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Publisher's Corner Nov. 18th Issue

11/18/2013

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Hello Everyone! Thanks for picking up this week's issue of Tidbits of the Lake Area. Please enjoy!!
Well, as we scream towards another deadline I thought I would answer another question about Tidbits for you. If you check out the top right corner of the front page you see the phrase "4 Million Readers Nationwide". "How can it be that many?", I get asked from time to time. Tidbits is a nationwide publishing company and each individual publisher, such as my wife, Lynette, and I produce our own paper in a certain territory. Ours is Northeast South Dakota and West Central Minnesota. Each Tidbits publication is locally owned and operated across the county and we receive the basic text and a package of fun and interesting things to choose from to bring to our readers. The combined total of persons reading across the USA is around 4 million. So, when you are enjoying our weekly Tidbits text, so are a lot of other faithful readers all across this county and up in Canada as well.

Lutefisk... hmm. The impression Lynette and I took away from the experience was... It's not as bad as all the hype, we actually enjoyed it. The people in Summit did a wonderful job preparing the Lutefisk and other wonderful food items. We did get stopped in our tracks as we entered the building. You don't need directions to a Lutefisk Supper, just close your eyes and follow your nose!

Farm Safety?
Here's a little story that sticks in my head when I think back to helping dad around our little farm growing up. One thing you learn on a farm is how to get things done yourself... like changing out a tube on a front wheel of a tractor.
Here was the plan. Dad would lay the tire down and drive the front of the other tractor over the tire to separate the bead from the rim, then we would change out the bad tube, put in the new one and away we go. Well, things didn't go quite that smooth. It was more like this: Step one - drive up on the tire and get half the bead down. Step two - have son (me) spin the tire around and drive over the other side. This is where things went sideways. Just at the moment I was grabbing the rim the bead snapped back up... with my fingers wedged in between. Now at this point time gets really slow, or maybe it was me just watching my Dad decide what to do, either drive over the tire again or jump off the tractor and pry the bead away so I could get my fingers out. All I could think was, make a decision! So he hopped off the tractor and we get them pried out and all ended up fine. My fingers were just a little flatter at the ends for about a week.
Thanks for reading... and stay safe out there!!

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Publisher's Corner Nov. 4th, 2013

11/11/2013

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Hello Everyone! Welcome to this issue of Tidbits of the Lake Area. I trust everyone is preparing for the seasonal changes ahead. We are always busy around here... I still have one air conditioner to get out of the window... hope your doing a little better than me. I also have vowed to get the snow shovel out of the back yard BEFORE the snow covers it up this year.
Last week I said I would try to answer some questions about Tidbits here in the paper... so, for those people that are not familiar our weekly publication I want to address the biggest question... What Is Tidbits?
Let's start with what we are not... Tidbits of the Lake Area is not a newspaper. There are many, many excellent local newspapers in our territory that do a great job covering their communities in depth. We are not an all advertising shopper, there are some very robust products that fall into that category. What we are is an Entertainment Paper. Our goal is to provide a fun, family-friendly and 100% FREE product for everyone in Northeast South Dakota and West Central Minnesota to enjoy. I like to encourage people to take a "Tidbits Timeout" once a week. Grab a pencil and your Tidbits paper, turn off the TV and other devices and learn a bit, laugh a bit and try out the crossword or sudoku puzzles and exercise your brain. Just to let you know, as Tidbits continues to grow, you will begin to see more and more content. We have tons of other interesting articles, new puzzles and features to bring you. What we can put in each week is determined by our valued businesses that advertise their products and services with us. So, be sure to thank them for helping bring Tidbits to you each week.

