By Don Nelson
The ice rink is open. Methow Trails groomers are at work. Loup Loup is tuning up the chairlift for action next week. Two holiday bazaars down, one yet to go. Mistletoe Madness in Twisp. Gear Up for the Holidays at TwispWorks. Cascadia concerts. “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at The Merc. Neighbors Helping Neighbors and Manger Mall ready to rock. Basketball and wrestling at the Liberty Bell High School gym.
December is upon us at breakneck speed, with events crowding what’s left of the 2017 calendar right down to the last day. It’s the Methow in full action mode, and there’s no escaping it. But who would want to? Especially now that it looks like the snow will stay “pretty” rather than gritty for the next several months.
It hit me this weekend that as usual, I’m behind in holiday planning and preparation — you know, cards, gifts, Christmas regalia and such. But the older I get, the less that feels like stress. The important things will naturally take care of themselves.
Still, some staging is involved. For us at the newspaper, that means working around the big holidays (Christmas and New Year days, which inconveniently bob around the week from year to year) to get the paper to people when they expect it while giving our staff some celebratory time. We like taking advantage of the holiday schedule too. Not easy things to juggle.
Here’s how we’re going to do that this year: We will take the two Monday holidays (Dec. 25 and Jan. 1) off and the News office will be closed. Then we will return on the following Tuesdays (Dec. 26 and Jan. 2) to finish the newspaper on our regular schedule. That is, we will send it to the press on Tuesday night for printing and distribution on Wednesday. If all goes well, you’ll find the paper at the newsstand or in your mailbox at the regular time.
Taking a day off in the middle of production will make things pretty crunchy for us, our freelance writers and cartoonists, and our advertisers. But we’ll all plan ahead appropriately and expect things to go smoothly. Might as well be optimistic.
December is a time of retrospection as well, as we contemplate the past year’s events and issues. Lots to deal with there, I’d say. For the News, that means putting together our annual “Year in Review” issue, which will be published on Jan. 3.
For years, we’ve followed the same format of month-by-month revisiting of the major news stories of the previous year. This year, we’re going to try something different, and we need your help. This is participatory journalism, folks!
What we’d like our readers to do is help us select the “Top 10 News Stories of the Year” in (or significantly affecting) the Methow Valley.
Here’s how it will work: I’ll come up with a list of 20 or so nominees for the top 10 list, and you will then have a chance to vote on them (or add write-in candidates if you wish). We won’t necessarily rank them from one to 10, but we would like to narrow down the field to a group of stories that you think were most noteworthy.
We’ll run “ballots” in the newspaper on Dec. 13, 20 and 27. You’ll be able to vote by email, snail mail or online to make your choices known. Add comments if you like. We’ll compile them into a story for the Jan. 3 issue. No ballot-stuffing, please.
I’ve taken the “Top 10” approach at other papers and found it’s more interesting and engaging than a trudge through the calendar. Also, I’m interested in knowing what you think, because it will help us shape our coverage in the future.
So get the critical thinking part of your brain cranked up (but don’t overdo it — ’tis the holidays, after all) and bring your opinion to bear. We value it.
