Editors' Corner

Got cabin fever yet?

BILL MILLER

March is here, and the temps are still in the teens, 20s and 30s! Snow is deep, and I haven't seen any maple syrup tapping start — unbelievable!

Actually, this is a probably more like an "old fashioned" winter than these wimpy winters we've had so far in the 21st century.

I thought it would be fun to look at the Enquirer's weather station stats since Jan. 1 and found this:

Battle Creek is the place to be for sports

BILL BRODERICK

If you like high school sports, Battle Creek is the place to be the rest of this week.

Kellogg Arena will host the State Team Wrestling Finals on Friday and Saturday with area team Bronson trying to get that elusive first state championship.

And boys' and girls' basketball is in full swing with several teams still alive, including the St. Philip girls playing in a regional final on Thursday.

But, as for hoop action in town, you don't have to look any further than Lakeview High School hosting the Class A district final in boys between city rivals Lakeview and BCC. Plus, you have Pennfield in a district final on its home floor and Climax-Scotts in a district final on its home floor.

And, of course, if you can't get to it all, than get it all in the Enquirer as we will try to be everywhere.

Thinking about spring and potholes

BILL MILLER

You know, I was thinking...

• It seems like the gloomiest time of year, mid to late winter. But it's the price we pay for four seasons, and I think it's worth it. Look at it this way — it's only 3 weeks until the first day of spring, and less than 4 weeks to Easter!

• Don't you think this has been the worst year ever for potholes? I've lived and worked here for decades, and I don't recall road conditions this bad, and it's not even March. The ground is still pretty much frozen. I know that road crews are working hard trying to patch them, but it's a monumental task. Keep watching our Web site and reading the Enquirer — we're working on a story for upcoming days. And be sure to join our Pothole Patrol — map your potholes and then report them.

Where should we go?

BILL BRODERICK

At this time of year especially, I'm always asked how we decide what games to cover, when to cover them, where to cover them, etc. Every team and every fan has their own answer to that question, but I have to live under the reality that we can't cover every game the same way, as much as we'd like to.

We only  have so many reporters, so many photographers, so much time and so much space in the paper to take care of multiple tournament games - especially when it is the first night of district play.

A lot of times, those decisions take care of themselves with logistics taking over - a local team may be an hour away while another team is in our backyard - making that an easy choice for our overburdened sports staff.

But on Monday, that wasn't the case.

"Quit hating on me" — profanity?

BILL MILLER

You know, I was thinking...

About last Wednesday's story on the Battle Creek Central-Portage Central game (that the Bearcats lost 48-47 after a technical foul against BCC's Jason Washburn). According to Jason Idalski's story, Washburn told the referee, "Quit hating on me." There was some discussion about whether it was profanity. Well, this intrigued me. Why didn't Washburn just say, "Quit hating me?"

Let the Madness begin

BILL BRODERICK

Tournament play begins next week for high school basketball.
Ever since the MHSAA made the change to put both boys' and girls' basketball in the same season, I wondered how would the newspaper cover the postseason.
Would we have to choose between a girls' regional game and a boys' district game. How is that fair? Clearly, regionals are more important than districts. But some readers would also argue that, based on the people in the stands, that boys' basketball has a bigger following than girls.
Well, the MHSAA figured out a way to make it a non-issue. The tournaments will be staggered throughout. The girls will start a week early for districts, playing on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, while the boys finish the regular season on Tuesday-Thursday.
After that, the boys will start districts on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, with the girls in regionals on Tuesday-Thursday. And so on.
This means there doesn’t have to be a decision made as to what game someone needs to go to, or which game is more important - a girls’ regional contest vs. a boys’ district game.
Give the MHSAA a huge high-five on this one for getting it right.
Now we just have to decide if we are going to overdose on basketball - boys or girls.

The driveway is clear and I can feel my fingers and toes again, so I thought I'd take a spin through the Web site and see what folks were commenting on and whether I had any e-mail about any of it.

It's good to see spirited comments, including those critical of us, and even better that I don't see any complaints about anybody abusing the forum. But it's early.

About "Starting Over," which we published on the front page of today's print edition: Several readers remembered seeing the story before, and one online reader correctly explained that it originally appeared in Moxie, a quarterly magazine aimed at baby boomers.

Leaving the debate over the value of the story aside, questioning the placement of the story on the homepage is valid, given that the story has been online for better than a week. One point of clarification:

A look ahead to hockey

Bill Broderick

Sunday's Enquirer will be all hockey all the time - our tribute to the upcoming 'Hockey Weekend in America." Why do it almost a week ahead of time?
We like to give a big package like this (2-3 stories) a good ride and Sunday is the best day for it. We could have done it midweek as we came closer to 'Hockey Weekend', but it might have been lost in the shuffle as we are usually very busy with our prep coverage throughout the week.
'Hockey Weekend' is a nice event deserving of some coverage and I hope it can help the local hockey community build on what they have.
The other question, people might ask, 'Why so much?'
The thinking here is that we are a local paper and when we have the opportunity to look at a local event and we can give it extra treatment, we are going to do that over running a story of MSU basketball vs. Northwestern.
We always try to gain a balance of state/national and local, but if it comes down to it, and we can do blowout coverage of something local, that's what we are going to do.

Kenya

JOHN GRAP

More than 30 years ago when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia I had to be reassigned to another part of the country due to civil unrest. At the time it was very unsettling for us volunteers, but a necessary precaution.

With the current unrest in Kenya something similar was announced today.

National signing day

JOHN GRAP

I know this may across as obnoxious to all you Wolverine and Spartans, GO IRISH! We need some good news and all the help we can get.