Opinion

In a few short months, it’ll be 1949.
And it’s up to the House to keep us from time traveling.
The 2008 Farm Bill — composed of a multitude of programs, assistance and funding for U.S. producers — needs to be extended in the short-term by the first of 2013, or the legislation on the books will be one that hasn’t been in place for 60 years.
This poses several problems for Anderson County producers and even Anderson County consumers like myself.

Kids’ stomachs are grumbling, and so are critics of the new national nutritional standards for school lunch.
Although the new guidelines for healthier meals have been officially in place through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 since the beginning of the school year, criticism flared anew last month about the new caloric limits for lunches.
High school students from Kansas complained about their apparent hunger through a medium sure to spread their message virally — YouTube.

Trust is becoming as rare as floppy disks these days.
Both are relics for a future museum. I envision the working title: “Things Americans Once Used and Threw Away.”
Other exhibits will showcase print volumes of the dictionary, instructions for dinner etiquette and glass milk bottles.
Trust in anything — churches, media, banks, government, school districts — is becoming harder for people to commit to.  

My dogs are city slickers.
There, as painful as it is to admit, I’ve said it.
Me? Uh-uh. No way. I’m not a city slicker and, despite some recent unsettling realizations to the contrary, I can prove it.
It became obvious that my dogs had succumbed to city life when I visited a local farm during my never-ending quest to find the perfect place to hunt deer. (Fact: City slickers don’t hunt, although some of the posers will occasionally wear camouflage.)

Column as I see ’em …
Ever considered smoking some meth or snorting a little oxy?
I haven’t, and aside from a desire to avoid being a junky there’s one major reason why: I’m petrified of ending up in jail.
Until the past couple of years, I had the misguided, or perhaps naïve, notion that hard drugs like meth, coke or prescription pills would lead to a decade or two behind bars.  

It was a day like any other workday.
I woke up around 6 and was messing around the house, getting ready . . . and the phone rings.
“Something’s wrong with your daddy,” Mama said.
After talking to her a few seconds, I found out he was hurting in his back. I could hear him over the phone, groaning. She had already called my younger brother, Bertram, who lives up the road from them.
“I’ll call an ambulance,” I said and hung up.
After calling 911, I called her back and Bertram was there.

Whether it’s fetching unsweetened tea from Mickey D’s (my wife won’t let me drink sweet tea; she says I’m already too sweet), or meat in the grocery store (no salad stuff, thanks; I only eat things that eat salad) folks love to ask me to predict the outcome of next month’s judge-executive election.

I have no idea why. Were I able to predict future events, instead of using this keyboard to pound out words I’d be using it to trade stocks and futures while eating pork chops and sipping tea on a tropical island.

Letter writers Raymond C. Drury and Jackie Robinson each submitted a letter in support of judge-executive candidate Donna Drury.

Letter writers Brad Martin, Darrell and Shirley Bunch, Ray Woodyard, and Matthew M. McWilliams each submitted a letter in support of Sheriff Troy Young.

Letter writer Naomi Hedden says newly paved roads are music to her ears.

For their full letters, see this week's Anderson News, available on newsstands across the county.

Subscribe online or by calling 502-839-6906.

Columnist Cheryl Steenerson provides tips to enjoy apples all winter long.

For her full column, see this week's Anderson News, available on newsstands across the county.

Subscribe online or by calling 502-839-6906.