Newspapers are the best place to work if you never want to feel like it is ground hog day – day after day – because every day is different and exciting. And, if you are a curious person, you get paid to be curious or as other people call it – nosey. I remember in Jr. High School, someone complained to the science teacher that I was nosey. And, he stood up in the class and said how important it was to be curious or nosey. The problem is – I’m curious about too many things. I have literally hundreds of how-to and other non-fiction books that I’ve started, and I don’t finish before I move on to the next – bright shiny object.
I covered the last perfect season in NCAA men’s basketball. I wrote a book about it as well, titled Perfect Run as No. 1, in case you are interested in reading it.
Last Monday was April Fools’ Day. The origin of this odd observance is disputed, but I’d like to thank whoever invented it. I celebrated April Fools’ Day religiously as a kid. What other day of the year could you get away with playing a prank on somebody simply by shouting, “April Fools’!” April 1, 1971, the year Canada began switching over to the metric system, a call-in show on a local AM radio station reported, in compliance with the new system of measure, they would now be giving the time in metric. They said something like, “The current time is 10.25 metric.” The phone lines lit up with angry Canadians! At the end of the three metric-hour show, the hosts shouted, “April Fools’!” and explained that it was all a prank.
This week’s deadline was a little earlier in the day so our production manager, Dickie Williams, could leave early to get ready for his gig. It’s not just any gig – they are opening Bands on the Beach with his Beatles Tribute band, “Not Quite Fab.” But as you will see, we didn’t skimp on coverage. Our sports coverage is over the top. Kudos to Brian Lester, Dickie Williams, John Richardson and Stuart Camp for all contributing to our sports coverage. Someone told me they liked to read sports because it is always positive coverage. Even if a team loses, there is something positive to be learned from the experience. Not to leave out the news coverage – we appreciate Jamie Gentry, Brian Lester, Drew Drohan, Michael Bannon, Gail Acosta and the team that supports all our writers. This includes the graphics team that designs the ads, Jodi Kane and Thomas Kulesa. And the ones that like to remain in the background, our bookkeeper Cheryl Middleton and our circulation coordinator and traffic controller, April Pearson. I don’t want to forget (because I couldn’t if I wanted to) our distribution coordinator, Jesse Stewart who has been having to drive to Panama City to pick up our Lowe’s inserts for the past two weeks and drive them to Mobile, Alabama where our paper is printed. Phew, I hope I didn’t leave anyone out. I would mention our sales team, but you are looking at her. Gail helps her in her spare time which is scarce. Hopefully I’ll find more people that want to have as much fun as I am having helping other businesses succeed through effective print and online advertising. First, I must have time to look at all the resumes I have.
Over the weekend, D.J. Deas’s parents returned to Navarre only eight short months after he took his own life. They came to talk about suicide, they came to talk about it out loud, they came to reach students, parents and teachers who knew D.J. and those who didn’t.
I’m a Canadian. Yes, I say “eh?” at the end of sentences, well, at least I used to. Growing up in Canada, I’d always thought that it was you Americans who had the accent. It wasn’t until I moved to Florida that I learned that it was me. People would stop me mid-sentence, ask me to repeat myself, then laugh at my accent. I quickly realized that life in Florida would go much easier for me if I lost the accent and the “eh?” with it.
