“Sure is quiet … yeah, too quiet.”

— “Airplane,” 1980

It feels a little too quiet around here today.

Just take a look atop the Opinion page. There’s a name missing from the editorial board listing, and it’s a big one.

E-R reporter/weekend editor Evan Tuchinsky has left the building.

As readers of his “City Insider” column know, Evan and his wife, Dr. Amy Dolinar Tuchinsky, are New Zealand-bound. Amy is taking a sabbatical from Enloe Medical Center and will work in New Zealand at a hospital with a clinic, where she’ll provide a mix of inpatient and outpatient care within a national health system.

And Evan? Typically, he’s going to stay very, very busy. He’s already explored (and found) writing opportunities in New Zealand as well as avenues to serve his temporary home in other ways. (And, lest you worry, he’ll continue writing for us in the form of a biweekly “View From Down Under” column.)

It’s exactly what I would expect from someone who was called the “hardest-working journalist in town” even before he joined our hardest-working-in-town newspaper staff.

I got tipped off — maybe “warned” would be a better term? — about his work ethic shortly after I hired him away from the Chico News & Review in late 2022.

“Congratulations,” read the email from Evan’s then-boss, Jason Cassidy. “You just hired the hardest-working journalist in town.”

I had no idea how much weight those words actually carried.

For more than two and a half years, Evan was the first reporter I heard from almost every day. He was also usually the last person I heard from every day. If you asked any person on our staff, they’d probably tell you the same thing.

Daily, he’d offer ideas, suggestions, critiques, insights, propositions, recommendations, criticisms, tips, prompts, and words to the wise. It wasn’t all that unusual for him to offer each of those things within the first three minutes of a conversation.

Those of you who read our paper closely (and I thank you for that) no doubt appreciate his versatility as a writer just as much as I have: government, agriculture, land use, opinion, entertainment and sports, just to mention a few areas. He’s top-notch across the board; the haul of awards he got in the Better Newspapers Contest the past two years shows it.

But that’s just part of what he brought to us. It’s seldom you get a talented employee who strives to make everybody around him better; usually, that’s what bosses are for. I do my best, but Evan also brought that to everyone on our staff — including me.

Did we always agree? Of course not. Name one worthwhile team that ever has. But, in the spirit of the old-time newspaper copy desks that shaped both of us, we’d focus on the matter at hand, hash things out and move along, never taking a word of it personally. That has become a pretty elusive thing.

He had his opinions, and they’d come out in his columns (as well as on our editorial page). At least one high-ranking city official was probably speaking for dozens of others when he told him “No matter how mad I get at you, I can’t stay mad. You’re too nice of a guy.”

(That, there, has become an especially elusive thing.)

And so on we go. Evan has made a positive mark both here and in the community, and we are very appreciative. As for the E-R, we’ll carry on and keep doing the things we do best. With loss comes opportunity, and I know you’re going to deeply appreciate some things coming down the pike from the rest of our staff.

If there’s one thing I’d like to remind all of our reporters (and future reporters), it’s this:

The happiest people in this business are inevitably the hardest workers. It’s a tough gig that chews people up, spits them out and leaves them open to public ridicule they never signed up for. The very best stick with it anyway — and make a positive impact not only on the topics they’re covering, but also the people they work with.

They also tend to make a fair amount of racket while doing so. That’s probably why it seems a little quiet around here today.

Best wishes from all of us, Evan. I’d say “please stay in touch,” but we know you perfected that skill a long time ago.

Mike Wolcott is the editor of the Enterprise-Record. He can be reached at mwolcott@chicoer.com. If you’d like to send Evan some warm wishes (or even some insights, propositions, recommendations or words to the wise), he can be reached at e.m.tuchinsky@gmail.com.