Responses to my opinion columns
I thought I should tell you that people have provided a response to recent comments in my opinion columns. I took note because I thought you might enjoy hearing what others have to say.
Several out-of-town readers were curious about the misspelled word on the sign going into Peabody Market parking lot. I guess for their sakes I should have gone into more detail when I wrote the paragraph. The sign asked that trucks of 7,000 lbs. "empyt" weight not enter the parking area. Market owner Rick Turner has ordered and installed new signs with the correct spelling. Russ Crawford, a former Peabody resident who has an online subscription to the newspaper, wrote that while he obviously couldn't see the sign in Peabody, he was able to see the paper's heading for "Municiapl Court" that week. Never fails, does it?
My question about how all those downtown petunias ended up growing in the sidewalk cracks, the street, and at the base of several buildings was answered by long-time science teacher and green thumb Ann Leppke, who said, "They just do that." She clarified that statement by telling me it is an old strain of petunia, not some modern and colorful, but sterile hybrid. Putting out seeds that "volunteer" in subsequent seasons is just part of that age-old propagation stuff biology teachers relate to their classes. She also informed me that if I tried planting that variety I would almost certainly be stuck with the varying shades of K-State purple showing off downtown. Why? "Because that's what color they are," she said. You certainly get no hemming or hawing from that woman!
I should also share that I finally got some response to this newspaper going back to its original format. (You may remember I was confused as to why so many people had complained about the combined newspaper we had for eight or nine months, but no one even noticed when we went back to the original style.) Well, after I wrote that four of my five regular readers said they noticed and meant to mention it to me, but either forgot or hadn't seen me to tell me. Whew! That is a relief.
And last, but not least, I heard from an inordinate number of husbands who admitted to being map- and direction-challenged just like The Mister. They all assumed that our trip to Kansas City International Airport did, in fact, include the sights of Des Moines, Iowa. No one even asked whether or not we got there, they all just assumed that we did. I thought about warning their wives, but I bet I would be too late.
— SUSAN MARSHALL
