and the verdict is....

I still don't know. After a crackin' interview and try-out, they seemed high on me. But they asked to see my last performance review, which was less-than-stellar. I didn't have to show it to them, but I didn't want to lie and weasel out of it. With newspaper acquisitions being what they are, you never know what chain you're going to end up working for and I don't want to lie on an application. Of course, as the Judith Miller debacle at the NYT shows, it's OK after you get hired. So, they've been rechecking references for the past day, and my references have all told me they've tried to put the potential employer at ease.

However, the stockholders of the company that owns the paper have been complaining about its drop in profits (larger papers in the chain have faced lay-offs). This scuttlebutt has been getting louder in the past two days. What that means for job offers, I don't know.

Actually, I enjoyed the experience. I like that they liked me and liked my clips, and that has encouraged me to keep plugging away at trying to work for a version of The Man closer to a metropolitan area and with a larger circulation. At least for a wee bit longer than I had been planning.