for 25 years I published a newspaper
The Empty Nest News Letter it went
first to family but its popularity
caused the mailing list to grow to
200 its masthead featured a bird  
with empty nest later she preened
the current news there was always
a bird quote commenting on the
contents (“hail to thee blithe spirit
bird thou never wert”—shelley) and
copying  NY Times motto “all the news
that’s fit to print” Empty Nest’s was
“Something to Offend Everybody”
the first year anniversary editorial  
quoted this motto and told readers if
they were not yet offended to notify the
editor and she would see that this was
rectified ENNL once printed a space-
filling snippet that got a lot of response:  
“Cousin Paul got run over by a motorcycle  
on an escalator in Germany” wow did
the mail pour in demanding details

2018 Jacqueline Jackson