Soft openings are popular in the restaurant business. But not so much in retirement. However, much of what we have done over the years at The Rhinoceros Times and the Rhino Times has been a little out of the mainstream, and my retirement is no exception.

The last day I worked for the Rhino Times was March 29, or that was the last day I worked as editor. Since March 29, I have been editor in name only, and Scott Yost has been writing and editing the Rhino Times. However, I have been told that officially my last day as editor is today.

I started The Rhinoceros Times in October 1991 and am officially retiring as editor of the Rhino Times on May 31, 2024.  Nearly 33 years as editor of a news publication is a pretty good run, and, in my opinion, most of that time I had the best job in journalism.

You don’t work for 33 years at any job without some rough spots, and for me the roughest was The Rhinoceros Times going out of business in May 2013.

I can’t thank Roy Carroll enough for deciding that having a conservative alternative news source in Greensboro was worth his time and money.  At that point, the old Rhinoceros was well past resuscitation, so Roy started a new publication, the Rhino Times, and hired me as editor. We rode that Rhino for as long as we could as a weekly print publication, and then, in November 2018, ended the print edition and concentrated our efforts on the website with a daily email blast.

There are other changes coming to the Rhino Times that are being announced today and may make my soft retirement make more sense.

I want to take this opportunity, my last as editor, to thank all of you readers who have stuck with me through the years and the different publications. It doesn’t make any sense to write the news if nobody reads it, and I’d like to thank each and every one of you – even those of you who used to call The Sound of the Beep and say the only good thing about the paper was that it made a good lining for their bird cage.  I have to assume that they said that because they read the paper and didn’t like what they read. So I still count them as readers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that I am delighted that Scott Yost will be taking over as editor. Having been Scott’s editor for a couple of decades, I know what a fine writer he is and have no doubt he will prove to be a capable editor.

Finally, although I am retired, or retiring, as editor of the Rhino Times, I’m not dead yet and plan to keep writing. I have a Substack site, Hammer Down (https://jhammer.substack.com/). I haven’t posted on the site while I have been enjoying my retirement, but my fingers are getting itchy and I plan to start writing again soon. The site is currently made up of Under the Hammer-type pieces, but I plan to write some about Greensboro and may even write a travel article now and then. So if you haven’t heard enough from me in the past 33 years, check out Hammer Down and see what you think.

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