In which I resurrect an oldie but a goodie still
The back story
Darts & Laurels was already a Gainesville Sun opinion institution long before I was named editorial page editor back in….oh, I dunno…the Dark Ages maybe.
Anyway, the recurring editorial feature was begun by my predecessor, Buddy Davis – UF journalism professor and longtime editorial writer for The Sun.
And, not coincidentally, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for writing dynamite Sun editorials.
But Darts & Laurels wasn’t entirely Buddy’s idea. If recollection serves he borrowed it from a recurring feature in the Columbia Journalism Review.
Basically D&L was an editorial collection of ‘Attaboys’ and ‘Razzberries’ intended to laud some and razz others…usually in one or two brief paragraphs.
Like this zinger from July, 2005:
Dart: To Gainesville Regional Utilities, for a continuing series of sewage spills – three this past week alone – most of which end up in the city’s creek systems. “We’re tired of creeks getting the brunt of this,” Chris Bird, county environmental protection director, told The Sun.
Or this thanks-much missive from December, 2004:
LAUREL: To U.S. Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala…for including in a new federal spending bill at least $3 million for various projects in Gainesville and Alachua County, including money for RTS, Santa Fe Community College, Teen Zone and Gainesville Regional Airport.
The Dart was significant because in the endless GNV City-County feuds the Sun generally tended to take the City’s side. GRU’s creek pollution escapades gave us the opportunity to deliver an Attaboy to the county.
And that Laurel was important because The Sun’s editorial writer (your’s truly) was forever criticizing Sterns – an Ocala Republican – for being an absentee landlord when it came to fairly representing his constituents in blue GNV.
Because this is what Buddy told me about one purpose of The Sun’s D&Ls:
Used artfully it gave us the opportunity to say something nice about folks we usually criticize.
And to say something less than flattering about others whose causes we usually tend to line up with.
(BTW: If you wonder whether I tended by disposition to be a dart hurler or a laurel dispenser, just take a gander at my longtime email address: rondarts2008@gmail.com. Nuff said.)
D&L revival
Anyway, I managed to keep Buddy’s D&L editorial feature going through the entire 30 years I held down the job. And I never forgot Buddy’s admonition that occasionally condemning your enemies and damning your friends is a good idea.
And having watched Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas’ faux crucifixion of Tina Certain for having the temerity to speak her mind – as an American and as an elected official – I felt a sudden urge to resurrect the editorial feature that I inherited from Buddy Davis.
Nor have I forgotten about Buddy’s admonition to award the occasional laurel to folks I usually tend to criticize.
So here goes….gulp!
Trump’s defense of Chinese students attending American universities comes in marked contrast to The Great DeSanitizer’s xenophobic crack that “I’d rather have none” when it comes to, you know, those people despoiling Florida universities and colleges.
But, having said that, I do remember Buddy’s admonition about occasionally saying something nice about people I tend to criticize.
And there is probably nobody in all of this Free State Of Floriduh that I’m more critical of than The Great DeSanitizer.
So here goes…gulp!
Come on! That was damned funny!
FreeGNV 