As Volume 3 of the Gazette comes to a close, Elizabeth and I held the annual staff party to thank all of those who work so hard to bring you the local paper. All our columnists and reporters are volunteers - they do it for the love of it. That is one of the things that makes The Gazette special. Instead of professional journalists, we have students, store owners, residents, and often even readers who submit their works for our thousands of readers. By the way, you readers have now picked up over 300,000 copies of The Gazette - 8,700,000 pages! I would never guessed numbers like that would be possible when I published the first issue in May 2004 - a wafer-thin four-page paper.

Back to the party! On December 6, 2006, Jugdev and Renu were our wonderful hosts at Shalimar Restaurant, located at 1043 Broad Ripple Avenue, behind Sunflower Market. There were about 30 of us whooping it up - I hope we didn't overly disturb the other patrons who were dining that evening. I have a feeling we got pretty loud. Our group spanned the spectrum - vegetarians, vegans, and meat and potato eaters. Shalimar arranged a private buffet for us so everyone could try all the dishes. It turns out they are all good.

Our long-time readers will remember our public party back in 2005 at the Legion. My goal is to have another in 2007. I couldn't have one in 2006 because all of my time was consumed with the bi-weekly publication of The Gazette. Now that I have Ashley as associate editor, I will have time to plan another party. The last one was great - local restaurants Naked Tchopstix, Union Jack, Chi-Dogs, Rene's Bakery, Hubbard & Cravens Coffee Co., and Ripple Bagel & Deli supplied us with complimentary goodies. McNamara Florist supplied the decorations. The Central Indiana Folk Music and Mountain Dulcimer Society put on a great show. The Broad Ripple American Legion Post #3 let us use their hall. It was a great opportunity for our loyal readers to meet and chat with the writers and sample some local food. It was January and that day was windy and icy. This time I will try for something around March. We will announce it in the paper as soon as we can.

Let me publicly thank The Gazette staff for another great year.

Your editor, Alan