Deadlines are always hard to explain for a weekly newspaper. In general, most events the public is planning are worked on months in advance and it should be possible to get that material to the newspaper a week or more in advance. Unfortunately, often those who are running the publicity want to be sure the announcement is in the week of the event, and they send the press releases too late - too close to the deadline.

To get the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot into your home on Thursdays, means it has to be delivered to the post office on Tuesday night to be sorted on Wednesday for the mail carrier to bring it to your home on Thursday.

That is why the newspaper is completed on Monday.

Recently we received several letters to the editor about the Oyster Bay Cove election, so late on Monday night, that it was after the newspaper was already finished. Several also arrived on Tuesday, the day the paper is plated and put on the press. (It is photographed on Monday evening so that the plates can be made on Tuesday.)

The easiest way to remember when to send in your press releases is to remember - one week before the day it is to be printed - or, as soon as you can, when working on a project. We do respond to urgent phone calls on Mondays, when we can, to add small notices of events coming up that week.

Letters to the editor can be faxed over the weekend. We accept letters before noon on Monday, since they are usually last minute thoughts on a current issue. We gladly accept them during the week as they arrive.

We want to get into the newspaper, as much of the material you send, as soon as we can. When it doesn't get in, in time, it hurts us as much as it hurts you.

Some news, takes more time to get in due to the vagaries of the size of the newspaper (they traditionally get smaller during the summer months) and the amount of hard news that takes up the time of the editor. The summer months can be a time to catch up.

The Fourth of July story that appears this week, missed last week's newspaper because the issue was finished the Friday before the events.

But, life is full of little glitches.

There are always interesting things going on in this area - and we want to cover as many as we can to keep you, the reader, informed. We are working on next week's paper already. - DFK