G’day Knackers
Many of you will have come to know our website editor Stone Cold Steve Baker over the past couple of years, throughout 2014 in his pivotal role in our podcast, and throughout the 2015 footy season. He has been our head honcho, especially early in the week when things are busy, looking after the site himself, and helping our squad of volunteer assistants.
Steve has been terrific to work with. No doubt many of you have sorted out the publication of your pieces via email with Steve. He is generous and thorough – a couple of his many strengths.
Indeed, Steve has skills across so many areas – writing, editing, sound editing, video creation, podcasting – that the media company he and Emma Westwood have developed, Bakewood, needs more of his time, particularly blocks of his time.
So, disappointingly, we are losing him, but wish him (and Emma) all the very best. No doubt we will continue to enjoy their involvement in all things Almanac.
So, to you SCB, a personal thanks from me, and a big thank you from the whole Almanac community.
JTH
P.S. Life goes on. This leaves a crucial Almanac role open. And an opportunity to re-think how we get your words and images up on footyalmanac.com.au If you are interested in being involved in an editing role please let me know by email. We have a very open mind about how to do this. We could have one editor for five days, or just find a way to fill five editor-days. Five people? Three people? Whatever the approach it is fun and rewarding and unlikely to be like anything else you do. The only two criteria are that you can spell Hannebery and you like a challenge:
SCB on the job. Nice work if you can get it. (pic: Vaughan Menlove)
About John Harms
JTH is a writer, publisher, speaker, historian. He is publisher and contributing editor of The Footy Almanac and footyalmanac.com.au. He has written columns and features for numerous publications. His books include Confessions of a Thirteenth Man, Memoirs of a Mug Punter, Loose Men Everywhere, Play On, The Pearl: Steve Renouf's Story and Life As I Know It (with Michelle Payne). He appears (appeared?) on ABCTV's Offsiders. He can be contacted [email protected] He is married to The Handicapper and has three school-age kids - Theo, Anna, Evie. He might not be the worst putter in the world but he's in the worst four. His ambition was to lunch for Australia but it clashed with his other ambition - to shoot his age.
Played Old Mucker.
PJF
Steve to say I thank you for your patience,understanding and ability to decipher my dribble is a major understatement !
Such kind words – thank you, JTH – but you can’t get rid of us that easily. There will be the stink of Bakewood hanging over the Almanac for some time to come.
PS. You realise SCB is going to reduce the size of that image, don’t you? His bonce is big enough.
Bakes,
I will miss our regular Thursday e-mail banter.
Good luck, old mate.
Cheers
Smokie.
http://youtu.be/phLlo_t-z-U
Many thanks to SCB. Like Cooky before you,, sending the occasional email full of encouragement with positive comments was very much appreciated.
Actually you had me from the start when I read you were a Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fan.
Does a good job that Stone Cold
Not only have you got me to be a fan of this great website. You have me writing articles now. Well played sir, well played
Sensational year Bakes – well done and thanks.
Good onya Bakes
Well played SCB.
Thanks for your help always.
And ideas.
All the best with Bakewood.
Thanks for your good humour and kind & generous work SB. I really don’t know how you found the time.
SCB- thanks for your help and encouragement. Good luck with your future ventures, and we’ll get that Glenelg Tigers home game sorted!
Most people will do anything for a free round of farewell drinks, but putting a year at The Almanac editing desk is beyond the call of duty. Good luck to you and Emma in the new venture Steve. And thanks.
You’re a great man SCB – I have no idea how to spell Hannabury.
Good luck.
Bakes,
You done good. Podcasts were brilliant and you maintained your humour (and dignity) in the most turbulent 3 years of your club’s history. Hope we get a chance to kick the footy again soon. Kudos and thanks.
Welcome to the Mildly Gruntled Former Editors Club, Steve. The annual meeting is every Shrove Tuesday upstairs at the Hotel California. Ask for Gigs. The password is “look he’s not a bad bloke but”. We sit around and swap old Rulebookisms and watch losing Geelong finals on the big screen. At least we don’t have to bring the VCR any more. Cookie doesn’t stay long. About midnight we link arms and sing the club song:
“Relax said the nightman,
We are programmed to receive,
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave.”
Ahh JTH, you devil!
Thanks for the opportunity to get involved with the Almanac in a much more meaningful way that I ever thought I’d get the chance to. You, Ned and the other editors have been a huge support all year, and I can’t thank you blokes enough.
