How Quickly Things Change

If nothing else, this pandemic has taught us how quickly things change. If you’ve listened to the news about people who have been hit hard by COVID-19, many have said how quickly the virus struck and incapacitated them, leaving some gasping for breath, going to the hospital and being put on a ventilator. Of course, there are also folks who either don’t know they have or had the virus or experienced nothing more than the loss of taste or smell for a day. For those who are asymptomatic, that is they don’t know they are carriers of the disease and can infect others, the possibility of ongoing contagion is high. For weeks we have avoided contact with others in the hope of avoiding further transmission of the virus and, while that has proven to be effective, I wonder how much longer we can be expected to follow that directive.

Thankfully, the powers-that-be have started to initiate a gradual reopening of our society. I’m sure I’m not alone in celebrating that decision. Just a little longer, folks; I think we’re almost done. I, for one, am getting ready to hug my granddaughter!

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I don’t think it was necessarily pandemic-driven but the decision by La Cañada resident and publisher Charlie Plowman to purchase and keep open the La Cañada Valley Sun, Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader is another reminder of how quickly things change. One Thursday we’re told these icons of information would be shuttered forever by the LA Times (whose decisions, in my humble opinion, are often questionable) and a week later they’re resurrected.

For those who aren’t familiar with Charlie, I’ve known him for years; he was one of the first people to congratulate me on starting the CV Weekly back in 2009 – a feat that he had accomplished in the late ’90s when he started the La Cañada Outlook newspaper. We both came from the Valley Sun newspapers, though he left before I came on board. His love for the City of La Cañada Flintridge was without question and he was able to build a solid brand with his La Cañada paper. Fast-forward a couple of decades and he spread his wings east, tackling and winning over Pasadena and San Marino. Now he’s venturing into Glendale and Burbank…

In an era when too many of us hear the litany of “Print is dead,” Charlie, like me, has a firm belief in a traditional medium.

Considering his unfamiliarity with these locales and even though it’s going to different products, readers of the “new” News-Press and Leader are no doubt in for a unique reading experience.

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And finally … how many different ways are there to say “thank you”? My staff and I are in constant amazement by the generosity of our community in supporting the Crescenta Valley Weekly. Our subscriptions have exploded, especially since we now deliver into south Glendale, and “donations” have been coming into our office nearly every day. I am flabbergasted by the number of people who understand how the paper has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis and want to do something to lessen our unease.

  robin goldsworthy