This, that and ‘tuther

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Jane Webb and Dawn Wells.

* * *

LET ME START by saying thank you to the good folks at St. Bernard’s. They invited me to share some highlights of the Israel trip, and even went out of their way to feed me. How’s that for a great day! A special thanks to Jan Sears for being so kind and making it easy!

* * *

ON THAT subject, if you would like a slightly used vagabond journalist to pay your community or church group a visit and share highlights from a trip to the Holy Land, let me know. You don’t even have to feed me!

* * *

FOLKS HAVE asked about John Marlowe. I can share, with his permission, that he is fighting prostate cancer. The 60-something-year-old found out just before Christmas and is going though chemotherapy now. I’ve spoken with him several times and he hasn’t lost his sense of humor or wry wit. And he did say prayers are appreciated.

Needless to say he has mine – and I am sure a lot of yours. Here’s hoping for a strong recovery!

* * *

SPEAKING OF great writers battling health issues, I corresponded with one of my favorite sportswriters from back in the day, Jack Hess, a couple of weeks ago. Jack has been under the weather as well. Like John, I’m looking forward to seeing my friend for a cup of coffee when he is feeling better!

* * *

WE’VE BEEN talking about politics a lot lately. Here’s a thought. What if every panel, every committee, every group that the Legislature or Congress creates always had an equal number of Republicans and Democrats? That premise would force them to compromise. Decisions would no longer simply be a reflection of the party in power. Probably wouldn’t work but we need to find some answer, don’t we?

* * *

WHILE ON politics, Crawfordsville’s Steve Akers asked a great question after the column on the national debt. Who owns it? Some quick research shows that the debt is divided into intragovernmental holdings and public debt. The intragovernment is mostly debt through the Federal Reserve and Social Security. The public debt, unfortunately, involves a lot of money owed to Japan and China. In the U.S., public debt includes savings bonds, pensions, insurance companies, banks and more.

* * *

AT THE end of today’s scribblings, we’re talking a bit about comic books. But how many of you remember the big little books? My favorites had small drawings in the corner of some pages and when you flipped through quickly the drawings came alive. I remember a man running and another one with Tarzan swinging on a vine.

* * *

WHAT IS IT kids say? My phone blew up Monday afternoon. A lot of my friends (we’ll say that loosely) sent me texts and photos of the collapse of the side of the Journal-Review building. “Are you guys shelling them?” came one. “Don’t know if you did it or not, but if you did, thank you for getting rid of that mural,” came another. Look, all kidding aside, we are thankful no one was hurt.

With that said, there are questions that must be asked. Has anyone known that wall was unsafe? If so, for how long. Why wasn’t something done about it?

At the very least it is a terrible accident where human tragedy was averted. At the worst, it shows a lack of regard for the safety of employees as well as first responders. Let’s hope that answers are found soon.

* * *

ARE YOU tired of the filth that passes for comedy on TV now? Well, if you can find it, check out Dry Bar comedy. If you have streaming TV, it’s there. I think you can find it on the internet, too. There are a lot of very funny comedians and the humor isn’t anything that would embarrass your mother. What a concept, huh!

* * *

DID YOU see the news reports about the Chinese balloon flying over the U.S.? It was reported to be the size of a few school buses and, disturbingly, was flying over areas where we have missile silos. Apparently, this isn’t new and has happened a few times before. Still, with Russia and North Korea publicly discussing nuclear strikes . . .

* * *

DID YOU catch the comment Joe Biden made the other day? “More than half the people in my cabinet, more than half the women in my administration are women.” Before that he was telling people how to report fraud online. He told us to go to “report fraud D-O-T-F-T-C dot gov.” If it wasn’t so sad it’d be funny.

* * *

FOR ALL the fans of Readers’ Choice, fear not. We usually kick off the biggest promotion in Montgomery County early in the year. We’re just running a little behind – which the older I get seems to be more and more common. Sigh. All I can ask is to be patient, and don’t be fooled by our competitors’ efforts to copy us. You know who’s been doing this the longest and the best.

* * *

AND FINALLY, Jane Webb. A lot of guys I grew up with were either Betty or Veronica fans, Ginger or Mary Ann. You know what I mean? They either went for the girl next door or the high society type. Me? I always leaned toward Betty or Mary Ann. Jane Webb Karyl was the wonderful voice of Betty in the TV cartoon, Archie. Dawn Wells played Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island. Dawn passed away in December, 2020 at the age of 82 and Jane in 2010 at the age of 84. May they both rest in peace.

BTW, do you recall the last names of our four fictional ladies? Betty was Betty Cooper. Mary Ann was Summers. Ginger was Grant and Veronica was Lodge. Yeah, I had too much time on my hands as a kid and read all the comic books I could get my hands on. My favorites were Batman, Superman, Combat, Archie and the Lone Ranger. What were yours?

Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].