If anyone is reading this – and I think there’s a few – and you’re prepared to back yourself in to edit the site alongside John and Ned, I’d urge you to give it some serious thought. It’s challenging at times, no doubt but the support is immense and you’ll get so much out of it if you put in.
PJF: Your Stevie J yarn was definitely a highlight of the season. Thank YOU old mate. And you, Dips, J Dunne, JTH and the Geelong crew now don’t have to watch Chappy in the sash! Fair deal, I’d say?
Rulebook: Never stop having a crack.
Smokie: “The 1/9th was an old Cavalry division that traded in their horses for choppers and went tear-assing around ‘Nam looking for the shit. What they were cleaning up here hadn’t happened less than an hour ago…” I will miss those Thursday emails!
Swish: Yes mate, let’s just be glad we got to spend some time together.
Neil: SAY VANDERLAY INDUSTRIES! SAY VANDERLAY INDUSTRIES!!!! (And you want to be my latex salesman?)
Cookie: That Baker bloke could be anything if he got off the ink…
Dr Cruel: An Almanac success story, if ever there was one.
Ned: Ahh Ned. We’ll always have Crowdfunding!
Cowshedend: Thank you mate!
ER: Many thanks for championing all the Cricket Calls for Writers and keeping the faith of a Monday evening and Tuesday! Slante (sp?) yerself there big mun!
JD: Not a drama in the world. I think once we cracked the Rennie Ellis code, it was all smooth sailing!
Mickey: Absolutely still on. Go the Bays! And thanks for the kind words.
Wrapster: Thanks for the encouragement. Best farewell drinks I’ve ever had champion! Best of luck to Struggletown for 2016.
Phabulous Phil D: Looking forward to some kick-to kick again-very soon! I’ve been called many things, dignified isn’t necessarily one of them, so thanks!
PB: An elite group! I look forward to my hazing at the next meeting. An easy password to remember.
Dips: Don’t worry about D Hannabery, there’s BrendOn, not Brendan Goddard, Heritier Lumumba, the Kolodjashnij boys were a highlight. Mathew Stokes also brought a few people undone along the way too as did Heath and Brodie Grundy, believe it or not!
Best wishes Steve
Onya SCB and good luck with the ongoing adventures of Bakewood. Thanks for writing a piece just so I had something to edit on my first night on duty. There’ll be a Coopers of an appropriate temperature waiting for you at the Parade, anytime.
He was okay, let’s not over do it
For you Bakes:
Hey, man, you don’t talk to the Bakes. You listen to him. The man’s enlarged my mind. He’s a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he’ll… uh… well, you’ll say “hello” to him, right? And he’ll just walk right by you. He won’t even notice you. And suddenly he’ll grab you, and he’ll throw you in a corner, and he’ll say, “Do you know that ‘if’ is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you”… I mean I’m… no, I can’t… I’m a little man, I’m a little man, he’s… he’s a great man! I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas … The Bakes is not crazy. The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad.
Cheers
Steve.
Thanks for your assistance over the past while.
It’s a shame to lose you.
And thanks for that GF ticket email.
I really appreciated it.
Cheers
Bye Steve and Emma (from editing) and hello as fellow Almanackers with stories to tell. Was lovely working with you.
Yvette
Cheer cheer to the Bake and the Wood.
Bravo on promptness, titles and good good humour. Especially for being so kind to a Virgo hell bent on paragraph spacing. And remember Steve, Virgo is September!
Still hope to catch a hello when next in Melbs.
Grateful thanks Steve for your regular assistance to this journeyman scribe.
Best of luck to you and Emma for the continued success and expansion of Bakewood; 2015 the Alamanac, 2016 the world.
Thanks for your great help and editing my writing with warm emails, Steve. You have done wonderful jobs for us and are legend. I wish you and Emma all the best. Cheers – Yoshi
Steveo & Emma – you are always welcome at my campfire – Yeah dard!
And what ever Trucker Slim is on I want in……NOW.
Hey Bakes, it is no surprise that I echo everyone else’s sentiments. I wish you all the best with the next chapter in your life dedicating more time to your pride and joy, Bakewood. I’ve conveyed it to you many times before, but want to reiterate in a public forum, just how much you have made my debut into The Footy Almanac crew an absolute pleasure. I have really appreciated your kindness, patience, wicked sense of humour and consistent candour. I do hope we will once again meet up at a bar and share a beer (or three!) and talk footy, films and foreign climes. So lovely meeting the lovely Emma too who is an absolute delight : )
Saintly regards, J-Mew