In New Mexico: A Local Voice

Just as they should have. Remote, satellite dish-dotted America deserves its local news. Save for the gender of its staff (and undue attention to that nowadays is ground for flogging), not much distinguishes the Cuba paper from countless little presses in the land. It does its job. Its audience is grateful. People everywhere, with the possible exception of felons, like to be recognized: "Brett and Tammie Schultz Kelly are the proud parents of a baby daughter, and her name is Amber Marie. Congratulations!" Month after month it tells who visited whom, who was hospitalized, who died, who was born, who won the blue ribbons, the football game or election to the honor society.

The paper is not without philosophy: "Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all"; reminiscences: "In the old days when things got rough, what we did was without"; or advice: "Did you know that parsley, mint or orange peeling when chewed after eating raw garlic helps eliminate the odor? This is offered to those who eat raw garlic for its medicinal value." Nor does it shirk its responsibility to give the local government decisions, dates of meetings, subjects to be discussed--all the prosaic duties of journalism that are intended to make for an informed public.

More than anything, though, the Cuba News is a companion, unvarnished as a buckboard but just as sweet as certain aunts. It is also, however forgivably, a hair short on controversy. --By Gregory Jaynes