cc4.htm

THE COUNTRY CORNER

SCHOOL

When a first grade teacher collected well known proverbs, gave each child in her class the first half of a proverb (the "rule") and then asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb, these first graders... "6" year-olds... came up with the following:
Better to be safe than ............... punch a 5th grader.
Strike while the
.......................... bug is close.
It's always darkest before
..............Daylight Saving Time.
Never underestimate the power of............termites.
You can lead a horse to water but....................how?
Don't bite the hand that ......................looks dirty.
No news is.........................impossible.
A miss is as good as a.........................Mr.
You can't teach an old dog new.............math.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll .........stink in the morning.
Love all, trust ...................................me.
The pen is mightier than the..................pigs.
An idle mind is .....................the best way to relax.
Where there's smoke there's.................pollution.
Happy is the bride who
...............gets all the presents.
A penny saved is ............................not much.
Two's company, three's
......................the Musketeers.
Don't put off till tomorrow what..............you put on to go to bed.
There are none so blind as...................Stevie Wonder.
Children should be seen and not...........spanked or grounded.
If at first you don't succeed ...................get new batteries.
When the blind leadeth the blind...........get out of the way.
Better late than ........................pregnant!!!!

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AUSTRALIA

An interesting day at the Rainbow Bridge.
Rainbow Bridge is a place of both peace and anticipation as departed pets await their beloved owners. There are plenty of things to keep them contented while they wait: trees you can't get stuck in, endless meadows, splashing streams, thickets perfect to hide in for pounce-attack games.
But one day the residents noticed some rather...unusual newcomers arrive.
The koalas and the kangaroos slipped in rather quietly, but then came the bearded dragons, the skinks and the goannas. The influx of snakes startled an entire family of cats up a tree. Pythons, cobras, tiger snakes, brown snakes and even fierce snakes. There were so many at one point, it seemed the ground itself was alive with writhing. A burly wombat shouldered his way through the crowd and plopped down in a shady spot, barely missing a Jack Russell terrier who yapped indignantly as he abandoned his position.
And then the crocodiles showed up.
Finally, a Great Dane managed to get up enough nerve to approach one of the reptilian giants.
"Um....excuse me," he said hesitantly. "But why are you all here?"
The croc dropped her jaw and laughed. "Same as you, mate," she said. "Waitin' for someone who loved us."
The dogs, cats, gerbils and other "typical pets" looked at each other in confusion, then at the plethora of weird, ugly and downright deadly creatures assembled. Who on Earth could possibly love some of those faces?
"I see him!" shouted a green mamba from his vantage point in one of the trees. A cacophony of squeaks, hisses, bellows and roars erupted as the mob surged forward toward a lone human walking across the field toward the bridge. The other animals managed to catch a glimpse of him before he was overwhelmed by the crowd.
"CRIKEY!" he shouted joyously right before he was bowled over by the wombat.
"Well I'll be," said a Persian as he tidied up her fur. "It's that Aussie my human liked to watch on TV. Had to be the craziest human on the whole planet."
"Oh, please," remarked a echidna as he hurried by. "Is it really that that crazy to passionately love something God made?"

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VERMONT

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - Nudity isn't new here. Usually it bares itself in more subtle places than a downtown parking lot, though.
This summer, a group of teenagers has disrobed near restaurants, bookstores and galleries, igniting a debate about whether this bohemian southern Vermont town should ban a practice that has been tolerated until now.
"Brattleboro tends to be a laid-back town and pretty accepting of the unusual, but this is really pushing limits," said Police Chief John Martin.
"It's clearly to outrage people, it's clearly rebelliousness," he said.
By most accounts, the stripping started on a whim in early summer when a young woman sat naked on a park bench, Martin said. Then another woman started taking her shirt off downtown.
A music festival promoting nudity and rebelliousness set up in May in a downtown parking lot and attracted nude hula hoopers, Martin said.
Last month, a half dozen young people bared their bodies in the lot, encircled by the backs of bookstores, coffee shops and restaurants.
They say they're just exercising their rights.
"It's just an act of freedom," said 19-year-old Adhi Palar. "We're just doing so because we can." Palar and the others "do not consider nakedness to be innately sexual or rude and it shouldn't be confined to that," he said.
All the bare skin has raised eyebrows, even in a town that has seen clothing-optional swimming holes, streakers and an event known as "Breast Fest," which featured women parading topless.
To some, a bunch of teenagers going au naturel is just harmless rebellion.
"To most people, it's not a big deal," said Catherine Kauffman, 57, who calls Brattleboro "a don't-take-away-too-many-of-my-rights kind of town."
Rich Geidel, 50, co-owner of Everyone's Books, said the parking lot may not be the most appropriate place for nudity, but he said he's not concerned.
"We don't think it's bad for kids to hang out," he said. "As long as people are polite, don't block the entrance, we don't ask them to leave."
To others, it's disturbing. Some worry it could drive business away from downtown.
"It's a bad image for Brattleboro," said Ozzie Kocaoglu, 43, who owns Sundried Tomato restaurant at the far end of the parking lot, which has long been a teen hangout.
Vermont has no state laws against public nudity, but communities can pass their own rules banning it.
At least eight cities and towns have passed anti-nudity ordinances, according to the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.
So far, Brattleboro has chosen not to, but the teenagers' dress-down may change that. The town is researching what other communities have done to curb their nakedness.
The 50,000-member American Association for Nude Recreation espouses nude recreation in appropriate places, but doesn't use nudity "for social commentary, or rebelliousness or an act of civil disobedience," said Mary Jane Kolassa.
Baring it all as a form of social protest is growing.
This summer, nude bicyclists rode through Burlington to protest the country's reliance on oil, part of an event known as the World Naked Bike Ride. Elsewhere, nudity has been used to oppose the Iraq war and the treatment of animals.
In Vermont, voters in another town shot down a ban on nudity after two public votes.
Prompted by complaints about nudity and sexual activity at a swimming hole, the Wilmington select board passed an anti-nudity ordinance in 2002. But supporters of the freedom to skinny dip rejected the ban.
"There were some ugly moments in the debate with some name calling and lots of good healthy debate about reasonable rights and responsibility under those rights," said Town Clerk Susie Haughwout. Officials weren't sure how they would have enforced a ban and to what extent, she said.
For now Brattleboro is weighing its options. And waiting for summer to turn to fall.
"As soon as winter comes, there won't be a story anymore," said Town Clerk Annette Cappy.

Email: dernc@sover.net

Email: dernc@sover.net