by Ed Bevelton, Staff Writer
Today we turn our attention and our thanks to an un-remembered and largely forgotten resource that we nevertheless, owe a great many of our thanks to, the tireless writers of today's websites, particularly one in general. A small group of thankless heroes with a unique and special story.
The Rising-Gorge Writers Collective was the brain-child of Anders Bingleton and "Tepid Rod" Stansbury, both professional journalists from metropolitan newspapers of the 1950's. Bingleton, with his shock of unruly red hair and crooked smile, wrote a social advice column for The Ottumwa Weekly Herald. Rod Stansbury, standing just over five feet tall, covered the Lost & Found Animals beat for Hays City Today.
Both Bingleton and Stansbury held the mandate of the free press in the highest esteem and were always looking for new ways to advance the profession and even though their work was 200 miles apart, fate had plans to bring them together for a great purpose.
It was 1957 when they met at a press conference held by Dar-Lou Rendering Resources, Inc. in Smothering Kin, Nebraska introducing "A Cheaper Bio-Alternative to Newsprint", and discovered their mutual love of the 5th estate and fabrics in remodeling. They immediately quit their jobs, moved in together beginning a lifelong journey of excellence in journalism, which ultimately lasted 2 years, when they both tragically transitioned into the afterlife while picnicking, in a fiery episode involving Stansbury's Pontiac Catalina, two five-gallon cans of gasoline and some undetermined refreshments.
Their end was untimely, but not surprising, and not before they were able to create and fund an ongoing organization for writers of burgeoning talent and scope; The Rising-Gorge Writers Collective.
Today, The Rising-Gorge Writers Collective has its spacious, well-appointed headquarters just outside Tenino, Washington and boasts some of the newest and most interesting writers in the business. Among the exciting work going on there, a division of the collective known only as the Mollification Project has created the fabulous new website "Somebody Owes Me an Apology.com" which is taking the internet by leaps and storms.
So you can be sure that the midnight oil is burning brightly and copiously in the caverns of creativity and no stone will remain un-turned in the never-ending quest to bring a new day to the night which covers journalistic excellence, by The Rising-Gorge Writers Collective.
So let's take a moment to say "Thank You" to those intrepid and compass-less pioneers of future history, whoever they are.
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