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Dan's Blog ~ Just another Freedomblogging.com weblog

Super Bowl grub fit for a nutritionist

February 3rd, 2010, 7:10 pm by davis

Mary Alice Sharp of Purdue Extension Jackson County shared some ideas with me, and therefore our readers, and even a recipe for a fruit punch, for adding a little nutrition to your Super Bowl party this weekend.

Sure — healthy food for a gathering of slobs watching football.

But really, Mary Alice offered some good and easy suggestions for adding a little nutrition and some tasty treats to your menu.

Take a look on the Horizons page of Thursday’s edition of The Tribune or look for it online under Lifestyles at TribTown.com.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Big snow coming to town

February 3rd, 2010, 7:03 pm by davis

Reports of a winter storm — complete with rain, ice and snow — stirs variety of responses.

“Oh, no,” my mother-in-law said this afternoon when I mentioned the forecas.

“Oh, boy, ” my younger daughter said, almost in unison.

Regardless of your point of view, it appears a winter storm is heading our way on Friday.

You can read about it online at TribTown.com and in Thursday’s edition of The Tribune.

And if the storm does materialize and snap a picture or two, e-mail them to us and we’ll share them with other readers.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

College can’t be far behind

February 2nd, 2010, 1:05 pm by davis

We signed up our older daughter for high school this afternoon.

When did she get so old?

Heck, when did my wife get so old? Never mind that she’s younger than me, and I sure hope she doesn’t read this.

But it is mind-boggling.

It seems just the other day that she entered our world, forever changing it, and mostly for the good. There are those moments, however.

It seems just the other day she spoke her first word, took her first step, started first-grade.

How in the world did we fast-forward to second semester of eighth-grade and planning for high school?

And of course one of the first questions asked of Hannah — if not the first — was whether she planned to go to college.

College?

They can’t have her yet. We still have more dances to dance at Girls Inc. of Jackson County. We still have more of her 4-H projects to see at the Jackson County Fair. We still have lots of other things to do, like tormenting each other.

Her high school enrollment went rather smoothly, once I got over the shock of the college question, and that wasn’t even thinking about the cost of four years of college these days, let alone what it will be in another four years.

The game plan seems simple enough, and pretty much as I remember it from my high school days. English, science, math and gym. A career class, a foreign language and an elective or two.

But still, why are they coming after her so soon? It doesn’t seem fair.

Thanks for reading my blgo, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Colts returning to SuperBowl; what about my Vikings?

January 24th, 2010, 6:16 pm by davis

I’m glad the Indianapolis Colts are returning to the Super Bowl. Many friends and family members  follow the Colts, so I offer congratulations and wish them good luck.

Meanwhile, I wait to see if my Vikings will beat the Saints in the NFC final tonight.

I guess I want the Purple to win, but as a long-suffering Vikings fan, I also can’t help but wonder whether I’d be better off if they just lost to New Orleans tonight.

Why suffer yet another Super Bowl loss?

I still want to puke every time I see Hank Stram rolling those darned game plans or whatever was on those papers as he walked the sidelines in the Kansas City Chief’s Super Bowl IV win over Joe Knapp and the Vikings in 1969. And let’s not mention those times Fran Tarkenton, Carl Eller and others couldn’t pull out the big win.

At least we’re not alone. Thank goodness for the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

A tasty day awaits us

January 21st, 2010, 9:36 am by davis

Generally, I’m not much on specially designated days, months or even years.

The newsroom is inundated with e-mails, mailings and facsimilies from groups around the world informing us about the declaration of some day, week or month to honor some person, idea, cause, product or who knows what else.

Typically they receive a shrug or a comment about here’s another special day designation — isn’t that just special.

But a report this week caught my eye.

Saturday is National Pie Day, and we’re not talking about mathematics. Of couse, there is also National Pi Day, which does indeed have something to do with math (last  year it was March 14; I couldn’t find a day for it this year, although it seems it might always be March 14 — as in 3/14 , get it?).
National Pie Day is apparently the brainchild of the American Pie Council, which proclaims to be dedicated to promoting the benefits of pie. Are they serious? Pie needs to be promoted? Who doesn’t love pie? Who needs to be reminded of the benefits of pie? It’s good. It’s tasty. It’s a heck of a lot better than any old cake.

Yikes. That last sentence will likely result in a pie to the face (lemon or coconut, please), but for me, it’s true. I’ve most always asked for birthday pies over cakes.

I did learn something while exploring National Pie Day. Did you know the Great American Pie Festival is scheduled April 24-25 in Celebration, Fla.? That is something to celebrate. How did that celebration not end up in Jackson County? I want to know, and I want to know how to correct that mistake.

Because I’m a known piest, I’m often asked about my favorite pie. That’s a tough one; there are so many categories of pie, let alone kinds of pie.

