YOU KIDS SHUT UP!
Perfessers at the University of Wisconsin have determined that toddlers learn to understand and use words better and quicker if they also have a little quiet.
Brilliant. And the Wisconsiners probably got a fat government grant to fund this study.
Background noise such as radio, television, stereos, cell phones and other human voices can inhibit the little darling from learning as quickly as a child which has the benefit of relative quiet while listening to words.
Reminds me of a friend who made her sons turn the radio volume down in the car.
“Turn that racket down,” she’d say. “It’s so loud I can’t see how to drive.”
And that also makes perfect sense to me.
Wonder who those kids in the car were listening to?
ANIMAL CRACKERS. Got up unaccustomedly early Monday for my neighborhood stroll. This was at about 5 a.m. From down deep in the nearby woods north of Masey Pond I heard ‘our’ owl hooting into the black night. It’s been a couple of years since I last heard that call. That call is also official notice to all small creatures within earshot that they are now considered to be a part of the buffet table.
It’s hard to tell the difference between the hoooooot of an owl and the coooooo of a dove. They are both contributing to a shortage of the letter ‘o’ in the English language lately.
Don’t ask me how I know the difference in the bird calls. I’m the guy that can’t tell the difference between annual and perennial; between Elementary and Primary; between mayonnaise and Miracle Whip.
Rabbits and squirrels are so plentiful that I’m sure the appearance of Louise Fox can only be a few days away. There is just too much food on the ground.
ANIMAL CRACKERS. I remember reading (back early in the spring) that this would be a cicada year. But, month and months passed and no cicadas. I finally forgot the forewarning.
Guess what is raising a racket now? The good news is that things will quieten down in a couple of weeks. The newly-hatched insects will lay their eggs underground and the peace will last for some more years.
There are some species of cicadas which emerge from their underground haunts every year. It gets nuts when the ‘annual’ cicadas emerge along with the perennial cicadas and they all try to outshout each other.
WORLD IS CRAZY! P.J. Tracy IV worked for Graves Publishing Co. for awhile, including some of the time I was there. But then he moved away to work at a newspaper in Tallullah, La.
A few years passed and he came back to work for Graves Publishing Co.. Then, about the time the ‘Nashville Leader’ became the ‘Nashville News-Leader’ he left again to become publisher of that same newspaper in Tallullah. He got a nice raise.
If you’re not confused, then feel free to continue reading.
His sis, Nicole, works with us at the ‘News-Leader’ now. She showed us a copy of PJ’s paper from last week in which he wrote a column about going into a barbershop where all of the barbers were African-American. He was treated politely, but was told they would not cut his hair because he was white. “Really? he asked. ”Yes,” he was told.
PJ is a pretty laid-back guy, and he didn’t take offense. Just said he’d find a place that would take his money.
You must remember, this happened in Louisiana. Still, this IS 2016, isn’t it?
OUR PAPER this week brings you the obituary of a great guy, John Lyons. He was the epitome of wit and good humor, and for years he was in our front door early on Wednesday morning to get his copy of the newspaper.
John was a multi-talented gent and he was willing to share produce from the little garden that flourished by the entrance to the building where he and Mary lived. That connected building served as bus station, library, city hall, fire station and motor vehicle inspection place over the years.
Peace to his family and thanks to the Almighty for putting such people among us.
I KNOW I WROTE this once before, but out of 113 million plus Americans, are Hillary and The Donald the best candidates we can come up with?
THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: It’s often the last key on the ring that opens the door.
HE SAID: “All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” Winston Churchill, statesman
SHE SAID: “For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.” Judy Garland, entertainer
SWEET DREAMS, Baby
