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Bits’n’Pieces
Welcome back to Bits’n’Pieces, a weekly look at some of the interesting, funny, comical and sometimes outright weird things that happen in and around Montgomery County. Have something you think should go into Bits? E-mail it to us at [email protected], won’t you please?
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TODAY IS Dec. 15, which means there’s a little over two weeks left in the year. Your friends at Montgomery County’s favorite paper urge you to consider a charitable gift before the clock strikes midnight on the 31st! Of course there’s the tax benefit, but there’s also the fact that you will be helping those in need – and that’s almost always the right thing to do! Whether you give to MUFFY, uh, sorry, the United Way of Montgomery County, the Boys & Girls Club, the Family Crisis Shelter, YSB or any one of the other worthwhile non-profits, it’s a gift that goes so far and does so much good! Thank you for your consideration!
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A FEW of you have also let us know you aren’t thrilled over the missing comics and puzzles. We aren’t sure when they’ll be back. We’re working on some changes for that page and one thing we want to know is how important comics and puzzles are to you. One of the things we are working on is the addition of interactive puzzles. Please know we’re hurrying as fast as we can. If you have questions or comments to share, we’d surely appreciate hearing from you! Tell Tim at [email protected] if you would please.
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A BIG TIP of the seed corn cap to everyone involved with the annual Christmas Parade through downtown Crawfordsville. Most folks have no idea how much work goes on behind the scenes and the staff, board and volunteers with our Chamber of Commerce don’t get nearly enough credit for their yeoman efforts. Good job, one and all!
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FOR THOSE of you inclined to prayer, here’s to our cousins down in Kentucky (and the other five states) after the devastating impact of the tornadoes last week. For some of us, it was reminiscent of the 1965 Palm Sunday outbreak. That one produced 266 fatalities (including two right here in Montgomery County). While there is never a good time for something like this, it is especially hard near Christmas, and when the weather is cold. We hope and pray for everyone impacted.
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LOCALLY, WE had a few reports of trees and limbs, but nothing at all like they got down south.
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SPEAKING OF the storms, did you hear about the photo turning up Saturday on a car windshield in New Albany? It was blown there by the storm from Dawson Springs, Ky., about 130 miles from New Albany! Strange how mother nature works, isn’t it?
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OUR INDIANAPOLIS Colts were off last week, but rumor has it that they still tried to pass the ball.
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BUT HEY, while they were off they moved up in the standings! If the playoffs started today, the Colts would be in. Let’s hope it stays that way since they now control their own destiny.
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LOOK, UP IN the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the full oak moon! Or at least it will be on Sunday! The event, also known as the Cold Moon or Long Nights Moon at 11:35 Saturday evening. And do you know what full oak moon means? Us neither. But we googled it and found that it’s an “old European name related to ancient druid traditions of harvesting mistletoe from oak trees.” And who says newspapers aren’t educational!
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SPEAKING OF the sky and such, by the time you circle back around to Bits’n’Pieces next week, it will be winter! Yes, the dreaded season (for some of us!), begins Tuesday at 10:59 in the morning. At that time the sun will reach its solstice and we’ll experience our shortest day of the year. Officially, the sun rises at 8:02 and sets at 5:23 – a little short of nine and a half hours. By the end of the month, sunset is seven minutes later at 5:30!
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YES, WE ARE aware that some of you actually like winter. You are sick, sick people.
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DIPPING OUR toes back in the sports world, there’s an old saying about not bragging on a dog (and we’ll just leave it at that). Well, we were getting pretty excited about the Purdue mens basketball team being ranked first in the country and then they go and lose to Rutgers. Some Purdue fans had ideas that perhaps this team might become the first one since Bobby Knight’s IU Hoosiers went undefeated and won the national championship in 1976. Well IU fans, consider this. That team lost one game the year before being perfect. Maybe the same will happen for the Boilers?
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IS IT JUST us or does it seem like there are less Christmas cards in the stores this year?
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OK POLITICAL junkies, we are three weeks away from when candidates can file for office. It’ll be interesting to see who does (and doesn’t) file here. The Primary Election is scheduled for May 3.
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SPEAKING OF politics, Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton has put out the call that he is looking for some good folks to serve on various boards and commissions. Some of us here at Montgomery County’s friendliest and favorite newspaper have done so, and considered it an honor. Join us, won’t you please? We should never forget President Kennedy’s immortal words: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!
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WE KEEP saying this, but please patronize advertisers in The Paper. If it wasn’t for them, there would be no daily edition. We appreciate our local businesses and we hope you do, too! We don’t expect folks to care that all the money spent with the Journal-Review goes to Alabama, but we surely care a lot that the money spent here stays right here!
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WE’D LIKE to ask a favor of you, dear reader. What do you like, and / or dislike, about our ginormous Sunday edition. Like the comics, we’re looking at what works and what doesn’t and would really appreciate your feedback. We’ve love to start 2022 with the best products we can offer and we’ve got our ears open to help us do exactly that!
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WE MADE a brief mention last week of the DISH network and their subscribers not being able to access WTHR, WISH, WNDY and other channels. That brought a FLOOD of responses. Seems a whole lot of you aren’t very happy with the service. We hear you, but apparently no one else is listening!
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HERE’S OUR riddle this week: A man and his dog are making their way down the street. The man rode, yet walked. What was the dog’s name?
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OK, CONTINUING the knock-knock jokes . . .
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Anita.
Anita who?
Anita to read The Paper of Montgomery County! You do, too!
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HERE’S TWO interesting tidbits from one of our favorite publications (besides The Paper of Montgomery County, of course), the Farmer’s Almanac. The first one is about the first snowfall. According to one story in the Almanac, the first snow will occur six weeks after the last thunderstorm in September. We don’t know when that is, BUT if it had happened on the last day of the month that would have meant a snowfall around Veterans Day. The second – and scarier – one is: Squirrels gathering nuts in a flurry will cause snow to gather in a hurry. We saw a lot of squirrels gathering nuts this fall. Uh-oh!
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CONTINUING our official countdown . . .
First Day of winter – 6
Christmas – 10 days
First day of spring – 95 days
First day of summer – 188 days
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THE ANSWER to our riddle: Yet.