Monday, August 03, 2009 by Deborah Caulfield Rybak.
Here’s one for our “You never know who might be reading” file. In June’s issue, comedian Robert Klein pleaded guilty to a 30-year-old crime: He’d stolen a towel from the Holiday Inn during one of his tours. It wasn’t just an idle confession either; Klein’s people had actually checked with us beforehand to see if we saw any legal ramifications to him making such a statement. "Sure, go ahead," we said cavalierly. I mean, how long could the statute of limitations be on Grand Theft Towel?
Turns out, we weren’t the only ones reading his tale of towel kleptomania. I got an e-mail last week from Sarah-Ann Soffer, media relations manager for the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express chains.
Far from wanting Klein’s address so she could sic the Towel Police on him, Soffer wanted his address for a different reason: “The brand team saw his article and wanted to send him a coffee table book we published a couple of years ago entitled: About the towels, we forgive you. Absorbing Tales of Borrowed Towels, as we wanted to absolve him of his towel crimes.” Who knew a hotel chain could be so compassionate (and funny . . .)?
No word yet from the Sheraton on the ashtray Klein also copped to filching in his story . . .
About Jayne Haugen Olson
An intuitive editor, editor in chief Jayne Haugen Olson directs the editorial vision of Sky and leads a team of top-notch editors and international writers to create a distinctive new approach to inflights—an onboard lifestyle magazine. The first half of Jayne's publishing career was on the business side in key marketing positions at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, as well as with Seattle Magazine, where she served as associate publisher. Jayne traded in her media kit for a tape recorder and crossed the great divide to join the editorial team at Mpls.St.Paul as the senior lifestyle editor in 2000. In addition to managing a team of five editors covering lifestyle, retail, home, fashion, trend and design Jayne was instrumental in the development of content for mspmag.com, an Emmy award winning lifestyle web site. Jayne has appeared as a regular contributor to several radio and television shows in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Jayne also served as content strategist and editor in chief for Macy's breakout magazine concept, "M", a 750,000 circulation quarterly magazine distributed throughout the central United States.
As a slightly workaholic mother of twin four-year-olds, most of Jayne's world travels are done by reading. Her hope is that the day-to-day temptations in her new editorial position will change all of that.
About Sarah Elbert
As deputy editor of Delta Sky, Sarah Elbert lassos the best writers she can find to cover the world—as well as contributing some prose of her own. Before coming to Sky, Sarah was editorial director of magazines including Northwest WorldTraveler and Carlson Wagonlit Travel's Postcards. She has been a newspaper editor, a freelance writer and an Associated Press reporter, riding with the White House travel pool (back in the Clinton days) and covering everything from natural disasters to a cat kidney transplant. Sarah has written for The New York Times, the New York Post, the New York Sun—but not the NY Daily News. She now lives in Minneapolis, which she finds lovely and underrated, but does occasionally miss Manhattan and the Staten Island Ferry. Sarah would like to think she could again go backpacking across Europe, and she still loves to travel, but she knows that train has left the station. It's just so much quicker to fly.
About Deborah Caulfield Rybak
Senior editor Deborah Caulfield Rybak covers the arts and entertainment beat at Sky and for good reason. During her years at as an entertainment industry reporter at the Los Angeles Times, she interviewed a Who's Who of Hollywood and still prefers writing about the arts compared to almost any topic.
Deborah has numerous journalism awards and three books under her career belt. But that's just her journalistic cred. She has also worked as an FM deejay in Aspen, Colorado, a speechwriter in Washington and an environmental film festival director in Colorado. She considers herself happiest when she's out of town and out of cell phone range. Deborah hitchhiked across Kenya, spent the night atop a pyramid in Central America, hovered face-to-mandible with giant manta rays during a night dive in Hawaii and traversed mountain passes in California's High Sierras. She is looking forward to a trip to Morocco in September to hike the Atlas Mountains and ride a camel or two. Still left on her to-do list? Bhutan, marlin fishing and riding elephants in Thailand.
About Jane Di Leo
When she is not training for a marathon or traveling around the globe, you'll find Jane Di Leo at her desk, delving into the latest health research and headlines. Jane hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she currently works as online editor for deltaskymag.com and as associate online editor for mspmag.com, the online vehicle for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. After attending the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees in magazine journalism, Jane moved to New York to work for Women's Health. Today, she continues to freelance for Women's Health but enjoys the daily challenges online editing presents—even if it means being on the ball 24/7. Good thing many of the Delta planes now have Wi-Fi.
About Liz Doyle
After a few years navigating the trenches of New York's fashion scene as a stylist assistant at Harpers Bazaar, Liz is excited to be back in her childhood hometown of Minneapolis. When she isn't scouting the latest trends in fashion and travel, she moonlights at a local Parisian brasserie where she says "welcome" and "enjoy" a lot and occasionally tries to improve her French. Though her foray to the editorial side of the magazine industry is a new one, she welcomes the challenge and can't wait to see what this new adventure holds.
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