Today was Wayne Woodlief’s last day at the Herald. His goodbye ceremony -- held in the center of the newsroom, with the usual cake and (I hear) unusually good champagne -- drew real emotion, stirred in part by an effusive speech by editor Andy Costello. More telling is that the sadness bled through even when the speeches were upbeat.
For some, this means reading the Herald commentary page will be filled with even more reasons to mutter “What the hell?” But Woodlief will still be writing, just less frequently, and from home.
Listening to the speeches, full of accolades for Woodlief the man and the pundit, and seeing the hug between Woodlief and Costello afterward, left a dark tang when the champagne-in-Styrofoam drained away. At one point, Woodlief looked at his cluttered, cartoon-plastered workspace and said to a well-wisher, with bitterness barely masked by his gentle nature, “They won’t let me work at it. They probably don’t want me to sue if it falls on me or something.”
By the end of the sentence, he’d managed to smile.
One couldn’t help wondering, given the affection and respect of the send-off, why this had to happen. The fear is that, ultimately, the courtly and reasoned voice of Woodlief is not how the Herald wants to speak.
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