A private tour of the Washington Post, thanks to my old buddy "Perk"

After not seeing him for 30 years, my family and I got to see Jon Perkins, one of my old ISU Vidette colleagues, at the Washington Post. Jon is a copy editor for the newspaper, and he gave us a VIP tour of the newsroom. While showing us around, Jon showed us Bob Woodward's office and told my daughters, Kate and Jen, and my son, Pete, how the Watergate journalist and assistant managing editor would still work as a night editor every weekend. "He'd pulled out $200 and tell one of the interns to get a bunch of ice cream for the staff," he said.


I wish that Jon and I could have connected this time to catch up, but he was heading out of town to speak to other journalists on editing. He tells me that I have a standing invite to play some poker if I back in Washington for business. All I need is a 12-pack of beer.

Afternote: How times have changed. My two daughters have not heard much about Watergate and Woodward's role in exposing the Republican party's decision to find files in the Democratic offices. So, I am buying a copy of Woodward's and Carl Bernstein's "All the President's Men" for them to understand the significance of Woodward's role in this story.