I will say nothing to no one, not my business

The intersection of art, entertainment, culture,

opinion and mad genius




Hi Thom,

I am sending this to you to let you know that I’m taking the magazine in a different direction and your work is no longer needed.

I wish you success in all your future endeavors.

Best,

Trina




Trina McKenna
Publisher/Editor-In-Chief
ICON Magazine
PO Box 120
New Hope, PA 18938
Voice 215.862.9558
http://www.icondv.com


http://www.facebook.com/IconDV

you accidentally CC'd me on this
A.D.

-----Original Message-----
From: Trina McKenna <trina@icondv.com>
To: Thom Nickels <ThomNickels1@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, May 2, 2018 12:57 pm
Subject: ICON

Hi Thom,

I am sending this to you to let you know that I’m taking the magazine in a different direction and your work is no longer needed.

I wish you success in all your future endeavors.

Best,

Trina

Wow. Where did this come from? With no warning, out of nowhere, it seems. She decided to change the decor of the magazine. She said she was taking the magazine in a new direction but she was changing only one direction...the direction that pointed to me. And then she accidentally CC's the writer who would replace me. Now, I know this guy, this writer, this man about town. He publishes all over. He writes nearly 50 percent of ICON, at least two features an issue and a number of columns. And I know he was gunning for my column. He was gunning because he wants everything. He did it to me when we both wrote for Philadelphia Style years ago. AD comes in, and I go out. It has happened other times too. So, one can only assume that he and the publisher, whom I have always liked, plotted this for while. And then finally AD got his way. Trina, the publisher, never did tell me why she discontinued my column. Not a word. I wrote her several emails, asking, asking, but nothing. Nothing. After almost a decade of writing for her. It feels like a date rape of sorts. I've read AD's theater columns since my expulsion and they are like weak tea. They are more like previews of plays. He does not know how to review a play. He has no opinions. No soul, no critical pizazz. He is just a meat processor of words, words that sound and feel cool but that rarely say anything.  

This post will be updated from time to time. We will follow AD's marriage to ICON and see how and when the story ends.      

               

Re: ICON

Wed, May 2, 2018 1:47 pm

Trina McKenna (trina@icondv.com)To:you Details 

Sorry, Thom. it was accidental.

: ICON

Wed, May 2, 2018 1:49 pm

ivaland (divaland@aol.com)To:you Details

T

I will say nothing to no one

not my business

A.D.

-----Original Message-----
From: divaland <divaland@aol.com>
To: trina <trina@icondv.com>; ThomNickels1 <ThomNickels1@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, May 2, 2018 12:59 pm
Subject: Re: ICON

Confusion at The Inky

My published letter in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, August 30, 2018 was attributed to another writer. The Inquirer editorial board apologized and told me that a correction was forthcoming. The correction appeared in the September 1st Sunday edition. The correction was hard to find. The correction said that 'Thom Nickels of Philadelphia' was the author of the letter (on August 30) on Bobbitt. But there was another letter that focused on Bobbitt that day, so now readers are left to guess which letter was mine if they remember them at all.   

To the Editor:

As someone who knew Johnny S. Bobbitt Jr. both as an acquaintance and journalist, I believe that the only one suckered
out of money raised by Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico on behalf of Bobbitt were the naive public who thought they were going to change the life of a homeless man with a severe drug addiction. emptied their pockets thinking they were going to change the life of a homeless man with a severe addiction problem.

The Go Fund Me campaign occurred around Thanksgiving 2017 when the Disneyland aspects
of giving to a homeless Good Samaritan seemed to trump the logic of donating thousands of
dollars to a chronic heroin user. Little thought was given to forcing Bobbitt into
rehab before giving him a cent. Few reporters questioned the severity of Bobbitt's drug problem. Everyone wanted to believe the fairy tale that a ton of money and publicity would preform a miracle cure. 

This case is really about a con meeting a con. A heroin addict turns away from family and friends, so why wouldn't he turn away from McClure and D'Amico? Herion turns users into narcissistic, self-absorbed people while money on the grand scale of the Bobbitt Go Fund Me campaign can turn the organizers of that campaign into greedy venture capitalists. One wonders why this story is even being perpetuated at this point. Is it to drum up sympathy and support for Bobbitt, the tragic victim, so that this Thanksgiving someone else will initiate another Go Fund Me campaign for Bobbitt's continued heroin use? 

Thom Nickels
Philadelphia