Farewell letter from GRM employees?

I for one welcome our new columnist and overlord . . .

Way to go JG -- your writing always reminds me of Peter Egan's, with a shot of absinthe to colour the content

I'm also sorry to see Per go...but equally excited that JG gets a column. I can tell his stuff without reading the byline...and that's a compliment.

ZOO wrote: I for one welcome our new columnist and overlord . . . Way to go JG -- your writing always reminds me of Peter Egan's, with a shot of absinthe to colour the content

I think it's actually Kahlua.

chaparral wrote: Margie, Maybe GRM should move?

And leave Margie to build three whole new patios? So Sir, no way, no how!

I grew up in South Florida. Haven't been back to my home town in almost 15 years, as it is a total E36 M3hole. Too many people, most of whom are either on death's door or just have really bad attitudes. If I was going to live there again, Tampa's not bad, except for the legalized panhandling.

I do miss the hell out of fishing every day though. Freshwater just isn't the same.

poopshovel wrote: Tampa's not bad, except for the legalized panhandling.

Poopy, as much as you like to drink and party, I would have figured you for loving Ybor City

I just got a resume from Per. There is a 5-year period when he was with the CIA that is mostly blank. Just vague references to Angola and Kandahar. Weird.

Curmudgeon wrote:

ZOO wrote: I for one welcome our new columnist and overlord . . . Way to go JG -- your writing always reminds me of Peter Egan's, with a shot of absinthe to colour the content

I think it's actually Kahlua.

Not strong enough.

poopshovel wrote: I grew up in South Florida. Haven't been back to my home town in almost 15 years, as it is a total E36 M3hole. Too many people, most of whom are either on death's door or just have really bad attitudes. If I was going to live there again, Tampa's not bad, except for the legalized panhandling. I do miss the hell out of fishing every day though. Freshwater just isn't the same.

I grew up in Miami, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Lantana/Lake Worth. (We moved a lot.) Maybe there's a reason I like Ohio. ;-)

I'm right there with you on fishing. At a couple of the places we lived, I could go fishing right out the back yard. It was awesome.

I got a notice on LinkedIn that Per is now a writer at Robert Bentley Publishers in Avon Lake, Ohio. Good luck at your new job, Per!

I spent a month working in Boca Raton / West Palm one summer for the FAA. Then I went to Erie, PA.

I thought Erie was pretty nice in comparison, A+ would leave Boca again.

Aren't all the roads flat and straight down there? Yuck..

Florida is not for the faint of heart. All jokes aside, there are really two states- dividing line is basically Lake Okeechobee. North of that is like South Alabama, not too bad. South of that, a totally different country. Not kidding at all. Yes, the fishing is great. What you guys in Ohio brag about, we use for bait. I currently live in Ft. Lauderdale, and really want to move to extreme south Florida, right before entering the Keys, or WAY north. Unfortunately, my wife is a native Floridian, will not leave the state, and does not like the south part. Arrgghh. She is worth the aggravation factor, though. Looking for a job? Fuggedaboutit. Did hear that Tallahassee had a very low unemployment rate. Down here, you need to have your own business. But help is cheap. The race season is Jan through Dec.

77 degrees and sunny here in Melbourne right now. I rest my case.

JoeyM wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Tampa's not bad, except for the legalized panhandling.

Poopy, as much as you like to drink and party, I would have figured you for loving Ybor City

The Hong South garage is waaaay more fun than Ybor, and less "economically diverse." But yeah. My brother and I have done the crawl there a few times. The game is to see if one of us can make the other puke. If nobody's done it by last call, you've got to climb that big ass set of stairs by the movie theater up to the frozen drink bar and drink something horrible. Like a double "key lime pie" frozen margarita.

dculberson wrote:

poopshovel wrote: I grew up in South Florida. Haven't been back to my home town in almost 15 years, as it is a total E36 M3hole. Too many people, most of whom are either on death's door or just have really bad attitudes. If I was going to live there again, Tampa's not bad, except for the legalized panhandling. I do miss the hell out of fishing every day though. Freshwater just isn't the same.

