More often then not, when I show a friend, family member or random coffee shop patron a copy of Blitz Weekly for the first time, I get a reaction that is closely akin to “So you get to look at girls and football all day…must be nice.” Well I guess if you look at it that way, it is.
In celebration of how awesome this job is, a year ago the director of YK Publishing and I sat down and decided that we needed to have an awards issue that captures the heart of our readers without riding the velvet coattails of our long established predecessors. We wanted a “Best of” that was more than a “Best of”, we wanted an awards issue that would be the King Kong of the Metroplex and climb atop Bank of America Plaza and swat down all would-be pretenders.
Our awards had to be more than words; it had to have a face. But what face is strong enough, bold enough to be a beacon to our great metropolis? A Gruffalo? Too magical. Some sort of winged mustang with its forelegs reaching towards the heavens? I don’t know where but I think I’ve seen that before. Then it finally came to us as we sat legs crossed in front of that Medicine Man in that smoked out tepee…a loan Spartan king with his xiphos in hand in a position of total and undeniable victory. Yes, all of the Metroplex shall follow the golden example of our Spartan brethren and we shall call him the Blitzie and many shall be his years.
We then got about the task of deciding how to award the Blitzie to its rightful caretakers. Long did we ponder and upon our descent from the Himalayas we knew what must be done. It was like a voice crying out from the center of the universe “Let my people vote!” Who are we to argue with the universe? But what about our own choices, shouldn’t our selections as a publication come first and the will of the people sit as one small line at the bottom of our descriptions? No! The people’s choice must top all others. But such a way has never been done. If we continue on this path we may disrupt the entire fabric of Dallas awards. So we had to think.
At last after seeking the console of Thich Nhat Hanh we came to decision that we must give a voice to the people. Too long have their wants sat as a blurb on pages. So we took the streets and gathered the wants of the common man and woman, painstakingly counting one nomination at a time until we had compiled a list of whom they had chosen as the best that the city had to offer. Then we turned to the invention of our brother Al Gore (wink-wink) and told the people to vote. Vote early and vote often. Show us who are the masters of your domain. And vote they did.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, chickens, ducks, and things living in rest stop bathrooms…we present to you the 2012 Blitzies. Enjoy.
Veritas et High-Fives,
C. Patterson