonorden returns to the Herald on Monday.

Email newsletter signup

Of course, Lee will tell you otherwise that he had some health problems to tend to.

Don’t believe a word of it.

When I got here in the beginning of September, Lee began his leave from this newspaper.

That was a ringing endorsement.

I didn’t know much about Lee, except that he helped build the old courthouse dome.

But my sense that Lee’s a traveler were in the phone calls I received in the coming months.

Friends in Adams, Rose Creek and LeRoy were wondering where Lee was. I had to cover for Lee, explaining that he had some health problems, but he was on the mend.

I did speak with Lee off and on during his hiatus. He sounded a ways off by the static on the phone.

While talking with him one day, I heard someone in the background yell "Moorvas ni yupple!" Later, I was told it was Russian for "Bonorden’s turn to buy a round."

But starting next week, Lee gets to come back. Eventually, you’ll get to see Lee at familiar hangouts, from the county commissioner meetings to the county fair.

I think I speak for many, when I say "Welcome back, Lee."

Just bring me back some leftovers from your next fish fry.

Lately, we’ve received an influx of letters to the editor from one individual.

Before, we haven’t had a policy in place about limiting letters to this page.

However, to give everyone a chance to give their opinion, we’re limiting letters to once a month from each author.

Contrary to some phone calls I’ve received, we don’t play favorites here. However, it’s only fair for folks to have their say.

Therefore, your help in limiting letters to us once every 30 days will be greatly appreciated.

Starting Wednesday, we’re kicking off our three-part series on the issue of smoking in Austin establishments.

This issue is something many have been talking about, but no one’s gone on the record to how they really feel.

I’m not saying the issue is about a smoking ban, as nothing of the sort has been proposed. But let’s not kid ourselves and ignore that this issue hasn’t been talked about around these parts.

As a result, we’re going to take the lead and talk about how this issue started locally, what the economic and health implications are if such a ban would be instituted and what’s going to happen next.

One of our duties as this community’s newspaper is to generate discussion about issues that could affect us, either in a positive or negative light.

By producing this series, we hope to accomplish just that.

Dan Fields can be reached by e-mail at dan.fields@austindailyherald.com