Happy National Smith Day! Nope, we didn’t make it up, but we love it, one reason why we chose January 6, 2006 to launch SMITH Magazine online. Today we are one.

Here’s a quick story about turning one. One of my favorite people in the world is my niece Rachel, now a self-declared big girl of three. While I’m on record as skipping baby birthday parties, I always try to get to the first one—it’s just kind of a big deal. Before everyone arrived at her fete, Rachel took the opportunity to take a quick nap. I headed over a little early and I spied my seriously unsentimental (and seriously tired) brother-in-law peering into his third child’s crib. “You’re one,” he thought aloud. It was a quietly awesome scene to witness.

It’s been a terrific year, one made possible by the brilliant and patient volunteer edit staff my partner-in- SMITH Tim Barkow and I have been so lucky to work with. They, and of all you who make SMITH stronger with each story you tell, fuel this magazine. That’s why my story right now can be told in one word: thanks.

Right now I’m in New Orleans with Josh Neufeld. Always an intense and amazing place, we arrived on what’s called Twelfth Night (the official start of the Carnival season) and in the the middle of a crime wave. We’re here to do interviews with a few brave people who survived Hurricane Katrina and who have graciously agreed to be part in our new webcomic. I can’t think of bigger, better story to tell in a way that’s at the heart and soul of SMITH’s mission: better media, not more media, made in interesting ways. A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge, debuts on Monday.

We’ll toast A.D., and our first anniversary, on January 17 at Sutra Lounge in New York City. The party starts at 7:30pm. The price of admission is your story in the form of a six-word memoir. Hope you can make it. And hope you’ll keep coming back to SMITH and sending in your stories. Everyone has story, after all. That’s why we’re here. We’re glad you are, too.

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