I love Olympia! If it were a man I’d marry it, if it were ice cream I’d eat it, if it were stock options I’d buy it. It’s not so pretty today as it is raining cats and dogs and llamas and sloths and aardvarks today.
What do I love about Olympia?
It has a sense of history. I swear last week, I was walking early in the morning on 4th ave and in the corner of my eye, I saw a man in a grey suit with a handlebar mustache. Then when I turned to look, he wasn’t there! (cue Twilight Zone music) Sometimes, you can get a glimpse of what Oly looked like “back in the day” at certain times or when the light strikes it certain ways. Some of the buildings especially evoke the elder days.
I also like that Oly is still kind of a small town. Makes it accessible. When I lived in Seattle, I could walk around all day and not see anybody I know. Not so, Olympia where I get “hi” from all over.
Olympia has it’s problems. Community decision-making is fraught with controversy. We agonize, we decide, then protest, counter-protest, then sue. This is one area of communitiness that should be marked “needs improvement.”
In a meandering article talking about a range of topics, George Le Masurier, publisher of The Olympian tucks in a stinger at the end. The Daily Zero will change it’s stand sales rates.
The price of the daily Olympian purchased in racks and stores will increase to 75 cents effective Monday, and the Sunday paper will go to $1.75 effective April 19.
Our daily price reflects the going rate for newspapers in every region of the United States. In some cities the daily paper now costs $1. Our new Sunday price, however, is slightly under what others are charging.
The new rates will enable us to preserve news content during a difficult economic period.
I look forward to hearing from you.
George Le Masurier, publisher of The Olympian, can be reached at 360-357-0206 or glemasurier@theolympian.com.
It’s probably understandable that in the current newspaper climate, a rate change was in the offing. Wouldn’t a rate change for the paper merit front page attention?
I just had some stark realizations in projecting the end of the paper newspaper.
What will I wrap fish in?
What will people put in the bottom of birdcages?
What will kids use to make paper-mache globes with?
What will I wrap around my dishware next time I move?
What will puppies go on?
You know those crazed people who hoard stacks of newspapers in their houses? Maybe they were right in thinking “someone will need this someday.”
Someday children will be watching a video of the 50’s and Dear Old Dad reading the paper and ask, “What’s that giant book he’s reading?
When your kid hits a homer in Little League, you will proudly display a computer print out of the article (no more clippings from the paper for the scrapbook). OR you’ll display it on your iPhone wallpaper.
Have we THOUGHT about this? How different things will feel in the Post Newspaper Era?
Fido will only have to worry about bringing the slippers.
One of the oldest forms of public news dissemination is the well. In the olden days, people had to go to the well at least daily or several times a day. The users of the well, mostly women, would then inform each other of happenings in their family, or rumors they had heard. This is not even just a human phenomenon. Many social interactions in animal groups also occur at the local pond, lake, whatever.
Wildebeast 1: Mooo, you know Betty is about to drop that calf any day now.
Wildebeast 2: Mooo, I know what you mean…. it’ll be nice to hear the pitter-patter of little hooves around here again.
Councilwoman Joan Machlis, who worked to get the agreement signed, said community advocacy was important.
“It is a phenomenal gathering space,” she said.
to which there was a comment:
glenn wrote on 02/25/2009 07:55:27 AM:
“It is a phenomenal gathering space”. What? It’s a damn parking lot. Just this morning I was trying to figure out what I would do with my day and lo and behold I decided to go and stand in the parking lot. Maybe I’ll bring a book.
While I agree with glenn that the physical facility is not very sightly, it’s still a place of note for Olympia.
A recent count shows that about 250 persons a day use the well. Most don’t stick around for conversation, so it’s not much the gathering place for communication sake.
However, in my capacity as a member of the group, H2Oly, the new well advocacy group, I do hear a lot about the well these days. It still is a passionate issue for many people and they will tell you about how they or their household or Aunt Minnie goes there for drinking water.
I’m glad there is a plan to keep the well going. I hope we get a facility nicer than the one we have someday.
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Olympia doesn’t have it’s own major market television station? We are kind of the step-kid of Seattle mega-media and it can be annoying sometimes.
I grew up in Oregon where more cities had their own voice in the TV market than does Washington. Even Roseburg had TV.Olympia does not have it’s own commercial TV station and with the economic times being what they are, probably won’t have one anytime soon.
Soon, I hear, we will have another public access channel. I am definitely in support of public access TV. I used to participate more actively in the Portland access system. I think also public access TV will have plenty of content to show with the rise in citizen-generated content.
Will changes in media with technology render the need for a local TV station pointless?
I LOVE this guy. I used to watch him on public access TV. My favorite bit was when he pointed out stupid stuff in the paper like an ad for Mother’s Day from ye olde Yard Birds for hip waders. Just what mom is pining for.
Jerry Farmer is a Radio Columnist for 94.5 ROXY KRXY-FM in Olympia, Washington, and a video maven and a blogger.
The Olympian newspaper has had a video section on it’s website. Of particular interest is Olycast which looks like what a TV newscast would look like if Oly had a commercial TV station. Also check out the user-submitted stuff.
