Meet Miss Mingo

She datelines out of Key West, and it's from the Conch Republic that she answers readers' questions about the news, the universe, and everything.

Readers of J.C. Bruce’s The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures may recall meeting newspaper reporter Hermina Hermelinda Obregon when she was introduced as a character in Strange Currents, the fourth in the series of novels.

She wasn’t called Miss Mingo then, but, rather, had fun with her initials H.H.O. Which could be expressed as H2O. So her nickname at that time was “Agua.“

Which just about everyone agreed was kinda lame.

But then, the story goes, her newspaper colleagues in Key West threw her a “retirement” party when she got laid off, part of staff cutbacks at her paper much like those elsewhere around the country.

Everyone showed up in pink because that was her favorite color. Some wore flamingo tee shirts. And as a going away gift, they gave her a gorgeous pink fedora, which she started wearing around town.

And pretty soon, everyone started calling her Miss Mingo, a nickname she likes much better.

Is that story true? Is her name even real? Does she really live with her two cats—Deadline and Dateline—and a pet iguana named Skippy?

Or is all this the work of an author’s imagination?

You be the judge.

No matter, her byline now appears in Tropic Press as a weekly advice columnist.

Got a question about the news? Or life? Or the universe? Or anything? Email her at: