Opinion

Washington?s beloved ?Demon? mascot has come under fire lately. Not only will the school have to change its logo for copyright infringement, but there is a movement afoot to replace the mascot altogether with something less satanic.Before I get too deep into this topic, let me start by saying that I don?t have a dog in this fight. I did not graduate from Washington High School but rather from Pocahontas Area ...

How many of you out there are going to get 5 percent pay raises this coming year without any additional responsibilities? Don?t be shy. Why am I not sensing everyone?s hand flying up?A 5 percent increase in salaries is what is being recommended for Washington County Sheriff Jerry Dunbar and Washington County Attorney Larry Brock. The other elected officials in the county will possibly get 4 percent increases, if ...

To the editor:As the election draws nearer I would like to suggest that everyone be extremely careful about believing or forwarding many of the e-mails floating around, targeting various candidates. The internet is a wonderful thing, but it is also a terrible thing, since anyone can post anything they want, and even if there isn?t a shred of truth to it, people will gladly forward it as if every word was true. I ...

To the editor:Harry Freshwater, 19-year-old pilot from Perth, Australia, landed his rented Cessna 172 at Fairfield Municipal Airport Sunday evening for an overnight stop on a trip around the country. The sight of a lone teenager unloading his pack and sleeping bag from an airplane on the ramp at Fairfield did raise a few questions:Why is a 19 year old flying around the country??Well, I need to fly 75 hours as ...

To the editor:April 7, 2012, was a sad day on Peach Ave. in Fairfield. A kind, loving pony mare laid down to give birth, not knowing a coyote who is owned by the DNR can smell her. As she gets up to walk to the pond for a drink of water she is followed. Foot prints in the mud is that of a coyote beside her foot prints. Flick is the name the little boy called his pony. Now his dead pony. Yes, Flick had fresh mud ...

In a normal week, I only get to take photos of birds, not fly like one. This past week was exceptional in that I took to the air twice, once in a small airplane and once in a hot air balloon.Some people have what they call their ?bucket list.? I only have a list of things in my head that I want to do someday ? health, time and money permitting. Hot air ballooning was on my list.A couple of weeks ago I attended ...

Animals can?t read. While that may sound obvious, we often forget it.Recently I heard a recording of a call-in to a radio station. The caller felt compelled to fix what she saw as a dangerous situation, but apparently had been ignored by officials. The roads department had placed deer crossing signs on busy highways, putting both the deer and drivers at risk for accidents. She herself had hit deer shortly after ...

It took the Washington girls? basketball team seven games, but the 14th-ranked Demons may have finally found their shooting stroke in Tuesday?s 62-36 win at Durant.Through Washington?s first six games, the Demons had been averaging a paltry 40.5 points per game. And the team?s shooting numbers were icy, to say the least. Washington shot just 28 percent from the field, including 18 percent from 3-point range, in ...

A friend of mine brought to my attention a very interesting phenomenon the other day, which is the large number of words that are derived from a person?s name. A word that has a person?s name as its root is known as an eponym.My friend told me one of the surprising eponyms he came across was the word ?galvanize.? The word means ?to stimulate or shock with an electric current.? It is also employed in more ...

The time has come once again to do some Christmas shopping. My family has done a ?Secret Santa? gift exchange for the past couple of years. What we do is we each write up a wish list and then somebody compiles all the wish lists and sends them out in a mass e-mail. Once we learn who our person is, we try to buy him or her something from the wish list.On the one hand, asking someone for a wish list is good ...

I?m learning the hard way that people sometimes have to do things that may embarrass them.When I was young and more calloused, usually out of ignorance, I used to feel embarrassed for people who were embarrassing themselves. The most vivid memory at the moment was of older and old women who used to wear pleated rain bonnets over their bouffant hairdos. I haven?t seen one for years. Women kept them in their ...

To the editor:My older sister who has resided in Fairfield her whole lifetime sent me your Friday, April 27, 2012 edition. The headline read: Track event renamed Brookhart-Crew Relays.Lee Crew was a senior my freshman year and an outstanding runner in his events. He always encouraged we younger ones to work hard and give your best. He continued this even while attending Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI) ...