High School Graduation

Reports say that pretty much all area high schools will conduct their high school graduations this weekend. Usually they are split up between a couple of weekends here in May, but alas schedules have meshed together to possibly, and probably, cause some extended families to make decisions and split up in different directions.



Marysville's graduation is Sunday. Not being from Marysville, and only living here a few years, I have never attended a Marysville pomp and circumstance. We are invited again this year, so we'll see if this is the year I make it to the Homer Hanson Stadium, or just pass go and go to the afterparty! :)

So, congratulations to the graduates of the area high schools: Marysville, Valley Heights, Frankfort, Centralia, Axtell, B&B, Southern, Diller-O'Dell, Washington, Hanover, Linn, and __________ (insert your high school's name).

What a great time of year for these young people! Sieze the day!

Quote of the Day - Walter Chrysler's Birthday

In honor of Walter Chrysler's birthday today, April 2, 1875 (born in Wamego, I believe), we have the following quotes:

I feel sorry for the person who can't get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile.
Walter Chrysler

The real secret of success is enthusiasm.
Walter Chrysler

To me every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
Walter Chrysler

Tuesday, March 17

Here's something to think about: How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'? - Jay Leno

Happy Valentine's Day, but how did it all start?

Have you ever wondered where some of our holidays had their start? their beginning roots? With Valentine's Day tomorrow, and everyone speaking of their great "plans" for the "big day," for the sales of cards, candy, and flowers, where did it all begin?

After "Googling," I've come up with some "interesting" facts, nothing I had really ever heard of before. The cutesy, fuzzy-warm-feelings holiday we have today, started out as quite a naked raucous event!

According to the National Geographic website, Valentine's Day originates back to an annual Roman holiday in which men stripped naked, grabbed dog or goat skinned whips, and spanked the young maidens with hopes of increasing their fertility. The celebration was called "Lupercalia, and was held each year on February 15. It was considered a pagan celebration, and continued on very popular for many years, even after Christianity became the official religion of Roman Empire and tried to close the celebration down. In a sort of "if you can beat 'em, join 'em" move, the church later pegged the festival to the legend of St. Valentine.

Accordingly, in the 3rd century AD, Roman Emperor Claudius II forebade young men to marry in order to strengthen his army. Valentine, however, ignored the ban and secretly performed marriages. Because of this, Valentine was executed on February 14 of the year 270 AD. We don't know for sure if this is true or not, but it has become a favored version. Valentine's Day is now a very big economic boom for retailers today, generating some $15 billion in sales in the U.S.

So, what about you? Do you have your card, flowers or candy bought for your sweetie? What are you waiting for?

Who is our new president?

(the following information is from www.whitehouse.gov, Administration)

"PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.
His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.
President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7."

A New Beginning

Tuesday, January 20, 2009, was the dawning of a new beginning. Every four to eight years, our nation of course normally experiences such a new beginning to a certain degree. Never, however, in my memory, has one been so eagerly and excitedly anticipated than this one.

I am writing, of course, of the innauguration of our 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Regardless of your political party affiliation or if you do or do not think you agree with Obama's platform, the day was historic in the first black man becoming president.

If you go to www.whitehouse.gov, there is a lot of new information on the website regarding President Obama, information about the innauguration if you were not able to watch it, President Obama's economic agenda, etc.

Personally, I wish President Obama nothing but the best. I do hope that he is able to fire up and motivate the Congress to work together, to listen to the public, to all aspects and corners of the American public, not just bits and parts, and to rally our citizens and the world again in a positive way.

Good luck, Mr. President!

A new year, a new beginning? 2009

Welcome to the year 2009! Twelve days into the new year...how is it for you?

Saturday night, January 10, we attended the Marysville Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting at the American Legion Club. It was nice to see such a wonderful turn out of folks at the dinner buffet, meeting, and dance. Outgoing chamber president Paula Landoll-Smith handed over the leadership reigns to incoming 2009 chamber president Sandy Schmitz. John Howard was recognized as the Ambassador of the Year...thank you to John for your work.

Chamber of Commerce
Retail Trade Committee
Events and Other Activities

January 10
Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting

February 1 -14
Romancing Marysville

March 19-21
Spring Fling

May 8-10
Mother's Day Promotion and Flea Market

July 4
4th of July Promotion

July 24 & 25
Sidewalk Sale

September 18-20
Citywide Garage Sales

October 30
Black Squirrel Night

November 27
Santa's Christmas Parade & Christmas Lighting

December 5
Dickens in Broadway

January 9, 2010
Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting

Well, it is that time of the year to remember the things we should remember every day, say the things we should say every day, do the things we should do every day....but we just get busy with our every day lives.

