This week marks the 87th anniversary of the first edition of the Northern Virginia Sun, our predecessor, rolling off the presses. The inaugural issue date was Dec. 12, 1935.
Times have changed a lot since then (newspaper salaries not so much 🙂 ) but local news sources are still important.
For funsies, I went to Al Gore’s Amazing Internet and looked up the celebrities born in 1935 who are still with us at age 87 (or, if they were born really late in the year, 86 going on 87).
There are some biggies: Julie Andrews, Woody Allen, Johnny Mathis, Donald Sutherland, Mary Berry (for you fans of British bakeoffs), Sandy Koufax, Phil Donahue and Steve Lawrence among them.
Happy 87th to them all, and happy 87th to us!
NEVER A DULL MOMENT: It’s the time of year, just before the holidays, where everyone tries to squeeze in events and when those of us who actually feel the urge to cover the news are pulled in all directions.
Just today I’ve got three events before noon: The Optimist Club of Arlington’s annual Christmas breakfast; the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s monthly meeting; and the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors’ forecast on where home sales and prices across the local area will be next year.
Can I do it? Does a bear s*it in the woods? (I assume so, but I’ve never gotten close enough to find out.)
A VISIT FROM ELEANOR, AND I’M SURE SHE WAS SWELL-ANOR! Speaking of service clubs, as I was of the Optimists just a few paragraphs ago, here is a reference from the local-history file of the Sun, back this coming week in 1942.
Yep, 80 fun-lovin’ Decembers ago.
It apparently was becoming an annual ritual for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to attend the Arlington Kiwanis Club’s annual Christmas party for children in need. According to the paper that week, she’d done it before and was on the guest list for this year’s event, too.
Glad she could make it – the First Lady’s busy schedule only got busier what with the war on, as she traveled across the globe. For this event, she got to stick close to home.
– Scott McCaffrey