Fold My Laundry Please

I was skimming my local newspaper this morning when I saw a little item on the front page about a new dinosaur that they discovered in Argentina.  It’s called the Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and (this is the part I find odd) for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton’s excavation.  My question is this.  When did they start naming dinosaurs after corporations that funded the digs?  Is this a new trend?  Will the next be called the hugous dinosaurus nike?  Okay, so I had a few questions.  I just thought it was really strange to name a newly discovered dinosaur that way. 

Also, whatever happened to the brontosaurus?  I suppose it could have been called an apatosaurus the whole time, but I’m pretty sure I remember hearing Fred and Wilma mention brontosaurus burgers at least once.  And if I heard it on the Flintstones, it must be true!

I read this article by Margie Boule in today’s Oregonian, our local newspaper.  It was kind of bitter sweet, but I thought you guys might like it. 

He turned life’s pages one by one, but the end arrived too soon.

For Ralph Houston, the Harry Potter series will never end.

Last month I wrote about Ralph, an 86-year-old man dying of congestive heart failure.

When Ralph landed in the emergency room at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in late May, he told Dr. Nancy Karsten that even though he was in hospice care, he didn’t want to die just yet.

He said he had something he wanted to finish.

"So I asked directly: ‘What is it you’re not going to get to finish?’ " Nancy says. "And he said, ‘The Harry Potter books.’ "

Nancy tried hard to get Ralph an advance copy of the last Harry Potter novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which will be released July 21. Folks at the hospital contacted author J.K. Rowling via her press agent in London.

Back came a letter to Ralph, written by J.K. herself. "I can’t tell you how honoured I am to know how much you like the Harry Potter books," she wrote. "I treasure my unashamed adult readers!"

But, she explained, the publisher would not release any advance copies.

Ralph tried to hold on until July 21, but he died Sunday, June 17, just before midnight. It was Father’s Day.

"We weren’t surprised at his death," says his daughter, Judy Rieder. "He had been told over a year ago he wasn’t going to live very long. He got a big kick out of the fact he lived so much longer."

Ralph was lucid when the note arrived from J.K. Rowling, Judy says. He loved the personal communication from the creator of Harry Potter, she says, and he enjoyed the attention he got after his story was made public.

Ralph never got to learn Harry Potter’s fate, but the letter from the author "was better than nothing," Judy says.

She and her sisters made sure Ralph was comfortable in the days before he died. Judy "can’t say enough" about the hospice nurse who provided care to Ralph.

Because he was a World War II veteran, Ralph was given a 21-gun salute before he was laid to rest last week.

He was a charming, intelligent man. He loved books. Perhaps his wish to read the last Harry Potter book kept him alive a few months longer than fate had planned.

"But the fact is, he didn’t get to read it," Judy says. "You just accept what is."

I think that this man has used up all his luck!  First he gets hit with by a tractor/trailer going 70 mph and only loses a leg, then he gets shot by a burglar and lives to tell about it!  He definitely has a guardian angel watching over him!

Someone was serious about his chili sauce!

What I want to know is, how they walk out of the resort carrying a bathtub and no one saw them?

Ah, religious sensitivity at its classiest!

I think I’ll be skipping a visit to the Science Museum this summer.  Looking at plasticized dead people is just a little too creepy for me.

Ah, to cash in on the sales feel the holiday spirit so strongly!

This man’s wife must be a real terror!

Don’t try this at home, kids!!!

Last week when I posted our local news items, I only had that day’s paper, and apparently nothing happens on the weekends in Rexburg.  So this week I decided that I would save any items I found throughout the week so that I don’t bore you people to tears and drive you away from my site muttering incoherently.

Tuesday

Two Girls Ran Away from the St. Anthony Juvenile Corrections Center  In a bid for freedom, two girls left the center’s observation and assessment unit about 6:50 pm and were back in custody at the center by 10:10 pm.  3 hours and 20 minutes of freedom.  Sounds like the title of a bad movie.

Thursday

Chester Woman Has a Moment of Fame  While on vacation in Southern California, a woman from Chester (about two towns north of us) took her 92 year old mother to see "The Price is Right".  Imagine her surprise when she heard her name being called to come up front to play!  She didn’t make it past Contestant’s Row, however.  My favorite part of the article, when 82 year old Bob Barker learned of the age of the woman’s mother, he said, "I’m glad there’s someone in here older than I am!"

