New look for the Gadfly

Longtime readers will remember some unfinished business about sprucing up the look of the Gadfly.  The contest itself was not well-attended at first, but after a second call two of this blog's three readers submitted entries.  Choosing a winner was unfortunately sidelined by my attempts at journalism (which are overdue an explanation), but Google just added a bunch of new features and layouts which kicked the idea back into the light of day.

John Bligh contributed the winning design, and even updated it after he saw the new blog layout.  Fill in your own symbolism in the space below:






On the subject of this other writing I've been doing about New Paltz:  the role of this blog is to explore issues, ask questions, and express opinions.  We try to avoid outright attacks here, but the nature of gadflyishness is to complain.  There's a lot about New Paltz which I absolutely adore and want to tell the world about, but this blog isn't really the place for that.

I've been writing another column for Examiner and I've really enjoyed it.  The site doesn't have anything approaching a newspaper's editorial review, but I have found that I enjoy the challenge of trying to leave my opinions aside and tell a story that's based on sources and observations alone.  So far I've promoted local landmarks, reported on issues where I haven't formed an opinion, and reviewed pizza:  I try to imagine what short-term residents like students and weekenders and tourists might be interested in knowing.  I'll keep sharing my own biased, lopsided views about New Paltz here; I appreciate my right to have and express my opinion too much to keep quiet for long.