By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – After we all were settled at our patio table at the Apollonia restaurant in the Costa Verde Shopping Center on Saturday night, Laura Simon reached into her purse and distributed three copies of a letter she had received from Bridgette C. Jenkins, head of the U.S. Monographs Section of the Library of Congress.
The letter informed Simon that her book, I’m Still Here, had been “selected for addition to the Library’s General Collections, and was assigned Library of Congress control number 2010681389.”
Simon said as thrilling as the news was, even more exciting was a morsel of information librarians had shared with her. She has the distinction of being the oldest living author represented in the Library of Congress’s collection.
Simon is 105, and is looking forward to her next birthday on Thanksgiving Day.
Among those sharing Greek dinner with Simon were Joanne Faryon and Natalie Walsh, who had some good news of their own to share: at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 26, KPBS will debut “Evening Edition,” a new half-hour news show that Faryon will anchor. The show falls under the watchful supervision of Walsh, senior news producer for KPBS.
Over dinner, the KPBS colleagues told us that “Evening Edition” will resemble the national PBS News Hour, which formerly was known as The MacNeil-Lehrer Report after broadcasters Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil. Faryon said that in the first five minutes of the broadcast, top stories affecting San Diego each day will be reprised, and the rest of the broadcast will be given over to in-depth reporting.
She said that whereas news media in San Diego often take their cues from political officeholders by reporting as news whatever subject the officeholders feel like discussing at a news conference, KPBS will try to take a different tack.
Through social media and informal surveys, she said, the public broadcast station will attempt to assess what San Diegans consider to be the most pressing issues, and use the opportunity of the news conferences to ask public officials not only about their chosen subjects but public-generated topics as well.
Faryon and Walsh said KPBS has the resources and the talent to bring deeper and more intellectual analysis of the news than is presently being offered by local stations. She said other stations seem to be addicted to covering many stories in rapid fire formats, rather than cover a few in depth.
Simon was one of the featured interviewees in the documentary, Over 90 and Loving It by Susan Polis Schutz that had a special showing in April at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. That showing, to which senior citizens from residential homes throughout the area were invited, was emceed by Faryon. KPBS later broadcast the documentary.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
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I just spoke with Laura Simon on the phone per Don Harrison’s connection. She is a delightful lady and I look forward to reading her book.