Remembering the good times on the Rocky biz desk

Lisa Greim, who covered business for the Rocky Mountain News from 1993 to 1994 and again from 1996 to 2000, remembers the fun that occurred on its business desk.

Greim writes, “That’s my old boss Joe Rassenfoss, who is not a jerk, in the photo on the News’ home page, standing next to Mark Brown, the rock critic. Joe and Rob Reuteman used to sit across from each other on the business desk and you could have sold tickets to their act. Joe would call our designer every afternoon and sing the closing NYSE and NASDAQ to him, just to keep it interesting.

“Gene Amole sat next to Suzanne Weiss, and then Ann Carnahan. Why? “Always sit next to a Catholic girl in the newsroom, because they know how to spell.â€? When Ann got pregnant with triplets, Don Knox told her she’d get better maternity benefits if she named them Rocky, Mountain, and News.

“I remember the day Al Lewis defected to the Denver Post. He was in John Temple’s office when the rest of the business staff arrived. While we waited to hear what happened, we divvied up the stuff Al left on his desk. Dick Williamson got Al’s printer. Dana Coffield snagged the headset. Al had taken his yo-yo.

“In the old building, the business section was near the bathrooms, so we saw everybody on a regular basis. Because I covered technology, people would ask me for computer advice, except for Holger Jensen, who would come by and tell me why everything I had ever written about the Macintosh was wrong. And by the way, I misspelled Ulaan Batar. Ulan Bator. Whatever. Holger was big and loud and he intimidated me.”

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