Beech Tree News Network

While Santa’s busy checking his list, I’m inspecting claims that spending sleigh-fuls of money on government preschool programs would result in long-term improvement for Kentucky’s children.

During his recent inaugural speech, Gov. Steve Beshear made it clear he wants to return to the twin policy towers of his 2007 campaign – expanded gambling and a big-government early childhood program. But he doesn’t seem interested in divulging specific details about either.

His political pals, however, aren’t as shy.

It’s time, once again, for the Big Dummy of the Year Awards.  The Fred Sanford inspired award has four nominees this year.  Why only four, you ask? Well, as per the nomination process, and this is a rather light-hearted award, I’ve decided to lay off the recent Penn State scandal.  Haven’t we all heard enough about that mess?

When my daughters were small, I read a children’s story book to them before bedtime. One of my favorite books was “Twas the Night before Christmas.” I probably read it much too often between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My children could say the lines as I read them.

You'll not see this until November is gone . . . the month we always pay special honor to our veterans. And December 7th just passed . . . as FDR called it "A date that will live in infamy." My generation simply knew it as "Pearl Harbor," the Japanese attack that led the U.S. to declare war on the Axis powers of Japan, Germany, and Italy.

I am typing this column with my left hand.  I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand this past Thursday, and I am bandaged from my fingertips to midway up my right arm.  The pre-op nurse who took my information on Wednesday told me she had had the same procedure three weeks before, and she assured me that recovery time is minimal for this particular operation.  She herself had the surgery on Thursday and was back at work on Monday, typing away, she told me.  The psychic, Sylvia Brown, believes there are aliens living among us who just haven’t revealed themselves to the general populatio

Have you ever had one of those moments when you wish there really was an Easy button that you could buy?  I would most definitely want a lifetime warranty with it!  I'm sure if there were such a thing, the easy button would be as popular as having a cell phone.

It happens almost like clockwork. Each year, right around Thanksgiving, Christians begin to get all worked up about the holidays. The main source of the frustration comes from the belief that there is a conspiracy afoot to effectively remove the celebration of the birth of Jesus from the Christmas season. This conspiracy is best seen in the use of ‘X’ in place of ‘Christ’ in the word Christmas.

Christmas traditions have been on my mind recently, helping me to remember happy Christmases past. Probably many of my family’s holiday traditions are similar to those practiced by you and your family.

How about a little YONDERING this trip? When one of our granddaughters was young, she asked, "What do you and Grandmamma mean when you say, 'over yonder?'"

Yonder is a pretty good word. You can say over yonder, back yonder, down yonder, or up yonder.

Someone said, "We can learn more from those who have gone before us (back yonder) than all the coffeehouse intellectuals and philosophers lined up from here-to-yon (yonder)."

***

What Might Have Been: You’ve probably read the quote by Whittier, For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.  My husband, Garey, has told me, on several occasions, that if I don’t get the books I’ve been writing published before I die, he’s going to get them published after I die, and then live like a king.  This is supposed to serve as motivation to finish said books.  It isn’t working.  My extended, extended family has a history of aneurisms and heart attacks.  If relatives dropping like flies isn’t enough to get my at