LAMORINDA WEEKLY | It's a 3! | Andy and Wendy Scheck

It's a 3; as in, your friendly neighborhood newspaper celebrates its 3rd birthday this month. Or, as Associate Publisher Wendy Scheck joked, "It's an E, for Every Other Week." That's publisher Andy Scheck holding the 3 (Wendy is behind him to the left); next year, someone else is going to be in charge of styling the photo shoot, although it's somehow appropriate that the ridgeline behind us is the same one that graces our logo (above).

Friends and neighbors, if we could have taken a photo of everyone in Lamorinda, then you would really see who we are and what we do. We are you, and you are us. We offer our heartfelt thanks to all of you, for sending us your stories, letters, photos and article ideas.

Read our cover story, "The Lamorinda Weekly, Looking Back and Forward"

Caption, photo above “It was a dark and stormy night…morning,” suggested photographer Doug Kohen of Lafayette, for the first line of this report. True, the day we picked to take our annual staff picture was last Friday, the one rainy day of an otherwise glorious spring week. Kohen called out, “Umbrellas down!” as his camera began to click (he’s on the far right, remote in hand); we had all our bases covered since photographer Tod Fierner (back right) made the drive from his day job with the City of Orinda to join us. Orinda photographer Ohlen Alexander (far back, in blue) completed the triumvirate. It’s also true that senior staff writer Andrea Firth, the best analytical mind among us, was overheard whispering to contributing writer and crack MOFD reporter Lucy Amaral, “The 3 is backwards;” yet the warning went unheeded (Andrea is standing in front of Doug, Lucy is behind her on your left). As our group quickly dispersed to dryer venues, a thoughtful smile played across the lips of our newest creative genius, cartoonist Barry Hunau (back row, in a cap; the resulting cartoon is on page L3).
We are trying to age gracefully. It helps to have fresh young faces and talent, such as contributing writer Cristina Kim (next to Andy on the right), and the next generation – graphic artist Amanda Griggs (center, kneeling) and sports reporter Alex Crook (in white, behind Amanda). On hiatus is our dear friend, staff writer and section editor Jennifer Wake (to the left behind Alex), who we hope will grace our pages again soon. Next to Jennifer is senior staff writer Cathy Tyson, whose sense of humor constantly reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously. Next to Cathy, going left, are contributing writers Linda Foley and Jean Follmer, who bring both wisdom and perspective to the table. This year we also wanted to include in the photo some of our long-time columnists, such as Lynn Ballou (middle row, far left), Cynthia Brian (appropriately bearing a bouquet of flowers from her garden), Theresa Tsingis and Elizabeth LaScala (front row from left, kneeling next to senior staff writer Sophie Braccini, in blue, who is possibly the busiest and most well-known reporter in Lamorinda and who has the uncanny ability to be in three places at the same time), and Conrad Bassett (the tall gentleman in the back row, who is also an ace sports writer). And that’s the Editor-in-Chief, Lee Borrowman, behind Andy (to the right), naturally having a bad hair day, because that’s the way it goes. Unfortunately not pictured: Sports section editor Caitlin Graveson; photographer Jordan Fong; contributing writers Dean Okamura, Kevin Shallat, Mikaela Cowles, Glenn Nosse, Rosylyn Stenzel, Lou Fancher, Justine Sgalio, Angela LaScala-Gruenewald; columnists Margie Ryerson, Mona Miller, Jonathan Winter, Harold Hoyle; Jonas Scheck and food columnist/feature writer Susie Iventosch.
L. Borrowman