Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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"Wear sunscreen.” That is the first piece of advice given in “The Sunscreen Song,” a list of recommendations to the graduating class of 1999, set to music by Baz Luhrmann. It’s solid advice. Trust me, I wish I’d taken the same guidance when my mom pounded it into my head. I kinda, sorta listened, but when you’re 18, you think you’re invincible, that you are way smarter than everyone else, and you’re going to live life on your terms. I get it. Here’s my advice to you, members of the class of 2024...
Summerland Advocate-Messenger personnel brought home 23 awards from the 2023 Better Newspaper Contest for the Nebraska Press Association. Awards were presented Saturday evening, at the awards banquet held at the Cornhusker Marriot Hotel in Lincoln. SAM finished second in Class A, which includes weekly newspapers with a circulation up to 699 subscriptions. The Stanton Register won the division. In advertising categories, publisher LuAnn Schindler won seven awards. An ad featuring financial services at Brunswick State Bank, promoting FFA Week,...
There will never be another Rita. My first memories of the Orchard elementary teacher are from 2008, when I filled in during maternity leave for Kortney Sayers. Rita Shabram was one of the first people to welcome me. We’d stop to chitchat when we had a few moments. Occasionally, our lunch times would overlap and we’d talk about education and current events. The best times, though, were after school, when we’d venture to one another’s classrooms and spend an hour or two, talking about and bon...
April is National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate the creative written word form, its expressive ebb and flow pulling you in. Reading poetry is great. Watching someone bring those words to life, through a spoken word presentation, is amazing. Poetry is one of my favorite competitive speech events. Where else can you pair Beowulf with one of Jack Prelutsky’s monster poems and come up with rhythm and flow that makes sense? (If you haven’t read any of Prelutsky’s children’s books, do it now. Yo...
The 11-year-old version of LuAnn was enthralled with studying the globe in our sixth-grade classroom. Pastel blue denoted water on the curved, glossy sphere. Continents lifted from the surface, outlining rugged terrain. Each country was color-coded, some purple, some red, others green. I’d spin the globe and, as the air movement slowed to stillness, would place a finger on the surface, open my eyes to discover what country I’d investigate next. In social studies class that year, my cla...
I saw a quote recently and it’s been on my mind since then: “The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.” I like surprises, that’s the optimist in me shining through, looking for a lesson worth learning or a silver lining. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pessimism in the world today. I see and hear it often in casual conversations and on social media. Its tentacles are permeating society, pulling us farther apart, creating...
Either it’s irony or a divine sign that SPS English instructor Katie Schneider shared a blog post on social media last week about the teacher shortage. I’ve been gathering data on the topic for nearly a month, hoping to pull a story together. I’m sharing Schneider’s post with her permission, on this page, under the op-ed label. Schneider addresses parents in her open letter, talking about respect or the lack thereof, about technology and its effects on a child’s brain and behavior, about letting...
Coming to a TV or social media channel soon: “How To Survive Cooking With Your Spouse.” You no doubt think I’m joking, but Scott and I have talked about it for years. It might not be like the Food Network’s “Down Home With the Neelys” or “Extra Virgin” on the Cooking Channel. No, not at all like these examples. Obviously, we joke about it, too. I’m afraid our cooking adventures would include some old-fashioned ribbing, a few unappreciative glares, a stolen kiss or two and multiple instance...
Typically, at the end of the legal notices that run in the paper, I add the phrase, "The public has the right to know." You do. The premise is etched into our statehouse's north wall, "The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen." Now, more than ever, you should educate yourselves on the ins and outs of freedom of information laws. Now, more than ever, there's a need for citizens to become involved. This is Sunshine Week, a time to highlight the necessity of open government. In...
What a great time to be a Bobcat! Our students are shining in all activities. Backtrack to November when the volleyball team qualified for state competition and the football team played in two rounds of the playoff system. Nothing like starting the year off on the right foot. The marching band did well at competition in Wayne. Speech and drama students continue to earn awards. Next week, the speechsters compete in a tough C2 district, a trip to the state meet on the line. I have a feeling...
Thoughts that keep a news publisher awake at night: Would Benjamin Franklin cringe at the tardiness of mail delivery? Franklin, publisher of “The Pennsylvania Gazette,” first ran Philadelphia’s post system and, in 1753, was appointed joint postmaster for the 13 colonies. By 1758, Franklin’s actions established a means to send newspapers via post service. Winifred Gallagher, in “How the Post Office Created America: A History,” gives Franklin credit for instituting an order that newspapers...
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Find you tribe and appreciate them. I (and even Scott) appreciate everything our freelance photographers do for our publication. Whether they’re taking pictures or shooting video at sporting events, we count on their “eyes” on special moments at the games and matches they attend. Sometimes, there’s two or three of us working to capture photographs or video that we use in the print edition or social media channels. We are grateful for their work and ar...
