Editor's Corner

By Mary E. Adair

Here we are nearly half-way through the year already. Bet it just flew for you, too. It seems we hardly started this year! One thing has stood out in the days whizzing past: friendships matter. Where would we be without our friends, and if you're like us, some of the best ones are also family. Since we last saluted you in these pages, changes have been made and we can only hope it is for better health. Although laproscopic surgery is admittedly simpler to have, there is still an adjustment to your life while recuperating. Your editor is doing so at her daughter's home in North Texas, and will be allowed to return home to West Texas sometime near the first week of June.

That requires using the computer belonging to family here, and as there are more than one or two, sharing has to be a part of the use. Without my granddaughter-in-law's assistance, there would be no illustration for the column "Irish Eyes." Mattie Lennon sent his material in good faith that we would be able to handle and publish it properly, and we have, with Shannon's help. Interesting piece, please don't miss it.

Other columns this issue are "Consider This" with LC Van Savage who also sent the article "We Have No Need To Know." Eric Shackle has both column and article, too ("Eric Shackle's Column" and "Too Many Camels? Let's Eat Them") as does Leo C. Helmer with "Cookin' With Leo" and "Getting Drafted." The latter is the fifth in his current series of tales from the "Great Jobs" section of his Autobiography. Shackle's article reminded us that in our state of Texas, one camel entrepreneur has an "Arabian Nights Trailride" usually annually in the nearby Sandhills State Park, an area of vast and high, pure sand dunes. These hills are of a pinkish granulated quartz and were once in the bottom of the Permian Sea some countless eons ago. There is also a very large camel ranch near Wichita Falls, Texas, not far from the Red River, although it is unknown whether it is where the camel wrangling entrepreneur is located.

The other article, really a pictorial essay by our friend Gregory Hargrave, is one you won't see very often, or let's make that perhaps as often as every 17 years. Our intrepid reporter watched over the emergence of the famous Lake Michigan cicada's which are members of Brood XIII, and secured some fabulous pictures. Since the last time we had anything about cicadas in our eZine was "Extreme Cooking" by Leo C. Helmer, we feel quite lucky to present this essay.

Gerard Meister steps up to the bat in his column "Thinking Out Loud" with the on going reports about global warming. Thomas O'Neill dedicates his column to a former teacher, Mrs. Diane Boczkowski, and credits her with making a great difference in his desire to learn, much as the story told in "Introspective." David Francis {"Dave's Here") relates his new business developments which include an area wide Magazine to promote businesses and community events in Southern Kentucky. Congratulations, Dave.

Poetry always is a highlight of our eZine and this month one of your editor's great grandsons adds his "9-11 Poem" to the fare while she drops three of her own into the mix, "M'Lady," "Where Was Me?" and "Memorial Days." Last year "Memorial Thoughts" was published under her byline, which Helmer, for instance likes better than this year's commemorative poem.

Bruce Clifford submitted several and we chose the following for this issue: "Buried," "Gravity," "Stephanie," "Thank You for Being," and "Why oh why oh why." He includes the poem "Find Another Way," composed in sympathy with a friend who lost her brother, which almost sounds like a response to M.J.Mansfield's poem, "Slit." Mansfield shares two other poems with us: the reflective and sensitive "Miss Greywings" and the more earthy and violent redneck-style "Hell or High Water."

John I. Blair, still very busy with Clara only recently home from hospital, rounded up some of his older poetry he'd not shared with us before. Thus we have the treat of reading "The Stone Shells," "The Tree," "There Is A Constant Struggle," "Time," "Vertebrate Chauvinism," and "Vacation Blues." The last one in this list is one we can all probably understand from personal experience. Thanks again, John, for sharing with us, and our best to Clara and you.

Along with Jacob Wight,first-time author in our pages, and his story "Unveiled," we include another of Wight's essays in the same section titled "what The World Needs . . ." We welcome your comments on Wight's work as well as on everyone else's. It is simple to use the forms our webmaster, Mike Craner added to each page, that allow you to refer that particular composition to a friend right from the site instead of going to your own email application; or you can use the comment section below that form to give feedback, which is always welcome.

See you next month!