So, here we are, our 30th anniversary issue.
First of all, thanks to Rand Carlson, who created the art piece (about 2' by 3' in non-print form and currently sitting on the desk next to mine) for this week's cover. Rand's been a part of the Weekly for ages, so it's only fitting that he put something together for the anniversary issue.
Also, thanks to Doug Biggers for his contribution. I'm a sucker for stories about the crazy days of early alt-weeklydom and while I imagine many of the stories of those days might never see print for reasons of decency and possible legal action, I'll take what I can get. Doug and Mark Goehring, the original publisher, deserve a ton of credit for the Weekly's emergence from the stack of papers that popped up around that time and I'm thankful to be a part of that history.
Since apparently most of this space will be taken up with me thanking people, thanks to Tom Danehy for his super-sized column this week and to Jim Nintzel for putting together the anniversary package. The excerpts from 30 features covering the 30 years of the paper's history, including work from Barbara Kingsolver, Edward Abbey, Jeff Smith, Emil Franzi, Chris Limberis, Luis Alberto Urrea and many more, are a great read. I hope you enjoy the look back at one part of Tucson's journalistic history as much as I did.
It's definitely a honor to be the editor of this paper and I'm thankful for the opportunity (nearly) every day. To everyone who had a part in the 1,560 issues of the Tucson Weekly to date, congratulations. Here's to the next 30 years.
