First, thanks for being here. This is edition one.

Here's the deal, plainly: I built this because finding things out here takes more effort than it should. You'd happily go to the event, try the new restaurant, buy the gift from the shop in town instead of the checkout button. But somebody has to tell you they exist. The businesses out here aren't as visible as they deserve to be, and this whole project exists to fix that.

So here's how it works. The newsletter is the what's-coming-up half: events for the weekend ahead, and most weeks a whole Saturday planned out in a couple of towns, so getting out is one less thing to think about. The site is the everything half: every town, every place we know about, with what the people who actually go there make of it, growing every week. I can't count how many times I've googled "events in ___" or "places to eat in ___" and ended up sifting through Google Maps. The point of this is that you shouldn't have to. And if you'd rather just ask: Burby, the little duck in the corner of the site, takes questions like "what should we do in Doylestown Saturday."

Fair warning: not every edition will be up your alley. But when one is, your Saturday is already planned.

Two favors. Forward this to somebody who'd use it: a neighbor, an aunt, your realtor. And reply with anything we're missing, places included; that mailbox gets read.