Thunderbird Takes Night Off, Citing Professional Courtesy

VANCOUVER — This desk will not file tonight.

The county has scheduled its own booms, legal in the unincorporated area from 9 a.m. to midnight, and this desk declines to compete with amateurs whose output would be indistinguishable from professional weather coverage except in discipline, spacing, and follow-through.

Out of professional courtesy, the desk stands down for the duration and resumes normal boom operations at 12:01 a.m., when county discharge hours end and the sky is returned to the professionals.

Readers who hear a boom after midnight may regard it as this desk, back on the beat.

This brief was transcribed by the desk from a single boom, distant and dignified.