EDITOR’S DESK: Stories of the year

       We're unusual here at the Pioneer (let me finish) in that we, unlike most other weeklies in the area, publish a newspaper between Christmas and New Year's. The rationale for not publishing is that typically nothing is going on during that last week of the year, plus numerous news sources are on vacation or just plain hard to get hold of, so why not take a break.
       Given that those are all valid points, I still like putting out a paper between Christmas and New Year's. I got in the habit of that during my days at the old Manitou Pikes Peak Journal (we never missed a week!), and that was where I discovered - partly out of a desperate need to fill space - the great fun of organizing a stories- of-the-year article.
       Pausing a second to look at that last sentence, I wonder if I shouldn't have put "fun" in quotes because the word really only applies to the time spent musing about what the story ought to have in it. The sitting-down-to-write-it part is more like work, because it's not the easiest thing in the world to capsulize into an inch or two stories that may have required - due to their vital intricacies - barrels of ink throughout the year. Still and all, as the stories-of-the-year endeavor goes forward, the rewarding aspects begin to present themselves. The 12 monthsgone by no longer seem like a haze of forgettable details; instead, they reveals trends, ideas and insights that can prove useful in the months to come.
       Not that we in Pioneerland don't believe in taking publishing breaks. As indicated at the top of Page 1 this issue, our Grand Design calls for our break the week AFTER New Year's. This is based on discovering over the years that even if news sources are back on the job during that time, holiday hangovers prevent them from providing much that is newsworthy. Not this year, of course. the Grand Design failed to account for the Bijou bridge demolition starting Jan. 2.. But no matter. I can already see it in our 2007 stories of the year.

- K.J.