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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Herb Rothschild Jr.: Respecting limits ... A Q & A with Schneider interim director Scott Malbaurn ... Four & Twenty Blackbirds Bakery takes flight to new roost ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: Respecting limits ... A Q & A with Schneider interim director Scott Malbaurn ... Four & Twenty Blackbirds Bakery takes flight to new roost ... EDITOR'S NOTES My comic adventures Comment By Bert Etling DailyTidings.com By Bert Etling Posted Apr. 23, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Bert Etling Posted Apr. 23, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Did you notice Saturday was the funniest day last week? Tidings readers did. Friday, though, was not funny at all; the comics were missing, as I found out when an unhappy Tidings’ reader turned into a Tidings’ caller before 7 a.m. We received numerous calls and emails Friday about what some took as a decision to leave the comics out of the Tidings. As with so many things in life, though, it was not a deliberate decision, but rather an inadvertent oversight. Mistakes were made. “With all the bad news you bring us,” one caller said, “we need the funnies.” “We need a little humor and play,” said another. We rejiggered the page sequence to make room for Friday’s comics page in Saturday’s paper. Saturday morning, again before 7 a.m., I was again awakened by a call from a Tidings reader, the same one who called Friday to protest. This time, she thanked us. "I read every bit of that paper," she said, seemingly almost in tears. "I loooove that little paper. And the comics are my dessert, do you know what I mean?" While I wouldn’t repeat the experience, the silver lining was learning that people are paying attention and willing to make the effort to speak up about something they care about — and that something was a Tidings report they consider their own. I suffered my own pangs Saturday morning. As sometimes happens, the hardworking, talented crew that assembles the Tidings pages changed a headline I’d written. Usually they improve it, but I wish they’d left this one. The story was about the 25th anniversary of the Ashland Recycling Center. As the story said, Ashland was an early adopter of a system that takes waste out of the stream that leads to the landfill and puts it back in the supply chain for new products, diminishing the need to consume fresh natural resources. The center is also a spot where you might bump into old friends or make new ones, where people “just hang out and talk.” The combination, I think, is very Ashlandish, something I tried to capture in my front page headline: “Less trash, more talk.” Ashland might be one of the few places where “trash talk” is actually about, well, trash — how to generate less of it in the first place and divert more of it from the landfill whenever possible. Kudos to the center for a successful first quarter-century. ∙ ∙ ∙ We had the great pleasure of attending the premiere of “Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Sunday. I don’t have space here to discuss the many levels on which it works (I never met a meta I didn’t like). Suffice it to say the fine production, directed by author Stan Lai, keeps popping out new dimensions like some sort of string theory that’s gotten off its leash. And anytime you feel the need to click your heels together and go home, Lai has worked a local reference into the production, from deer on Siskiyou Boulevard to Lithia — er, Ashland — Creek. The play (or should it be plays?) is a remarkable theatrical experience. Go see it. Reach Daily Tidings editor Bert Etling at [email protected] or 541-631-1313. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/betling .   By Bert Etling DailyTidings.com By Bert Etling Posted Apr. 23, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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