Besides those already mentioned, there’s also pecan pie (sorry, but Derby pies, which are pecan pies with chocolate, are a fine waste of a pecan pie; if you want chocolate, make a chocolate pie, or maybe a cookie or a cake), peach, blackberry, gooseberry, raspberry, rhubarb, strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, pumpkin and the list just goes on.

And we’ve not even mentioned cobblers and crisps.

One of my favorite pies as a child was something Grandma Troth called sugar pie. It really wasn’t sugar cream pie. I think it was something mixed up to stretch things during the Great Depression. It was basically a bunch of sugar and butter, sprinkled with a little nutmeg, and it was teriffic.

What’s your favorite kind of pie? Let me know.

And be sure to enjoy National Pie Day.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Sodrel running again

January 10th, 2010, 10:15 pm by davis

According to an e-mail sent early Monday morning, or late Sunday night, depending upon how you want to look at it, former Indiana 9th District representative Mike Sodrel is running again for the Republican nomination.
That makes at least three 9th District Republicans seeking the GOP nod and ends months of wondering whether Sodrel would run again.
Other Republicans seeking the nomination are Todd Young of Paoli and Travis Hankins of Columbus.
9th District Rep. Baron Hill of Seymour, a Democrat, says he’s running again. He also says he’s considering a run for governor in 2012.
Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Thankful for kind actions after slip and fall

December 16th, 2009, 11:35 am by davis

Recently I had an encounter with our health care system, our law enforcement and the public’s compassion.

All three, I’m happy to say, performed remarkably well.

It started with leaving the Seymour-Brownstown Central boys basketball game one recent Friday night at Seymour High School and ended in the emergency room at Schneck Medical Center.

Walking along Community Drive toward my car, I stopped at a driveway at the SHS parking lot as traffic jockied to leave.

A man, I think, in a car, or maybe an SUV, motioned me across. I waved a “thanks” and moved on, taking a step or two before my feet went out from under me on a sheet of ice. My head thumped, a couple of times, I think, and my glasses went flying.

Next thing I know I’m rolling over and reaching for my glasses and rubbing by throbbing noggin. I heard car doors open and close as people came up to help. I don’t know who you are, but I thank you, and so does my family. If I didn’t thank you Friday night, please accept it now.

Then a policeman, Sgt. Ryan Huddleston, arrived. We talked a bit. He suggested he take me home, an idea I embraced, although I don’t think I could recall exactly where I lived. Huddleston got me home; I suppose the police have ways of knowing those things, because I really don’t remember much about it.

After some grilling at home by my wife and children — I didn’t recall driving to Owen County earlier in the day to decorate my parents’ graves and I didn’t remember the president’s name (my brother-in-law later suggested he would have found comfort in that) — they took me to the ER.
It wasn’t busy, or at least I don’t think so, and I was processed through the registration, met with a doctor and nurse and underwent a CT scan and X-rays with a technician named Jill, I think, on my head and neck.

After a call from my wife to Seymour Police Department, Huddleston came to the hospital and tried to fill in any blanks about what he found when he helped me at the high school and on the drive home.

His words — “Your dad’s going to be OK” — also provided encouragement and comfort for my daughters, and I appreciate that, just as I appreciate a friend, Tom Rodenbeck, for coming to the ER to stay with the girls while their mother dealt with me and the folks at the hospital.

By the time my tests were done, much of my memory had returned, and the doctor checked my reflexes and some other things and decided I was OK to go home.

It was a strange encounter, one that left me with a sore head and stiff neck, but it also made me grateful for the people who call Jackson County home — those who helped me when I fell, Officer Huddleston, Tom and the folks at Schneck and, of course, my family.

Oh yeah, watch out for the ice this winter.

Thank you for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Manual students’ performance, crowd offer a wonderul night to remember

December 16th, 2009, 7:49 am by davis

Tuesday night brought one of my best days of the year.

And it came with the realization that I’m no longer 17 as a sat with my legs folded on the floor of the auditorium at Emmerich Manual Training High School on the south side of Indianapolis.

That was OK.

A series of columns by Matthew Tully of The Indianapolis Star took me to the Circle City last week to listen to Manual’s Christmas choir and orchestra concert. Those columns have chronicled the problems and success facing schools these days.

Turning off Southern Avenue around 6:20 p.m., I knew turnout for the show would be strong. Amber lights were stacked up the hill down Ransdell Street leading to Manual, and headlights were crossing from the teachers parking lot to the student lot.

Not getting into the 6:30 p.m. show would be a nice problem, I thought.

But I did get in, although I made my own seat on the floor behind the first section of 30 or so rows of chairs.

Many others stood in the aisles. Hundreds of others filled the hallway outside, causing the school to decide it would stage the show twice that night. An estimated 2,000 watched and listened and clapped.

And this at a school where crowds of 75 or so have been considered good in recent years.

What made this night one of the best of the years?

