Each year, the New York Times Magazine captures the defining ideas of the past twelve months. “The Year In Ideas 2008” issue comes out tomorrow, and guess what they included?

They included the work of Franklin & Marshall College’s Trexler Proffitt, the Lancaster professor who conducted a feasibility study this year on establishing a Lancaster stock exchange that would serve seven counties in Central PA. The Times categorizes the idea under the phenomenon of “locavestors.”

Most of my day is spent dealing with minutiae, but I’m very fortunate because it’s often very meaningful minutiae. I arranged for Prof. Proffitt and two of his students to meet for an in-depth discussion with the man who puts the “executive” in my “executive assistant” title (Tom Baldrige, president of The Lancaster Chamber) earlier this year as part of their feasibility study. It’s nothing boast-worthy, but it is an affirmation that what I am contributing, I’m contributing toward something good.

Here’s to the world’s foremost newspaper identifying Lancaster as a place that is germinating innovative ideas!