Walsh: BSFS Founder Ettlin in News

By Michael J. Walsh:  David Ettlin, one of the founders of the Baltimore SF Society is the subject of an article in the Baltimore Sun this Sunday celebrating the 175th anniversary of the paper where he worked as an editor:

The wardrobe was disastrous. He made the rest of the slumming metro veterans look almost plausible. His laugh was a cackle, employed liberally against the farts and foibles of the important and famous. From humanity, he expected farce and scandal at all points, adoring an absurd, senseless murder most of all. He never lost at Scrabble, he had 10 different ways of saying anything in print, and yeah, if he acted as if he’d seen it all without ever leaving a newsroom, it was only because he had.

He also had a large end-of-row house here in Baltimore called “Toad Hall” that many a fan stayed in. I was one of them.

He retired from the Sun a few years ago, they made him a retirement offer he couldn’t refuse.  His last day on the job was 40th anniversary of his hire!

4 thoughts on “Walsh: BSFS Founder Ettlin in News

  1. Mike: Shouldn’t you make clear that the piece about Ettlin was written by David Simon, creator of “Homicide,” “The Wire” and “Treme?” I don’t think the authorship of someone as significant as Simon should be ignored here. Martin

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