Meehan resigns, Tom Champion to return

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

The Journal reports that Michael Meehan has resigned as director of communications for the city, and Tom Champion will return to that role beginning November 1st.

Comments

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

Yay, Tom Champion returns!

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

I hope that folks don't take this the wrong way. I'm not looking to get flamed. What's all this Tom Champion love about?

I am sure that he is a very nice guy and he seemed to have been very good at his job but I don't think that the robo calls will suddenly get more fun or informative after he returns.

So I guess that I am curious where all this genuine excitement stems from.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

It began, I believe, as a simple amusement with the name. It was fun to get phone calls saying "This is Tom Champion with the City of Somerville..." People (on this group, for one) built up a sort of mystique about the guy, just based on his name. Then he started posting here, and people got to know his actual personality, and it turned out that he had a sense of humor and was an interesting guy even aside from his name. There was a Globe article about him and he became kind of a mini cult icon.

If I wanted to get all pop-psychology about it, I could say that getting to know Tom, even just online, made people feel more connected to the city we live in, and made them feel like they had "a friend at City Hall." So when it was announced that he was quitting, folks were disappointed. Plus it meant the end of the icon, kind of like when that awesome new scifi show gets canceled after only eight episodes.

So no, I don't think it's that anyone thinks the robo-calls are suddenly going to become way more useful or anything like that...it's more just about personality, like when they announce that they're making a feature-length movie based on that canceled TV show. ;)

[elbren]

don't forget the lolcat and the radio plays. he's like the total local hero.

[ron_newman]

And soon after that, people here got him involved in Theatre@First and Post-Meridian Radio Players. (Where you can see him perform at the Regent Theatre tomorrow night.)

If you click on the 'local characters' tab, you'll see posts about him (and occasionally by him) dating back several years.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

He's got an unusually excellent voice, too, with memorable delivery.