CONGRATS AGAIN to all of the worthy recipients of awards at the Nashville Chamber of Commerce banquet.
In her remarks about two fellow Rotarians who were honored earlier in the week at that banquet, club president Carol Murray observed that the linking word was ‘service.’ She was speaking specifically about Man of the Year John R. Schirmer and the Memorial Recognition Award honoree, the late Don Coulter.
‘Service’ also deservedly applies to Woman of the Year Gail Hearnsberger and Community Heroes Charles and Ginger Blue, all of whom have touched many lives. Thank you, thank you.
No one has touched more lives, however, than the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award — Paul Britt. His ‘service’ was on boards of the hospital, hospital foundation, Children’s Center and other agencies which directly affect the quality of life in our community.
He did it year after year with good manners and quiet modesty. I’m especially thinking of his influence on our hospital. We’re among the luckiest communities in the state because of our efficient level of medical care. We’re not just lucky and it didn’t just happen overnight.
Anything important that needed a big nudge could count on Paul and Tyson’s. Our lives are better because he was inclined to step forward.
On the occasion of his retirement, late in 2016, he told me that he looked forward to doing some duck hunting and traveling.
I hope he fills the freezer with ducks, and takes lots of pictures of interesting places. And treats Marilyn like a queen.
Words are inadequate, but: Thank you, Mr. Britt.
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IN THE GREAT scheme of things, how important is the Academy Awards program?
Really. A bunch of self-important ‘artists’ patting themselves on the back? And how important is it for ‘us’ to listen to their opinions on everything from the President to gay rights? How many times has a politically correct movie beaten a more deserving one? Don’t answer.
I do not watch the Oscars. It is one event truly worthy of a boycott.
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CONDOLENCES. This past week saw the deaths of two persons notable in my life. First was the homecoming queen of my senior year at Nashville High School. Shirley Manning was also a Scrapper Belle and a Scrapperette basketball player, and a witty friend of the whole class. She married a guy named Henry Boxley and they lived in Florida when she died of cancer.
Cancer also took Joe Jordan, a sweet gent who visited our office for gasoline vouchers when he had to go for treatments. Joe was a janitor at Nashville Junior High. He inspired us because he was always so cheerful and positive, even when the disease was obviously robbing him of life.
Peace to their families, and thanks to the Almighty for putting such good people among us.
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For more than 10 years I’ve tried to draw birds to my patio by putting raw, in-shell peanuts on a low table top. I’m guessing that the current bunch of birds that have developed a taste for peanuts is maybe in the third generation. In the beginning I had exclusively blue jay visitors. Then cardinals began to come. Then thrushes. The latter two tend to eat their peanuts in the landscaping. Jays fly off somewhere to dine. They taught their offspring.
This past week I had a new visitor. It was a large crow. He or she was so big it looked like Shaquille O’Neal playing hoops against the peewees. ‘Shack’ had a hard time hopping up on the table top. It finally managed to skid to a stop and grab a peanut. Then he or she made off for wherever crows go with carryout snacks.
Crows are notoriously smart, and I figured he or she would be back frequently for more peanuts. But, no. No sign of the crow since. Must not have liked the taste of peanuts.
My landscape plants draw other birds. I’ve had one oriole, some hummingbirds and a whole bunch of bluebirds. Plus others that I am unable to identify.
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THE TWINS. Thick and Thin — one likes to nibble between meals; the other one doesn’t.
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THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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HE SAID: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me” Isaac Newton, scientist
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SHE SAID:
“The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.”
Charlotte Bronte, English novelist and poet
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
