The Peter Millerites mark their first anniversary, and yield a great anecdote for Hack

We met last night, same time, same place, one year later, and had another rollicking and serious and thoughtful and hilarious good time.

(The picture is from our inaugural meeting, last August, but trust me, we haven't none of us changed a whit.)

All four of us worked together at the newspaper back in the day. (Could it really have been only nine months you were there, Kristi? Unfathomable. A lifelong friendship, forged in nine months.)

Anne (far right) was the features editor, and Kristi (far left) was the features reporter. P.Miller and I, as you already know, were rimrats on the copy desk. Last night we were talking about the summer when the News-Tribune boldly changed its policy on women--no more "Mrs." followed by a man's name, no more descriptions of petite or attractive or grandmotherly, no more terms like "authoress" or "lady doctor" (or "male nurse"), no more Chairman and Chairwoman. From that day on, committee heads would be known, simply, as Chair.

This reminded Kristi of the infamous cutline that Anne had her write, back in the day. A Junior League photo, I think she said it was, of a bunch of various committee women. The cutline explained their duties: There was the entertainment chair, and the refreshment chair, and the dining room chair.

Ah, Kristi, you should be writing Hack. Your memory is so much better than mine. And since you were only there for nine months, as opposed to my eighteen years, the book would be so much shorter. You'd have no trouble at all hitting that Aug. 1, 2009, deadline.