On this final day of 2024, Rag Radio, hosted by West Side Rag freelancer Claire Davenport, kicks off in conversation with Senior Reporter Gus Saltonstall about how he reported some of the year’s most-read stories. Of the year’s most popular piece, about the closing of longtime neighborhood fixture Absolute Bagels, Saltonstall says the news had two elements that made it a must-read: Absolute was not just an iconic local business, but one with “a bagel element.”
Listen to the conversation here (music courtesy of Blue Dot sessions):
The whole Rag team is great, but it was when you brought Gus on that you really started to leave your competitors in the dust. Keep up the great work!
That was fun. Gus has been a wonderful addition to WSR – he has a great eye for interesting stories and gets what makes this neighborhood tick. Thanks!
Great job, Gus! Do please continue!
Gus is not only a brilliant and indefatigable journalist who digs deep and reports coherently on the issues apparently most important to the Upper West Side (bagels! bicycles! bagels!) He’s also adorable.
I love the WSR and I always look forward to Gus’s stories. Keep up the good work!
Hard to believe it’s only been a year and some since young Gus became part of our daily lives. He is old-school, classic good – actually walking around his beat instead of sitting at his terminal all day. That allows him to bring great context and nuance to his work. His heart comes through in every story, too. Gus rocks!
If only I were 40 years younger…
I wonder if he’s related to THE Saltonstalls of Boston. Among the illustrious Brahmin family tree was judge Nathaniel, artist Elizabeth, MA state senator William, and MA governor and US senator Leverett Saltonstall, immortalized by Irving Berlin in the Call Me Madam song ‘They Like Ike’.
Thank you Gus, it’s so wonderful to see a young man such as yourself care so much.