The Graphic-Advocate

2 The Graphic-Advocate Commentary
February 22, 2012
There's a certain power in silence.
In a recent cover article by Time
Magazine, it was pointed out that,
in our world where extroverts, or the
loudest, get the most attention; introverts,
or the quieter people, may
be the better adjusted. Being a cardcarrying
introvert, I like that theory.
Have you ever been in a crowd of
yakking, noisy people and just want
to scream, “Would everyone just
please shut up!”?
There's a rather sexist joke going
around, mostly amongst men, that
women have 10,000 words in them,
and they're not happy until they get
those 10,000 words out. Daily. The
medical profession tells us that there
may be a good reason for that. It
seems that women have a gland in
their neck that men don't. The jaw
action of talking stimulates that
gland, producing endorphins that
make them feel better. Women love
to talk.
I've written about George Helt before.
In 2010, he passed away at the
age of 92. George had an interesting
and eclectic life of farming, photography,
flying model airplanes,
Empty Nest By Curt Swarm
Stop Talking
The Graphic-Advocate
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world travel, and love for his family
and friends. In talking to his wife,
Fern, who is 93, another story about
George emerged.
George had a gravely voice and,
yes, he was shy, or introverted. One
morning, when George woke up,
there was blood on his pillow. Fern
made him go to the doctor. The doctor
couldn't see anything wrong, so
he sent George to Iowa City. At Iowa
City, the doctors ran a tube down
George's throat, but couldn't see
anything wrong. They advised him
not to talk.
That is just what George did. For
six months! Fern wrote a note for
him that he carried in case someone
came up to him and started talking.
The note, in Fern's articulate hand
writing said, “Please excuse me. I
can't talk.”
As I mentioned, George loved to
travel. At the time of the stop-talking
scenario, George had a trip to the
1963 World's Fair in New York City
planned. He was taking his eightyear
old son, Kenneth.
And they went—George not talking
the whole way. George and Ken-
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neth drove to Chicago and flew in
an airplane to New York City. They
stayed in a hotel, visited the World's
Fair, saw a model of the proposed
World Trade Center, a three-wheeled
car with bathing-suit model, Time
Square, a Camel-Cigarette billboard
with smoke coming out of the man's
mouth, the Empire State Building,
and the Statue of Liberty—George
not talking the whole time. But taking
lots of pictures, you betcha! The
camera did his talking.
They came home by bus, a trip that
took 28 hours. They were in the same
bus the whole way, and dropped off
in New London at exactly the scheduled
time.
Back home, George, still in stone
silence, went to the Mao Clinic in
Rochester, Minnesota to find out
what was wrong with his throat. The
doctors there poked and prodded and
did all kinds of tests. They could find
nothing wrong. George was told that
he could start talking again.
George looked at them. He face fell.
He wasn't sure if he didn't like the
quiet world just a little better.
DJ DJ
Big Big
Daddy Daddy
Addy Addy
Mingling with
the masses
Mitt Romney went into the
Common Folks Café one morning
recently and introduced himself to
two customers and the waitress -
Tom Tomson, Dick Dickson and
Harriett Harriettson.
Mitt explained that he was
connecting to regular people
in regular towns in his quest to
demonstrate his regularity. Mitt
sat between Tom and Dick at the
counter and Harriett asked whether
Mitt wanted coffee.
“No thank you. I believe I’d like a
mango frappe,” Mitt responded.
“We’re fresh out of mango frappe.
How about orange juice?” she asked.
“Fine, make it a Philippine-Florida
blend, if you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind. That’s all I
drink myself.”
Mitt turned to Tom and asked, “So,
are you eager to start your day of
doing regular work, Tom?”
“Yeah, I can hardly wait to get
started slinging carcasses at the
packing plant.”
“Good, good. And you, Dick, are
you looking forward to your day of
productivity?”
“I just spent an all-nighter in
freezing rain repairing utility lines
and get to go out again after a few
hours rest.”
“Splendid, splendid.”
Harriett brought Mitt a glass of
6th Annual
FAMILY DANCE
Saturday, February 25 th
AgMax Crop Insurance underwritten by Western Agricultural INsurance Company, an equal
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orange juice.
“Here’s your Philippine-Florida
blend. We’ll have to stock up on
mango frappe for your next visit.”
“Thank you, and how about you,
Harriett, are you content with your
menial yet dignified career choice?”
“Well, you’ll excuse me Mitt if
I don’t feel all that dignified today
after caring for five-year-old twins
who were sick with diarrhea and
nausea all night.”
“What you need is a good live-in
nanny. I know there are some really
reasonably priced ones but you need
to check their immigration papers
real closely,” Mitt said, chuckling
and winking.
“I wouldn’t want to deprive myself
of all the joys of parenthood,”
Harriett said as she walked away to
serve other customers.
“Mitt, what exactly is it you do,
other than run for president?” Tom
asked.
