Mark DeBarkBark, DailyER General Manager

Tuesday, November 8th, 2022. The day that Pete Ricketts’s term will expire.

We all knew this day was coming. We knew we couldn’t ride the waves of Pete Ricketts’s govenourship forever. We knew when we made the famous “Pete Rickass” leggings (available now in the DailyER merch store) that he wouldn’t always be governor of Nebraska, and someday these gorgeous textiles wouldn’t always be relevant.

But we didn’t think that it would come so soon.

Pete, you practically built the DailyER into the media behemoth it is today. You and everything you’ve done during your terms have put food on the table for the DailyER staff and for that, we are truly thankful. And not just food on the table, you bought the table that the food was sitting on, the house that surrounds the table, the three cars parked outside the house, the gold rims on the cars, the heated driveway that the gold rims of the cars sit on, and the premium dirt underneath the heated driveway. I mean, when you said that national data supports your narrative that marijuana will kill children, man was that good for us!

Or, when you lost it at those meddling athletic coordinators after they played the hymn, “Lift Every Voice And Sing” last year before a Husker basketball game? GOD, did I sleep well that night knowing that the members of the DailyER staff would be able to put all of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren through college.

And don’t even get me started when you stood up against CRT! That was better than Christmas day here at the DailyER. The second you blew up on Ronnie Green about his support of the basic academic right to be taught the truth about African Americans and their role in American history, I ran home to my wife and announced that we were putting in a pool, Clark Griswold style! 

Peter, from one old white dude to another, thank you. Your bald head will forever shine in the hearts of the DailyER members whose lives you changed.