High School Student’s Friends Step Up to Fulfill Her Last Wishes  A girl who had suffered from a prolonged illness died on Sunday without having been able to finish her goal of making more than 100 quilts to be distributed to patients in the hospital.  A group of seminary students from Madison High School here in Rexburg spent all day Wednesday making quilts to display at her funeral Thursday.  The seminary classes will distribute the quilts to the hospitals in the area.

Supermarket Target for Foul Smell Attack  An 18 year old and a 21 year old boys were cited for disturbing the peace after releasing a powerful stink agent inside Broulim’s Supermarket.  They also admitted to setting off stink bombs in Albertson’s, Deseret Industries, and Walmart.  Two thoughts on this one:  First, I think it’s hilarious that the paper is so touchy about refering to people bombing someplace here in town that they call it a "foul smell attack" instead of just saying stink bombs.  Second, you’ve probably never been to our local Broulim’s, but this is what they call justice.  Those cashiers are the rudest people I’ve ever come in contact with!

BYU-Idaho Forces Students to Walk More Than 50 Feet to Get to Class  The Rexburg police are handing out more parking tickets than usual around Brigham Young University-Idaho’s campus.  Due to the recent influx of students since the school turned into a 4 year university, the college created a new, large, and generously accomodating parking lot.  Of the 114 spaces, only 10 to 15 of them are used at any time during the week.  The campus is designed so that you can walk across its width in 10 minutes and its length in 15 minutes.  So all you whiny students who live across the street from campus and still insist on driving to class so that your feet don’t get snow on them and then park illegally so you can be right by your classroom?  Buy a pair of galoshes and get over yourselves!

Saturday

The Saga of the Lack of Parking Continues  There are not enough parking spaces for students in the housing complexes now.  Here in Rexburg, you cannot park on city streets between the hours of 2 and 7 am from Nov. 1st to March 1st because that’s when the snowplows run.  Now, not only do the students have to walk to class, they even have to find someplace less than convenient to park at home.  When I went to college, you didn’t need a car to get places and most people didn’t have one.  If we needed to get someplace far, 20-30 of us would just cram into the backseat of someone’s car.  You know, the old fashioned way.  But now its more of a one student, one car sort of thing.  It’s not like Rexburg is a big place, people.  When we lived near the campus, we walked everywhere, to Walmart, Blockbuster, Winger’s, the movie theater, everywhere.  Perhaps these poor students are too poor to afford shoes what with gas prices being so high these days.

And that’s it for Rexburg, this week.  A lot more interesting than last week, don’t you agree?

Birth Postpones Public Hearing  More than 30 people shoed up at the Sugar City Hall on Thursday night for the public hearing on teh Home Occupations and Home Business Ordinance, only to be told it had been postponed.  One of the commission members was in Idaho Falls with his daughter who was giving birth.  The meeting will be rescheduled for a later time.  I’m just shocked that more than 30 people showed up for the meeting.  Somebody call the fire marshal!

St. Anthony and Island Park Decide to Revamp City Newsletters  Apparently most of the 2 page publication was taken up with redundant comments from city council members.  They got tired of looking "foolish or lazy when their departments had nothing to report" so they’re making their newsletters shorter…if that’s even possible.

As you can see, nothing really happened in Rexburg lately.  Both of these news stories are from neighboring towns.  In the weather section, however, I did see that we’re expecting rain/snow mixes for the next few days.  I’ll drink a cup of cocoa for each and every one of you!

This? makes me mad.  Apparently it’s a popular costume this year, too.  Some people have no taste and no respect for grieving families.  When South Park has more tact than you do, it’s time to take a good long look at yourself.

Today’s Headline:

Mailbox Vandals Strike  Apparently, some kids went around town running down mailboxes with their car last night.  It’s nice to live in a town where something as relatively minor as this gets put front and center in the paper.  It could definitely get worse!

Man Arrested for Breaking Into Office  A tile-layer from out of town broke into a Farmer’s Insurance office to use the computer to look at internet porn.  Someone in the neighborhood noticed that the blinds were down and the lights were on at 11 pm and called the police.  The police broke down the door and "caught" the man at the computer.  Hehe, that one kind of cracked me up!

That’s pretty much it.  The second article didn’t even happen here in Rexburg.  It was in St. Anthony, the next town over.  Other than that, there were a few Associated Press articles from around the nation and the world, obituaries, weddings and engagements, Eagle Scout ranks earned, young men and women who left on their missions this week, school lunch menus, senior center lunch menus, editorial letters, classifieds, comics, and lots and lots of advertising.  Our local paper is just that, LOCAL.  Ah,the simple life of small town living!