h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cynthia Jacobsen was my favourite editor at The Sentinel, a daily newspaper in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

She cared passionately about the craft of writing. And if you mangled a sentence and she knew you could do better, you could be sure she would be waiting for you after deadline to talk about it. Cynthia was our resident grammarian, and while she had forsaken teaching, she was an exacting teacher to our reporters who cared to learn or wanted to improve.

Even after her diagnosis of cancer she came to work and did her job. She died on a cold Thursday morning in January 1998.

She helped make me a better writer because of her passion. She taught me that every story is worth telling.

But she was passionate about life as well. She loved the great outdoors and horses and the theatre and art. She loved to act and was in seventh heaven when she directed the one-act play, 'The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon's Marigolds.' When my first daughter was born, she was excited and gave us a wonderful bedtime storybook that we still read.

My daughter once asked me who the inscription was from and I told her, 'a wonderful lady named Cynthia' and that I think sums her up best.

- X

Many thanks for sharing that, Jimi.

Thank you for this brilliant idea JTG. I think when this goes into the Post, you'll be flooded with updating.

- X