The sayings of Chairman Donald

My father was Donald Howard Cragin (1931-1996). He was a newsman who also held various political jobs on the state and federal level. Always colorful, highly memorable, he was a font of commentary, collected and invented. Among his observations:   

People will tell you more about themselves the first time you meet them than they will at any subsequent meeting. (This in my experience -- as a newspaper person and advisor -- is always, always true. I seldom say much about myself when I meet someone because I can usually tell they're brimming over with that desire to sharrrrrrrre).

When you send a photograph to a newspaper, always send a horizontal rather than a vertical. That way, you get two columns instead of one. (Said to family friend Nat Segaloff, back when they met. Nat was a publicist for Columbia Pictures I think, and my dad covered film for the Boston Herald Traveler. Nat wrote this to me after my father died).

You need two people to trim a tree. One to cut the branches, the other to evaluate how it's going. (I've never cut tree branches because there was always someone more eager to use the saw, but this makes sense).

People never look up. (Said on numerous walking trips around Boston, where he spent the last 20 years of his life. He was always pointing out cornices and roof detail, and second-story businesses).

Don't bury the lede. (Yeah, not original, but he said this to me a lot on the rare times I'd let him look at my drafts. I learned.)

If you take ice cubes, empty the entire tray and refill it. This was religiously observed and the assumption is always that you are going to use all the ice cubes. I remember the old aluminum metal tray with the pull-back lever that (eventually) loosened the cubes with a lot of ice chips. My father was not an ice-chips-in-the-beverage person. Actually, he preferred his scotch unwatered, and a stack of cubes in the tumbler for G&T (always in season the moment the temps went about 40 degrees). Anyway, I remember early on in my marriage dutifully refilling the ice tray at my in-laws and my mother-in-law thanking me profusely for my thoughtfulness and my automatic response: my father drilled it into us that you refill the tray. 

Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. (As someone who trafficked in information he took great delight in giving "teasers" to green Boston Globe reporters after he got his job as Public Information Officer for the Registry of Motor Vehicles.)  My father was, and is, the 

only person I know who loved going to the registry. We all had low-number plates on our cars and it was a sad day when my aunt Jean moved to New Hampshire and surrendered 7K3. I would have taken it except that the plates on the two cars in this household both end in RX, which is also cool. I know my father would have agreed. Besides, my mother still has 92286.

my dad would have hated this plate....