Those of you who read the column by Rick Wamre (a/k/a the “Big Cheese”) last month were proud to learn, I’m sure, that your very favorite publication in the whole world received a truckful of awards at the recent banquet for community newspapers.
Instead of being called an “Oscar” or “Tony” or “Emmy” award, our award is known as an “Inky.”
As the “Cheese” reported to you, the Advocate brought home 37 “Inky” statuettes to add to our trophy hall of fame.
We received awards not only for the categories listed by “El Queso,” but also in the following categories: “Best Attachment to a Front Door Handle” (rubber band square knot); “Best Magazine in a Community with the Initials “L.H.”; “Best Priced Magazine” (free); “Most Tolerant Magazine” (prints my column); “Best Publisher with a Dairy-Inspired Nickname” (“the Cheeseman”); “Most Patient Editor” (Carol Walker, who has to wait and wait and wait…on my column every month); “Best Cartoonist” (Brad McMillan, whose cartoons are always amusing, even though he is not always amused by my columns); and, of course, “Best Survival Story” (my column is still being printed with little or no censorship – except for last month’s special assignment at PT’s).
All of these awards make us realize just how far the Advocate has come in a short period of time. It wasn’t that long ago that the Advocate was just a fledging tabloid being delivered door-to-door by the “King of Fromage” himself, whose dairy epithets were yet to be churned out of my brain (which many say has since curdled).
Only a few of us remember the Advocate’s heritage. The Advocate was first published as the Lake Highlands Bingo Report and later expanded to include a section on buying, selling, and trading used vacuum cleaners. As you know, the used vacuum cleaner market is extensive, so our readership expanded rapidly.
At the time, I wrote a regular column in which readers and I debated the superiority of Hoover over Oreck, a debate that continues to this day.
There was a sordid, albeit brief, period during which we allowed Dallas Observer-type personal ads to be fun in our paper. Fortunately, “Julius Cheeser” abruptly called an end to that practice when the Cowboys had to return to training camp.
And now, here we are: the best little magazine in Texas and probably any other state (although, after Texas, there really is no other state).
Kudos (and Cheetos) to the Greatest Cheese of them all – Rick Wamre, and the all-star staff at the Advocate, who continue to ask the profound journalistic question – “Why do we still run Keffer’s column?”
