Birthday: Aug. 10, 1953

Hometown: Born in Roanoke, Va. Grew up in Pulaski, Va. Went to high school in Winston-Salem, N.C. (where parents still live)

Marital status: Married

Child: daughter, Claire

Self-portrait: Alert and alive

Newsroom motto: See Post-Dispatch platform box

Inspiration: My daughter

Bad habit: Appearing distracted when I'm really paying attention

Pet peeve: The first-person singular

Luxury defined: Time to think

Most dangerous story: Every cop brief

Best story: Tomorrow's 1A lead

Best interview and why: The interview that teaches the subject something about himself/herself.

My newspaper's greatest strength: Its veteran staff of committed journalists

Most admired editor: Joseph Pulitzer, Geneva Overholser, Gregory Favre

Favorite publication: Any newspaper I can lay my hands on and the Harvard Business Review

Most admired writers: Mike D'Orso, Virginian-Pilot; Greta Tilley, retired from the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record; Sheryl James, Detroit Free Press; William Shakespeare, Elizabethan England

Favorite comic strip: "Doonesbury"

Best part of the job/worst part of the job: When people come together to learn or solve a problem/Any other meeting

Favorite vacation spot: The mountains

Favorite TV program: "Grace Under Fire"

Books at bedside: "Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership" by Howard Gardner and "When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor" by William Julius Wilson

Last words: Fifteen minutes to deadline!