Opinion

Common Sense Satire

I don’t know how much Jane Hwang is paid but there is evidence it may be too much.

No brain cells left behind

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I heard on the radio the other day that children get their intelligence from their mothers. That might explain what has happened to my brain. Perhaps I drained part of it for the first child and the rest for the second. I can almost buy that theory--except for the fact that. I have another theory that makes more sense to me: Susan’s Full Brain Theory. I believe my brain is like a computer that has no memory left. My brain is full, and my folders cannot be compacted. In fact, my brain is so full that according to the bathroom scale, my body is filling up with the overflow! I have so much stuff crammed

Last Word

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Yesterday I found myself shattered over the plight of the starving manatees. Several years ago it was the polar bears, walking o u t o n those sheets of floating ice separating them from their food sources and cubs. And then it is the elephants – tusk hunters and dry water holes. So many of our beautiful animals are marching down the path to extinction. We hear all the TV ads and their sweet songs – And I Think to Myself What a Wonderful World – telling us it is in our hands to save these creatures for a mere $19.95 a month. Seriously? What is the plan? The biggest problem is climate change, and in spite of all our pronouncements and promises, last year was the worst year of emissions ever. What can a mere $19.95/month do in the face of habitat loss? A few pathetic manatees can be saved in an aquarium. Then what?

The legendary Charley Parkhurst

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Out here in the western agricultural world, there has never really been a need for the women’s movement. Women have pitched in to make farms and ranches work since before barbed wire, and they didn’t have to burn undergarments to gain respect. Respect came with hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. In fact, as it turns out history has proven that sometimes the best man for the job was a woman such as the legend of Charley Parkhurst.

Letter to the editor

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have repeatedly been exhorted to follow the science. We are also being belittled if we are against vaccine mandates or show any vaccine hesitency. We are told that anyone who chooses not to get the vaccine is endangering the entire community. However, the science does not support that claim. The CDC admits that fully vaccinated people who have gotten breakthrough cases of either the Delta or the Omicron variant can spread the virus whether or not they show symptoms. So if that is the science, then the only reason to get vaccinated is to protect yourself, not others. I am fully vaccinated but I would never insist that everyone agree with me. Every person needs to discuss the benefits and the risks of getting the vaccine with someone they trust, hopefully their doctor. Please, let’s stop stigmatizing those who choose to not get the jab and recognize that this vaccine is different than the ones for other diseases. The goal of other vaccines is to prevent those vaccinated from getting the disease. Although no vaccine is 100% effective, most vaccinated people do not get the disease at all. And the vaccines are developed over years, not months. I support Operation Warp-speed but it did not allow any study of long-term effects of the shot. Most vaccines take years, even decades to develop. For instance, a polio vaccine was first tested in the 1930s. The results were not good but others continued to work and clinical trials were started in 1954. Since the process for getting the COVID-19 vaccine to market and the way the vaccine works is so different than most vaccines, it is understandable that some people are hesitant to get it. But the most recent science indicates that the only reason to get the vaccine is to personal safety and not for the benefit of those around them. So isn’t it time to follow the science and stop stigmatizing those who have decided, for whatever reason, that the vaccine doesn’t make sense for them?

ON THE RECORD

Complaints

Time Out

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We talk about everyday real life here. But his is not a reality - show column. When Time Out started back in March of 1987, there were no reality shows. Reality was just plain and simple reality back then. Things just plain were.

TV show ‘Yellowstone’ and the sensationalizing of ranching in MT

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After watching four seasons of “Yellowstone”, we have come to the realization that we have been ranching all wrong for our entire lives. . . or else maybe the show is not quite as authentic as co-writer Taylor Sheridan thinks it is. He is quoted as saying, “”The challenge to this world is...it’s not a terribly difficult plot. But if you didn’t grow up with cowboys and in this world, and you don’t know this world, it’s a really hard world to write because you’re going to fall back on the clichés of that world. People tune in to the show for varying reasons, but the authenticity of the show is its bedrock. From the saddles that are used, from the kind of horses that we use, to the situations that I place them in that if you don’t spend your afternoons moving cattle, you don’t know those situations exist.”

Last words

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The last words my mom said to me before she slipped into a peaceful sleep for five days and then into heaven, were “I still didn’t get my ice cream.”

Snowmobiling memories made thru laughter

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As I get older, it becomes harder and harder to find a winter sport that I can participate in, because I don’t dare risk my knees, my hips, my skull, etc. So when our friends, Keith and Holly Williams from Virginia, suggested a snowmobile outing, it sounded fun and harmless.