In the spirit of all good, navel-gazing reporters everywhere, it is time for us to present to you, dear reader, an arbitrary list of items that have made us laugh, cringe or cry in 2011.
On Wednesday, my colleague Warren Rojas spit out his top five HOH reads. So today I step up to share mine. As an added bonus, I’ve decided to highlight a lesson gleaned from each piece, because HOH is nothing if not an educational tool.
What we all learned: There are offices that are really insecure about the size of their ball.
3. Wherein a freshman Congressman insisted he was a newbie after his decades-long career as a Hill staffer.
What we learned: Congressional Quarterly’s floor video, transcripts and Congressional profiles are our secret weapon of awesome.
4. Wherein a story we are working on changes as we are working on it, thus giving us time to discover the first political action committee in history forgotten by a Congressman. What we learned: How to get people to donate to HOH.
5. Wherein Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) staffer’s 10-gallon fish tank took down a burglar and the perp decided the correct course of action, after bleeding all over the office, was to walk down the street to a bar for a couple shots. What we learned: What Rojas was doing before coming to HOH.
In a rare moment of seriousness: Thank you, dear readers, for hanging with us over the past year. Thank you for your tips. Thank you for keeping us honest. Thank you for encouraging us on the days we are considering going back to waiting tables.
Have a happy, happy New Year! And ... do let us know if anything HOH-worthy goes down.
Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions — anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously.
