1988: A LOOK BACK: At The Weekly (12/25/88)

1988: A LOOK BACK

At The Weekly

Yes, it was the year of the Millennium for all of us. And, it certainly affected us at The Weekly. It started out rather inauspiciously as we had to inform some of our correspondents how to spell Millennium (double l, double n) via a brief item in the March 13 issue of the newspaper. Spelling errors decreased considerably after that, we were happy to note.

We were so swamped with Millennium materials that we decided to institute a new Millennium page with a special Millennium logo designed by artist Anatole Kolomayets (yes, he's Marta's father), and called, appropriately enough, "Who, what when, where and why..." (the subtitle could have been "All the news you wanted to know about the Millennium but were afraid to ask."

Speaking of the Millennium, Marta Kolomayets became our Millennium editor. (She asked for it: walked right into our offices on February 1 and said, I'll come back to The Weekly, but only if I can be Millennium editor. We couldn't refuse such an offer and insisted on giving her the associate editor title as well.) Marta traveled to Rome this year to cover the Ukrainian Catholic Church's celebrations of Ukraine's Christian jubilee. Her coverage from the Eternal City let all of us who weren't there feel as if we were.

But, she wasn't the only one of The Weekly staff who had the opportunity to get away from her desk this year. In November Roma Hadzewycz (still merely the editor, not the supreme editor - sigh...) journeyed to Leningrad, Kiev and Moscow (in that order) as part of a fact-finding delegation organized by the World Media Association. Her chief "co-conspirator" on that trip was Dr. David "Chornobyl" Marples of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, who continued to provide much needed and ever more appreciated "Glimpses of Soviet Reality" along with the original glimpser, Dr. Roman Solchanyk, and Bohdan Nahaylo of Radio Liberty.

In December, it was Chrystyna Lapychak's turn to travel as she flew to Moscow for the Soviet-American Forum for Life with Human Rights. (More on her and Roma's trips in 1989.) While she was gone, Roma and Marta, acting in the best tradition of Stalinism, decided to purge her desk of newspapers from March, April, May and on. Why, a guest from Australia, Dr. Michael, or Lubomyr (or whatever his first name is) Lawriwsky, had even referred to her desk as a bunker. By the way, in February Chrystyna was promoted to associate editor at the tender age of 23. (She's since aged considerably.)

During 1988, the pages of The Weekly were enlivened by the articles of Dr. Myron B. Kuropas and Orysia Paszczak Tracz, while Myrosia Stefaniuk traveled around training her "Spotlight" on a number of notable persons and groups. A significant contribution to The Weekly this year was Dr. Roman Serbyn's pull-out section about the 1921-23 famine in Ukraine. There were numerous other correspondents and contributors to whom we are grateful for enriching The Weekly in 1988.

On the economic front, The Weekly's subscription fee was increased to $20 per year ($10 for members of the Ukrainian National Association) - the first increase since 1980. Not too many of you, our dear readers, complained. Thank you.

We'll end this yearender with best wishes to all our readers and correspondents. May you have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year. "Veselykh Sviat!"

| Home Page |