BY RORY SEEBER

    As my offspring listens to some of the albums he discovered when buying a turntable at a yard sale (“This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Age of Aquarius...”) and discovers what a “skip” on an LP is, I ponder the changes the computer age has engendered in my occupation.
    When my wife and I first became LIFE’s publishers, we regularly spent one weekend a month literally “pasting up” the paper. Our typed submissions had been turned into column-width print-outs by a person we chose to call our “typesetter.” With scissors and glue sticks we painstakingly created the pages (which were later photographed by the printing company).
    I remember the basket of dreaded one-line and two-line remainders, the ends of articles that were just that much too long to fit on a page. Eventually we had to find someplace to jump those little suckers onto the ensuing pages.
    It was very rigid. We couldn’t adjust the spacing between lines to squeeze the jumps in somewhere. We had to find the room.

            With the local August primary election hard upon us... or is that hard on us?... I’d like to explain why LIFE doesn’t endorse candidates or issues, and never has under the current ownership.

          It’s quite simple, actually. It’s because we hold to a silly old policy: objectivity. When it comes to both news and politics, we restrain ourselves to just delivering the facts, the pros and the cons. We let our readers make their own decisions.

            On the very odd occasion when LIFE does state an opinion, we strive to ensure that it is expressed in a bylined column or editorial, not in a news story.

            The mainstream media’s use of purposely placed adverbs or adjectives has skewed more news coverage than the invention of television. Why bother stating an opinion if it can just be inferred?

     It turns out you can get there from here.

     In the “no matter where you go, there you are” department, the 2010 Denver Bike Map has been released.

     Published by the Public Works Department in cooperation with Parks & Recreation and Community Planning & Development (It’s nice to see them getting along.), the free map is available at all Denver rec centers, City Council offices, Bike Denver (bikedenver.org; 1536 Wynkoop) and participating bike shops.

     In addition to designated bike routes, the map displays updated information on bike lanes, marked shared lanes... indicated by “sharrows”... and multi-use trails. Instructions regarding hand signals and new bike laws are also illustrated.

     Local participating bike shops include Turin Bikes, the Cherry Creek Bike Rack, Collins’ Bicycles and Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop.

     For a complete list of businesses stocking the map, or more information, contact Denver Bike at 720-865-2453 or visit denvermovesbikes.com.

    Two recent, post-deadline-arriving press releases trigger my mid-month thoughts.
    The first announces that April 19 will be a free day at all Denver recreation centers, with open swim, and free fitness classes and activities, depending on the center.
    The second promotes an April 22 “Earth Day Fair” in Civic Center Park (10 am-2 pm on the west lawn).
    We Cap Hillians of course have no rec center of our own, though the city recently completed the purchase of the former Church in the City property northeast of Colfax & Josephine as the site of the eventual “Central City” facility. The former church/Safeway building on the property will be demolished soon.

          TheLIFE co-publisher and I have just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime trip to China. The only genuinely negative aspect of the entire trek was the 30 hours or so of travel time to and from the fascinating country, each way.

            Every Chinese citizen we met was friendly to a fault, whether they knew two or two thousand words of English. While a cynic such as myself could attribute this to the value of the American tourist dollar, it seems much more likely to be a survival trait learned as a means of handling life in cities such as Shanghai, which has a population of around 19 million.

That phrase occurs with annoying regularity whenever our civicand/or community leaders are talking about downtown after dark, the parksystem, architecture, dining, or almost anything else, with the possible exception of Rocky Mountain Oysters.

“Look at me, look at me, look at me!” we continually cry like atoddle of three-year-olds on a playground.

I say we don’t have to define ourselves. We’ll be a world-class citywhen the rest of the world thinks of us that way, not before. No amount ofself-labeling is going to change that.

 I can’t accurately tally the number of community meetings and neighborhood assemblies I’ve managed to sit through only because I’ve known how to bite my lip or sit on my hands.

    Apart from the “Voices in the Wilderness,” as I call the people who like to hear themselves speak and therefore keep on making the same complaint, often loudly and out of turn; aside from those folks who don’t understand that the majority of a crowd gathered to discuss a proposed liquor license are opposed to the issue at hand, so the “vote” taken at meeting’s end is therefore heavily weighted in opposition and not truly representative of the community; and despite the crowd that believes they can keep applauding even though they’ve been asked not to... not considering all those annoying and obtrusive creatures, to me the most irksome meeting attendee is the person who doesn’t realize that a city is a busy, noisy place.

    I’m tired of being objective.
    I’ve always been proud of assuring that there are no opinions or agendas... hidden or overt... in LIFE’s news coverage, but that has kept me from speaking my mind when I’ve felt like it. (Many other so-called journalists don’t seem to be so constrained.)
    Be assured that our regular news coverage isn’t going to change in any way, but the blogs debuting this month aren’t going to be bound by the ties of journalistic objectivity. They’re going to contain primarily nothing but opinion.
    My blog will in some ways mirror my column “Heard on the Hill” in the standard-issue hard copy and online versions of LIFE, providing late-breaking items which have come to my attention, but it will also include my personal thoughts, reactions and comments.
    It is our intent to publish the blogs once a month, on the 15th, at a minimum. Comments and posts by readers are welcome and encouraged.