Tim Menees

After being unceremoniously fired by the Post-Gazette, longtime editorial cartoonist Tim Menees is given a chance to say goodbye:

I got the news on a Wednesday night, the first day of February. Editorial Page Editor Tom Waseleski called. He had wanted to break the news in person. "I'm giving you a heads up," he said. "They're cutting your job."

What?

The Post-Gazette had to make some serious budget cuts, and I was one. My last day was Friday, Feb. 3, my son's birthday, the date Buddy Holly died. I felt as if I had crashed in a cornfield. But as I cleaned out my office over Super Bowl weekend, I decided I (a) could curl up behind the couch or (b) get on with it. If I chose (a), my wife, Kay, would chuck me out of the house. So I got on with it.

[...]

I am a volunteer teaching one-act play writing at, yes, a state prison. I told the men about losing my job. I also said I was on the dole and taking up a collection after class, and they could contribute in cigarettes.

I was kidding about the collection, and they knew it. Losing your job is no joke. It turns your life all cockeyed. But if you also lose your sense of humor, you're dead.

Kay and I are doing fine. To those who ask what I am doing, I simply say: "Everything."

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