The week began with us wondering if a handshake is inflammatory.
We were discussing the cover, which Art Director Zeke Barbaro had originally designed for our Election issue – a let s get to work, cautiously optimistic illustration of totems of democracy being rebuilt. Regular readers will recall that we landed instead on an apocalyptic image for that first cover in November – a picture of ruin that anticipated Trump and his faithfuls apparent determination to reduce America to rubble.
Leading up to the inauguration, we dusted off Zeke s discarded cover, thinking,
now – now is the time we get to be cautiously optimistic! And then rioters laid waste to the U.S. Capitol, egged on by the president, his allies, and a political machine that s been piping toxic lies about a stolen election into the air ducts for months. They shattered glass, ransacked offices, smeared shit on the walls. As repair work began on the Capitol building, our cover s figurative concept –
“I went over to meet her, and I couldn’t hear a word she said, but she seemed nice!” Those words, or variations of such, resounded like a jukebox favorite at Ginny’s Little Longhorn. As owner and proprietor 1993-2013, Ginny Taylor Kalmbach, who passed away on Wed., Dec. 30, 2020, rarely spoke above a few decibels. Ginny’s regulars circa 2002-2003, cheers: (l-r) Terry Gaona, Steph Swope, Will White, Ginny Kalmbach, Roger Wallace, Satomi Chiba Neil, Shannon Johnston, Keith Crippen (Photo by Cynthia Coffey)
Ginny wasn’t unfriendly or shy. She was funny, generous, kind, and many other things to many other people. One thing she definitely was at Ginny’s Little Longhorn: in charge. Ginny didn’t speak loud because she didn’t have to. That, and she wasn’t the type to shout – even over the din of a Saturday night honky-tonk band at full throttle.