Our local newspaper is called the Avalanche Journal, a curious name for a paper representing a city on the high plains (with no mountains, our annual avalanche numbers hover around zero). In Mrs. Rankin’s fourth grade classroom, we were taught that the name came from the desire of the paper’s first owners to provide an “avalanche” of news. Wikipedia gives a slightly different account, noting that the founder of the paper chose the name based on his desire “that the newspaper surprise the citizens of Lubbock.” Either way – it’s what we’ve got.

(Note: the rumor that the newspaper’s motto is “If it happens in Lubbock, it’s news to us!” can be neither confirmed nor denied.)

(The AJ’s best headline ever said “Drinking: educators should do more.”  I have an active, fertile imagination but even I couldn’t have made this up.)

During my extensive research* for this entry, I learned the following: During strikes over crop support prices in 1977, an editorial published in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal infuriated farmers, who blockaded the newspaper’s delivery docks with their tractors. The unsigned editorial accused farmers of using the “anti-social tactics of union goons.” Farmers demanded an apology and formed a tractor blockade, preventing trucks from the delivering newspapers. Editor Jay Harris spoke with the farmers and indicated the editorial was not intended to imply that the farmers were goons. (from Wikipedia.)

When I was there, I didn’t see any tractors. Or farmers. Or reporters, for that matter.

Lubbock, Texas
photographed 3.2.2013

* Extensive research means I read the ENTIRE Wikipedia article. All 462 words. I am quite the researcher, aren’t I?