Opinion

My fingers (and a couple toe pairs) are crossed, hoping there are stories, photos, and ads on the pages this week. We are muddling our way through our new “content management system” for the first time. If you find something weird, it is fine to tell me about it, but it is also possible it is just a goof that won’t happen again.

When I was growing up in the early 1980s, we had a weekly newspaper in our town. There was a woman assigned to cover our little neighborhood. I remember her calling each week to ask my mother what was new in our family. Did Jeremy make the honor roll this quarter? Had we gone on vacation recently? Did we get a new pet? She would take this information from anyone in the neighborhood who was willing to share it and would write a column each week. When the paper came out on Wednesdays, my mother was always excited to read what was going on in the neighborhood. Everyone on our street knew each other. We played outside with the kids every day until dusk. My parents were in a bowling league with our neighbors. We had a block party in the street in the summer. When a new family moved in everyone welcomed them and introduced themselves. I guess you could say it was a great community.

Did I say last week that the newspaper was going to look all new this week?

March 8 is International Women’s Day. Don’t ask me how I know this. I just do. So let us speak of Woman, specifically the International Woman. I like her. Very much. In my opinion She deserves much more than a day. But time waits for no man. Or woman, it seems. So… let’s get to it.

Forty Sleepy Eye FFA chapter members competed in several Career Development Events (CDEs) at the SMSU Ag. Bowl on February 11 in Marshall including: Small Animal Vet Science, Forestry, Floriculture, Milk Quality, Best Informed Greenhand, Soils, Meats, and Fish & Wildlife.

Mid February, Rob met with Olivia, a 6-year-old female snowy owl, in Northern Minnesota. Rob: Thank you for chatting with me.

Police Chief Matt Andres sure is a nice guy. Whenever I ask him for an interview about police business he is quick to agree and even though he might be tired of it, he always agrees to have his picture taken if the article would be enhanced by a photo that illustrates the topic. He's always cheerful about photos, too. See the big smile on the front page?

There are plenty of things wrong with this country. Too much of this. Too little of that. And, of course, President’s Day. There are many, many dumb things about President’s Day. It’s actually hard to know where to start.