Tuesdays With Maury

Leiper's Fork: Blue Star Marker ceremony honors U.S. armed forces

On June 14, Flag Day, Leiper’s Fork Garden Club held a dedication ceremony for the county’s only Blue Star memorial marker. The marker was erected to honor all the men and women who have served or are serving in the U.S. armed forces.

Among those attending were two veterans of World War II, including local resident Tom Blair, 91; three men from the Korean War; and several veterans of the Vietnam War including County Mayor Rogers Anderson. Several veterans of either the Gulf War or the current conflict were also in attendance.

The Junior ROTC Color Guard from Fairview High School led off the ceremony with the presentation of colors and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Maury W. Curry of the U.S. Army led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. Judy Gorman King, The Kingfield Poet, gave a presentation of her poem The Spirit of the Wall.

The ceremony ended with the retirement of colors and taps.

In observance of the Fourth of July holiday, the Leiper’s Fork Public Library will be closed Saturday. The Hillsboro/Leiper’s Fork Rec Center will be closed Monday.

The Wild Goose Chase Puppet Theatre is coming to Leiper’s Fork library at 10:30 a.m.. Tuesday. The program is free. For more information, call 794-7019.

Birthday wishes go out to Kaitlin and Amanda Crouch and Holly Newcome who are celebrating today. Also opening presents this upcoming week are Bonnie Barker, Charlie Schaeffer, Ryan Eddy, Michael Wayne Holt and Jake Howell on Saturday; Debbie Covert, Jerry White and Amanda Cartwright on Monday; and Alesha Noe on Tuesday.

Congratulations go out to Eugene and Dot Newcome who are celebrating an anniversary today.

Tumbleweeds, a gymnastic program for youths 5 and younger, will be held Tuesdays from 9 to 9:45 a.m. July 5-26.

For registration, call instructor Erica Moore at 615-715-3958. Classes will be at Hillsboro/Leiper’s Fork Rec Center at 5325 Old Highway 96.

The Fourth of July is a day of celebration. The celebration is carried out through fireworks and get-togethers. It should also be a day of thanksgiving to all the founders of our precious freedoms and all those who have fought and are fighting to preserve those freedoms.

When you pass by the Blue Star memorial marker on the edge of Leiper’s Fork, take a moment to give thanks for all those who have given so much that we can enjoy those precious freedoms.

Dave Bjorlin: Neither Fair nor Balanced: Tuesdays with Maury (Povich)

Last night I was laying in bed and, as often is the case, I had a random and funny thought that came from who knows where. Anyway, I thought I should write a book entitled Tuesdays with Maury in which an 30-something unemployed man spends every Tuesday for a year watching The Maury Povich Show learning lessons of unrequited love, DNA testing, betrayal, and conflict management. In the end the main character learns that being a father is more than simply passing a paternity test. That got me thinking that it would be funny to write a bunch of books using titles with a homophone replacing one of the words and changing the whole tenor of the book. Here's some of my examples: Lei Miserables - Many people think that leis are the joyful symbol of arriving in Hawaii, but there is a dark underbelly of the lei industry. This novel follows the lives, joys, and travails of the workers in a Maui lei manufacturing plant who work long hours for little pay to scrape by in what is considered by visitors to be an earthly paradise. It was also be turned into a musical with hit songs including "Lovely Lei-dies," "Drink with Me to Leis Gone By," "At the End of the Lei," and the hit blockbuster "I Dreamed a Seam," where the lead woman sings about her aspirations to rise from the low rungs of the lei industry to head seamstress at the local textile factory. Are You Their God? It's Me, Margaret - A young Christian girl attempts to understand other faiths by asking if the God she serves is also the God that Muslims and Jews serve. God appears to answer in the title, "It's Me, Margaret." (sorry, this one is a stretch, but I really like it. (the original is Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - but doesn't it seem by the change in title from a hypothetical question posed only by Margaret to a discussion between Margaret and God? ).