This Tuesday's paper is not a Sunday edition, but it will seem like one.
The annual monstrous People & Progress - six sections, 88 pages - will accompany your Tuesday Mirror.
The edition, printed on special "heavy-stock" paper (press room vernacular), is a cooperative effort between the Mirror advertising department and the newsroom.
It's organized by sections to feature business (two sections), education, health, recreation and community.
We try to alternate various subjects from year to year, while focusing on success stories and offering all businesses, local and regional, a chance to at least profile their operations.
News Editor Margaret Moses and page designer Ryan Kuhn are chiefly responsible, but so are our entire reporting and photography staffs and copy desk, which proofs the final version.
We maintain editorial independence in that we understand the general categories and are not being told by an advertising representative to "make sure you have a story on (fill in the business)." At the same time, we keep an open line, and an open mind, with suggestions offered by Advertising Director Bob Eger and his staff.
Progress is really an upbeat extension of the Sunday business page, which often features a local company, perhaps one celebrating an anniversary such as today's story on McAleer's Plumbing, now in its 125th year.
Except it's about a year's worth of Sunday stories rolled into one edition.
So we know you won't be able to read it all over a cup, or even five cups of coffee. Let it sit around and enjoy it all week.
And feel free to compliment your Mirror carrier as he struggles to your home.
Head count
One of our reporters, Amanda Clegg, took a call from a concerned reader over the reporting of "several hundred" people attending last week's Hollidaysburg Area School Board meeting.
The reader suggested Clegg be more specific. Clegg was perplexed because there were more than 700 people at the meeting, nearly packing the Frankstown Elementary School gymnasium.
From this view, "several hundred" can be an accurate description of 700.
And if the reader doesn't agree, let's make a new rule: Let's ask each of these school boards to delay their meeting until we can get an exact head count.
Bettwy's back
You may notice the return of cartoonist Bill Bettwy after a brief hiatus to our Opinion Page. Welcome back, Bill.
Mirror Managing Editor Neil Rudel can be reached at 946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.
