Thank You, Lenny Ackerman

Editor,

I want to publicly thank "Here Back East" columnist Lenny Ackerman for his contributions to the Mountain Messenger, both journalistic and financial. I admit that it took me many months to warm to the idea of reading Lenny's column regularly. He seldom wrote about Sierra County, and he and I seemed to have little in common. I don't summer in The Hamptons. Or Maine. Or winter in Florida. And I don't fish. But Lenny's amusing account of a conversation with a group of women tennis players in Florida who lived in Long Island and knew of a good attorney who turned out to be Lenny himself made me a regular reader.

I understand that Lenny funded the Mountain Messenger's summer internship that was staffed by Ryan Steinwert. Clearly, that was a good investment. It allowed Ryan to fill in for Editor Carl Butz when extra help was most needed, and to demonstrate his qualifications to be promoted to the position of the Mountain Messenger's 28th editor a few short months later. Thank you, Lenny. Sierra County is lucky to have you as a friend.

Betsy Mathieson

Sierra City