R.E. Graswich of the Sacramento Bee offered this memory of legendary columnist Herb Caen (pictured) in his column today:

Reporter Herb Caen wrote, “Late one night, when the police chief of North Sacramento was shot to death, an old Chicago hand named H. Lee Watson and I put out an ‘extra’ all by ourselves. We were so proud of our feat that we stayed up all night and got drunk — not an easy thing to do in Sacramento at that time — but the publisher almost fired us the next day for squandering money.” That was 70 years ago. Today almost no reporters drink, squander money and almost get fired. And nobody uses extra editions as an excuse. Extras are like Tower [Records, which is closing today]. In 2007, we’ll drink lightly and look for new excuses.