E D I T O R ’ S N O T E
AMERICANWAY
DECEMBER 1 2008
10
me explain it thisway:
There’s a big football game
scheduled, and your team’s
starting
quarterback
rolls
his ankle five minutes before
kickoff. That’s a bad surprise.
Then the game gets underway,
and this unheralded kid, this
circumstances-tapped
helms-
man, has a breakout perfor-
mance. Your team wins despite
the marquee hole in the lineup.
That’s a good surprise, one that
you appreciate, but at the same
time, you’renot necessarilyover-
joyed by it. Still confused? Then
I’ll try to make sense — or at
least,make apoint.
This month marks my third
one as the editor of
American
Way
. I’m loving every minute
of it, and based on your letters
over the last 90 days, I’m confi-
dent that our humble magazine
is evolving into a read that can
be something for everyone. Yet
we can always improve. So guess
what? I have some surprises in
store for you.
They’ll be divulged a little like
the surprise my wife pulled on
my 30th birthday was. I knew
shewas planning
something
, but
she’s amaster at feedingmemis-
informationand turning the trail
of truth I’m on cold. So I went
around her and tried to hustle
oneofmy friends.
“Gavin, I know Kimberly is
throwing me a surprise party,”
I said. “I even know the date.
But between you andme, I was
planning on visiting my sister
that weekend. So I’ve asked her
to come in for the party. Where
should Ihavehermeetus so that
shedoesn’t ruin the ‘surprise?’”
“Seriously?” he asked, quite
curious how I’d sleuthed this
one. “Who told you?”
“Come on, man, you know
who toldme.”
“Itwas Jeff,wasn’t it?”
“Now, youknow I can’t say.”
“I know it was Jeff. Just tell
me if Jeff told you
everything
.”
“All right, look: I told him I
wouldn’t say that hewas the one
who let the cat out of the bag.
But you’re too smart for me to
outfox, so now you know. And
because youguessedand Ididn’t
tell you, I’ll tell you now that I
know
everything
.”
“
[
Expletive.
]
Fine. Tell your
sister to be at the bowling alley
no later than eight p.m. Kim-
berly only has that party room
until 10.”
Checkandmate.
So you, dear reader, can try to
getme to sing all youwant. You
can e-mail me and try to pull
the old end-around like I did on
ol’ Gavin. Or you can try to go
through the other editors— you
know, tell them I sent youandall
that.Oryoucan try toget thean-
swer out of ourflight attendants,
like SherryCartwright, who flies
theDFW toORD route. Sheand
I spoke. Youmight even put the
pressure onmymanChrisWar-
hurst, a systems engineer with
Redback who’s logged enough
AAdvantage miles to fly from
Fresno to Neptune. Yeah, we’ve
talked.
You won’t get anywhere,
though. Nope. My people are
tight-lipped. And I know all the
old-school tricks. So you’ll just
have to wait and be surprised.
(Buthere’sahint:Subtlechanges
will start on the first of theNew
Year, changes that were made
with you, dear reader, inmind.)
Tobe continued…
I’mnot goodwith surprises.Maybe it’s because astrologically,
I am a border child (I’m aVirgo, but asmy birthday is at the
end of August, I’m right on the Leo line). Or maybe it’s be-
cause the surprises inmy lifehaven’t alwaysbeengood. Inany
event, I can appreciate the efforts that go into agood surprise
without actually enjoying the surprise itself.Make sense?Let
SurpriseParty—SortOf
AdamPitluk
Editor
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