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Happy New Year to you, too

Instead of rambling on about the things I will do to improve myself in the coming year, I decided I would send a general thank you to the folks who have already made those suggestions to me during 2002.

Thank you for your suggestion that I tell Janet Post, sports reporter and photographer, whose kid her game photos should feature in any given week. If you think I'm going to tell her what you said, you are crazy-crazy-crazy. You should take this up with her yourself. Good luck.!

Thank you for telling me that I ought to dig around for some mud and muck to print about someone you dislike. I already have my own list of people I dislike. You don't see me tracking them all over town, taking notes on their behavior, and telling the whole community, do you? If I'm not kicking THEM across the editorial page of the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, it's not likely I'll be fighting your battle. You can write a guest editorial or send a letter to the editor. Just be sure your information is factual and sign your name.

Thank you for submitting your club report, game statistics, and organization minutes three or four weeks late, then complaining because they didn't get into the paper the week you finally got off your patootie and dropped them off at my office. I don't have much control over things like this. The publishers (being real-honest-to-goodness-newspaper-folk) insist on news being fairly current.

Gosh darn it, anyway! But the truth of the matter is that no one cares about a Nov. 1 item in the 18th of December issue . . . by then readers only want to know what happened on the 17th of December. That is just how it works.

Thank you for continuing to whine and moan about that blasted stink-o mailing label. It's always in the middle of whatever it is you want to see, right? The first year or so we ran a news story and photo above the nameplate (the part that says "Peabody Gazette-Bulletin" in fancy script). Invariably, the mailing label would be slapped across the photo or smack in the middle of the story. Whine, cry, moan, gunch, carry on . . . lots of complaints about THAT situation. Well, I can't say that I blame you. But the labels are put on by a machine. Who knows what it thinks?

After much discussion about the complaints, we canned the story/picture at the top of the page and chose to run highlights of items inside the paper . . . society, editorials, community, sports, etc. So guess where the label falls now? Nine times out of 10, it is right in the middle of the big picture below the nameplate. Sheesh . . . how do you think that stuff happens? But thank you anyway for letting me know that you think I am an idiot for purposely placing that label on the item you want to read or see. I needed to know that.

Thank you for complaining about every story we run about another community. You are right of course; no other town we serve should have any news in the paper. Only your town should be covered because you and your community are the center of the universe and the newspaper exists solely to serve your needs. And I am aware that this rule only applies to the good news about your burgh. I agree that I should be soundly reprimanded if mention is made of drug problems, troublemakers, or incidents of a negative nature. (That would be the only time it is acceptable to allude to the other cities, right?)

Thank you for being so helpful all year long. It takes the pressure off of this New Year's resolution business.

— SUSAN MARSHALL

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