Just Another January Day in the Neighborhood

Yup, to start out with, it's just another January day here in the beautiful Selle Valley when we Love's (subscribers for at least 40 years) have not received our Spokesman-Review newspaper.  

This absence of the morning regional read has happened ONLY five times in the past ten days.  

I guess these days the bar is lower, and if you're doing 50 percent, you're on track. 

I called the circulation department, as we both have on each those five days, and I'm still waiting to hear from a live body. 

"High volume of calls," they say. 

If and when they do call, I'm planning to ask them when they became a nonprofit organization and if I can include my "donation" to their company as a tax write-off.

When we once again go to town to buy yet another paper to replace those we have already paid for but did not receive, maybe we'll learn what the heck was going on in our neighborhood yesterday. 

Cop cars up and down Selle and North Kootenai Roads, crime scene tape . . . .it did cause some concern in the neighborhood, especially when we learned---by sleuthing on social media---that someone had been shot and possibly someone else was still running loose. 

Who knows the story, and I'm wondering if we ever will know the story.  After all in this "alternative universe," we ARE living in troubled, soon-to-be-throttled informational times. 

In my basic journalism classes back in the dark ages, we learned the importance of the public relying on news imparted by professional journalists.  In those days, the public generally trusted the press.

Our instructors reminded us of the dangers of rumor mills/these days known as social media. They stressed that trained professionals pursuing the facts AND, as Joe Friday said, ONLY the facts and then carefully crafting an accurate story for public consumption would go far to put the rumor mills to rest.

I would hope that principle is still being taught to aspiring journalists. 

If anyone out there wants to pass along to the Spokesman-Review or to the Bonner County Daily Bee that the Selle folks would like to know the real and full story behind the police presence, I'm sure the neighborhood would appreciate it.

In the meantime, out here in generally blissful Selle, dogs are still playing, turkeys are still foraging, horses are hanging out in their pastures and snow and frost are creating wonderful scenes of winter solitude and nature's rest. 

And, that is a good thing.  After all, it's the constants in life that keep us grounded even if we are curious about unpredicted and mysterious happenings in the midst of our constancy. 

FYI:  In the past 45 minutes, the assurance that "your call is important," has not yet convinced me. Nobody has returned my call. 

Happy Wednesday.