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Went to the Merced Success Breakfast this morning at the Senior Center.

Couple hundred people sat at tables and chowed down on biscuits and gravy, bacon, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, orange juice and coffee. The menu for the program was even more filling:

To honor the best Small, Midsize and Large Businesses of the Year for 2008.

Winners, in order, were Artisan Construction & Design (John Price, CEO); O'Keeffee's Inc. SaftiFirst unit (Ron Drew, operations manager); and Scholle Packaging (Rich Rostomily, plant manager).

Last month I wrote a story for the features Arts Etc. section about the Merced rock band Nowhere Near. This four-person band has been competing in the Emergenza Music Festival, a competition for unsigned bands happening in 150 cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. The band had already made it through the first round when I spoke with members in February. And they were planning to compete in the second round on Feb.

One of the adjustments I've made in becoming an editor after decades as a reporter is to listen to people--mainly on the phone but sometimes at our front counter--who, as a reporter, I would've hung up on or refused to meet or walked away from.

As an editor, you don't have that freedom.

As an editor, I feel it's part of my job to listen to folks complain, gripe, pitch and another word that rhymes with that. I've learned to put my own deadlines, schedules and thoughts aside in order to make sure we at the Sun-Star are taking care of our audience. Not missing a good story. Not getting something wrong. Being polite.

Consider this a plea for simplicity.

My burning question is this: Why do all of the television commercials for new cars have to be so doggone sophisticated? Can't things be a bit simpler?

The other day I saw a TV spot which showed a car morphing into a real vehicle almost from a deck of cards. I think it was an Acura SUV of some kind. And I've seen Ford and GMC pickups in their "exploded" view and then coming together in one piece. Do we have to be entertained and amazed, even in our car commercials? I just picked up another coffee table book on cars from the 1950s, and the cars are shown with some kind of pleasing or scenic backdrop, maybe a house, hotel swimming pool or golf course. It's simple and artistic, all at the same time, but not necessarily dazzling.