The Lindsborg News Record

Yesterday's LNR included an egregious slam on the College's press office, and a nostalgic hyllning of the college's two former press officers.

The slam, in Marty Hardy's gossip column, was egregious because it was based on ignorance. Marty defended the paper's lack of coverage of President Leonard's arrival at the college. The college was responsible for the lack of coverage, Hardy maintained, because the college hadn't gotten news of the new president to the local paper of record until the Monday prior to the event. Why, back in the old days, when the college was really linked into the town, this wouldn't have happened. And, Hardy further implied, the new President should get rid of the dunderheads who failed to let the Lindsborg News Record know of this event in time to meet the paper's schedule.

What's egregious about this slam is the ignorance. There's no indication that Hardy even attempted to do what an actual reporter does - check facts before writing the story.

If the announcement of the new President was embargoed until Monday by the Board and the President, for example, then the press office is not responsible for the timing of the story. If the press officer was simply swamped by other demands, then the late announcement, while still the college press office's responsibility, is at least understandable.

And what happened to reporting on the event? What prevents the newspaper, which surely knew an announcement was imminent, from doing the job reporters have always done and going to get the story rather than waiting for the press release?

With the rise of citizen journalism, and the Lindsborg News Record's policy of only printing the news that's paid for, the LNR runs the danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant to the younger generation - people who get more of their news from the web and less of their news from print.

Hershey Track Meet

Wednesday, June 6, the Lindsborg Parks and Recreation Department - i.e., Thad Morical - held the annual Hershey Track and Field meet at Anderson Field on the Bethany College Campus. Here's a short video.



The guy who's not 14 is Gavin, not the boy you see when I say that! Ooops. I didn't get the details on the meet - I'm just a guy with a camera and not a reporter. Sorry parents.

How come there were so few kids at the event? One of the reasons might be that you saw nothing about it in the local newspaper. Maybe Thad needs to do more publicizing of the event - but maybe the local paper of record needs to do a little more reporting.

For more information about the Kansas meet visit the Hershey Track and Field Kansas site.

It's the Wind!

I had some trouble holding the car on the road. Sitting at a stop light in Salina my little Volkswagen shook and rocked. It's wild! It's the wind!

Back in town, there were lots of small limbs down. This is the tree I found that lost the largest limb, at the Esses' on the corner of Saline and Second. (Formerly the Kozubowski's, before that a Torstensen?)



Later tonight I hope to have a post up with the Hershey Track meet. The question I heard folks asking was, "Why aren't there more kids at this thing?" I have an opinion about that that I'll share later - or tomorrow.

Tonight is our 15th anniversary celebration and we're going out for dinner!

Damn Yankees, Week 2

Have you ever noticed that when you feel rushed to get a project done, the technologies that are supposed to help get in the way? I don't want to sound like Andy Rooney whining my way to some trivial insight, but I had a heck of a time getting this simple file ready to be posted.

We had a board meeting for BroadwayRFD last night. After the meeting I went to talk to Tyler Johnson and Thomas DeWitt, who play Mr. Applegate and Joe Hardy, respectively, in the musical Damn Yankees. That Mr. Applegate is a devilishly suave fellow, as you'll see.

Bethany Church Yard Sale

Okay, so this is as much a commercial announcement as it is a news bulletin.

And, in the interest of full disclosure I have to tell you that I am a member of Bethany Lutheran Church, a congregation I've come to love dearly. But I'm willing to use this blog to publicize other people's events, for free, including video.

I believe in local news, local shopping and local institutional support. It's one of the reasons I won't shop at Sams Club, Wal-mart or Target for things I can get at Scotts. The bargains at those places are a false bargain. First, in pure dollars, you save, at most, pennies on the dollar. Second, you work against your own best interests. Imagine this town without a grocery store - or with a much smaller and more limited grocery store. You've got a Sterling or a Chapman, two places that were once wonder places to live, but now have become economically distressed places to live and work and shop and raise a family.

I want a grocery store in town, so I shop at Scotts for everything I can buy at Scotts.

I want churches in town, so I attend a church in town, a church I like, filled with people who are warm, friendly and welcoming.

Here's the commercial

Midsommar Arrives

The Lindsborg Folkdanslag lowered the Majstång in Heritage park tonight, and worked on dances for this week and next. Midsommar celebrations are almost here.

There will be changes this year. "Tiny Toads," a variation on the "Små grodorna" theme, will be doing a street concert as well as playing at the festival in Swensson Park. That´s different. The same dance groups will be back, but Folkdanslag has at least one new dance to bring to the performance. I don´t know about the Swedish Folkdancers, the high school group.

We won't have a Swedish dance group this year. Here is video of the Mora Folkdanslag of Mora Sweden from the 2006 festival performing one of my favorite dances, "Schottis i tur." It's a fun dance to watch and a fun dance to perform.



There will be at least one change in the food at the festival park. The Rotary club will be offering a Swedish Meatball plate or an all American Hotdog (it'll be a Nathans).

