Weekend Fishing Revealed Another ‘Must-Have’ For The Tacklebox
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
I had spring fever Monday and Tuesday – it was so nice outside that I didn’t want to work. Thankfully I was able to soak in plenty of sunshine during the weekend, this made the hours in the office more bearable.
The weekend culminated with a “crappie fry” at the house with freshly caught fish. Every fish fry is a crappie fry at my house, my wife only eats crappie. Thankfully she can’t tell the difference once I fillet the bream, bass and crappie that come from the ponds around the house.
During my fishing time last weekend I discovered that my tacklebox is missing an item. This is hard to believe because I have unused lures and other equipment in my tacklebox that I have been lugging around for years.
This missing item became evident during the not-so-rare occasion when my lure snagged something other than a fish, it took forever to tie on another lure. I must add a pair of reading glasses to magnify the fishing line so I can tie that pesky knot. I guess I should not be surprised, this is the year I turn 50.
Changing topics to a little shop talk, newspaper publishers across Mississippi are very hopeful that a bill currently in the House can survive. House Bill 598 proposes to raise the publication price of legal notices that private attorneys pay. When you look at the public notices on Page 7 you see summons, notices to creditors and others that are billed by the word. Newspapers in Mississippi have been paid the same amount per word since 1998. Can you think of any product or service that has remained the same price for over a quarter-century?
Revenue from legal advertising is important for rural weekly newspapers like the North Mississippi Herald, especially as newspapers are struggling in the wake of Big Tech and its monopolization of digital advertising. One publisher in Mississippi noted that this bill could help prevent the closure of dozens of publications throughout Mississippi.
You never know what will happen when it comes to “sausage-making” in Jackson and the Mississippi Press Association has pushed hard year after year for this increase with no success. I reached out to District 34 Representative Kevin Horan Tuesday to let him know how important this bill is for the Herald and other publications. Hopefully this is the year the rates are raised.
On the national front, the threat of sweeping 25 percent tariffs on Canada by President Trump is making big headlines in the newspaper world. Industry leaders are reporting that the tariffs will likely be devastating to newspapers, especially community publications in small towns. Approximately 80 percent of newsprint, the paper product used by newspapers, is produced in Canada.
Talk about a roller-coaster ride in this business, who knows how all this is going to shake out. Newsprint is already up over 20 percent since Covid. My monthly bill from the Tupelo Daily Journal for printing the Herald already has a nice little line item at the bottom – “Paper increase 22.5 percent.”
Maybe if newsprint gets too expensive, I can supplement the printing cost with a new invention. I just need to come up with a good gimmick to sell reading glasses designed for anglers. Surely I’m not the only one who is having trouble tying a darn knot!
