It’s going to be a busy week.

Airports and highways are expected to be incredibly busy with holiday travelers.

A few area high school football teams will be busy prepping for their biggest game of the season, so far.

Area bakeries this week will be busy making pies that people like me would rather purchase than bake for Thanksgiving dessert.

Pizza shops, of course, will be doing crazy amounts of business Wednesday night for the cooks taking the night off from their kitchens before getting started on the bird Thursday morning.

Then, moms and some dads, (but not in my household) will be busy chopping celery and onions, stuffing the bird and basting it all day Thursday.

Many dads (and in my household, sons) will be super busy lying on couches or La-Z-boy recliners or living room floors sucking up as much football as they can absorb Thursday.

Shoppers will be busy Thursday studying the sales flyers that will have arrived in their holiday newspaper, all in preparation for the very busy shopping day Friday.

And here at the word factory, Tuesday will, in fact, be the busiest day of our newspaper year.

You see, that is the day when our newsroom will produce not one newspaper, not even two newspapers, but FOUR newspapers.

As always, we will report, write, edit, lay out, print and deliver the usual Wednesday Tribune Chronicle and Vindicator newspapers.

Heck, we’ve been doing

that every day since 2019. That’s old hat!

But after the presses are rolling on the normal Wednesday papers, and when most of you, dear readers, are fast asleep, we will do what few in this industry ever would even dream of.

We get to work laying out and sending to press pages for the much-anticipated Thanksgiving Day newspapers, keeping our presses humming well into the wee hours.

“Preposterous!” you might say. “Thanksgiving isn’t until Thursday! Why on earth would you print the paper on Tuesday night?!”

(Actually, that sounds exactly like the words I’ve been hearing mumbled under the breaths of my newsroom staff.)

But, there is a method to our madness.

You see, we know holiday shoppers — the really serious ones who head out before sun-up on Black Friday to crush the deals and make a serious dent in their Christmas shopping — must have a well thought-out plan. They want to study the sales flyers, map out routes for door busters, clip coupons and check their lists twice.

This stuff is important! And everything they need to know comes tucked inside the Thanksgiving Day newspaper.

But wait! Thanksgiving Day is busy! (See above.) Remember? Chopping celery. Basting birds. Watching football.

When is there possibly any time (or desire) to run out to the news stand to pick up the holiday newspaper?

Ahhh. Now the light bulb goes on. Picking up your Thanksgiving Day newspaper jam-packed with all the sales flyers and local deals on Wednesday is half the battle.

Yes, the Thanksgiving newspapers will be hitting select newsstands after about 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

Plan now to track down your “Early Bird” copy on the way home from work Wednesday. (The list of newsstand locations where it will be available

is inside today’s newspaper.)

Of course, we will update and refresh little things like news, sports or even the lottery numbers on Wednesday night and reprint the Thanksgiving Day paper with all the latest information for those of you who get the newspaper delivered Thursday morning without need to go buy it on the newsstands, or for those of you who simply like to go out in the morning to pick up the paper when you take Fido for his morning stroll.

Either way, bargain hunters will get all the same sales flyers and advertisements.

And, after this really busy week is all done, we all can sigh and relax — but not for too long!

After that, it’s time to get busy decorating the Christmas tree, and stringing up the outside lights, and baking cookies, and wrapping gifts, and mailing greeting cards, and …

blinert@tribtoday.com