When Jack Mayne walked into my office a while back he looked like he had something sticking out of his ear, so I asked him if he had been hit by a falling fir tree during the recent storm and did it enable him to hear the tree bark?

Or is that just a twig under his wig?

The eerie thing is a gizmo called a Bluetooth headset that allows him to drive a car and get cell phone calls while driving or while eating, bathing or shaving.

Jack is editor of both the West Seattle Herald and the Ballard News-Tribune so he gets a lot of phone calls from people mad at him. He is a moving target. Pretty smart.

Your editor went to school in San Francisco and worked for newspapers in Canada, Bellingham, Arizona, Hong Kong, and was editor of the Valley Daily News in Kent. And that is just a partial list.

He claims blue blood and says he loves working in the noblest of all professions. What better way to stay useful and valuable to the communities he serves?

He admits he could have retired years ago but is working harder than he did as city editor for the Seattle P-I and loving it more.

The picture of his profile shows his high-tech hearing aid and a rather grim visage. It does not do him justice. He is quite jocular, a great smile and somewhat cerebral as an editor must be. He is double serious about his chosen profession.

I don't care if he chooses to wear a banana in his ear or a ring in his belly button. Just as long as he answers the phone.

Jerry Robinson can be reached at publisher@robinsonnews.com