Jo and Jerry
By John Lambert
Disclaimer: This work is based on the TV series “Lois and Clark”. I do not hold the copyright, Warner Brothers, December 3rd Productions, DC Comics and others hold the relevant copyrights. The honor in giving Ralph the last name “Spagoda” goes to Rivka and Classicalla.
This story assumes that Clark was born in February 1966 (or at least that is the calculated date of his birth, how being transferred by space ship at a young age actually affects his age is an issue I will not deal with). Lois was born in September 1966 for the purposes of this story, and since New Troy has a late-cut-off for starting school, she is in the same grade as Clark.
I have also heavily alluded to, and at times borrowed names and even dialogue from Frank Capra’s wonderful film “It’s a Wonderful Life”, although I have changed things a lot. For the purposes of this story, George Bailey and his wife Mary Hatch Bailey were real people. If Superman exists, I can introduce other characters as well. In the universe of my story Mary Hatch Bailey wrote a book entitled It’s a Wonderful Life. Frank Capra on discovering the book, adapted it into a film, but changed the setting to the fictional state of New York. If you are confused, that is OK, the hope is you will be less confused later on in the story.
Although I use the names of real universities for some of the events described in this story, most of the events are creations of my own mind and not real historic events.
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Perry White was trying to figure out what to do about the breaking development of a scandal in the National Science Administration. He would have given this assignment to Norcross and Judd, but they were already out of town trying to track down leads on funding to the Contras. Eduardo was a good reporter, but this was beyond what he alone could cover. It had spread way past just the science side. The phone interrupted his thoughts. It was good to hear the voice on the line.
“Nathan Manheim, I haven’t heard from you since Beirut. Why are you calling?” Perry had known Nate a long time, they had first met while war correspondents in Vietnam, and had had their paths cross many times since then.
“One of your interns, a certain Joe Lane, has agreed to come to Met U as a student, but has not applied to be admitted to the Journalism department.” Nate’s statement reminded Perry of how odd it was to expect 17-year-olds to decide in November or even earlier where they would go to school the next fall.
“Joe Lane, he’s not on my staff,” Perry responded.
“Joe Lane is not a him, but a her,” Nate replied.
“Oh, you mean the Jo Lane, who no one ever calls Jo Lane,” Perry said. “She has had articles in the paper; I would think you would realize what her name is.”
“I figured she only used Lois in publishing,” Nate said. “She told my plant, Paul Bender, in athletic recruiting, that she goes by a nickname of her middle name, Joanne, most of the time.”
Ah, thought Perry. Sounds like she is doing undercover work. Although it also sounded like she was trying to hold as close to the truth as she could, since Joanne really was her middle name. Perry knew this because over Christmas while they were visiting him and Alice, Ellen had called her daughter ‘Lois Joanne Lane’. It was the type of nearly to the edge of acceptable action that Lois would take. Not a totally fake identity like Suzanne Qualls, who Lois had used in her biting expose of sororities. The amazing thing was that Lois had actually not been suspected as too over the top as the blonde-haired bimbo who went by Suzy Q.
“Nate,” Perry began, returning to the conversation and fearing what he was about to learn. He just knew it would be some sort of investigation, although what he could not figure out yet. “Why do you have a ‘plant’ in athletic recruiting? How is Lois connected with athletic recruiting? And why am I suspecting I will not like the answers? The only other sports I could see Lois connected with are tennis or martial arts. Met U’s women’s tennis team is strictly club and does no recruiting at all while the NCAA does not have a martial arts team.”
“I think it is more fun if I build up to the answer to your question” Nate said. “The fun part is how I know this from having put some of my people to work in athletic recruiting.”
Perry rolled his eyes. It was so like Nate to ramble and not answer questions. There was a reason that Perry had hired Ralph Spagoda instead of checking his reference from Nate. He regretted hiring such an incompetent instead of getting a report from Nate, and Perry never ceased thanking his lucky stars that the San Francisco office had an opening for Spagoda.
