News-Record.com

Unlike most journalists I know, you would be hard-pressed to find much journalistic memorabilia or accoutrement in my house. That's pretty much because of my wife's good taste in home decor rather than any lack of stuff. It's a character trait that we're pack rats, and my newspaper junk has been relegated to one room away from the primarily traveled areas, which is fine because I use the word junk precisely.

But it's Christmas and it's important to help people stock their lists for Santa. Christine Tatum, once a N&R reporter and past prez of the Society of Professional Journalists, lends a hand.

I love Christine, but I'm wondering about my judgment when I read that the first thing she'd save in a house fire is her vase made of recycled paper, followed closely by her 1936 copy of Fortune. But to each her own.

I must say that retired publisher Van King has a working News & Record newspaper rack, refurbished to a high sheen, in his house that, oddly, doesn't look out of place.