Since the Spy started twelve years ago, I’ve been profoundly humbled by the number of gifted writers who have generously contributed their talents to this nonprofit education-driven news portal. Their articles, columns, and essays have been extraordinary gifts to the Mid-Shore community in understanding and enjoying the public affairs, arts, and culture of this remarkable region.
With that in mind, I want to draw special attention to today’s Saturday feature, entitled “Statues and Fields” by Neil King, Jr. After a distinguished tenure as the Wall Street Journal’s foreign affairs editor, the new Eastern Shore resident shares his impressions on Frederick Douglass’s legacy, slavery, and the Mid-Shore’s unique landscapes that are part of that narrative. It is a masterful piece of writing.
Working in tandem with Neil is the stunning photography of Jeff McGuiness. After a career practising law in Washington, D.C., Jeff has now returned to his first love of taking pictures after retiring to St. Michaels. And through an unique moment of serendipity, Jeff found himself teaming up with his new neighbour Neil in what I hope will be the first of several collaborations.
To complement this team effort, the Spy has designed an entirely new format to present such stellar work. Devoid of ads and other possible distractions, our new Saturday feature column has been created with larger fonts, sharper images, and more generous white space to match this powerful long-form content. I think you’ll enjoy this new approach.
In other news, it is with mixed emotions that the Spy acknowledges this month our first anniversary of covering the COVID pandemic on the Mid-Shore. While it is affirming to note the unprecedented increase of readers who turned to the Spy for our daily corona-related news and data, it can in no way replace the pain and financial hardship caused by this devastating health crisis. I would once again like to thank the Spy’s public affairs editor, John Griep, for his steadfast commitment in covering this complicated story from its earliest beginning on the Shore to the present with such selfless dedication. The entire Spy community will be forever grateful for his reporting.
March also marks the beginning of the Spy’s spring appeal to readers. I will need to apologize in advance for the inevitable “pop up” ads and email solicitations that come with this kind of campaign. But at the same time, it is important for the Spy to periodically remind our growing audience that we do indeed need modest support from its friends to keep this mission going.
Our campaign starts in earnest next week but for those motivated to support the campaign now, please use this link for an electronic donation or personal checks can be sent to The Talbot Spy, c/o MSCF, 102 East Dover Street, Easton, MD 21601
Dave Wheelan
Publisher
Frank Carollo says
Dave — Thank you for all your great work with the Spy and for publishing that WONDERFUL essay with photos by Neil King and Jeff McGuiness… and LOVE the impressive new format for Saturday features like this. Great effort all around!
Keep up the good work and my check will be in the mail provide some tangible support.
Fernando Gaitan says
Mr. Whelan,
Thank you for your dedication to the Talbot Spy, a great resource for the community. The Neil King, Jr. essay, wonderfully supplemented by Jeff McGuiness’s black and white photographs, was among the absolute best writing I have read in The Spy. I encourage other readers to support financially such a fine medium for community engagement.
Sincerely,
Fernando Gaitán
Jim Richardson says
Kudos to you, John Griep, and The Talbot Spy for all the wonderful stories over the years. Your platform has continually provided the readers on the Eastern Shore information about many important issues that affect us especially Covid-19.
Neil King Jr.’s essay along with Jeff McGuinness’s photographs in today’s Spy is just another example of the fine journalism we have all come to expect in the Spy. I am truly grateful.
Nancy Sajda says
Dave Wheelan,
Congratulations on the the quality of work published in The Spy. I read it every day. I was blown away today by the extraordinary writing of Neil King and the fine photography of Jeff McGuiness.. The piece was so well written and so moving that I’m going back to read it again.
Really fine journalism. Thank you. I will send a donation.
Nancy Sajda
NeiK King says
Dave,
Every now and then a few people get together and do something fun and meaningful, the sort of thing they are proud of years later when sitting beside a fire.
We did that together over the past couple weeks with this piwxw, and for that I give you thanks for seeing the promise in it, and moving a few mountains to make it happen.
All best,
Neil King
Hugh (Jock) Beebe says
As the Talbot Spy publishes the superb essay by Neil King, Jr. it demonstrates its leadership position in creating contemporary journalism’s successful adaptation to the realities imposed by our dynamic culture. The stress of accelerated change in so many aspects of daily life tends to fray the linkage to a stable connection with our past, thus making difficult sustaining a reasoned perspective on what’s going on all around us.
The piece by Neil King, Jr. is a beacon of light indicating how we can both engage the chaotic present and keep some of our history, thus achieving a sense of balance. The Spy provides strong support to a reasoned perspective on day to day life by attracting an increasing array of thoughtful contributors of the highest quality. And the Spy’s way of confronting modern challenges to journalism seems to show the kind of basic principle at work we could all hope to see – Nothing Succeeds Like Success.
As you expand and enhance the superior quality of your publication, may your momentum continue to rise. Thank you.
Eva M. Smorzaniuk, M.D. says
Dave, thank you for nurturing this labor of love, and know that it is valued among many of us in the community. The Spy supplies not only a calendar of cultural venues, a forum for debate and dialogue, and information on the gems in our community, but also a venue for some incredible and insightful writing. I echo another reader’s sentiment when I say that I was blown away by the essay by Neil King. I’ve read it twice now, something I rarely do. It is deeply and quietly moving. Agree with Mr. King – I wish the blood-soaked fields could speak, or that the oral tradition of story telling existed in our county!