Unless you’re on your fourth long weekend gin, you’ve already guessed there’s something different about the Spiel this month.
Adding colour to the cover has been my goal for some time because it’s heartbreaking to lay the thing out in colour only to have it come back from the printer in black and white. As I write this I don’t know what it looks like but colour rarely dissappoints and the only reason it hasn’t happened already is the cost.
So, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the advertisers responsible for financing the added improvements. If you like the changes, I hope you’ll support these local businesses that have made them possible.
Another, not so obvious, addition is that the Harbour Spiel is now delivered to 400 more homes than before. The circulation now extends from Egmont south, past Middlepoint, to Leaning Tree Rd. and Cooper’s Green. Most of these new readers have probably never heard of the Spiel so I welcome you and encourage feedback.
For those eager readers who bypassed the editorial to race ahead, you’ll already know about some other exciting new additions this month. I am honoured to be able to include Bus Griffiths’ graphic novel Now You’re Logging as a regular monthly feature. Now You’re Logging was written before the term graphic novel was even coined and much before it became a popular and marketable commodity in the publishing industry. Thanks to Howard and Mary White at Harbour Publishing for allowing me to share this BC classic with Spiel readers.
A couple of new columnists have jumped into the pool too.
In the red speedo, Shane McCune has pledged to write about whatever topics filter into his brain each month. If page 41 is blank in August, you’ll know what happened.
Since the topic of home values and real estate is always a popular topic, Alan Stewart will be writing about just that. And, finally, the local Goast Guard Auxiliary will give us the word on the water.
In a place like this, there’ll never be a lack of ideas for any of these columns or new fodder for discussion but don’t let that stop you from sending me your ideas and thoughts. What keeps this little project, and this community, interesting is the variety of voices and opinions out there.
Keep them coming because like George Bush Sr. said,
"I have opinions of my own – strong opinions – but I don’t always agree with them."