**A Decade of Headlines: Inside the Quirky World of EastIdahoNews.com**

This headline is not a complaint.

Every workplace has its quirks, and I’ve worked my share of normal jobs with odd people! But is something special.

Years ago, before I worked here, I went to a training for editors where the presenter said he used to ask newsrooms, “What’s your organization’s personality?” He said a lot of the answers he got were “unbiased” or “objective.” Those were important, he said, but they weren’t personality traits.

Sure, we cover heavy stuff, and we have to be serious and delicate in many situations. But, if you’ve followed us for a while, you might have caught a glimpse that is a little weird in a fun-loving way. You may have realized that this place is run by actual people, not corporate types with hearts of beige.

I came here about 10 years ago, shortly after the website’s big launch. Here are some wacky things I’ve seen or experienced around the office in the past decade, in no particular order:

・Our newsroom managers, Nate Eaton and Nate Sunderland, bicker like old ladies. (Their arguments would get especially heated in the early days of , when they didn’t have much precedent to go on.) Sometimes the back-and-forth is very opinionated on how we should cover certain stories, but once the argument is over, neither holds a grudge, and they continue to work well together. Sadly, not letting disagreements become personal is more of an oddity now than it should be.

・One night, I was working late and used the men’s restroom. As I tried to leave, the handle came off in my hands! I put the handle back, managed to MacGyver it into working and made my escape. I left a note warning the dayside crew that the door needed fixing. Gov. Brad Little was at the office for an interview that morning, and he asked to use the restroom. As he tried to leave, the handle came off in his hands, and he was trapped! Since you’ve probably seen pictures of him in places other than our office since then, you are aware that he eventually got out. The handle was replaced quickly after that. Our restroom is no longer taking political prisoners.

・The Ledge of Weird. Over the years, various trinkets have made it to our office, mostly from viewers. Not knowing what else to do with them, we put the thingamajigs up on a ledge behind Nate Sunderland’s desk. These items now include a mannequin head, a (not real) baby face, a bucket, a gnome, a mystical mask, a bare-chested eagle and a Santa hat made from sugar. At the base of the ledge (since it wouldn’t fit) is a small table that’s permanently encased in papier-mâché. The viewer who sent us that also sent us a mug and an old printer that got the same paper treatment. Sadly, we ended up throwing the printer away due to space, but it was certainly a conversation piece! Imagine: a paper printer printing paper!

・Did you know ed to have a lake behind the office? Well, it was more of a pond. OK, it was a puddle! It was a spot of ground that would fill after sprinklers or rain/snowmelt. It has since been fixed, which is probably for the best, since
mosquitos are bad news
. But before it was addressed, we had some boats float Lake East Idaho News. Some days, we even had toy dinosaurs pilot the watercraft.

・The Wall of Shame. You may have, um, noticed that we sometimes make mistakes on our website and social media. (If you haven’t, welcome to !) Believe it or not, most errors do get caught in the editing process, but a few do make it through, and we fix them as soon as we can. The best of the best (worst of the worst?) mess-ups, however, get a place of dishonor in our break room, for us to laugh about till the end of time.

・As you might have guessed, we are not thin-skinned here, so not only do we display our editorial stumbles for our staff to see, but we share our meanest and craziest feedback with the public, something most companies are reluctant to do. We’ve done this a few times throughout the years, and our staff has enjoyed it every time, and we hope the videos made you smile too. (This is not a call to see how mean you can be to us. Next time you want to tell us just how horrible we are, remember that Nate Sunderland has feelings and is a tender soul.) We have to say, though, that most feedback we’ve gotten, even if it’s been critical, has been respectful and kind. We have the best audience anywhere!

RELATED | WATCH: The team reads mean viewer comments

RELATED | Ouch! The East Idaho News team reads mean (and weird) comments

RELATED | WATCH: We get mean (and really bizarre) comments

I hope you don’t think that all we do here is laugh at ourselves, play with boats and trap governors. The best part of working here is my co-workers, which may be a weird thing to say. Everyone here works super hard to bring you the news. I enjoy working at a place where people are so dedicated and can have fun too.

I can’t wait to see what strange adventures await in the next 10 years, and I hope you’ll stay with us!