Christine Allison On Our "Best Of Everything" Issue

Dear Reader
Bests are not easy to find

Many readers ask how we come up with the bests in our Best of Everything issue. Paramount, of course, is a great editor. In this issue, for the third year running, Peggy Healy Parker headed up the process and amazed us with her ability to pull together a project of this magnitude.

But it takes, if not a village, at least a substantial number of additional editors, writers, and testers to make it an authoritative feature. We don’t pretend to be an investigative team, but we do subject our bests to enough scrutiny to satisfy ourselves that we can confidently, and with no small measure of delight, recommend these persons, places, and businesses to you. That means we sample food, query shopkeepers, and push the limits of service to see how customers are treated. Not surprisingly, our research turns up some dark sides.

Who has the finest Raj? Find out.

This year we sent a secret shopper to a rug dealer and were deeply disturbed when he misrepresented “basically, lied” about his merchandise. I recalled that the dealer had advertised in D Home, and our accounting department later told me he’d never paid his bill and was in collections. I sometimes wish we had a worst category.

As it happens, the rug-dealer episode also caused me to re-evaluate who we accept as advertisers in the pages of D Home. As a publisher, I can tell you it is painful to turn down advertising revenue. But I do refuse advertising from local businesses if I learn that they have flawed products, unscrupulous business practices, or that they discriminate in some manner. This allows me to sleep at night and to bring you a magazine with editorial and vendors you can truly trust.

Finally, and on a much lighter note, let’s celebrate! With this issue, D Home is 3 years old. I don’t know how that equates in magazine years, but I can tell you, D Home is still, unabashedly, a labor of love. Our small but mighty staff works tirelessly to make this a better magazine for you. We are also in the process of revamping our web site to make it more interactive in the coming year. Let us hear how we can serve you better. Your support means everything, and we are deeply grateful.

Cordially,