“That’s about it right now. I
worked hard and was frugal so that I
could get an income from dividends
and interest,” Romney said.
“So do you spend a lot of time
managing your investments?” Tom
asked.
“Well, no. For a long time now,
I’ve had my money in a blind trust,
so actually, I can’t manage my
investments.”
We did not have a very good
turnout for our meeting with the
citizens the 21st. The only good
thing is we had some very good
breakfast pizza served by Toni at
Coyotes Café.
We finished work on a balanced
budget. This year we lost $10,600.00
in property tax income. This was due
to the rollback change and lowering
of property values for next year. The
city lost $1,466,889.00 in property
value for 2012-13. We were able
to find a way to cut in certain areas
but still had to increase the special
assessments by about .49 cents per
taxable value of your property. A
$100,000.00 home increases around
$25.00.
We have declared 2 buildings to be
a nuisance and will be working on
the other 5 in the future. If you own
an abandoned house I would suggest
repairing it for habitation, sell it or
tear it down.
We shortened the dates for open
burning but hope to have an area
in town where you can dump the
leaves. There will be a small fee for
a burn permit this year.
As you noticed, we lost 4 trees in
the square. Two have been replanted
already. It was either cut them down
or risk a lawsuit if they fell on a car
or a person. Black ants were eating
the nice looking one by the parking.
I appreciate your letters of
Ross
Rambles
By Ken Ross,
Graphic-Advocate Editor
What’s Happening
“Don’t you pay like 15 percent
in taxes on millions of dollars in
income?” Dick asked
“Actually, with all my charitable
donations, my take-home pay is only
about 60 percent of what I earn. I
barely have eight-figures to spend
on necessities and a few comforts
each year.”
“So how does a person get enough
money that dividends and interest
bring him an eight-figure annual
income?” Dick asked.
“I provided a valuable service
reorganizing companies that needed
different business plans.”
“Didn’t one company go bankrupt
after your business drained off tens
of millions of dollars in fees?” Tom
asked.
“Well, you win some and some
you don’t win as much.”
“How is going bankrupt winning
anything?” Tom asked.
“Oh, right, the company that went
bankrupt. I guess they didn’t really
win anything. I was talking about
myself. Say, your town here is really
nice. All the trees are just the right
height. You know what I like to do?
I like to sing God Bless America.
Let’s sing all three versus.”
Tom and Dick got up and moved
toward the door as Mitt began
singing.
Every Monday – AA & Al-Anon Meetings 7:30 p.m. St. Thomas Catholic Church, Manson
Every Wednesday – Story Hour J J Hands Library in Lohrville, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15 to Feb. 22: Goodwill’s Ambassador Trailer will be located at the SE corner of the First
United Methodist Church in Farnhamville
Wednesday, Feb. 22 to Feb. 29: Goodwill’s Ambassador Trailer will be across the Street from City Hall in
Lohrville.
Monday, Feb. 27: 12:30 – 5:00 p.m. Lake City Community Blood Drive at the Lake City Community Building
Tuesday, Feb. 28: 5:00 p.m. SCC All-Male Drill team to perform at halftime of the Girls State Basketball
Tournament
Wednesday, Feb. 29 to Mar. 7: Goodwill’s Ambassador Trailer will be in the Weiss Plumbing Parking Lot,
East side of building in Rockwell City.
Wednesday, Feb. 29: 11:40 a.m. Lenten Lunch Programs Begin at the Senior Center in Rockwell City at the
library building. For more information call 712-297-7401.
Saturday, March 3: 9:00 a.m. Calhoun county Farm Bureau is sponsoring a town hall meeting with State
Sen. Daryl Beall and State Rep. Dave Tjepkes. The meeting will be at the Calhoun county ISU Extension office
in Rockwell City.
Tuesday, April 17: 7:00 p.m. Rockwell City Revitalization Committees & Group meeting @ RC Community
Center.
Friday, June 15: 6-11 p.m. Calhoun County Relay for Life at the Lake City High School Track. For more
information contact Bethany Morrow or Amy Schumacher.
Saturday, July 14: Root Beer Floats served at the Rockwell City Depot during the parade
Saturday, July 21: 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Car Show at the Rockwell City Depot
Sunday, Oct. 14: 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Hobo Stew at the Rockwell City Depot
FUN FUN
For For the the
Whole Whole
Family Family
7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Lake City Community Building
Proceeds go to Calhoun County Relay for Life
Sponsored by Team Jill
Mayors note to the City
concern. They do carry more weight
if they are signed. We do not have
the personnel that large cities have
to do various things within the city.
So we need to hire outside help. Our
workers are doing a good job and
will do better in the future. Those
of you that want items painted or
other small projects accomplished,
VOLUNTEER and we will supply
the items needed to “get er done”.
The next meeting with the citizens
will be the 28th of February. Come to
the meeting 10 am at Sweet Things.
Why not use the extra day we get
this year for something constructive.
“GET ER DONE” GARY
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