Ode to a Kathy
On her retirement in 2011
Regarding Kathy Johansen, the facts are empirical:
Wise in a head that’s so smart and so… spherical,
Plus in a heart that is loving and lyrical
Dwelleth such service that’s been stratospherical,
Truly she must be a bindery prep miracle.
How can a fascicle person so thin
Fit those multiple volumes of wisdom and goodness within?
Perhaps it’s the mucilage binding, collegial strong glue,
Or maybe the spine that is straight, strong and true.
So with rhythm dactylic, we state she’s idyllic
And bibliophilic:
Methodical
With each periodical,
Imperial
In her command of the serial,
Guiding the users to bits and to particles
Which they were seeking in journal-type articles.
Plus in her spare time, she’s dabbled in management,
Yet now she's condemned herself to… some form of banishment,
For she’s retiring and leaving us all in the lurch:
We shall need a committee to make a tough search
For someone
Who works just like her,
But it cannot be done...
That’s for sure.
She’ll have nothing to do now but digital scrapbooking,
Or kitchen-grade chemical skills in some great gourmet cooking
Or pleasing the palate with carbs and with sugar through baking,
Or sewing or quilting or jewelry making.*
She will tend all the plants in her garden,
Granting insects not one bit of pardon.
She might even have time, and might have that time amply
To spend with her family.
Yes, let us not dance
All about the hip-happy happenstance
That Kathy Johansen excels so handsomely well --
Maybe it's time now that she can just… rest for a spell?
By Dick Hacken
July 29, 2011
* These are all Boolean “ors”…