“So you put one of your people over in athletic recruiting so you could learn how they recruit people?” Perry responded, trying to find clarity in what Nate was saying.
“Nah, I have a better plan,” Nate said. “I have already followed their example, and since I am about the only college newspaper advisor who has done this, we are two steps ahead of the game.”
Yep, thought Perry, Nate does love his sports analogies.
“There are two high school seniors this year who are, without question, the top potential incoming college journalists,” Nate continued.
“You’re nuts, Nate. Nuts!” Perry yelled. “High school papers are nothing like college papers. I have never seen a high school paper come out more than weekly, and even that is extremely rare. That level only happens with driven editors like Lois Lane, and schools with over 2500 students.”
“Well, the two people I have identified have both written for professional papers,” Nate said with enthusiasm.
Perry resisted the urge to point out that having a letter to the editor published in the Columbus Journal-Sentinel was not writing for a professional newspaper. “Okay, so I take it that Lois Lane, who you have not yet even met, is one of them. May I ask who the other is?” he asked, knowing that Nate would tell him.
“Only if you promise not to tell Howard Mikalek at Missouri. He would love to grab this guy,” Nate responded. Nate would be the one to bring Missouri into this. They were the perceived rival to Met U’s spot as the nation’s number one journalism school.
“Don’t be crazy,” Perry repeated into the phone, knowing he should take a blood pressure pill soon. “Howard Mikalek believes in building a college newspaper the old fashioned way, the way we did it when I was at Vanderbilt. We tried to get the best writers at the school to join the paper staff, and we worked really hard to break stories.”
“Well, this guy is a football player, and Howard is a big fan of the Missouri Tigers, especially in football. So he would love to see this guy at his school,” Nate said, his voice rising with enthusiasm.
“If the football and journalism connection is as obvious, as you seem to think, why do you worry about me telling Howard? Wouldn’t he figure it out on his own?” Perry just hoped he had talked some sense into Nate.
“Because, I had to work closely with my sources to see the link. The guy so far only uses his initials for writing, but is known by his full first and last name in football,” Nate said.
Perry refrained from pointing out to Nate most people used sources for finding developing stories, not staff. “Okay,” he said, hoping to end this conversation and get back to issues that were more important as quickly as possible. “I won’t tell Howard. Now who is this other wunderkind you’re after?”
“Clark Kent,” Nate replied, with a note of victory.
“Clark Kent? As in number three rated high school football player Clark Kent?” Perry asked. He had heard of this guy, anyone who followed football had heard of him. “Just because he threw the longest successful pass in high school football history playing for the Smallville Crows against the Davis Hollow Hogbacks, doesn’t mean he will pan out playing in college ball. Especially since the West Coast Offense is a new thing, fifteen years ago high school quaterbacks rarely passed, they ran, so someone today does not pass at all. Anyway, what does that have to do with journalism?”
“Well, he has written some moving stuff for the Smallville Post,” Nate said.
“So what, it’s some smalltime local paper. Nothing to be excited about,” Perry said. Yet Perry could tell that Nate really believed the Smallville Press was something when he mentioned it. Nate had exuberance for life few others possessed, but his enthusiasm for this paper was confusing Perry.
“Nothing to be excited about!” Nate exclaimed, his voice rising in indignation. “This is Albert Harris’s Smallville Post! This is the paper that won a Pulitzer for its articles on unequal distribution of districts in the legislature!”
Good old Nate, the biggest believer in the power of the press that Perry knew.
“This is the paper that gave us one man, one vote!” Nate continued with his praise of the Post. “What next, will you call Woodward and Bernstein some smalltime reporters? Harris is still there, and he runs a tight ship with hard-hitting articles.”
“So,” Perry cut in. “Kent has written an article or two for them. That is still nothing big.”