And there will be a Swedish Vespers service, with Alf Brorson preaching. You'll remember Alf. He's a frequent visitor to Lindsborg, from Sunnemö, Värmland, Sweden. He'll preach, but I don't know who will lead the liturgy. Charlotte Anderson is going to be gone. I'm going to be gone. We're running out of Swedish Speakers willing to lead the liturgy.

Well, it will be Midsommar i alla fall.

Sunday Evening Bits and Bytes

It's either the end of a week or the end of the beginning of a week. I've been out and preached again in Chapman, so it feels like the end, rather than the beginning of the week. The following is a compendium of reports and observations.

Flood reports
The trip home from Chapman led us through Salina by the old road, through much of Dickinson County. New Cambria is up and unflooded, but many of the fields along the way are still waterlogged, if not downright flooded. This is going to be a banner year for some farmers and a disaster for others. It certainly seems that the next two weeks of drying will make a major difference in crop conditions. Of course, that's pure speculation. I have no actual idea whether or not the next two weeks are crucial to crop conditions. It just sounds good.

But what do I know? I'm a city boy.

So are the folks who are commenting on India's shift from an agricultural to an industrial/technological/pharmaceutical economy. "How the World Works" on Salon.com, observed about India:

"The rich, industrial nations that have contributed the lion's share of greenhouse gas emissions are also, by virtue of their advanced, non-agriculturally dependent economies, the most well-positioned to adapt to climate change. While those who did the least, and are still largely agriculturally-based, stand to get hammered by adverse weather disruptions. And that poses a paradox: does it make sense to help the developing world cope with climate change by encouraging the kind of economic development that by its very industrial nature generates even more greenhouse gases?"
"How the World Works"

Perhaps the writer was joking. But it seems to me that we all need to eat, and the coming climate change is going to affect food supply for everyone, but the poorest nations will be hit the hardest.

Doris Swenson
We received a call from Maridene Lundstrom that Doris Swenson, wife of Pastor Vernon Swenson, has passed away today. Blessed be her memory.

I did not know this Doris Swenson, but I've come to know and admire Vernon Swenson as a man of great integrity and Pastoral wisdom. I now have five volumes of his in my library, including Brother Timothy's Practice of the Presence of God. He is much in my mind tonight and much in my prayers.

Maihaugen Again

In my last post on Heritage Square History park I mentioned Maihaugen, in Lillehammar, Noway. Here is a photo from the farm I mentioned, the one where the actors live full time for three months, farming as if it were 1850's Norway.

Somewhere in my files I think I have scans from an early 20th century book showing how things looked a Skansen every summer. Artur Hazelius brought folks from the villages and farms to live in the park. It was a way of showing the city dwellers the spirit of folk culture. I know I scanned the pictures, I just have to find them.

Where Were You When?

A little exercise I do in Speaking and Listening is called, "Where were you when?" In the exercise each person in the room is encouraged to talk about where they were when something significant happened in their lives. Prior to September 11, 2001, everyone talked about where they were when the Columbine shootings occured. Prior to that it was the Columbia shuttle disaster. For my generation, the Kennedy assasinations were the defining moments.

I can't recall where I was when Robert was shot. I know exactly where I was when I heard about John's death. I was in Mr. Gesheidle's woodshop, struggling my way through another day of my clumsy attempts to square a board with a hand plane. Our principal, Froggy MacNamara, announced over the loud speaker that we were all going to be dismissed, because the President had been assasinated.

I also recall where I was forty years ago today, when Sergeant Pepper brought the band to play.

Yes, unrepentant Hippies everywhere, today is the 40th annivesary of the record album that changed record albums forever. I don't think I heard it on its first release day, but I know I heard it shortly after that. My room mate that year, the spring of 1967, was John Greenwood, a crazy wild hippy kid who never surprised me - because nothing he ever did ever surprised me.

It probably wasn't until fall of 1967 that I heard it, but I'm sure I heard it first on John Greenwood's stereo. Or maybe it was on George Bailey's stereo. Forty years ago next fall I began my sophomore year in college, at Dear of Augustana (another Dear Old Swedish Lutheran Institution).

Forty years ago today. Just think of it. And what's become of us since?

And where were you when you first heard Sergeant Pepper's?

NPR did a very nice story on the appearance of the Record: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10634329&ps=bb2

The Whole Story

This longer video, posted on my Podshow account, gives the whole story of yesterday's introduction of President elect Leonard. It's 23 minutes and includes President Leonard's speech, introductions, presentation of gifts, the Bethany Alma mater and Rockar Stockar.



If you want to see more of the Podshow videos, including the commencement addresses, take yourself to my Podshow site. There are two of them, the Master Kalle Oskar site and Kalle Anka and Quacks, my podcast collection. Visit and enjoy. The videos are located at: http://www.podshow.com/video/?persona_id=9648. The Podcasts are over at: http://ducks.podshow.com/. The labels are a little deceptive, but there are several fun shows. The "undefined" show is Jill Warner's podcast on International Students at Bethany, for example.