Last week I wrote a little about the Register editorial board, noting that participating in board meetings is one of the highlights of my role at the newspaper.

Dozens of Napans have been invited to address topics at editorial board meetings, and those people have a sense of how things work. For those who have not yet been in our cross hairs, here’s the drill.

We invite leaders from the world of government, agriculture, business, community activism, etc., to meet with us and talk on the record about the issues of the day. In my five years at the Register, the guests have ranged from Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, to California Insurance Secretary Steve Poizner, grapegrower Julie Nord to vineyard manager and Calistoga City Councilman Placido Garcia, Napa Valley Symphony Conductor Asher Raboy to Napa Sea Ranch owner Al Giovannoni, Msgr. John Brenkle of St. Helena Catholic Church to members of the Napa County flood control project’s technical advisory committee (my head still hurts from that one), Napa Mayor Jill Techel to Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance President George Bachich, Napa High School English teacher Cindy Watters to Napa Valley Unified School District member Jose Hurtado, former American Canyon City Manager Mark Joseph to the leaders of the Berryessa Chamber of Commerce.

Our meetings last between 45 and 75 minutes and while they usually are informative, we have experienced the exquisite non-answer of the practiced public figure.

There are no perqs to the gig nor should there be, although one visitor plied us with doughnuts and others are generous with their literature. At one meeting, it seemed the entire upper echelon of Napa city government marched across Second Street to explain a budget issue. Such service! Or maybe they thought we didn’t get it....

When we write up these meetings on the editorial page, it is impossible to get the whole discussion into the newspaper. Interesting odds and ends land on the cutting room floor. For example:

Last time Thompson visited, topics ranged from the Patriot Act (he supported it, despite reservations) to growing up in St. Helena, which he said was “awesome.”

No locked doors. Polenta and risotto — not exotic $20 dishes but family staples — on dinner tables everywhere. As a kid, Thompson said, “Everybody got a little bit of direction from every adult in town. It wasn’t hard to get in trouble, but it was hard to get in trouble without someone finding out about it.”

As for bloopers, we’ve heard a few memorable ones this election season.

One candidate made a regrettable statement about Vallejo, and wanted to retract it. The candidate asked, “Can you didact that?”

Um, no. Our didactor is in the shop.

The other came from a candidate claiming to have a unique competency on local matters and a great memory. She meant to say she has a mind like a steel trap. What she said was, “I have a mind like a trap door.”

Nuff said.