Mid Week

As I pull my copy of Mid Week from the mailbox and walk towards the house, I always check to see who is on the cover. I don't think I have ever known anyone that has had their photo on the cover, but I figure that eventually someone I know will do something noteworthy and get their photo there. Once I get into the house, the first thing I do is to pull the advertisements out and set them on the side. The Long's ads always get their own special pile to ensure that I won't miss them.

After the ads have been pulled, I quickly check out the "Mid Week Opinion Poll" that is always placed in the first few pages. Granted, the poll isn't very scientific, but I don't think it's meant to be. They usually have a fun question there that anyone can answer. I always glance at the photos of the people who have answered the poll. The chances of me knowing someone there is far greater than my chance of knowing someone on the cover.

Instead of sitting down and reading it from cover to cover, I usually read it one section at a time. Because of this, my copy of Mid Week can be found in a variety of places throughout the week. On the kitchen counter, next to the bed, atop the computer, and eventually it seems to find its way to the bathroom floor.

Comments

I read the MidWeek for almost the exact same reasons (and for some reason I find Eddie Sherman's column more readable than Wayne Harada's), but my copy always ends up in the trash can because all the other columnists drive me bananas.

If I wanted tired op-ed from unqualified commentators, I'm better off picking up a regular newspaper. But, c'mon, we all knew the supermarket coupons were the real draw anyway...

I think MidWeek, though not my cup of tea, fills a niche quite nicely. (And given the percentage of content that's syndicated or merely spouted off, it's obviously quite a moneymaker for Star-Bulletin publisher David Black.)

"The Greenback," HNA's sorry wannabe, is pathetic by any measure.

I pick it up on occasion, and actually read a piece or two. I recall even thinking, after Sept. 11, that one piece was refreshingly not towing the rah-rah patriotic party line. I considered it quite remarkable in Hawaii's otherwise "secretly conservative" environment.

I also thought it made sense when "Legal Notices" were printed in MidWeek, since when measuring availability to citizens, it's hard to beat a publication that's free.

Unfortunately, presentation is everything. When I got MidWeek shoved in my mailbox, it made it into the house more often than not. Now that it's just left in a bin in the lobby of my building, I rarely bother to pick up a copy.

I always thought MidWeek was an advertising circular that filled up awkward white spaces with a bunch of text that looked like news copy. Seriously.

I read MidWeek for "Advice Goddess," which is written by a woman with a sharper tongue (pen?) than Carolyn Hax, whose "Tell Me About It" (which ran in the Star-Bulletin) I used to really enjoy. "AG," though the messages are somewhat muddy due to the author's excessive sarcasm, is an odd but refreshing detour from the niceness of the rest of MidWeek (i.e. Pamela Young's
"Applause," Ron What's-His-Name's page 2 column on what his family is up to ...) I read that stuff too ... but only on my way to "Advice Goddess."

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