Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington

My sisters and I are long-time Funky Winkerbean comic strip fans. The Monroe Evening News runs the Sunday strip but not the daily, so I have to go to some effort to keep up with the story line.

Anyway, yesterday, one of my sisters asked “Is Lisa terminal?” And we all knew which Lisa she was talking about (Funky Winkerbean’s Lisa Moore), since neither our sister Lisa or cousin Lisa are seriously ill.

I have been following the comic strip story line closely enough to tell her the answer was yes.

Well, from one of my other sisters, I found out us fans are watching the details unfold for a plot line that was determined awhile back. Go to Funky’s site and you’ll see both a news article and blog from the author hinting at what’s in the future for one of his most popular characters.

CNNMoney.com created a list of the top 100 small cities to live in based on a combination of economic opportunities, schools, safe streets, things to do and sense of community.

Based on those criteria, the #1 small town was Middleton, Wis.

Michigan had three cities:

#37- Plymouth Township

#55- Farmington

#59- Saline

What would be your top 5? What criteria would you use to judge?

Actually, I just put that header because with the new feed on Monroetalks.com I feel pressure to make the titles a little more intriguing.

Existentialist question of the day: If you were doomed to repeat one life, would you choose to repeat the life you’re living right now?

As a reporter I often find myself hobnobbing with people who may not be at the high points in their lives - sometimes it has to do with cops/corrections, other times it’s scandals and still others it has to do with
injustices or inequities in the world. I’m often tempted to ask the aforementioned question, but part of me feels like it’s not fair.
The simple act of asking questions already leads to self examination. What would a question like this do?

Let me know. Would it be fair to ask? How would you answer?

U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell was in town the other day to commend the local Ducks Unlimited chapter for its help in raising money to help expand the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, which Rep. Dingell enabled through legislation.

Ducks Unlimited calls itself a conservation group, which it is. But that doesn’t mean they want to necessarily conserve ducks. They work to create habitat so ducks can make more ducks and hunters can bag more ducks.

Rep. Dingell, an avid hunter himself, put the whole thing in a little better perspective during his comments to the group about his relationship with ducks. “While I like to shoot them, I also just like watching them and knowing that they’re there,” he said.

So will 7-7-07 be a lucky day for people or is it just all hype?

I’m still undecided on how I feel about the superstition. Should I consider it to be a lucky day and go play the lottery or should I just let it go on by like any other day.
What do you think? What are your plans for the day? Gambling? Attending weddings? Or just hanging back and let the day slide by?

Remember that old saying about corn plants - knee high by the Fourth of July?

Driving my usual routes through the county, I’ve noticed that unless knees have suddenly gotten a lot further from the ground, the corn stalks are enormous for this early in the season.

Of course, this is all from an non-farmer eye. So I ask coworker/Ag reporter Dean C. what his take is. He said the knee high thing is not really a good measure anymore, but that some of the corn was looking a little tall. The other night while driving through the county, he said he and his family were trying to spot the fireworks off in the distance. When they drove by the tall corn, the view was blocked.

Of course, he said, this was likely the early corn, it didn’t appear to be pollinated yet and in outlying areas of the county such as Ida and the like, it was closer to knee high than towering.

What’s the deal? Does it seem like a banner year for tall corn to you or what? Will Monroe County suddenly become the setting for a sci-fi worthy experience where the corn grows into menacing stalks that come alive and enslave us?

I got a chance to go on the day sail with the tall ship Niagara on Monday. It was a fascinating voyage and left me wondering how sailors of yore managed to figure out all the complicated ballet of lines, canvas and rigging that would push a square-rigged ship through the water. I couldn’t imagine captains maneuvering these ships so they could blast the heck out of each other with cannons.

Here are a few of the things I learned during the voyage on Niagara:

I was stunned to see that the ship was steered by a tiller rather than a wheel such as you might see in the pirate movies. Capt. Wesley Heerssen noted that warships of the day used tillers because the wheel and its more complicated mechanism would be harder to repair if cannon fire struck parts of it. A tiller, on the other hand, could be replaced by any stout piece of lumber.

In a sea battle of the day, it always was better to be upwind of the enemy and it didn’t have much to do with clean air or maneuverability. It meant that if you fired your cannon, the smoke would trail downwind toward the enemy, partially obscuring their vision. And when they fired, their cannon smoke would be blown back into their ship.

“Shiver me timbers,” a stereotypical seaman’s phrase, actually was a working ship order. The timbers were the yardarms holding the topsails. Shiver me timbers referred to spilling air or luffing the sails, causing them to flutter in the wind and shake or “shiver” the wooden yardarms.

The crew members on Niagara are confined to hammocks in the poorly ventilated and cramped belowdecks area even on steamy nights while the ship is under way because there’s too much activity involved in sailing the ship on deck to have sleeping bodies around.

The bowsprit – the front of the ship that extends out over the water ahead of the ship’s hull and holds headsail booms and stays once was part of the ship called the bird’s head because the bowsprit resembled a beak and holes for anchor chains on each side of the bowsprit resembled eyes – like the giant head of a bird. It used to be the place where crew crawled out to go to the bathroom. That’s why a ships toilet still today is known as the head.

The Niagara can carry as much as 12,000 square feet of sail. The crew last tried to move the boat with its onboard supply of long oars about five years ago. They moved it, very, very slowly, and no one’s hankering to try it again anytime soon.

