Those of us who still consume print are getting to be like the two old guys watching Hank Williams Jr. on TV in the classic video for "Young Country." They're playing checkers too.
So what does the Willmar paper do? It puts the prep sports update pieces in smaller-than-ever type! This at the same time their articles about non-local, state sports teams like the Wild have the larger, standard type. I can hardly take it anymore.
Often we'd see the stat report only in super small type, while the game review paragraphs remained reasonably large with type. Not now. Months after the Willmar paper caved on having a Monday print edition (due, they say, to the Trump tariffs), the Willmar paper is pulling out all stops to "get stuff in" even if it means micro type size. Mercy! Why can't they just ditch some of the Wild/Gophers/Vikings stuff?
I went looking in the Jan. 15 issue for the MBA girls hockey update: a game against Fairmont. I'm struggling to read the info with a headache probably forthcoming, and I can barely handle it with my reading glasses. We're pleased to know the female Storm got the puck in the net three times. But Fairmont scored six goals to win the contest. Leah Thompson was our goaltender, battling Rachel O'Connor.
Optimism was high early as we got a 1-0 lead by the end of the first period. Taryn Picht scored the goal at 1:13. Oh, but Fairmont owned the second period. First it was Jonissa Neitzel scoring for Fairmont, assisted by Joni Becker at 2:58. This was a power play goal. Then, Mackenzie Householder scored in short-handed style at 6:14. MBA's Chloe Zimmel answered with a power play job at 8:18, assisted by Kortney Sanasack. Fairmont's Householder scored with an assist from Becker at 9:58. Fairmont's Emily Sokoloski scored with assists from Householder and Becker at 11:17.
Fairmont had a 2-1 advantage in the third period to wrap up their victory. Hannah Goerndt got the puck in the net for Fairmont, assisted by Corene Moeller at 5:30. Then it was Anna Nordquist striking with a goal at 12:40 with assists by Householder and Brooklyn Meyer. MBA's Katie Bruns got our last goal of the day with a Sanasack assist at 14:09.
Winning pattern in hoops!
I invite you to check my MACA hoops update, girls and boys, on my companion blog "Morris of Course." We're reviewing four wins there, two each for the girls and boys, from action on Saturday and Tuesday. Let's hear a cheer! Please click on the link below:
Not really police blotter stuff
I recently posted about how a long-term hockey promoter here, my friend Paul Watzke, had been charged with driving after revocation and the charge was dismissed. I questioned whether the Morris paper should even have reported on this in its notorious district court report. It's notorious because so much small-time stuff gets reported there, stuff that isn't worth the trouble and just makes the recipients of small-time traffic citations squirm in embarrassment.
When the day finally comes when the Morris paper disappears - sooner the better - we won't have to deal with this silly distraction. I wondered if Paul should sue the paper on the grounds that if the charge was dismissed, there's no justification in informing the public, zero. Can you maintain there's any justification? The paper would give a knee-jerk response that it's "public information" but so what? There needn't be any cause for publication.
How does a charge of driving after revocation get dismissed? I asked a retired judge friend of mine today. His suggestion was that the driver got pulled over and did not have his license. I told him it was my understanding that in cases like this, you're given a period of time to retrieve it. Well yes, perhaps this is true, the judge suggested, but in the meantime you get that technicality of being charged.
I said Paul was a lifelong Morris resident with a sterling reputation. I think in the old days this would count for something. But I guess not today. This is what I suspect has been happening for a time in law enforcement. Police had a feel for who various people were around the community once. I think this counts for nothing now and it's rather disconcerting and sad. Today it's all "by the book."
I remember Jim Morrison saying "I miss the days when the police knew everyone around town." How quaint! Like the police officers in the movie "The Blob" (Steve McQueen). In a bygone time, when the cops accosted a kid for some reason, the cop might say "who's your folks?" The idea was to feel out the kid for family stability, I guess. Was your dad the town drunk? Oh, such angles might have mattered once.
But as the Raven would say (Edgar Allan Poe), "Nevermore."
Are we so enlightened today? We elected Donald Trump.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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