A man stands. The room is filled with the smell or cigarette smoke and bad coffee. He is ringed by a group of North Kitsap residents. All are sitting patiently, waiting for him to speak…

“Hi, my name’s Tom.”

“Hi Tom.”

“I’ve haven’t shaken a paper in two days. Well, I guess I started shaking my paper about four years ago and, well, after awhile, I just couldn’t stop. I began looking for papers that had inserts in them. Special sections, advertisements, entertainment guides. They were all the same to me. It didn’t matter. One day, I drove 25 miles emptying papers of their contents at every mailbox along the way. It was then I knew I had a problem.”

“Thanks for sharing, Tom. It was very brave of you and we’re so happy you decided to join our meeting of Paper Shakers Anonymous.”

Staying with that acronym, here’s a little PSA (Public Service Announcement): Be like the “new” Tom.

“Why? I don’t want to see a bunch of coupons for stores I don’t shop at,” you may reason. That may be so but shakers aren’t just getting rid of these advertisements, they’re also tossing news.

The Herald got a call last week about the Kitsap Arts & Crafts Festival and why there wasn’t any Wednesday publicity for the weekend event in Port Gamble. The Festival was featured on the cover of the What’s Up entertainment section that day and accompanied by a full story, photos and a feature on Kingston artists Evy Halvorsen and Judy Odell, the reader was informed.

“I didn’t get the What’s Up.”

Denial. The first sign of a paper shaker. We know they’re out there. Fortunately, PSA’s program isn’t a 12-step process. It’s a one step program that simply requires readers to open their papers and take a look at what’s inside before shaking out the contents.

Readers who have found the courage to change this aspect of their lives are glad they did.