– In spite of the Vikings’ loss, the Football Frenzy lives on in this week’s paper. Now in its 19th installment, it’s nice to have a little fun with that football game that will kick off late Sunday afternoon, Feb. 7. Thanks to all the advertisers who help make the contest possible. See pages 6 and 7 for more on the Frenzy, a chance to win prizes and all of the local happenings surrounding the Super Bowl. The Vikings loss in the NFC championship game will undoubtedly go down as one of those key losses which fans will talk about for some time – right up there with the Drew Pearson push and the Eddie Murray miss. I don’t follow the team like I once did, but it was great to see Brett Favre come on board and give the Vikings at least half of a chance to advance deep into the playoffs. For the Vikings, or any team, to advance they need a Pro Bowl calibre quarterback. Who would guess in 1977, the last time the Vikings went to the big game, that the team would not advance to the Super Bowl by 2010? We’ve had a few chances since then – 1987. 1998 and now 2010 (I didn’t count 2000), about one every decade, but we’ve come up short by mostly shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s only a game, but it’s a lot more fun winning. – Congratulations to Annandale State Bank for being named the Business of the Year by the Annandale Area Chamber of Commerce. The bank and its employees are active in the community in so many ways – various organizations including the schools, the chamber and many others. When it comes to supporting a good cause, ASB, under Bryan Bruns and prior to that Dwayne, is usually out front championing it. Just as importantly, the bank has served Annandale for a long time. Dating back to 1893, the bank is among the oldest, continuously-run businesses in town. It’s safe to say that if more banks were run like ASB and many other community banks, Congress would not have had to bail out so many of the large behemoths. Congratulations ASB! – The Advocate took home a first-place award in the Minnesota Better Newspaper Contest in the General Reporting category last weekend. It’s been quite a while since we’ve won a general newspaper award, dating back to the early 2000s when we won a second place in advertising. What makes it difficult is that the Advocate is at the bottom of its circulation class – 2,500-5,000. With about 2,800 papers printed each week, we compete with papers almost double our size, but that’s the way it goes. The bulk of the credit for this award goes to Chuck, who has a good nose for news. Brenda also reports a great deal of news coverage. Together, they report the majority of the stories. During this recession, while a lot of papers have trimmed their news staffs, the Advocate has remained committed to covering the news, and that is our plan going forward.
