Fielder’s Choice - Barry Burleson


Thursday, August 4, 2011
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Fielder’s Choice
By Barry Burleson

All worked out OK

Last week was just one of those weeks. It was full of surprises and challenges.

Each week, we strive here at your South Reporter to get things right. Most of the time, we’re on target.

And last week there was even an extra focus on accuracy because it was the final newspaper before the August 2 primary.

It was our goal not to mess up or leave out any candidate’s political message.

We got a few calls from some candidates prior to publication – “put my ad in a good spot” or “don’t bury me in the paper.”

It’s not our goal to give anyone “a bad spot.”

As you saw, the July 26 edition contained lots and lots of political ads. And from talking to some voters last week, the ads were read.

Actually, as publisher of a weekly newspaper for 20 years, I’ve learned all spots in a community newspaper are good ones. Folks look at it and even leave it laying around the house for a week to look at it some more until the next one comes out. Our circulation is as strong as ever.

Then Monday of last week, we learned our good friends at The Oxford Eagle (which prints The South Reporter) were having some equipment problems. Instead of sending our pages electronically to Oxford, as usual, we had to send them to Batesville. And then someone from Oxford drove to Batesville to get the page negatives. That worked out just fine.

Then Wednesday morning, a rather stressful week or two with equipment at the printer’s continued. We got our “A section” pages back and a couple of candidates’ announcements were cut.

I was upset and probably overreacted, as I have a tendency to do. I guess the pressure of the week caught up with me.

But this problem worked out OK, too, thanks to some calming words from a fellow newspaper publisher and the kindness and understanding of those two candidates who had their political advertisements sliced a bit.

Wednesday afternoon, I went home at 5 and lay down on the couch. In probably five minutes or less, I was sound asleep and crashed for about three hours.

I can’t recall doing that after work in a very long time.

The “crazy” week continued Thursday evening but this time not at the newspaper office. Our electricity suddenly went out at home and stayed off for about five hours.

The kind lady on the other end of the phone at the Holly Springs Utility Department said workers were in Oxford repairing a transformer and would be in our neighborhood as soon as possible.

As seems to be typical, some on our street had lights and some did not.

I waited – with understanding but patience has never been one of my virtues. I called the kind lady back a couple of hours later and she said, “They’re on their way.”

We moved to the cooler, downstairs portion of our house and looked forward to getting air conditioning back on a very hot and humid late July night.

It happened about midnight, and I even got to sleep upstairs in my own bed.

Thank goodness for the weekend. I was able to escape to Alabama to visit with family for the first time in a couple of months. We enjoyed fried fish and the fixings and lots of laughs, good times and relaxation.

This week is off to a better start – thank goodness.

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