Welcome to my dream

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Do you ever get sick of that pretentious little salutation? It’s the one line in this newspaper that gets mailed in every single week. In fact, it’s part of my template for the page, so I won’t ever forget to put it in.

The sentiment is real, though. I presume many of you immediately open the newspaper to the contents page to determine if there’s anything you particularly want to read in this week’s paper. I believe that because that’s how I read these tabloid-style weekly newspapers when I’m in other cities.

My convention has always been that there are two purposes of the editor’s note. First, it’s to set a friendly tone for the paper. We’re not just a bunch of flame-throwing ideologues around here. While the members of our small editorial, business and sales team do a pretty good job of focusing on this newspaper 40-60 hours a week, we’re pretty normal people with children, significant others, pets, gardens and house payments.

Second, it’s to give me a spot where I can occasionally give readers the inside scoop on things that go on here at the newspaper—personnel changes, awards, milestones—or when I want to clarify something that’s happened recently in the paper. Sometimes I just want to give you a head’s up to items I’ve seen in other media that, for one reason or another, we’re not writing about elsewhere in this paper.

I wouldn’t call it a column about nothing in particular, but its intention is usually just a nice, warm handshake to begin your experience of this week’s paper.

Look at that. When I sat down, it was my intention to write about Hot August Nights, this week’s cover story, and my own need for speed. Sometimes this column can be as circuitous as a drive through downtown Reno during special events season.