Opinion

I don't remember exactly when I first visited an army surplus store, but I do remember where it was located and what I purchased. It was an old knapsack, the ones that were prevalent in the first couple of decades after WWII and the Korean War ended.

This summer many Kentuckians will receive a check from the federal government as part of an effort to stimulate the national economy.

Before these checks arrive, think about what will be the best use of this money for you and your family. Spending the money on vacations or new items for your family may not be the best choice.

If you have credit card or other debt, paying down that would be a better use of the income for your own economic future.

The e-mail included information about "Mad Stones," so I naturally thought someone wanted to let me know that Mick Jagger and his aging bandmates were in some sort of a snit.

Thankfully, the message was remarkably more interesting than that.

Mad stones, it turns out, have ties back to the days of Cleopatra as a means of curing bites from poisonous spiders and snakes. In America, they have a rich Southern history as a remedy for people bitten by rabid dogs.

I can't report that we have solved the mysterious noise behind the car wash, but we are getting closer.

To recap, I used last week's column to ask readers to help figure out what's keeping awake at night a woman who lives in the subdivision behind The Soap Factory, located off the southbound lane of U.S. 127 Bypass.

She called a couple weeks ago asking for my help to determine what is making the loud steel-on-steel slamming sound which begins around 3:30 a.m. several times each week.

So, I moved last week.

If you noticed there aren't any exclamation marks after that, you're sensing the right tone.

Don't get me wrong. I'm ecstatic to be living in my new apartment, which in two months or so will be come our apartment. But let's just say moving day didn't go all that smoothly.

I took the whole day off from work, and Josh and I brought the first load of stuff over around 11 a.m. We got our keys, did the "we're-excited-to-have-our-own-apartment" dance and started putting that first load in place.

Do you ever hear things that go bump in the night?

Aside from the never-ending parade of freight trains that seems to squawk, squeal and blow their incessant horns, I rarely hear a thing.

That's not the case for one woman who lives in the community behind The Soap Factory car wash.

The woman, who does not want her name used, called me last week, wondering if I could put on my investigative reporter's hat and figure out what the heck is making such a racket four nights a week near her home.

The world of journalism is a strange one. You have busy weeks that produce a lot of column ideas, and you have slow weeks that produce zero ideas. But, you also have busy weeks that produce zero ideas (hence the TV column that ran last week), and you have slow weeks that produce a lot of ideas.

For the most part, last week fell into the latter category.

Reason and common sense dictate that farmers should be forced to purchase a business license, just like any other business in Anderson County.

Trouble is, reason and common sense are often not attributes ascribed to the way government at any level treats farmers when it comes to taxes - be they property or otherwise.

Nor should they be.

Farmers for centuries have occupied a pedestal in America reserved for few others - only members of the armed forces come immediately to mind.

While interviewing Tammy Caldwell last week for a story about Humphrey, the camel she recently acquired, I was reminded of my own association with and interest in camels.

I've never been inclined to own a camel, but have always been intrigued by them.

There are two true camels, the one humper or dromedary that inhabits the Sahara and surrounding environs of North Africa, and the Asian or Bactrian camel which has two humps.