Storytelling festival draws attention

McCook's Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival is getting national exposure. The breakthrough will come Friday when Cloyd Clark, the festival's co-director, will be interviewed by Bill Bradley, host of "American Voices," on Sirius satellite radio.

Judge Clark will be joined for the program by Bil Lepp, the headline performer at this year's storyfest. The Buffalo Commons event begins Friday evening at the Fox Theater in McCook and will continue all day Saturday at the High Plains Museum, Bieroc Cafe, Norris Park and the Fox. In addition, storytelling courses are being presented at McCook Community College.

Bradley, the man conducting the interview, is a former college and professional basketball star who went on the serve in the U.S. Senate.

Clark is not sure what time the "American Voices" interview will be aired on Sirius Radio. "They're calling us at 12:30 p.m. I don't know if the interview will be broadcast at that time, or recorded for later use," he said. Jay and Eileen Austin at Coyote Country are making studio space available for the interview.

This is the ninth year for the award-winning Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival. "Our purpose is to explore the deep roots and broad horizons of the mixed grass prairie," Judge Clark said earlier this week in an interview with the Gazette.

Compliments for Newspaper -- The McCook Daily Gazette has received high praise from opinion leaders at two respected city newspapers. The first words of praise appeared in the Washington Post, located in the nation's capitol. Mark Kamen, a columnist for the Post, referred to "the excellent McCook Daily Gazette" in a March 25 article. The article was brought to the Gazette's attention Thursday by Frank Bauer of McCook. The column concerned a newsletter which U.S. Sen Chuck Hagel of Nebraska mailed to some residents of New Hampshire.

The Washington Post is among the most-circulated newspapers in America. It has week day circulation of 718,109 and Sunday circulation of 1,049,322.

On the same day that Bauer stopped by, the Gazette received a letter from John Gottschalk, the publisher of the Omaha World-Herald.

In the note, Gottschalk praised the Gazette for setting "a high standard" of editorial writing. He called attention to the fact that Gene Morris, publisher of the Gazette, was the first winner of the Francis L. Partsch Award for Editorial Leadership.

The World-Herald has week day circulation of 189,673 and Sunday circulation of 241,137.

It's nice to have kind words said about you. But as officials of the storytelling festival and the newspaper know so well, praise and respect are not perpetual. You have to re-earn them with every issue and every festival.