Mike Miner's Gift

Sad news out of Chicago--the great Mike Miner, writer/edit for the Reader, died the other day. Age 81--natural causes.

He had a fascinating life. Navy veteran.  Former Sun-Times reporter. Dispatched stories from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. Devoted husband and father. If you want more details, I urge you to read Mitch Dudek's obituary in the Sun-Times.

I knew him as the humble and wise, soft-spoken man, who, from time to time, was given the dubious honor of editing my copy.

Over the years, we must have had hundreds of conversations. Generally, over the phone.

He knew a lot about a lot of things. So we had a lot to talk about. But Mike was also one of those guys who was unafraid to say nothing at all. Just let the silence sit there. Must have been an effective tactic in an interview. Some folks will keep on talking--spilling their guts--to fill that space.

For years, he wrote Hot Type, a Reader column that held reporters, columnists and editors accountable for their articles and columns. Or as Dudek put it: "Mr. Miner pondered such topics as hypocritical columnists, biases, bad grammar and questionable editorial takes."

As an editor, he was precise and exacting. Every detail counted--every error had to be corrected.

Mike was was as much the Reader as those yellow newsboxes...

We spent hours poring over details in long and detailed stories, checking statistics, names, dates. Details, details, details. Including some that seemed less than significant. And here I’m thinking of a profile in which I mentioned, in passing, the food served at a fundraiser.

Mike gave me a call after I thought we were done with the edits.

"You mentioned they had ham and cheese sandwiches at the fundraiser," he began.

"Yes..."

"Was that ham-and-cheese sandwiches, like the ham and cheese were on the same slice of bread? Or was it separate ham and separate cheese sandwiches?"

Pause, as I took it in. My first thought being--thank goodness for Mike. Cause in a million years I wouldn't have thought about this distinction.

Then I saw his point. I hadn't put in hyphens. So what he was really asking was whether there should be hyphens between ham, and, cheese. If so, the sandwiches were the former. If not, the latter. And if it was the former we had to add the hyphens. Or it would be wrong. And we can't have that.

So I launched into my explanation...

"Okay, the cheese and the ham were on the same piece of bread. Actually, it was a little roll. So, yes, there should be a hyphen cause it's a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Of course, there's nothing to stop you from taking the ham or the cheese off the roll, in which case you'd have separate ham and separate cheese sandwiches."

What followed was a classic Mike Miner moment of silence. Then he said...

"Let’s go with the hyphens."

Excellent choice. Error corrected--once again.

RIP, Mike. I was lucky to have you as an editor.