Now that the holidays are almost behind us, I can quit being nice

I hate when holidays fall during the week and not on weekends. For one thing I am not sure what day today is. I mean it feels somewhat like a Monday, but perhaps it is a weekend. No, it is Wednesday. That , in turn will result in a Friday deadline in two days. Life is all a flutter and I am so confused. Next year Christmas and New Years fall on a Wednesday!

Yes, there is news this week, but because schools and governments are in slow motion at best — not much. Even police news is off kilter. Since this is week two of the 2012 “ Babies in Review” some of our regular features will not return until next week.

Speaking of “Babies in Review” it happens every year. Some mother, father, grandmother gets in big trouble for leaving out some family member from the write-up. Then comes the impassioned plea, grovelling and promise of monetary riches if we run a correction.
There was one grandma who really got in hot water for putting in the birth of her granddaughter (anticipating a week before the cut-off for submissions), but supplied the wrong birth date. (???) Nice going, SANDY!

We started the “Babies in Review” decades ago after I watched a TV review of everybody who died during that year and thought I could take a more positive attitude for starting the New Year. Since we started the practice at NO CHARGE, other newspapers have jumped onboard and decided to charge for the inputs. (Tacky!) We also do not charge for obituaries. Some (most) newspapers charge up the wazoo for putting in death notices. It can cost as little as $200 for a short notice and $500+ for a moderate obituary. I always felt that a person’s time on earth and final send-off was news, not a profit -making feature of a newspaper.

Ironically, one of the most viewed pages on our website is the obituary section. Hardly a week goes by without at least a full page, or more of obituaries. It is the first task of my day to post obituaries and I attempt to post them as they arrive at our office throughout the day.

Moving on — if you know of an active military person serving our country overseas, we will supply a free one year subscription to them. Just call us at (315) 986-4300 to start the service.

If you are a longtime Times reader, you probably already know my birthday falls on the worst day of the year — January 2nd. I don’t want to hear about being born on Christmas, or New Year’s, at least people went our of their way to make the day special for you. On January 2nd, the parties were partied out, and schools were usually not in session, so I never got a chance to wear the crown and have the classmates sing happy birthday to me in elementary school. Presents were usually “combined” with Christmas gifts or just yucky clothes — no toys. No wonder I grew up as a outsider to the world.
Alas, life goes on, more news to report. Seven days a week the phones and e-mail have to be answered. Complaints about why we are not covering certain subjects to death, or why some person did not receive their paper in the mail on time, must be addressed. OMG here comes 2013.

Comments

comments