The ship’s 800 pound anchor is raised and lowered manually, usually with crew members winching it aboard using a giant capstan amidships. It’s like a giant spool of thread on end and has slots around its diameter that pieces of stout lumber will fit into creating a spoke-like arrangement. Each crew member is assigned to push against one of the lumber “spokes” as they walk in a circle around the capstan to winch the anchor aboard.

The captain said the ship usually stays off the water or out of the way of storms, but he recalls one harrowing episode in the northern Great Lakes when a storm blew up while the ship was anchored near the coast. The anchor wasn’t holding and the ship had to use both its engines running at full speed to help the anchor hold and keep the ship from being dashed against the coast. Of course, in the old days, the ships didn’t have engines.

That might not just be your stomach growling at work on Friday.

The day has been designated the ninth annual “Take Your Dog To Work Day,” sponsored by Pet Sitters International.

The group again is asking businesses to allow employees to bring their well-mannered dogs to the office as “a celebration of the great companions dogs make.”

Part of the idea, according to the group, is that it also “bolsters pet adoptions from shelters, humane societies and rescue groups by educating the working public on the benefits of responsible pet ownership and the power of the human-animal bond.”

“It confronts the realities of pet overpopulation in a positive and proactive way,” says PSI President Patti Moran. “We believe that businesses, animal shelters and pet-care professionals who develop goal-oriented partnerships through our event can make a dramatic impact on the pet populations in their communities. As we like to say at PSI, ‘It’s the leash you can do.’”

In addition to allowing dogs in the workplace, PSI wants businesses to open their doors to representatives from local shelters and pet-care professionals on the day. “All dogs, especially those without loving caregivers, deserve good homes,” Moran says. “Through partnering together, we can turn homeless dogs into dogs bound for home.”

Part of the observance is the PSI-sponsored “What is Your Dog Doing at Work?” photo contest. Dog day participants who upload photos of their canine companions “ruffing it” in the workplace will become eligible to win a $500 grand prize. Plus, a $500 donation will also be made to the winner’s shelter of choice. The winning photo, along with other submissions, will be posted on the Take Your Dog To Work Day Web site.

In case you missed this, here’s an image to ponder.

I’m kind of reluctant to comment on it, lest Paris Hilton get more press than she already has. But. I find this whole Paris in jail thing interesting from a press person point of view.

After seeing the police reports and arrest records of people in Monroe County, caught doing the things PH has been caught doing, I’m pretty sure they would have been taken downtown at least until bail could be posted. However, that’s not what surprises me.

What does strike me is the line between hard news (some may say ‘actual’ news) and celebrity enews is more blurred now than ever. It’s been a progression, but when you hear about Paris Hilton’s jail antics on NPR, some sort of shift has occurred. NBC recently stated they were too busy to cover Lindsay Lohan passed out in a car, seemingly taking a stance on celebrities out of control.

I’m curious. Are people sick of this kind of coverage in the news? Would you rather read this kind of story than what happened at the county board meeting? Are more information outlets covering these kinds of beats because it’s what readers want?

Check out some of the cool photos the Mars Orbiter took this week with its high-resolution camera.

Launch site here.

I just spoke with another person about possible dog-napping. Since the story ran two weeks ago - Lost but Not Forgotten - I’ve gotten tons of emails and calls. Some people were just curious about what was happening, if the police were investigating, if the woman found her dog, etc.
Others were reporting their own experiences. A few reported incidents with a blue van.

The call I just got was about a white van, following alongside a dog. An astute neighbor noticed the scene and asked the kid involved if the dog was his. He said it was, but she jotted down the license plate info anyway. It was a white van with black stripes trying to coax a small dog inside. She said it was likely nothing, that the dog was probably theirs, but just in case.

It’s fascinating to me that so many people have become involved in this. Have you been on the lookout for anything suspicious as a result of this? Have you more closely watched your dog? I’m just curious how others are reacting - if they are reacting. My advice to the woman who called, as well as anyone else who suspects something is amiss with their missing dog or a neighbor’s is to call animal control and the humane society and provide as much detail as possible. (Of course, also letting me know so I can stay on top of what’s happening!) If animal control or the state police get enough reports of suspecting dog-napping, they’ll launch an investigation.
So, what’s the word on the street?

I was passed along this food-for-thought quote from a co-worker:

“If (children) are appalled by what they read, they can close the book at the bottom of page one; if they read further, they will learn what is in the world and in its people, and no parents who have been discerning with their children need fear the outcome.”

– Curtis Bok, former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, 1949.

I just came back from a weekend trip to Dallas. Interesting, to say the least.

They say it’s like a whole different country down there, and I think I’m inclined to think the same. Aside from the differences with ideas on gun control, I’m shocked at the prosperity there.

In the area between Fort Worth and Dallas, the towns are bursting at the seams. From the pastures around H. Ross Perot’s old Circle T ranch have popped up endless restaurants, stores and roads.

The thing that shocked me the most is their schools. All the buildings are expansive, new centers that look more like a college campus than elementary and high schools. Each of the schools have their own football stadiums and auditoriums.
I hear they pay through the nose for the best, but they also have only 18 students per classroom.

They don’t, however, have snow in April and October.

By the way, if you’re ever in Dallas, Dealey Plaza is a must see. It’s a very surreal view from the Sixth Floor Museum in the old book depository building.

Have you seen Tubearoo?