Here comes Peter Cottontail
The month of April has its running shoes on and is flying towards Easter and Income Tax Day. The Easter Bunny will show up on April 16 this year. Easter like Thanksgiving is a mobile holiday that changes dates each year. On the Gregorian calendar, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after the Spring Equinox on March 21. Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25 according to website catholic.com.
Chocolate rabbits, marshmallow Peeps and the traditional Easter ham or leg of lamb will be consumed in great quantities next weekend.
I have never understood why Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, is a legal holiday and Easter, the celebration of his death and resurrection, aren’t. Good Friday and Easter Sunday services at area churches are historically standing room only. Both are good business for churches. Tax day has jumped around a bit this year too.
“The regular (income) tax return filing deadline is normally April 15. However, due to April 15 being on a Saturday and the Washington D.C. Emancipation Day holiday being observed on April 17 instead of April 16, this year Tax Day is on the following Tuesday,” according to the website efile.com.
This means all you procrastinators out there have two extra days to put off filing your 2016 income taxes. If you haven’t started doing your taxes yet that loud ticking sound you hear in the background is time running out.
I hope everyone who subscribes to The Madera Tribune can adapt to our new delivery system via the United States Postal Service. I imagine I can hear some grumbling from those of us who do not adapt well to change.
The news industry has changed, with technology leading the way. Neither radio nor television news broadcasts were able to kill off newspapers. The Internet is proving to be a much tougher opponent for print media.
According to varsitytutors.com, America’s first continuously published newspaper, the “Boston News-Letter,” first appeared on April 24, 1704. John Campbell, a bookseller and postmaster of Boston, was its first editor, printing the newspaper on (tabloid-size) what was then referred to as a half-sheet.”
Madera has had its own newspaper since the first issue of the Madera Mercury was published 132 years ago on March 21, 1885, by Edgar Eugene Vincent. The Madera Tribune was founded on March 31, 1892.
For more of this tale, see Bill Coate’s story “The Madera Tribune has had its heroes” in this year’s Pride Edition.
In the past 20 years far too many of our fellow publications across the country have essentially dried up and blown away. The decline brought on by the 24-hour-a-day television news channels and the Internet has played a pivotal role in the demise of the printed news. We are doing our very best to keep the Tribune alive and we appreciate our loyal readers who continue to stick with us through difficult times.
At last week’s Senior Farmer dinner, longtime subscriber Don McKinney said he was grateful we are keeping the written history of Madera going. His sentiments are a match for my own in this matter.
The newspaper reading audience is getting older. What should be our new consumers, younger readers, want everything on their tablets and smart phones and everything for free.
The reliability of any information gained from the Internet should always be viewed with heavy skepticism. Ironically most of the information disseminated here today came from the Internet. Willie Sutton said he robbed banks “Because that’s where the money is.”
The same can be said of information and the Internet.
Have a great weekend.
