I can’t remember why we didn’t say hello, but now it is time to say goodbye. We are coming to the end, for now, of the Outpost’s acquaintance with the wonderful talents of Gillen Tener Martin and Jacquelyn Opalach, both of whom will soon be going back to school.

Martin – proud daughter of Blue Lake – is leaving us today to return to her journalism studies at the prestigious Institut d’études politiques de Paris (“SciencesPo”), alma mater of Marcel Proust, Christian Dior and every president of France since 1981.

If you can remember the last few months, you will remember that Martin turned out a surprising number of bangers for the Outpost faithful over that period of time: a report of a semi-secretive Facebook group for single women in the dating scene, an introduction to a new queer-friendly sports space, a number of profiles of interesting Humboldt people and something called “BEAR UPDATE: The Eureka Bears and the Arcata Bears and the Samoa Bears are the Same Bears, and the Mama Bear Was Hurt in a Collision With a Car.”

Read Martin’s LoCO bibliography here. What her professeurs will make of it we cannot tell.

Opalach – a McKinleyville native and an Outpost returnee, having done a tour of duty with us during the pandemic – is, thankfully, still with us for another couple of weeks. But Cal Poly Humboldt is beckoning her back, siren-like, for one final semester, and we’re not going to go so far as to chain her to her chair.

Like Martin’s, Opalach’s work over the summer has been both wide-ranging and deep. This week we published her big story about a neighborhood dispute over an industrial plant in Glendale. But she also broke national news about a rescue on the Lost Coast Trail and its weird aftermath. She had some fun with a prophetic real estate query. She wrote a inquisitive profile of an unusual teacher and her unusual students who hope to bring their unusual school (or “unschool”) to Humboldt this year.

Opalach’s entire Outpost output, dating back to September 2020, can be found here.

Here’s a strange coincidence … or maybe not so strange, when you think about it: Both Martin and Opalach were, in their day, editors of the Arcata High Pepperbox, which is one of the very few high school student newspapers left in Humboldt County, and one of the best in all the land.

Jacquelyn and Gillen have been the greatest — smart, funny, charming, hard-working. If you ever get the chance to hire them, do so.

Farewell for now! Remember: You’re paying your schools, but we paid you.