Beech Tree News Network

In the second installment of 50 fast facts so interesting they’ll crush your boredom, we pick up on fact #10.  People in Medieval England had rap battles.  Before rap battles there was “flyting”, a type of trading of insults that was popular from the 5th to 16th centuries in England and Scotland.  As Atlas Obscura describes it, “participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric and early bathroom humor to publicly trounce opponents.  Even society’s elite would join in these battles of wits.

Robert Frost said, “You can’t get too much winter in the winter” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/winter). Kentucky provides me with as much winter as I want. Recently, I’ve been preparing for our next season by winterizing around my home. According to one online dictionary, “winterize” means to prepare to withstand winter conditions, such as preparing a car, a house, a yard, or a pool.

We are pulled in many directions these days. We have responsibilities to our families, work, and school. We have household responsibilities with our money, bills, etc. It seems we can be busy all day long and still accomplish nothing. Is this how we feel sometimes? Yet, when we read the Bible, we can see that God says there is a balance that will help us in life.

To whom it may concern,

Recently a childhood friend answered a question I posed with, “Personally, I’d like to see Butler County stay the way it is.”  While most of us see room for improvement, we still relate to his heartfelt sentiments. The timely question is do we achieve that by being inactive, and let things run their course, or proactive, with vigilance, vision and planning.

With Halloween just a day away as of this writing, I thought it appropriate to divulge a few Halloween facts. Here are a few I found interesting. 

  Because the movie Halloween (1978) was on such a tight budget, they had to use the cheapest mask they could find for the character Michael Meyers, which turned out to be a William Shatner Star Trek mask. Shatner initially didn’t know the mask was in his likeness, but when he found out years later, he said he was honored.  

Jane Austin said, “Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings” and Taron Egerton said, “I think being busy is a healthy thing” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/busy). Our coming week might be considered busy: we’ll have Halloween, a time change and Election Day. And each one is of some importance.

Good stories can be found about anywhere, any time.  One’s own family can sometimes be a good source.

My mother, Gladys, provided a plethora of good humor over her 99 years…don’t get me wrong, she could also get all over you like a cheap suit…her own kids that is.

“Gladdy” wasn’t afraid of the devil, however she was deathly afraid of snakes.  

This week, I learned something important: You can lead a cat to an igloo, but you can’t make him sleep there.  Let me explain.