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SO MUCH TO CELEBRATE
SO MUCH TO CELEBRATE
By Leonard Shapiro
It’s that time of year again, a time to give thanks, to celebrate, to reflect on the past year and look ahead to a new one.
Here at Country ZEST, we’ve got plenty to be thankful for, and to celebrate. This holiday issue completes our fifth year in print and on line, and we’re deeply humbled and appreciative of the overwhelming support we’ve received from our loyal readers, fantastic contributors and awesome advertisers, many with us right from the very start in August, 2019.
My old boss at The Washington Post, the late, great executive editor, Ben Bradlee, used to talk about “psychic income”—the e-mails, thank-you notes, texts, phone calls and folks just stopping you in the street to say how much they enjoyed your latest story.
That “income” went a long way toward brightening your day and letting you know all the work was worth every drop of blood, sweat and the occasional tear.
There’s plenty more to be thankful for around here these days.
Middleburg and our surrounding area remains a vibrant and ever-evolving community—new shops, restaurants, residents, tourists, and faces in important places.
Just last month, there were four different ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new shops on Madison St. alone, and the newly constructed and widely anticipated Middleburg Town Hall just recently opened to eye-popping early reviews.
In this issue, we have stories on our new Middleburg postmaster, the new branch manager at the Middleburg Library and the new executive director of the Gold Cup over in The Plains. In nearby Marshall, there’s a new restaurant owned by an old familiar face serving up scrumptious lunches and dinners. You can read about him in this issue, as well.
This also seems a good time to celebrate the accomplishments of one of our talented contributors. That would be Ali Patusky, a senior at Fauquier High who’s been writing terrific stories for us since her sophomore year.
Ali can write, and she can ride like a champ as well. She’s pictured here on her horse, Prince, with her proud parents, Chris and Kiernan Patusky, after ending the 2023 season as USHJA Champion of the Zone 3 Low Children’s Jumpers finals at the Salem show grounds in Upperville.
Finally, we’re particularly thrilled to report that we’re closing out our fifth year with a record number of pages and stories, the better to put even more ZEST into your reading pleasure. And what better time than to wish one and all a joyous holiday season and a happy, healthy new year, most of all with some very much needed peace on earth.
