After The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle combined staffs long ago, employees were supposed to identify themselves as representatives of both papers.

That's fine, in theory. But if you are making a bunch of phone calls, it gets to be a bit of a mouthful. So sometimes I just said I was with The Spokesman-Review.

Well, once in the late 1980s, I happened to call a woman named Hazel Barnes. Before retiring, she had written for the Chron for something like 30 years. I don't remember why I phoned her. But I do recall that I just said my name and that I was from the S-R.

I remember that because she stopped me right there and inquired about my failure to mention the Chronicle when identifying myself. She was nice about it. But she was insistent that the Chronicle needed to be acknowledged.

I doubt that I changed my ways. Still, after all this time, I remember her loyalty to the evening paper.

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