Published: November 12, 2007 11:21 am      

Refreshing Veterans Day services

It was refreshing to see the communities surrounding this newspaper unite for the various Veterans Day services held over the weekend.

At Times Square Mall in Mt. Vernon, those gathering for the Buddy Poppy Salute to All U.S. War Veterans heard of the 13 folds of the U.S. flag and what each fold represents.

At Waltonville, that village's annual parade drew its normal crowd, and reports are the parade was again a hit.

I applaud all of you who went out of your way to help make these events successful.

***

I received a couple of CDs today from Mike Young of the local band "Farm." The band will play on Nov. 24 in downtown Mt. Vernon.

I had read a lot about the band on our message boards and had heard of it from locals for as long as I have lived here. People seem excited about having the band members reunite for the "one-time-only" show.

Check out the paper later this week for more information on the reunion show, and visit RN Radio on this Web site to hear some of Farm's songs.

***

Al Thompkins, in his daily column for The Poynter Institute, today criticizes the striking Hollywood writers not for their decision to walk out on their jobs, but rather for their inability to come up with more creative picket signs.

Some of his suggestions:

"Writers On Strique"

"Subjects + Verbs = Our Fair Share"

"One Word — Fairness — Worth a Thousand Pictures"

"To strike or not to strike — Shakespeare would carry a sign"

"Pay us our fair share — and we'll write like the Dickens"

"What do we do when our nose is on strike? Picket"