Down the Hill...Around the Bend...and Over the Edge

In 2004, Shideler Harpe was described as a lovable curmudgeon who had worked in several metro newsrooms from New York City to Honolulu, spreading his personalgospel of fellowship and good cheer. (Almost all true, except the fellowship and good cheer part.) He also has dabbled in politics and public relations. All of this resulted in a handful of essays, short stories, great thoughts, infuriating opinion, and other interesting and important literary flotsam and jetsam gathered during more than sixty years in journalism, public relations, and politics. Harpe decided on a journalism career at age ten; World War II temporarily changed his plans when the Navy needed another radio operator. After the war, Harpe got back on track and eventually worked in every known category of editor, reporter, photographer, feature writer, and columnist. (He has filled in as society editor, and as a sports desk copy editor; neither reflects his best work and are not usually mentioned in his resume.) His prodigious output includes an anthology assembled in 2011, "People said, 'You oughta write a book!' So I did". Whoops! Oh, dear! It just wasn’t quite big enough to hold sixty years of intense, porn-free printed pleasure, so... what to do? Of course! Harpe has put together another great read! And here it is. He also has written two health-related books; tons of copy for newspapers and magazines; hundreds of speeches; radio and television scripts and commercials; scripts for glitzy awards programs and other special events, and has ghost-written national magazine articles attributed to names in medicine and health that you might recognize. Somehow, Harpe also found time to spend more than twenty years in public relations (a couple of years here, eighteen months there) and he has earned battle scars as media adviser for an elected official and two political campaigns. He also has won a few journalism awards — some prestigious, others not so much. Harpe now is a lovable, unemployed eighty-six-year-old curmudgeon, living in Sacramento, California, and dedicating his twilight years to providing financial assistance and spiritual guidance to wayward young ladies. He reports that it is difficult but rewarding work.