One of my favorite movie lines I've been known utter to my children and grandkids originates from the movie "A League of Their Own," when Tom Hanks' character, Jimmy Dugan, tells a woman's league player, "There's no crying in baseball." Wait a minute. There is crying in baseball. Softball, too. Even football and boxing and basketball and volleyball can cause tears to flow down athletes' faces. Emotions, when it comes to sports, often run high. For the past couple of weeks, crying in sports has...
To quote Benjamin Franklin, “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I am positive that most of us would agree we pay too much in taxes, including inheritance tax. The question is, can counties afford to do away with inheritance tax revenue? Eliminating the tax would increase the tax levy by several cents. That means you and I - all taxpayers - will be required to mak...
Move aside, Carmela Soprano. I’m in my mob wife era. Cheetah print? You name it. I’ve got it. Shirts, skirts, dresses, jeans, sweaters, boots. You could say cheetah is one of my favorite colors. Plether leggings? Own a pair. Big sunglasses? Check. Flashy gold jewelry? Double check. Big messy hair? Break out the two-inch barrel curling iron and red can of Sexy Hair Spray and Play. What’s missing? I don’t have a full-length fur coat, but I do have a long denim jacket trimmed in some kind of faux...
John Lajba has grown accustomed to having Lady Liberty loom over him while he works in his downtown Omaha studio. Still, the sculptor would rather see the weathered 9-foot copper statue depart his studio shelf – its home for the past 30 years – and placed back where it belongs. "It's been ... out of sight and out of people's memories for too long," Lajba said. He might get his wish. Momentum appears to be building to restore and return the statue to its pedestal in Omaha's Turner Park, whe...
Several items I cherish most in life are found in a recipe box atop the refrigerator. The other, tucked away in my office in the file cabinet. The items have two common threads. They are handwritten in cursive by Grandma Larson and my parents. Dad’s and Grandma’s pieces have similar attributes: precise penmanship, straight strokes, perfect loops. Mom’s handwriting is a bit more fanciful, letters strung together with sweeping lines, curlicues highlighting each capital letter. If I ask any of my...
To borrow from the Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you’ll find, you get what you need.” This has been one of my favorite songs since the 1970s. Yes, that admission definitely dates me. And, its placement in the 1983 movie “The Big Chill” hits home. I thought it was an odd, albeit appropriate choice for the soundtrack. Who would’ve known a month after viewing the movie with my parents and sister, we’d be burying Laurie’s fiancé, six weeks before t...
Were you part of the mad rush at Target stores, trampling others or being pushed out of the way, to snag one of the hottest items in the retail world? Were you part of the Stanley stampede, where the lucky prize, if you were able to snag it, was a limited Target and Starbucks collaborative cosmo pink tumbler? Don’t confuse this particular tumbler with the winter pink shade also sold at Target. Seems that one is difficult to find, too. Don’t worry, I wasn’t standing in line on New Year’s Eve to...
What does it mean to be authentic? Credible. Trustworthy. Real. Genuine. These synonyms for the 2023 word of the year, as selected by the folks at Merriam-Webster, make an important statement about the times in which we live. In an interview with the Associated Press, editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski said searches on the dictionary’s website for the definition of “authentic” are normally high. But in 2023, Sokolowski reported searches were “boosted to new heights.” “We see in 2023 a kind of cris...
The final minutes of Christmas 2023 are counting down. It's nearly midnight, the house is quiet except for the steady hum from the corn stove and an occasional cough from Scott, who is tucked in bed, fast asleep. I'm sitting in the dark (except for the glow of my computer screen), looking at holiday lights from Cade's place across the street and Steve and Linda's next door. The constant glow brings a sense of peace and calm, a welcome reprieve from the blowing snow landing in the area last...
Have you started Christmas shopping or are you one of those people who have completed the task and have everything wrapped? I belong to the first group. While I blame my tardiness on my over-scheduled time, part of me also knows I don't need to hurry because I can get everything I need locally. The push for shopping local hit home last week, when a 20-something year old shopped the Sidebar for holiday gifts. She told me she's "keeping it local." Her holiday gift giving will feature only items...
An email landed in my inbox and caught my attention. I don’t watch a lot of television, unless the Weather Channel and sporting events count. And, if by some chance I watch a network show, I’m continually disillusioned by the number of advertisements promising health benefits ... until you read the fine print and learn all the unwanted side effects. According to newly-released data from the Federal Communications Commission, based on complaints about commercials, the top five most con...
Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” is one of my favorite novels. Perhaps it’s because of the lyrical motion of the words she employs in telling the story of Jem and Scout and their father Atticus. Maybe it’s because of the lessons Lee imparts: don’t be judgmental, treat others the way you wish to be treated. I believe it provides a realistic portrayal of life in the deep South during the depression era. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Lee saw plenty of social injustices growing up in Monroeville,...
Isn’t it amazing how a game changes over the years? During the late 1960s, Mom coached volleyball in Clay Center. I remember sitting on the stage in what later became known as the “old gym,” watching her toss the ball to the girls, running some kind of hitting drill. I can see a line of girls practicing their underhanded serves, some of the balls skimming over the top of the net and landing in the back corner of the court. I vaguely remember a few games taking place against area schools. There...
