Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Tongue in Cheek has new owners

For 10 years, Tongue In Cheek has aroused coffee-time chuckles from its faithful readers. And now, Squamish's beloved humour rag has found new ownership.
arts_arts2

For 10 years, Tongue In Cheek has aroused coffee-time chuckles from its faithful readers. And now, Squamish's beloved humour rag has found new ownership.

Karin Shard, founder/editor of the weekly broadsheet Tongue In Cheek, has sold the paper to Dallas and Angela Fish. Shard, who is also co-producer of SERF, could not be reached for comment but Dallas, a long-time friend of Shard's, says, "She just kind of had her time with it."

Fish adds, "We do have the same quirky sense of humour so when I decided to buy it off of her, she was pretty happy about that. She thinks it's a good fit."

The new owners take over on Feb. 1, and with that will come a few changes to the paper. Fish, a graphic designer by trade, plans to give it a "newer feel" and will add puzzles and community event listings to the double-sided broadsheet, while remaining true to the paper's fans.

"We want to keep it, obviously, very joke-driven. Ads are always going to be on the side panels and the guts down the middle will be mainly jokes, but we want to make it a bit more interactive. We're going to have some Sudoku puzzles and we'll also have some contests as well."

Readers can submit their own jokes through their website or Facebook page and if the jokes are published, people will win gift certificates to local businesses in town.

"We're trying to drum up some business for the local businesses in town as well," she says.

Shard had scaled back distribution in 2011, which meant Tongue in Cheek had been absent from Whistler and Pemberton coffee shops. Fish says her first priority is to re-distribute throughout the entire Sea to Sky, hopefully within "the first month or two."

SAC makes call out to artists

In other Squamish news, the Squamish Arts Council is seeking applications for the 2nd annual SACFUND Arts and Culture Grant Program.

The SAC has received $10,000 from the District of Squamish for the program and, through its commitment to expanding arts and culture in the community, will award applicants based on the strength of their applications.

All of last year's grant applicants received funding, with six of the seven groups receiving the full amount they applied for — and the DoS had only allotted $5,000 to the SAC.

Now, the SAC is encouraging artists or arts groups to bring forward any projects that could not happen without the funding. Visit www.squamishartscouncil.ca to download an application. Applications are due Jan. 31 and must be postmarked with that date.

For the Record

In last week's story "Festival key ingredient to Whistler's success," I wrote that the TELUS World Ski and Snow Festival generated around $37 million in economic activity in 2004, according to a presentation given by by Sue Eckersley at the Chamber Whistler of Commerce luncheon last Wednesday. That year was in fact 2006.