I grew up in Miami, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Lantana/Lake Worth. (We moved a lot.) Maybe there's a reason I like Ohio. ;-) I'm right there with you on fishing. At a couple of the places we lived, I could go fishing right out the back yard. It was awesome.

I grew up in Port St. Lousy/Ft. Pierce. Someone shot our bus on the way to school once. But yeah, the fishing was great. I worked at the private golf course in St. Lucie West after high school. Me and my buddy Eric worked from 5AM to 2PM. After work, we'd throw some nasty clothes on, hit the bait store, wade in the lagoon till 5:30, run home, change clothes, and work the bar from 5:30 to close. We'd do fish-frys most Sundays. Good times.

jstein77 wrote: I got a notice on LinkedIn that Per is now a writer at Robert Bentley Publishers in Avon Lake, Ohio. Good luck at your new job, Per!

I saw that too, but It looks to me that hes been "there" for 16 years....my guess is that you can write books from any desk in the universe, and send it to the publisher via telegraph or whatever.

I do hope Per the best. Busted Knuckles was the first GRM text I ever read. Sad to see him go.

I rode my motorcycle to work today. Florida ain't all bad. Honestly I don't care much for South Florida, (too crowded) or the interior of Florida, (too redneck) but I like it here on the coast just fine.

The cost of living is ridiculously low, the ocean magnificent, the state parks are great, the fishing tremendous, and girls wear bikinis all year long. I know, I know....sounds terrible!

I had worse mosquito problems when I lived in Illinois-- bugs really aren't that bad down here. (as long as you can take the flying / giant palmetto bugs...ie wild cockroaches) I've encountered exactly one snake in over 10 years of being here (non-poisionus at that) and your body does adjust to the humidity.....I actually MISS the humid weather when I'm in Cali, or Colorado, or Vegas.

Everything and everyplace is what you make of it, and there is plenty of good to be had down here.

I understand why Per had to leave--- with 3 kids it's awfully nice to be around a big family for support-- which he'll have in Ohio. He's one of the most intelligent, hard working and driven people I've ever met. It was an honor to work with him for the past decade, and he'll be missed.

That said, JG's column will rock. He's truly a gifted writer and funny. (looking)

Looking forward to JG's column. I think the picture used for him should be from when he dressed up as an 80's rocker with the project Mustang.

Good luck to Per! He'll be missed, I'm sure.

PeterAK wrote: Looking forward to JG's column. I think the picture used for him should be from when he dressed up as an 80's rocker with the project Mustang. Good luck to Per! He'll be missed, I'm sure.

Dressed up?

jg

Um, yeah, JG is right. That was normal garb. One day we'll have to run the outtakes from that shoot.

z31maniac wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote:

ZOO wrote: I for one welcome our new columnist and overlord . . . Way to go JG -- your writing always reminds me of Peter Egan's, with a shot of absinthe to colour the content

I think it's actually Kahlua.

Not strong enough.

yeah, we need some participatory journalism. Tom Wolfe/HST/PJ style. I'll pay extra.

jstein77 wrote: 77 degrees and sunny here in Melbourne right now. I rest my case.

64 F, dark, currently raining here at 8:40 PM on 12-20-12. I'm 2 hours from the beach, 2 hours from the mountains, 10 minutes from a lake with more shoreline than the coast of FL, and we have fun roads that include curves and elevation changes. We also do have those cockroaches that people insist on calling "palmetto bugs."

your profile doesn't say where you are ......

Joe Gearin wrote: I rode my motorcycle to work today. Florida ain't all bad.

I really didn't need to know that. There were icicles hanging of the ix this morning...

I actually like the Daytona area, but I disagree with the weather in summer. With the usual afternoon storm I end up with scheduled weather-related migraines.