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Melissa Hale-Spencer — the Golden Dozen of editorial writing
Melissa Hale-Spencer loves taking her dog on miles-long walks at the foot of the Helderberg escarpment where she lives. The longtime editor of The Altamont Enterprise, Hale-Spencer has, for the 10th time, been recognized among the best opinion writers in the weekly press. The Golden Dozen awards were announced recently by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. In the society’s annual contest, opinion writers are judged for their editorial skills and courage, with the best of the top dozen winning the Golden Quill award. Hale-Spencer learned to write from her father, a lifelong newspaperman. She took her first reporting job when her parents called on her to help at their Adirondack weekly, The Lake Placid News, in 1975, where her future husband, Gary Spencer, also began a career in journalism. Hale-Spencer started writing for The Enterprise as a young mother of two daughters in the 1980s. In this week’s podcast, she talks to co-publisher Marcello Iaia about the joys and challenges of being a weekly newspaper editor.
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Daughter and mother coach dragon-boat paddlers
31:33|Anna Judge and Louisa Matthew realize they live in an ageist and sexist society — but, with generous spirits, they are paddling against the current. The mother-daughter duo together coach a crew of dragon boat paddlers. Matthew, the mother, is an art professor at Union College. Judge, her daughter, is a certified personal trainer who led her mother into the sport. “A dragon boat is a 40-foot long, very narrow racing boat,” explains Matthew in this week’s Enterprise podcast. “That became standardized in the 20th Century but it’s based on a thousands-year-old Chinese tradition of racing the big rivers in China.” A dragon boat has 20 paddlers, two to a seat, with a person in the stern who steers and a person in the bow signaling directions, traditionally by drumming. “It’s the national sport of China,” said Judge “so it’s quite big in Asia and has subsequently spread to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.” It came to the United States through Canada, she said, citing the work of a doctor in British Columbia who changed prevailing medical opinion on exercise for breast-cancer survivors.
Angelica Sofia Parker and Elca Hubbard prepare for a pageant while supporting each other
27:03|https://altamontenterprise.com/07242023/angelica-sofia-parker-and-elca-hubbard-prepare-pageant-while-supporting-each-other
