Each Wednesday morning (except when Monday is a major holiday), our little news staff — me, J.P. and Jay — and Dolores gather to plan the next issue of the paper. Years ago, I opened this meeting up to the public, gathering at various cafes throughout Idyllwild because our office lacked space. J.P. continued the…
Emax’s “As We Were Saying” column from Sept. 20, 1963, expresses perfectly my sentiments this Tuesday as I write this. In fact, Jack and I took a walk around the block on deadline just to shake the cobwebs out and clear my head before coming back and reading his skinny little column back when the…
A few weeks ago, as guests of the Garner Valley Women’s Club, Jack and I covered a tour of vineyards in — would you guess? Garner Valley (tecnically, Pine Meadows) and Anza. Garner Valley surrounds Thomas Mountain Vineyards, where our tour began, that Jim and Timmie Martens, retired trucking owners, began a few years ago….
It’s not all complaints from people who don’t like the facts you print or that you print both sides of their controversy. There really are many feel-good times in the running a small-town newspaper. For example, every day we get to see the good things that people are doing for our community — sometimes as…
My one good hand’s fingertips will be worn out by the time we finish this week’s paper — maybe even by the time I finish this column. My left is wrapped in a brace and dangling in a sling like a newborn puppy — without the cuteness. This all started in February when overcompensating for…
Sometimes operating a local newspaper feels like a game of Whac-A-Mole — no matter what hole you peek out of someone’s waiting there with a mallet. Take the current subject of IFPD, for example. Some folk strongly oppose IFPD’s continued existence, wanting to replace it with Cal Fire. They may not get why the TC…
Jazz in the Pines goers experience a different idea of the festival than community members. The visitors enjoy extraordinary music and a relaxed ease that comes from the meandering festival layout, floating parachutes, artistic vendors and wafting scents of roasting almonds, Thai food and barbecue, among other delights. They probably also notice, because they can’t…
Here at the editor’s desk, I receive overwhelming requests for precious space in the Town Crier — space that varies depending on the size of the newspaper. People sometimes think it’s easy to add one page to the paper but it’s not that simple. So, for those who’ve never lived in a world of commercial…
Each time our mountain suffers a tragedy in my more than 23 years at the TC, a media blitz hits Idyllwild. And most of the time it arrives at deadline. Though not on deadline while covering the fire during the evacuation, the three of us who remained behind constantly either wrote and/or answered phones. A…
1:45 p.m. Monday, July 15, a Mountain Center fire report to San Bernardino National Forest dispatch came over the scanner. I remember the description as rapidly moving. On deadline for the July 18 paper, I walked into J.P.’s office and relayed what I had just heard. Strapped to our computers typing like mad, neither of…
