t was a dark and snowy night...always wanted to write those words...and, indeed, it was dark, and it was snowing when the photograph was taken Wednesday night, January 29, while yours truly was motoring home after another day of toiling at The Paragraph Factory.In honor of the upcoming appearance by the band Lynyrd Skynyrd in Cape Girardeau, we offer you a photograph of three birds, which, by the way, were free birds...and did indeed fly away. In the for whatever it's worth category, we're pretty sure that the legendary rock and roll band's namesake has some sort of connection to scribe who compiles this column...Wonder what it means if a skink sees its shadow on the first day of February.

Time for a little bit of this...and a little bit of that...

Please read this...

As sometimes happens in this space, we’re going to have a little bit of this...and a little bit of that...depending on where our simple little mind takes us...

...along with an even more shameless than usual plug for an upcoming event in our little corner of the world...

...here we go...

...if a groundhog in Union County land woke up last Sunday, which also happened to be the day that the Super Bowl was played, and saw its shadow, does that mean we’re going to have six more weeks of football?

Actually, the answer to that question is yes. Sort of. The new XFL is scheduled to begin its debut season this weekend. 

The league, as you may, or may not, know, and may, or may not, care, will have a team in St. Louis. I kind of hope the league, and the team in St. Louis, do well, just to spite the owner of the now-back-in-LA Rams. That’s another story...

...speaking of critters seeing their shadows early in February...

...The Other Half was doing some work in one of her flower gardens last Saturday and was greeted by an unexpected visitor.

During some of her digging around, a skink (which is a lizard) showed up. Can’t be sure if the critter saw its shadow. It was kind of in the shade.

...speaking of gardens, The Other Half took care of her seed order last weekend. That is good. Fresh out of the garden tomatoes will be here soon...

...speaking of tomatoes out of the garden...

...the last two tomatoes from 2019’s garden were part of our Super Bowl feast last Sunday evening. 

We had picked some of the green ‘maters last fall, wrapped them in newspaper, and let them sit. 

We actually had three tomatoes that resembled something that looked like ripe. Two of them weren’t all that bad, for February. The third one went into the compost bucket and will likely come back as one of 2020’s tomatoes.

...now, let’s get to that shameless plug that I mentioned back in the first paragaph...

...the Friends of Stinson Library are planning to have a winter book sale this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Friday’s sale is scheduled from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., and is for members of the Friends group. Membership is only five bucks. 

The sale will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. A bag sale is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The sale, by the way, will be at Stinson Memorial Library at 409 S. Main St. in metropolitan Anna. Check it out.

The folks in the Friends of Stinson use proceeds from the book sales to help support the library in a variety of ways, as we have noted before...

...speaking of books and libraries...

...The folks who do Gallup polls have found that “visiting the library remains the most common cultural activity Americans engage in, by far.

“The average 10.5 trips to the library U.S. adults report taking in 2019 exceeds their participation in eight other common leisure activities”... including such activities as going to a movie or a live sporting event. 

In the Midwest, where folks have much more sense than anywhere else in the country, the number was even higher, according to numbers posted on Gallup’s website, with an average of 12.9 visits to the library.

As a book geek, I have to admit that the number of times I visit the library would be higher. Much, much higher. Like I said, I’m a book geek.

The folks at Gallup noted that “despite the proliferation of digital based activities over the past two decades, including digital books, podcasts, streaming entertainment services and advanced gaming, libraries have endured as a place Americans visit nearly monthly on average.”

In closing, let me just suggest that based on the Gallup survey, be sure to gallop over to Stinson Memorial Library for this weekend’s book sale. We’re not horsing around about this. Find yourself a good book, take it home, curl up under a quilt and enjoy...

...let me close with a question for you to ponder...

...you might have heard, or read, this one already...and you may already have an answer...

...anyway, here’s the question: What if the hokey pokey is really what it’s all about?

Have fun.

 

 

The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
Email: news@annanews.com

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