“Nothing big?” Nate scoffed with continued indignation. “Earlier this month Kent wrote a seminal article on Smallville politics. Other things he has written show real promise. He has talent, Perry, real talent. One day you’ll be glad that I brought him here to Met U, right on your doorstep, and developed him.”
“So athletic recruiting wants Kent, and you want Kent, how does Lois fit in the picture.”. Perry asked, but he thought he already knew the answer, or at least had a sickening fear. David Crandall’s breaking of the recruiting scandal at Stanford nearly a year ago won him the Pulitzer for investigative reporting, and Perry could just see Lois trying to one up that. He just hoped he was wrong. Maybe Lois had a more benign connection to all of this, and maybe Elvis was a carrot seller.
Nate’s excitement was increasing with each word as he explained how everything fit together. “Kent’s coming on an exploratory campus visit this weekend. There was an opening in the hosting staff used for these things. ‘Hosts’ or, in this case ‘hostessess’, is what they call the people who assist with tours and give out the information about how the university works, and Ms. Lane applied. Since she had already signed an agreement to come to Met U, and scored higher on the map of Met U test than anyone else ever has, they allowed her to have the position, although it is normally reserved for current students. The best part is Paul managed to get Lane assigned to work with Kent. Who better to convince a journalist to come here to Met U than one who has already agreed to come.”
“Oh, no,” Perry groaned, fear gripping his whole being. He had been afraid this was what Nate was leading up to ever since the mention of athletic recruiting, despite his off-hand remarks about tennis and martial arts. A personalized connection to a potential recruit that meant any exposee would leave Lois suspect of wrongdoing. Perry was hoping the fact that Met U still had dorms split by gender and that they made the recruits stay overnight in the dorms during their visit would prevent a total crisis. On the other hand, at Stanford the potential recruits had spent the whole weekend in theoretically men-only dorms and Crandall had still exposed a major scandal where inappropriate relationships with females were involved.
Suddenly Perry had a horrible thought. Lois might have already broken the law to get this position. He shouldn’t really have, but he couldn’t help himself and blurted out, “How, by chance, did there happen to be an opening?”
Nate paused before responding, “It was because they decided they needed more staff. They hired on seven new people above previous levels. They wanted more personal one-on-one attention to the potential recruits. Anyway, Perry, that’s not the point. This is wonderful; I am so close to having the top two journalism freshman in the country. They will be the hottest team in town.”
“Just hope they don’t get too hot this weekend,” Perry grumbled.
“What are you talking about?” Nate said, bafflement in his voice.
“How you became the father of five children I will never know,” Perry replied.
“I have no idea what you mean,” Nate came back.
“So what exactly is it that you want me to do?” Perry asked, turning away from his off-hand remark.
“Oh, if you could ask Lois to come visit with me, that would be most helpful,” Nate replied. “I want to make sure she knows all about our wonderful program. I have dealt with two students who signed letters of intent, and didn’t come, so I don’t trust them as much as I used to. I also need to make sure she knows that she wants to do journalism, and not English, which some think will prepare them in the same way, but it just doesn’t. Plus, I need to make sure she is ready to sell our program to Kent. Athletic recruiting and campus hosting underestimate the importance of selling our top-notch academic programs.”
“OK, I will send her by. have a good day,” Perry said, hanging up the phone before Nate could make any other requests.
Perry was glad to learn Lois was not the only new employee. That meant she had not created the opening at hosting by making one of the older employees too sick for the job. He wouldn’t put it past her. With Crandall’s investigation so recent, Perry just knew that Lois was hoping Met U would be the next Stanford and probably that Clark Kent was the next Julian Davis, although who would be providing the alcohol was not clear. At Stanford, it was most directly Mary Walters. Well alcohol was not the only thing she gave Julian. The person in Mary Walters position here was Lois Lane. Certainly she was not planning to be directly involved in creating the scandal. Perry most feared that a lot of readers would see Lois Lane as the next Mary Walters if any story broke with Met U’s recruiting.
