About the author
One of the most popular and long-standing features in The Globe-Post is “Olla Podrida,” a unique column conducted by Anton J. Sartori, former LeMars druggist, and a banker at Los Angeles, California.
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Olla Podrida is almost always in strong (but nice) opposition to The Globe-Post's editorial policy. Tony Sartori is a New Deal Democrat. He thinks Franklin D. Roosevelt was the greatest President.
And anything he writes is PRINTED. Tony's the absolute and unquestioned boss of what goes into Olla Podrida.
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Tony has the rare ability of recalling nostalgic and pleasant scenes out of LeMars colorful past. He is a smooth writer, with a deftness and felicity of expression surpassed by none.
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Under the magic of his unique style, readers re-live the pleasant moments of the past. Forgotten and agreeable times are recalled. ~"As The Globe-Post Sees It" excerpt from Morsels From Olla Podrida, 1954
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**Olla Podrida column ran from Sept 1938-Oct 1958
Anton J. Sartori Jr 1883-1958
From the beginning - 1st column
LeMars Globe-Post
September 15, 1938
OLLA PODRIDA
By Anton J. Sartori
“MY COUNTRY, TIS OF THEE, .....”
Well, folks…here’s the newest thing in town—a column conducted by remote-control. If that isn’t new, what is?
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And don’t think I didn’t spar with the keyboard for what seemed like an age to get out that opening paragraph. But I made it, and if down to here will pass for a bow. I’ll speak my piece, and give you, what I consider, a fairly plausible excuse for this column’s existence.
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It was this way. Somehow, somewhere, someone discovered that I was not opposed to the movement called the New Deal.
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There was talk.
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That guy, they said, must be a freak. We’d better corral him. And they did. But it wasn’t as easy as all that, because they were a bit underhanded about it. First, they baited me; then they flattered me; then they dared me, and to cap it all, they double-dared me.
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“Do you,” they asked, “really believe in the New Deal enough to stand up and pitch for our President, his policies, and any other business that may come before the house?”
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And like the blushing bride, I said: “I do.”
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And that’s the way this whole thing got started.
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I am not a politician. I have never held, nor do I aspire to office. In this venture I have nothing more at stake than the first five words of “America” and I have used them as the opening line of this article.
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I believe in working for the things that bring the greatest good to the greatest number. If this makes of me a New Dealer, then that’s what I am, and I’ll defend my position to the best of my ability.
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But I must be allowed off the reservation part of the time, much of the time, for I have no stomach for a steady diet of political pabulum.
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See you next week.
