If ever a year did not need an extra week, 2020 would be right up there. But for a weekly paper, depending on how the Thursdays fall, we get a 53rd edition. As we plan and execute it, we call it Week 53. That’s right.

Our last Week 53 was in 2015. 

The Dec. 31, 2015 editions of Wiscasset Newspaper and Boothbay Register were, as usual in a week’s coverage, full of good and bad news and some news where good or bad depended on the reader’s stance. Five years ago this extra week, these were some of our headlines:

“Crews free Edgecomb man trapped under farm equipment”

“Chaousis censured by professional local government association”

“WMHS’ new run for Spirit Cup starts Jan. 1”

Wiscasset Police Sgt. Kathy Williams was retiring, engraved bricks donors bought were being installed outside the used book room at Wiscasset Public Library, Wiscasset was halfway through its first school year since closing Wiscasset Primary School, and a Boothbay Harbor Public Works truck struck a pole on McClintock Street in the first storm of the season.

News changes every week and, like the rest of life, is part forgettable, part memorable. Whether a year has 53 print editions or the usual 52, be assured each will be our best effort to inform and celebrate you.

Week’s positive parting thought: This one, from Westport Island deputy municipal agent Gaye Wagner’s weekly email invitation to selectmen’s UberConference meeting, strikes just the right chord for this New Year’s: “Before the week is out, a new year will be upon us. May it bring better tidings for all on the COVID-19 front and a return to a community where we can see each other’s smiles.”