A man with a duck on his head walks into a doctor’s office. The nurse asks what the doctor can do for him. The duck answers, “I want him to get this guy off my ass.”
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A headline on an article in today’s local paper caught my eye, “More cows in the sales ring.” The sub headline stated, “Rising market value, inclement weather prompt sales increases.” Kist Livestock Market in Mandan serves as the major market for area farmers and ranchers and always bustles with a high amount of activity, but today they are expecting more than 6,000 head to run through their auction ring. A normal sale would see fewer animals than that. Mary called my attention to the article this morning and noted that yesterday afternoon when she drove by the entrance to the sale barn many pickups hooked to cattle trailers were parked on Memorial Highway waiting to turn into the long driveway and get to the unloading docks. Problems surround the cattle producers in a hard winter - water supplies icing over, cattle consuming larger quantities of feed, slower weight gain, hay costs for those in short supply approach $110 per ton delivered, etc.
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Newsweek says, “Give Us a Sonnet, Doggonit.” The writer here speaks in reference to the upcoming presidential inauguration where sometimes a poet has been asked to present an original piece. She mentioned JFK’s ceremony where Robert Frost could not read the poem he composed because the winds kept fluttering the pages. I remember that time, and I believe he was also having trouble seeing the print because of the harsh glare of the sun. At any rate, he scrapped that effort and recited another one of his poems from memory.
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In the same magazine a full two page picture caused me to stare in dumb solemnity. A four year old girl is being laid into a crypt by two men after she was killed in the most recent Israeli-Palestinian fight. Her body is wrapped in a green shroud, but her face is unadorned, and except for the trickle of dried blood coming from an unwashed nostril, she appears to be asleep.
