Strangely Dim: Hacked!
If you weren't there, let me be the forty-fifth person to tell you that at the IVP Christmas party (at the well air-conditioned Lindner Center on the campus of Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois), in the middle of an improv performance, our publisher, Bob Fryling, was asked what he looked forward to every morning when he came into the office. He jokingly (Ha! Ha!) said he liked to ghost-write Strangely Dim for me, lowly editor Dave Zimmerman (can you imagine the temerity?). People laughed, but I was plotting revenge. So I would like to turn the tables and let you know what I would look forward to if I had Bob's job. Take this, Fryling!
First of all, I would require that all IVP employees bring action figures to work so that we could compare our favorites between coffee breaks.
Next, I would put Dave Zimmerman's (that's me, in case you've lost track of who is really in charge here!) desk in the middle of the IVP bookstore. This would save him valuable time in having to walk up front to meet authors and apologize to them for having to wear visitor name tags. Authors would also be impressed with how many books he has in his office library. At Christmastime we could relocate the Christmas tree to his current office and take turns squeezing in to sing Christmas carols in groups of six--which would be a sextet and about as racy as we get around here.
I would further require everyone to carry their pencils over their left ears as an expression of action orientation (always ready to strike an ill-construed gerund) and a long overdue recognition of Dave Zimmerman's (still me) pervasive influence in the office.
Finally, I would tell the world how much Dave means to our office culture. His hard work, unique sense of humor and love for organizational structure (you and I know better, but Bob doesn't, and in case he reads this blog I want him to think that I do, in fact, love organizational structure) are legendary at IVP--sort of like the blue chair room. Maybe we could even put the black chair in the blue chair room into Dave's office to keep all of our icons together! If you like this blog just hum the eighth verse of "Awake, My Soul" (hint: it has a doxological feel to it; if you don't get the hint, you have missed too many office meetings!) and tell Dave you really liked his latest blog.
The Boss (but you really know who this is)
P.S. Don't forget to wear your pencil over your left ear next Friday!
***
This post was written not by Lisa, Suanne, Rebecca or Dave, but by the ultimate doppelganger, Bob Fryling--publisher of InterVarsity Press and apparent weekend hacker. We apologize for the extra-meta nature of this post and for the sextet joke.
Posted by Dave Zimmerman
at December 11, 2011 8:12 AM
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