Farewell To The Rocky

Like a faithful old dog, TheEye wishes to mourn the passing of a long-time friend. Three days ago the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News gave one last update of the happenings of Denver.

TheEye is much like The Croydonian...a connisewer of obscure overseas jottings and actually had this paper on the regular-read list.

The paper shut down just 55 days before its 150th birthday.

The final front page begins:

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to you today. Our time chronicling the life of Denver and Colorado, the nation and the world, is over. Thousands of men and women have worked at this newspaper since William Byers produced its first edition on the banks of Cherry Creek on April 23, 1859. We speak, we believe, for all of them, when we say that it has been an honor to serve you....

....We hope Coloradans will remember this newspaper fondly from generation to generation, a reminder of Denver’s history – the ambitions, foibles and virtues of its settlers and those who followed. We are confident that you will build on their dreams and find new ways to tell your story. Farewell – and thank you for so many memorable years together.

It may seem like an odd thing to blog about, but do read the full editorial. It's somehow very odd and sad to read the self-composed obituary of a 150 year old newspaper. Okay so who knows if they all might have been a bunch of child-molesting wife-beating scumbags or worse - maybe even builders (okay, that going too far, sorry) but that didn't make their previous scribblings anything less than top notch.

RIP The Rocky. Sadly that's one bookmark to delete.