There are two schools of thought regarding change.

The first is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The second is that you have to keep evolving or eventually you will become extinct.

The key to a successful business is probably found somewhere between the two philosophies.

The North Boroughs Independence Day Fireworks Celebration will take place on Friday, July 1, at Avalon Field on New Brighton Road.

Uptown Rhythm and Blues will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. The Avonworth and Northgate varsity football teams will face off in a hotdog eating contest, and the Avalon Police Department will be raffling off free bicycles for children.

Hotdogs, snow cones and much more will be available at the refreshment stand.

The fireworks, by Pyrotechnico, will begin at dusk.

In case of rain, check this Web site for any cancellation and rescheduling of the event.

Volunteers from Goodwill Industries help Bellevue resident Dennis Bowman unload his car during the “E-waste” recycling event sponsored by Enjoy Bellevue last Saturday. Part of Earth day clean-ups that went on across the North Boroughs, the collection filled a huge truck with an assortment of hard-to-recycle electronic equipment such as computers, copiers and old cell phones. Goodwill trains people to repair the equipment, adding an extra benefit to the effort.

I don't want to be your friend.

And by "friend" I mean the modern definition associated with Facebook, which in most cases involves people who really aren't your friends at all.

You can never have too many real friends -- you know, people who are there for you and support you through the best and worst of times. People who don't gossip about you behind your back, but gossip with you behind other people's backs. Those kinds of people.

With this issue, The Citizen celebrates 35 years of North Boroughs publishing history. Looking back it seems as if so much has changed, and so little.

In 1976, when Earl Rankin published the first issue of The Citizen, competition was fierce. There was another weekly newspaper in the North Boroughs, as well as a biweekly for the North Hills and two daily newspapers that published weekly sections dedicated to the area. Today, the weekly and biweekly are gone, and the dailies limit their regional coverage.

Student chefs Liz Berie, Amanda Cosimides, Gavin Carrigan, Eric Cosimides, Makenzie Hartle, John Moran and (seated) Tony Bevan prepare for Avonworth HIgh School's third annual Multicultural Dinner Festival on Saturday, Feb. 19, starting at 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria. Under the direction of senior advisor and health/family and consumer science teacher Michelle George, students, faculty and community members have planned a fun-filled evening that will feature more than 50 ethnic food items, international exhibits, entertainment and a marketplace of imported merchandise.

We ran a story last week about one young man's opinion that journalism as we know it today is bordering on extinction because of its inability to deliver immediate news to a variety of handheld devices.

I would argue that the news industry is alive and will remain that way for precisely the same reason.

The fact is that a news story requires time and training that is incompatible with immediate delivery.

Many store windows in Bellevue are now colorfully decorated for Halloween, thanks to the efforts of art students from Northgate High School. Sponsored by Enjoy Bellevue, seasonal scenes were painted on glass throughout the business district. Pictured here, the big front windows of Classic Chevrolet provide the perfect canvas for students (from left) Sarah Denes, Becky Sheerer, Sydney Cousins and Grace Jason. The public can vote for their favorite windows by going to the Enjoy Bellevue Web site at www.enjoybellevue.org.

I apologize to our on-line readers for the delay in uploading articles and pictures to The Citizen's Web site this week. My normal upload day, Friday, turned out to be a busy one here for a variety of reasons.

I spent part of the day at my long-awaited appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, whom I have not seen since I left the hospital six weeks or so ago.

In April, 2008, Andy Tempalski of Bellevue answered a classified ad for a watch repair technician, a position that did not call so much for knowledge of timepieces as it required work experience with intricate hand tools.

"I had been using small screwdrivers for computer repairs," Andy said. And based upon skills learned with computers, he was hired by Fast-Fix, a jewelry and watch repair shop located in an area shopping mall.

It was a job, but not much of a challenge. "I changed batteries, and I changed watch bands."

As an editor, I often struggle with issues surrounding what the public NEEDS to know, versus what they WANT to know.

If we print what people WANT to know, they'll buy papers. But at some point what people want to know drops perilously close to the level of gossip, in which I prefer not to indulge. Obviously gossip is big business, as evidenced by the number of celebrity gossip magazines, tabloids and Web sites. I am not at all convinced that the world needs to know what Mel Gibson said to his girlfriend, or who Miley Cyrus is dating. I'm not even sure why the world WANTS to know.