A bit before 9:15 a.m. the day after Christmas, I was declared the loser of the egg sandwich contest my brother, Sam, and I competed in. Did it hurt knowing Sam is better at making an egg sandwich than I am? No. Did I act like it did? Yes.

I stopped by Ray’s Army Surplus store the other day. People call him “Harmful Government Ray” sometimes, though not to his face, or his left side. It’s pretty safe to call him that on his right side; he’s deaf in that ear from a little explosives mishap when he was younger.

We all know what services are waiting for us at the other end of the phone line when we dial 911 in an emergency. But how many of us are aware of the new 211 informational helpline that is now available in the Southern Black Hills

Last week Friday there was snow on the ground in 49 of our 50 states and more was predicted for this week. That’s right. From Alaska in the north to the Panhandle area of Florida in the South, there was white stuff on the ground. If you include the mountain tops in Hawaii, there was snow in all 50 of our United States! Residents of the mid-Atlantic region of the country were bracing for their third major storm of the season.

Our state legislators are in Pierre until the middleof March, and we all know what that means—the annual competition of who can create the most nonsensical, waste-of-time law is well under way.