It was more than my reaction to the crowd. It was the reaction of those students on risers on the stage.

As the curtain went up, the hands of many students clasped gasping mouths as they looked out and saw the packed and overflowing house.

The hands of the crowd in turn clapped. They clapped for the students sticking it out. They clapped for the students’ peformances. And they clapped for the teachers who cared and expected their students’ best.

It was a great night. It was a great night to be a Manual Redskin. It was a great night to sit on folded legs, listening to some wonderul Christmas music.

I hope it’s a night those kids on stage will rate as memorable as well.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to Tribtown.com.

White Castle sliding into Seymour

October 9th, 2009, 10:54 am by davis

Big news on the culinary front: White Castle has requested — and received — a sewer connection for a new store to be built on East Tipton Street.

That approval came during Thursday’s Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety meeting at City Hall.

The hamburger chain plans to build a store in the parking lot in front of Big Lots in the 2000 block of East Tipton Street.

Also going in that location is Buffalo Wild Wings. A sign in front of the store just east of Seymour Health and Fitness Club indicates the restaurent will be opening soon, although no date is posted.

Don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about White Castle coming to town. I grew up with them in Indianapolis. And I love them.

Contrary to the experience many folks say they have with the small hamburgers, they’ve never irritated by digestive system in the least.

One of my nicknames in junior high and high school was Gut Man, based on my ability to eat sliders by the dozens. Thankfully, I’m not such a glutton anymore. But I do love them.

A couple years ago when a mover and shaker in town told me that Star Bucks would soon open a store in Seymour, he said that was another of those moments that indicated to him that “Seymour had arrived.”

Sorry, I said, Star Bucks won’t last here. Plant a White Castle in town, and that maybe would mean Seymour had indeed arrived and that I’d wager White Castle would survive here longer than Star Bucks.

I’d still wager that.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Had your flu shot yet?

September 17th, 2009, 6:52 am by davis

Have you gone for a flu shot this year?

Doctors’ offices and drug stores are offering vaccinations now, and Jackson County Health Department is in the middle of its flu vaccine clinic for what we’ll call the “regular” or seasonal flu.

The health department clinic started Monday and Tuesday and continues today and Friday at its office, 801 W. Second St. in Seymour. The cost is $20, and the shot didn’t sting too badly when I was vaccinated Tuesday morning.

There were a few folks there, but as Brandy Emily reported in her story on Wednesday, people haven’t exactly been beating down the doors to get their flu shots at the clinic.

I am curious about why the numbers of people stopping by the health department for the seasonal flu shot appear to be off the normal pace.

Are they waiting for the H1N1 vaccine, which gained federal approval Tuesday? Is it because the seasonal flu vaccine is being offered earlier than normal this year? Or are people just not worried about the flu?

I used to be that way.

I’d get the shot or I wouldn’t.

Then last year I failed to be vaccinated after several years of getting a shot. Yep, I got the flu. Boy did I get the flu. I felt sore and lousy for what seemed an eternity (just ask my family).

So I wasn’t going to miss out on getting a shot this year.

Will this regular or seasonal flu vaccine protect you against the H1N1 flu, which many still call the swine flu despite the best efforts of the pork industry and governmental health officials to rebrand it as H1N1? No, it won’t, but failure to get a shot will also not protect against the seasonal flu.

Another question — do you plan to be vaccinated for the H1N1 flu should a vaccine be made available to you?

Me? I’m not sure.

Fortunately, I seem to be in the age group that, so far, seems less affected by H1N1. So that could be a reason to refrain.

There’s also the concern about how the general public will react to H1N1 vaccine. For some people my age and older, there may be strong memories of the 25 deaths that followed vaccination for what was called the swine flu in 1976.

No, I’m not leading a chorus against the H1N1 vaccine, or any vaccine for that matter.

But there likely will be those who subscribe to the idea of waiting to buy a new model of a car, allowing someone else to work out the kinks.

In all liklehood, if the H1N1 vaccine’s made available to me, I’ll take it.

A flu by any other name
Not that it’s uncommon for me to take grief about things in the paper, even when they’re not, reports about the flu this year have drawn criticism and questions from some area farmers who make part of their living raising hogs.

As you might guess, the pork industry isn’t too happy that what the government now calls the H1N1 flu was first called, and still often is called, the swine flu.

I recently asked Keith Robinson, Indianapolis bureau chief of The Associated Press, why the AP was continuing with the “swine flu” moniker.

“That’s because experts say the virus began in pigs and most of its genetic makeup is from pig viruses, although there are human and bird genes too,” Robinson said.

Generally, The Tribune is now using the term “H1N1” because that’s what we receive in government reports and news releases. We’re generally changing “swine” to H1N1 in AP stories, although the occasional “swine” reference may slip through.

So there you go.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks  for logging on to TribTown.com.

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