Happy New Year! Welcome to 2013, the 13th year of publishing Evansville Living, and the 13th Best of Evansville issue.
I hope you’ve not quit reading: if you have, perhaps you suffer from triskaidekaphobia — fear of the number 13. Since the turn of the year, the online buzz about this presumably irrational, but widely accepted, phobia has been strong. The Wall Street Journal (Saturday/Sunday, January 5-6) tracked the phobia in its weekly Sentiment Tracker, a computational analysis of conversation in social media. Seventy percent of the conversation, The Wall Street Journal reported, reflected “worried” sentiments; 9 percent were pleased; jokes about triskaidekaphobia represented 21 percent of the conversation. I particularly liked this quip the story cited: “I suffer from triscuitekaphobia, a fear of Triscuits.”
Still reading? Please continue — our Best of Evansville issue always is one of the best-read issues of the year. In fact, last year “Favorites of the City” was the second most popular Evansville Living story online. (The #1 story online was “A Hopeful Cause,” March/April 2012 — Jackie and Nate Monroe’s hopeful story about calling Evansville home and creating a family.)
Our Best of Evansville methodology remains the same: the awards and online ballot were announced in the September/October issue. Reader response was greater this year than any year before. It can’t be any surprise that the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival was voted Best Fest, giving us an opportunity to show its colorful midway on our cover. Of course, we think we know our city pretty well and we like to exercise our voice, so, as in year’s past, we include a few editors’ picks. Whether you’ve lived in Evansville most of your life or are just now discovering our city, let the annual Best of Evansville be your go-to guide for amazing food, vibrant bars, super shops, awesome local people, and top-notch services.
The new year brings a few changes among our staff. We bid farewell to senior writer Trisha Weber, who departed at year-end to prepare for her upcoming wedding and relocation. (Read Trisha’s story about her free wedding dress in The Wedding Book.) We welcome as managing editor Victoria Grabner. Victoria joins Tucker Publishing Group with 14 years of experience in the print media business. She’s written for newspapers in Indiana, California, Massachusetts, and — most recently — Kentucky, where she spent 10 years as a general assignment reporter at The Henderson Gleaner. We’ve introduced Victoria’s voice right away — read her restaurant review on Sara’s Harmony Way and our new wine column she is authoring, “Corks and Comments,” where she encourages us to think of sparkling wines all year long. That’s advice I can take!
I wish 2013 to be a good year for you. As always, I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Kristen K. Tucker
Publisher & Editor
Read Kristen’s blog, “300 Words,” on our website each Monday.
