The Real Fiorella Outs Herself

Wanna see how bitchy Fiorella can be? These are some excerpts from when she was writing the Austin Community College union newsletter, lo, these many years ago:

ACC president Richard Fonte nodded on and off during an hour-long report on the role of the community college and sat through most of the rest of the meeting stone-faced--when he wasn't defending or pleading or explaining. Whatever happened to that affable, smiling administrator who would fulfill every board member's preference with a wave of his magic budget wand?
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ACC's Humpty Dumpty budget has had a great fall, and hopes for a tax hike in Ausgust 2003 are a likely casualty of the scramble. In Ausgust, 2002, consultant Howard Falkenberg  advised the board that employee support was vital to the success of any future ACC tax referendum. "Make sure the family is tight on this," he said.
Apparently no one was listening. It's hard to be "tight" when your classes are cancelled at the last moment or your chances of a well-deserved pay raise have gurgled down the drain.
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     Presidents Richard Fonte was unusually quiet during the April 1 board meeting. Maybe he was pondering how to tell the trustees that although the total number of classes ACC will offer this fall will be an all-time high, the number of English classes, a herd of cash cows if ever there was one, has been cut about ten percent.
    Guess the budget crisis is over.
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Fiorella never announced herself as the sharp-tongued scribe, but since she sat in on the board meetings with her pen scribbling down every word, it must have been obvious.

Newspapers

Fiorella's mother had been a journalism teacher, and the family always subscribed to a newspaper, much to Fio's benefit.  She learned to read from comic strips, and a newspaper validated her childhood art by publishing it.  In high school, she edited the longest-running Latin student publication in the country one year and the state Latin student publication the next year.  Later on, she married the son of two journalists. In graduate school, she originated a department newsletter. Later, in between teaching and grading, she wrote for the local newspaper and even set up two tabloids on her own.  Yes, Fiorella loves newspapers. but her own children are barely aware of them.  Why bother when they have television and computers at their beck and call?

Fiorella is sad.