In the old days, readers of this magazine used to tell the editors that they couldn’t wait to get their hands on the annual Insider’s Guide. Back then, it was chock-full of listings of all different places and attractions — historic houses, B&Bs, museums, parks, and on and on. Included was relevant information like phone numbers, admission prices and hours of operation. People said they’d read it through, make notes, and then keep it in the glove compartment of the car where they’d frequently use it as a sort of travel guide, if you will. “Oh look, I’m over here in Port Jervis — let me pull out the Insider’s Guide and see what I can do this afternoon before the show.” You get the idea.
Of course, the heyday of the Insider’s Guide was before the heyday of the Internet. You remember, the olden days when the Yellow Pages was one of the most important books in your house; you referred to it pretty much every day to get some bit of indispensable information — like the phone number of your favorite restaurant, or of an emergency plumber. (Last week I debated whether or not to throw out our last remaining Yellow Pages book. Even though I have not picked it up once this year — not once — I decided to let it stay on the living room end table for a while longer.) Using a book to find such data seems like such a quaint and old-fashioned way to communicate now — kind of like hopping on a horse to tell your relatives in the next town some exciting family news.
So, a few years ago, we bid adieu to the traditional Insider’s Guide. After all, we reasoned, if someone has some friends coming up from the city and they want to visit the Vanderbilt Mansion, they’ll look it up on the Internet — where it will appear in dozens of different listings — and call on their cell phone. But people did tell us that they missed the Insider’s Guide. Well, we responded, every issue of Hudson Valley is a bit like an Insider’s Guide — after all, we highlight hundreds of different things you can see and do in the region each and every month.
But we promised to revamp it, so here it is. Our new version of the Insider’s Guide is stuffed, not with listings, but with lots of relevant information that — despite the Internet — you may not be aware of. For example, did you know that Troy is home to more original Tiffany stained glass windows than any city in the world? I didn’t, but I’d sure like to take the walking tour we mention, or go explore there on my own. Lots of foodies out there? Well, after many years, the City of Poughkeepsie finally has its own supermarket again and it is a mecca for amazing and affordable foods from around the globe. Get the scoop here.
Right as we were starting to work on this issue, I had a pretty big dental emergency. The worst part was that my mightily infected tooth coincided with a few vacation days I had taken to spend some time with my sister and her kids. I had forgotten how much pain one little tooth can cause (I was quoted as saying that I would rather give birth to triplets without an epidural than endure this throbbing any longer), but I’m grateful that I found the right dental professionals to remedy the problem. Our annual Top Dentists listing (click here to read it) remains a must-have feature; maybe you’ll even want to keep it in your glove compartment.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Olivia J. Abel
Editor In Chief
