Season 4, Episode 13: The Pointer
In the season finale, Frank talks with Lew Diuguid and Christy Thorndill about the possible shuttering and thankful saving of the local Fell’s Point newsletter, The Fell’s Pointer.
Frank's Thoughts
For pretty much the entire time I have worked for Jacquie, I remember her almost always having the newest copy of the Pointer on her fridge. It has always been a constant. I’d see Maria Cavacos’ cartoon, Lew’s writing, and the going-ons of the neighborhood. They were even the first publication to give History at Risk printed press.
So when I heard that Lew decided that he was shutting the Pointer down, it gave me a pang in my stomach. Here was a community newsletter that worked to not only inform, but bring the community together in a way that isn’t done everywhere. If collected, community newsletters are a way to look into the past, at a level that city newspapers may never even get a chance to touch. (Thankfully, you can view issues of the Pointer going all the way back to 2002 on line.) You can get insight into what new events were happening, what concerns around the neighborhood were, or in some cases, see the cartoons that talk about the local politics.
Needless to say, I wasn’t the only person who felt like the Pointer would be direly missed. When I attended the “going away” party, I saw many, many people who felt like loosing the Pointer was a blow to the community. The party didn’t even finish before people were already talking about ways to revive it. Dates for meetings were being set and people were volunteering.
Fast forward a couple of months and the Pointer was back, under the editorial eye of Christy Thorndill, where it is going strong.
Sorry to be cheesy and throw in a titular line, but it was nice, for once, to see a piece of history at risk being saved.