"Spooks", the game.
I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween holiday last week. I thought I would share a little story about a game my cousins and I played around Halloween at my folks' place as kids. My dad is one of 13 brothers and sisters and my mom is one of 4, so you can imagine around the holidays the number different cousins I had the pleasure of spending time with. One game we would play was called "Spooks". Very simply put, we would all line up shoulder to shoulder at night and begin walking across our yard toward the dark abyss of the woods on the other side. This yard was large enough to play football in and was lit by a single 100 watt light bulb from the porch. As we walked further and further into the dark we would try to scare each other into running back to the house and the last one to not get "spooked" was the winner.
On this one particular night, there was probably 8-10 of us playing. We were getting pretty brave after a couple times, and we were all having a good time. So... being the oldest, I fabricated a story about needing to go into the house and do something or other and told the rest to get ready and go ahead without me this time. As you can guess there was nothing that I "had to do in the house"... except sneak out the side door, head down by the garden, through trees on the edge of the yard and wait behind the big pine tree.
Well, the line started across the yard, and a couple of the younger ones "spooked" right away, but my cousins Laura and Lisa and my sister Cheryl were determined to get across the yard. I waited until they were about 3/4 of the way across, where you are really getting into the "dark", and I jumped out screaming my best scary movie scream... which I heard for only a split second before a chorus of high pitched screams drowned me out. Now if anyone ever watched Scooby Doo as a kid (or adult) you know the "feet spinning in the air trick" whenever Shaggy and Scooby were running from a ghost... we'll I got to see that in real life, and it was awesome. Well... until the adults came out to find out what the heck was going on and everyone pointed at me saying "he scared us half to death!"... all I could think was: Umm... wasn't that the point?

Thanks again for picking up Tidbits. When you are done with this issue please share it with your friends, family and neighbors. Have a great week!!


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Welcome - Publisher's Corner Oct. 28, 2013

11/11/2013

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Hello Everyone! Welcome to this issue of Tidbits of the Lake Area. I want to personally thank you for picking up our fun, family-friendly and free publication... and you are not alone. We have been working very hard, and have built a steady and growing readership of over 15,000 people of all ages in Northeast South Dakota and West Central Minnesota. We have also increased our distribution so you can now pick up Tidbits at 600 businesses and high traffic locations across Tidbits Territory. These businesses are vitally important to bringing Tidbits to you and I want to personally thank them here for their support and granting us the privilege of placing our product in their stores for our readers. We have a specific philosophy involving our distribution which I will go into in detail in future Publisher's Corners along with answers to questions about Tidbits that I get while I am out visiting with our readers and valued advertisers. Plus, I will try to share some of my experiences growing up on a small farm here in Eastern South Dakota.... such as the "cow" incident. Now, I know my family is already laughing as they read this... so, I'll share this one quick story with the rest of you.

The Cow Incident

When I was about 7, my grandparents, Vincent and Dorothy Tillman farmed and milked cows on "the big farm" and my sister, who was a year and half younger, and I, would get to spend a couple weeks having a great time with them in the summer. Well, one day, my Grandpa and sister took the truck around to the gate midway through the pasture and my job was to walk down the fence line and open the gate for them. To this day, I am not sure why couldn't have rode in the truck and then got out and opened the gate - farm logic, I guess... So, I started slowly along the fence, with the herd off in the distance minding its own business, well, for the most part. Technically all but one curious cow who seemed very interested in what I was doing. I looked over my shoulder and started doing my best 7 year old speed walking impression. I looked over my shoulder again and now the cow was doing its best "curious cow" speed walking impression, only it wasn't an impression - it was gaining on me! So, I started running and, of course, the gate seemed to be further away by now, somewhere in the next county, I think, and I looked over my shoulder again and there was "cow-zilla" blocking out the sun like some slobbery nose black and white eclipse. O, God, I thought... this cow could probably eat me in one bite! I looked forward again, and there was the "gate", a wire with an insulated handle twenty feet away. That's not even going to slow the cow down! I thought as I set the land speed record for a seven year old in a cow pasture. I reached the gate, did my best "action hero" tuck and roll under the fence (Indiana Jones would have been proud) stood up, brushed some "pasture" off my pants and stood there crying and waiting for Grandpa. So, he pulls up, gets out, looks at me, looks at the cow standing there looking innocently "cow-like" and says "Stop crying, its just a cow, she would have stopped if you would have stopped".  All I could think was... Grandpa, I don't believe the cow got that memo.
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    Sean & Lynette Athey, owner/publishers.

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