Local Editor Bids Farewell

Fredericksburg, it's been nice knowing you. But I regret to inform you that I shall be moving north to my hometown of Hyattsville, Md. to oversee a Patch site in that community. Fear not, dear readers, Fredericksburg Patch will continue on. Northern Virginia Patch Assistant Regional Editor Dan Telvock well oversee the site on an interim basis until a permanent local editor is hired.

Now, over the years, a newsman learns a number of things that for one reason or another, he just cannot report. It doesn't seem to matter now, so, I do declare:

In all my career in journalism, I have never experienced a more historic or more exciting news cycle as I have in Fredericksburg. The significance of the stories presented before me in my coverage ranged the full scale of emotion from triumph to despair.

In all my career in journalism, Natatia Bledsoe is the best police public information officer I have ever worked with. Among all the city departments, none showed me as much hospitality as the Fredericksburg Police Department. Bledsoe was always ready with a deluge of information, as if she could anticipate your inquiries, which often overwhelmed the descriptive capacities of this journalist.

The Capital Ale House is the best bar to see the ugliest suits in town worn by the most vain people. Seriously, have you ever walked in there during the weekday lunch rush? It's like every overstyled real-estate agent decided to have a gauche-off over a bavarian pretzel.

is the most welcoming, friendly bar in town. I admit, I only spent a bit more than a year in this town, a mere 55 weeks. In that time I probably ventured out amongst the town on half of those weekends. At first I tried to vary my bar hopping, but I quickly came to realize one thing: Fredericksburg's few bar's are covers for closely guarded cliques. There is one glaring exception: Spirits, aka The 'Ritz. Yes, it may be dingy, but if you are between the ages of 25 and 40 with an affinity for the counter-cultural and need to hang out with workaday service industry colleagues who won't judge you for the tee-shirt you're wearing, then Spirit's is the best bar in town. Plus, the implicit possibility of getting thrown down the stairs from the second floor bar at the hands of indignant bouncers in the event of fisticuffs seems to cast a placid atmosphere over the establishment.

Mayor Thomas Tomzak may be rightly praised for his role in during his tenure as mayor, but he is clueless to a fault when it comes to

Fredericksburg legitimately In my opinion, concerns over the amount to hyperbolic tax fear mongering.



Who's the best journalist in Fredeicksburg? It's a toss up between Bill Freehling and Jim Hall. Freehling because you can't buy or sell anything in this town without him writing about it. Hall because you cant get an operation in this town without him writing about how it won't be covered by your insurance company.

I hope in my coverage you have deemed me fair, and in my reporting deemed me insightful.

Farewell Fredericksburg,

Michael Theis