It is a time when we (should) spend time with our loved ones, telling them how much we care about them and love them.

So, our dear friends, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We hope that you and your family have a wonderful holiday, safe and full of holiday cheer. Stay safe (and keep your radios tuned to FM 95.5 and AM 1570)!

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. [See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

About the Exchange

Francis P. Church’s editorial, “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” was an immediate sensation, and went on to became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in the The New York Sun in 1897, almost a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the paper went out of business.

Thirty-six years after her letter was printed, Virginia O’Hanlon recalled the events that prompted her letter:

“Quite naturally I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed me. But when less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn’t any Santa Claus, I was filled with doubts. I asked my father, and he was a little evasive on the subject.

“It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we wrote to the Question and Answer column in The Sun. Father would always say, ‘If you see it in the The Sun, it’s so,’ and that settled the matter.

“ ‘Well, I’m just going to write The Sun and find out the real truth,’ I said to father.

“He said, ‘Go ahead, Virginia. I’m sure The Sun will give you the right answer, as it always does.’ ”

And so Virginia sat down and wrote her parents’ favorite newspaper.

Her letter found its way into the hands of a veteran editor, Francis P. Church. Son of a Baptist minister, Church had covered the Civil War for The New York Times and had worked on the The New York Sun for 20 years, more recently as an anonymous editorial writer. Church, a sardonic man, had for his personal motto, “Endeavour to clear your mind of cant.” When controversal subjects had to be tackled on the editorial page, especially those dealing with theology, the assignments were usually given to Church.

Now, he had in his hands a little girl’s letter on a most controversial matter, and he was burdened with the responsibility of answering it.

“Is there a Santa Claus?” the childish scrawl in the letter asked. At once, Church knew that there was no avoiding the question. He must answer, and he must answer truthfully. And so he turned to his desk, and he began his reply which was to become one of the most memorable editorials in newspaper history.

Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in April, 1906, leaving no children.

Virginia O’Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 21. The following year she received her Master’s from Columbia, and in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school system, later becoming a principal. After 47 years, she retired as an educator. Throughout her life she received a steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter, and to each reply she attached an attractive printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, N.Y.

More Information

• An alternative copy from the Newseum, which includes a nice scan of the original editorial.
• More historical background and analysis from The New York Times on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the editorial’s publication.

Tops for 2008?

We are nearing the end of the year, and there are always tons of Top 10, Top 100, Top Bazillion lists for everything at the end of the year.

Time, in partnership with CNN, actually have a website called"The Top 10 Everything of 2008." http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/

Yes, you can find Top 10 lists for:

Albums
Animal Stories
Awkward Moments
Best Biz Deals
Best Performances
Breakups
Buzzwords
Campaign Gaffes
Campaign Video
Moments
Children's Books
Crime Stories
Editorial Cartoons
Election Photos
Fashion Moments
Fashion Faux Pas
Fiction Books
Financial Collapses
Fleeting Celebrities
Food Trends
Gadgets
Green Ideas
iPhone Apps
Late Night Jokes
Magazine Covers
Medical Breakthroughs
Movies
Museum Exhibits
News Stories
Non-fiction Books
Oddball News Stories
Olympic Moments
Outrageous Earmarks
Photos
Plays and Musicals
Political Lines
Quotes
Religion Stories
Scandals
Scientific Discoveries
Songs
Sports Moments
T-Shirt Worthy Slogans
TV Ads
TV Episodes
TV Series
Underreported Stories
Video Games
Viral Videos
Worst Biz Deals



P.S. If you are "Feeling Nostalgic", you can even "take a walk down memory lane" by looking at TIME'S 50 Top 10 Lists of 2007 while you are there! :)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore! I think Santa came early and took us all to the frigid North Pole with him! Man, oh, man! It is cold today! It was like -3 or so this morning, and I don't think it got much over like 6 or 7 degrees today!

Bailout!?! Loan?!!? Whatever you call it....whadda mess! The car industry is virtually threatening to totally overwhelm the economy even more than it has already been overwhelmed. After bailing out the failed financial institutions, only to have money continue to pour into the pockets of those who got those institutions in trouble in the first place, one has to ask.....where is it going to end???? It is terribly scary. I think we are lucky where we live, and the situations that we virutally can find outselves in. One has to wonder, however, when will it funnel down to us? What is the forecast for the farming economy in 2009? Who would've known 6 months ago what it is looking like right now?