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Following is a very fine reflection from Indianapolis Star features writer and editor Christopher Lloyd, who got canned Wednesday. It appeared first on Gannettblog.

After beiing contacted about running his words again, Chris noted, "...full disclosure requires me to state that my first reaction to getting the axe was not quite as measured (as what follows). I'd just been talking with Abe (Aamidor) about how they're handling it, and he said they're calling people up to HR. Not 10 minutes later, my phone rang with the ring that tells you it's an inter-office call. For about two seconds I thought about not answering it, but I did. A friendly voice asked me if I could 'pop up to the 6th floor for a few minutes.' I said sure, then hung up the phone. Then I loudly shouted, "###%*....they got me."

Here is what Chris said on G-blog:

"I walked in the door home a few minutes ago, kissed my wife, and since I don't know what else to do but be a journalist, I'll report:The bosses at the Indy Star are handling it fairly well, compared to some other shops. No bum's rush out the door or anything. Handshakes, pleasantries, all that. Take your time gathering your things.The first few minutes after you get back from HR on the 6th floor are interesting. Everyone can see the gray folder in your hand, and some people start avoiding eye contact. Most, though, soon approach and offer their condolences. Not a few hugs are exchanged.

"Our theater and c

Another excellent personYesterday

This just in:

"Jane Rose, 16-year employee in the advertising department...gone. (from the Indianapolis Star) She and her husband also run the Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue Group and hers was their sole income. She took it very hard. At least she got some good puppy lovin' when she got home at 9am yesterday."

Jane is a very bright woman, always optimistic, always well-informed, friendly and thoughtful. Her husband also has a lot on the ball.

Obviously, this has gotta hurt like hell.

Did everyone read Doonesbury a couple days ago, the panel about the sweet-faced woman who had just been informed she was being pink-slipped? Then some jerk from HR or management scolds her for crying at her terminal, upsetting the other employees....then comes the security guys. "Don't worry; they'll take good care of you," says the dour management type.

It's not funny when art imitates life, and life borders on the tragic and the absurd.

Another lossYesterday

http://einkling.wordpress.com/

Jordan David, a page designer at the Star, and "a nice guy," says a friend, also was let go by Gannett Wednesday. We all wish him the best as well.

Some of us are still reeling over the huge loss taken by features. Abe Aamidor, Susan Guyett, Whitney Smith and Chris Lloyd are all very talented writers. Features copy editor Ellen McKinney is knowledgeable, precise and methodical, the sort of human glue that holds a newspaper together.

Clearly, the message from management at the Star is that the paper does not value its features section.

Aamidor and McKinney, longtime employees, both volunteered to leave.

Here is a note from Aamidor, president of the Guild, posted on the Guild's website:

“Folks - I’ve made a conscious, even calculating step to move in other directions in my life. Time will tell if I made the right decision, as it always does. For those of you who remain - the Guild is important. We have had many small victories in recent years, protecting individual rights and pay, keeping some people from being fired, standing up to a move toward advertorials in 2006, and more. Right now we feel the company is stepping on seniority, and we have a binding arbitration in progress over the previous round of layoffs. We expect to move quickly to add the current round to the arbitration, which the International tells us can be done. But

Jesus, Betty!Yesterday

A "very liberal" friend called last night with the news that Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics are offering gift certificates for the holidays, including ones that can be used to purchase abortions.

According to the Chicago Tribune, "Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, characterizes the response to the gift certificates as 'pretty robust, and generally very favorable.'"

ABC News, and other outlets, quoted her as saying the certificates are practical in times of expensive health care.

This is the same Betty Cockrum who once told me what a bad idea it was for the New York chapters of PP to sell "I HAD AN ABORTION" T-shirts. That would never play in the Midwest, she indicated.

What on earth are they thinking now?

There is no question, in my mind, that pro-life people are going to have to come to terms with the legal reality of abortion, a fact of life in the U.S. since 1973 and more "solid" than ever with Obama as president elect.

But the new mood is compromise: conservatives and liberals are beginning to see the merits of working together to reduce the number of abortions through education and safe-sex initiatives. One could see that coming a few years ago, when Hillary Clinton herself gave a speech, lamenting the numbers of abortions....

So why Cockrum would initiate such an in-your-face gimmick, during the Christmas season yet, shows a complete lack of understand

Alice Waters: the secret is lettuceDecember 3

Thanks to my friend Susan Gillie, a food blogger and excellent cook, I was exposed to a little culture last night in the form of Alice Waters, speaking to a packed house at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Waters is the onetime young woman from Berkeley, Calif. (and all that entails) who went to France in the 1960s, where she had her taste buds awakened. Then she went back to the West Coast and opened a now-famous restaurant, Chez Panisse, specializing in fresh local food.

Now she's the grande dame of the slow food movement, which simply means she believes food should be good and "fair" and prepared with loving care.

So where did the tiny Ms. Waters herself dine yesterday in Indy -- a city, she pointed out, where 75 percent of the restaurants are chains?

She ate at the museum's Puck's restaurant, for the sake of convenience, but it was not exactly the experience we'd all wished for her, according to the masterful and friendly Chef Thom England of Ivy Tech College. He was among a group of local chefs and cooks who spent time with her Tuesday.

"She asked the waiter for a road map (after studying the menu) and he could not answer her," explained England. By a road map, England meant Waters always wants to know where food comes from, including meat, etc. Since her entire emphasis is on locally produced food, and she didn't get much satisfaction from Puck's, she ordered a salad.

"She ate lettuce," said Englan