Welcome to the new Food for Thought site.
How, you might ask, is it new? I thought you’d never ask. Let me count the ways:
1. Your former Food for Thought site was basically a one-room studio that was so small that it only showed one feature per day. It might have had one of my food stories or opinion columns. Or, it might have featured one guest speaker or one Q&A expert.
The problem with that system was perfectly illustrated recently when a friend, Mike, said he’d gone to Food for Thought a couple of times, but it looked like a recipe site, and since he’s not into cooking, he hadn’t checked back in a while. Ouchie wa-wa.
Our solution is a new Food for Thought site that’s more like a mansion (relatively speaking). We’ve added new rooms, plus multiple, simultaneous options to your new homepage.
When I say we, I must stop and give technical and emotional credit and gratitude to: My friends, Jim and Darcie Gore of Redding, my husband Bruce Greenberg of Igo, and my son, Joseph Domke of the Czech Republic.
I am also deeply grateful to many others whose names must remain confidential, for professional reasons. You know who you are, and I thank you for your wide range of wisdom and advice.
Finally, as always, I credit Food for Thought readers, for your support and suggestions. Without you, Food for Thought would be a personal blog.
2. The new homepage shows the two most recent food stories, opinion columns, Q&A expert and guest speaker entries.
Don’t worry. It maintains other such favorites as the hugely popular community forums, death notices, the quote of the day, and special links to news, weather and road conditions.
3. Village Voices. This new section features essays written by some of you, Food for Thought readers. Village Voices shares specific, firsthand experiences, knowledge and information to help enrich and enhance our lives.
For example, Rama Harris of Redding wrote the first Village Voices essay. In it, she chronicled her successful journey to attracting bluebirds (not blue jays) to her Redding yard. We can learn from her, so we know precisely what to do, should we ever desire bluebirds in our back yards.
4. Outdoors facts and photographs. This new section starts with a piece by Mike and Leon Nelson, a father-and-son dynamic duo. They’re both dentists, but they also share an enthusiasm and love of the outdoors, hiking and photography.
5. New posts each weekday: This leaves you the weekend to rest and catch up with what you might have missed on Food for Thought during the week. Plus, this format leaves our “staff” (see above) time to recharge their batteries, too.
6. You can now make Food for Thought your homepage with one button click.
7. You can now find more stories and categories with other button clicks.
8. Notice “New” tags that identify new material.
9. Business people now have advertisement opportunities to reach the targeted, growing group of Food for Thought readers about specific products and/or services. On a related note, individuals, businesses and organizations will also have a chance to help expand Food for Thought content and quality through sponsorship and underwriting opportunities. Please click the button on the side bar to learn more.
10. Press releases. This area is a work in progress, but eventually we’ll offer four categories of press releases: clubs, businesses, cultural organizations and government. Links will allow you to search myriad categories of interest.
11. Announcements. Look for this in the top right hand corner of the homepage. Announcements will vary. Some days they might consist of a storm warning. Other days they might provide breaking news. Yet other days they might report available tickets to a great event.
12. Multiple links to the most recent community forum entries.
13. A cool button at the end of each story that allows readers to e-mail Food for Thought posts to others.
14. I dream for a “We” site that feels kind enough, safe enough and respectful enough for people to venture out and use their real first and even last names. Many of you already do that, which thrills me to no end.
15. Food for Thought’s future. I dream for an open, honest, inclusive community-minded place, filled with interesting, helpful and even humorous information and insights about every possible aspect in this village we call life.Finally, I dream of a site that truly is a We site, because “we” are more important than me.
Look around. Our new home is still under construction, so you might find some areas that need a little work.
But either way, it’s home. And I think it’s gonna be good.
