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Quill and Trowel

Every year when I get what is now known as the "Garden Globe Award" entry form I cringe and my blood pressure goes up.  Since I write a weekly column for a weekly newspaper the only category I can enter in is 1B "Newspaper."  Now this strikes me as a little absurd since it pits me against (or in the same group as) writers who have actual budgets, can work full time on stories and have virtually limitless resources if they work for a daily paper that's a major or part of a chain or syndicate.  Why don't we have a level playing field and at the very least divide this group into dailies and weeklies?  There are other logical groupings that state newspaper groups have and are sometimes based on circulation.  My paper regularly wins top New York State Press Association competitions but we compete against similar papers and not large circulation dailies.  But h ow in the world can my work be evaluated in the same light as a piece that might appear in The New York Times or Washington Post?  Is it just me and my warped sense of fairness?

Andrew Messinger
The Hampton Gardener
The Hampton Gardener is a Registered Trade Mark
(Published every Thursday in the Southampton Press)

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