Thanksgiving Day Gazette to kick off the holidays in style

Many years ago -- and I do mean "many" nowadays -- my first job in newspapers included a back breaker on Thanksgiving Day. I was a paperboy back then and lugging Thanksgiving Day papers around town was a huge chore. Those papers, full of Christmas season ads, were monsters.

The days of paperboys on their bikes have faded in many areas, having been replaced by paper carriers delivering from their cars, and the papers come in the morning instead of the afternoon. But the Thanksgiving Day newspaper remains one of the bigger weekday papers you receive in a given year.

This year will be no different. People love to shop on that day after Thanksgiving and find the ads packed into the holiday paper to be valuable planning information. And despite the nation's economic struggles this past year, retailers are making a push for your business.

You'll find plenty of news to read, too, while the turkey cooks during the morning, or later when you are relaxing.

Watch, in particular, for our annual Call of the Colors in the Accent section. For many years The Gazette has asked readers to capture Eastern Iowa's fall scenery in a photo and submit it for possible publication. We have been collecting pictures the past few weeks and our photo staff has selected the top five they like to be published Thursday.

The Call of Colors will be on the cover of an expanded Accent section.  A lot of holiday entertainment is coming up so we want to tell you about it in Thursday's Gazette.

Election reminders

A lot of hoopla about voting was spent earlier this month leading up to the Nov. 3 regular election. But voters in Cedar Rapids are being asked to go to the polls again in the next week and a half -- not once but twice in some areas.

A special election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 24, to fill the Iowa House District 33 left vacant when Dick Taylor resigned. Democrat Kirsten Running-Marquardt, 32, and Republican Josh Thurston, 28, are running. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in that district, covering southwest and southeast Cedar Rapids.

The following Tuesday, Dec. 1, every eligible Cedar Rapids voter can weigh in on the City Council runoff election for one at-large seat and the District 3 seat. Polls for that election will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Don Karr and Aaron Saylor are seeking the at-large seat. Jerry McGrane and Pat Shey seek the District 3 seat.

We've reminded people about these elections at various times but the timing of both is not voter friendly. A little less than 10 percent of the eligible voters turned out in December two years ago for the District 4 runoff. That was quite a drop from the first runoff elections under the new form of city government four years ago, when the District 3 runoff drew the strongest turnout at 19 percent.

So let this be another reminder that these are important decisions that you get to make. The Gazette will continue to have coverage.