In case you don’t know, we here at The Post call our front pages “the wood.” Back when the newspaper was typeset, metal letters weren’t large enough to handle the job of a big opening headline, so those letters were carved on wood blocks, then used to stamp the ink on the page.
The wood is a collaborative process.
Anyone at the paper can call out an idea for the front page, suggest the angle we should take, maybe the pun we should use.
Doesn’t matter if editors groan, sometimes those are the best ones.
Last week, we picked the 24 woods that exemplified 2023.
From the gas-stove ban pursued by Gov. Hochul (SHE’S DE-RANGED) to Biden’s hoarding of classified documents next to his car (ANYBODY VETTE THIS GUY?) to the academic who held a machete to the neck of one of our reporters (THE NUTTY PROFESSOR).
We asked you to pick the 25th — and you came through.
You suggested the soap opera of George Santos (GEORGE JETTISON) and Hunter Biden (MR. GRIFT GOES TO WASHINGTON) and the government finally admitting COVID likely came from a Chinese government lab (IT HAD TO BE WU).
Doreen H. picked BIDEN RESIGNS, which we looked for and never found — but thanks for reading, Doreen. Maybe you’re getting hopeful for 2024.
Many picked Donald Trump’s mugshot, which ran on the front page August 25 without a headline, perhaps the only time in our history that has happened. And so it became what readers wanted it to be.
Half those who selected it agreed with Lisa C., who called it “the most classic picture of a con man in history.” The other half were more inclined to agree with Joe F., who said “Trump is . . . simply the best.”
Alas, we had already chosen the Trump Rorschach Test as one of the top 24, so that’s not in the running for the final cover.
So: The results. The second runner up is SURRENDER, from Dec. 20, a picture of a lone Border Patrol officer facing down hundreds of migrants at the border — a crisis that continues into the new year.
The first runner up is New York’s Jamaal Bowman pulling the fire alarm to try to delay a vote in the House. DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A DOOR HANDLE? we said of his ridiculous excuses.
“You nail the covers every time and this one was particularly spot on,” said Whitney G. Well thanks Whitney!
And speaking of Democrat politicians behaving badly, the winner you picked for the 25th front page of 2023 by a wide margin is . . . HAUTE MESS.
Post reporter Jon Levine dressed as Senator John Fetterman, in long shorts and a sweatshirt, and tried to get into New York’s exclusive restaurants and clubs. Hey, if it’s good enough for the Senate, is it good enough for the Ritz?
David R. said the front page “exemplifies our decline as a society.” Greg D. called it “an instant classic.”
This was the wood of a Sunday paper, and copy editor Dara Sharif wrote the headline.
Jon Levine is flattered by your choice and says, “I can report that Sen. Fetterman was very amused by this cover and I’ve heard he’s a closet Post fan.”
Hey . . . stranger things have been known to happen.
We appreciate all of you who voted, and all of you who read The Post.
Here’s to a 2024 full of wonderful woods.
