THE ANALOGY IS those four-year-olds who whiz past on the ski hill and make adult newbies look and feel stupid. Their reality is that they don’t have very far to fall, so they don’t get hurt.

THE COVER ON this issue announces “Vol. 10 No. 1”—meaning we are entering our 10th year of publishing Saltscapes. So soon? Who would’a thunk it?

At the genesis of the rather extensive planning exercise for this publishing venture, we intuitively knew that food—good, wholesome, traditional Atlantic Canadian food—would comprise one of several fundamental pillars of the editorial content. An important job, then: who could do it?

So we scratch our heads and ask ourselves why our travel industry is faring so poorly. We know the answers, of course. They’re mainly economic.

But we can also keep the faith and know that we have a special place, with real potential to bounce back.

It’s official. Canada’s rural areas have been “dangerously neglected” and it’s high time something was done—ideally a federal Department of Rural Affairs. (Currently, rural Canada’s interests are served by an apparently ineffective secretariat.)