McKinleyville paparazzi

The life of a big-time newspaper publisher in McKinleyville is non-stop glamour and excitement.



For example, on Thursday I met Quinn Fry, cast member of season 3 of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County.” Quinn is a former Eureka resident and was in town to visit family. She’s 52 years old and, according to wikipedia, she’s portrayed on the show as a “cougar” who is casually seeing a 26 year old named Jared. I’ve never watched the show, but that sounds deliciously scandalous. Quinn, by the way, was a good sport, although somewhat confused at first because every time she asked me who I was, I told her that I was with the McKinleyville paparazzi.



That evening I met another star – Kimberly Rhode. While her name may not be familiar, her accomplishments are impressive. She’s an Olympic athlete who won two gold medals (1996, 2004) and a bronze (2000) for double trap. When the IOC removed women’s double trap after the Athen’s Games, Rhode switched to skeet. She compared the change in sport to an Olympic swimmer switching to diving. In this summer’s Beijing Olympics, she won the silver in skeet. She let me hold and closely inspect her medals, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. The silver medal from Beijing, with the jade inlay on the back, was by far the prettiest.

Also that evening I got to do something I’ve never done before – fire a shotgun several times. Paul McCartney was right – happiness is a warm gun.