Si Se Puede! Yes I Can! -- Leave The Star and Go Hollywood!

We said goodbye to page designer Nick Martinez on Friday. "Mr. Hollywood" is off to Variety, where he'll be a graphic designer. He bragged about how he'll get the opportunity to go to Cannes. (What graphics need to be produced there?)

John Moore told the story about how young Nick would come into his office with his Page 1 designs, which sometimes were a little bit different, and after John expressed some concern about whether the page would work, Nick just stood there ... and stood there, until John would sign off on the idea.

In the photo here, I caught Nick bringing one of his arms down and it looked so much like "Si Se Puede!" I couldn't help but use that as the headline.

Good luck, Nick! We'll miss you. Adios! Power to the Hollywood People!

A Female Editor Speaks

I came across a blog called "Editrix." It's self-described as "A blog for editors, editors at heart, and anyone else who thinks grammar is hot."

It has two features I thought you might be interested in. The first is a new one for the site -- "(Least) Favorite Mistake" -- in which editors are asked what their most embarrassing mistake is. One copy editor tells her embarrassing tale when she didn't follow her own advice: that everyone needs an editor -- even an editor. You can read about it here.

The second feature is called "5 Questions With..." in which authors, editors and other journalists are asked the same five questions, such as "What punctuation mark are you fondest of?" and "If you weren't in your current line of work, what would you be doing instead?" You can find a few of the interviews here, and the rest of the interviewees are listed here.

Now it's your turn. Why don't you send me your answer to one of these questions, and I'll publish the responses. The question:

"If you weren't in your current line of work, what would you be doing instead?"

Please send me your responses. Thanks.

Welcome to the Universal Desk, Karen!

We have a new editor on the Universal Desk, Karen Gindick. Here's John's April 14 e-mail:

Subject: Karen Gindick

We are happy to announce that Karen Gindick has joined the newsroom as a copy editor.

Karen comes to us from the Los Angeles Daily News where she has held a number of positions during her tenure, including copy editor, copy desk chief, opinion page editor, wire editor, designer and assistant news editor.

She also taught editing, headline writing and design at USC. We are thrilled to have Karen join our desk.

She started today, so if you get a moment please go by and introduce yourself and welcome her to The Star.

John