Todd Vanderwerff

The cold has finally seeped into my bones and I’m cranky about it! It has been so cold lately that I’ve been contemplating a move to warmer climes … such as Alaska!

But seriously, it’s gotten too cold. The weatherman says we’ll pull out of it soon, but the weatherman has lied to me so many times before that I don’t know where to begin. He’s a stinker.

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The jackadaws are back finally and it’s a comfort to see them from my window, pecking at the cold, hard bird seed in the bird feeder. I never realize how much I have missed them until I see them in the morning, pecking and pecking. Their unearthly cries wake me up and I totter about, looking feebly for a pot of coffee to enhance my jangled nerves.

Thank goodness for the jackadaws!

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You know how every small town newspaper (and some daily newspapers) has a column where some person rambles on about nothing in particular? Usually, that person talks about a large swath of unusual issues, often with little to no transition or sense (usually, a random collection of punctuation marks separaing the items will suffice). Occasionally, a serious political discussion will immediately be followed by talk of a dog that can catch Frisbees or something.

I love those columns.

Why don’t we have something like that?

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Toby Uecker is in Colorado with the National Guard. He says he’s going to have some top notch stories for you next week about what they’re doing to get ready for battle. I wouldn’t count on it, but read the paper next week to see if he came through.

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Is anyone really ready for the John Thune vs. Tom Daschle battle? Everyone says they are, but everyone also says they’re ready for the Judgement Day and you don’t see people going around and being nice to each other.

I say we’ll all be griping about constant political advertising by July and things will only get worse from there. People will probably see Thune as the one who could have stopped this mess by staying out of the race and vote accordingly.

But what do I know? I’ll be avoiding the whole thing in Wisconsin.

Suckers.

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Christmas is not that far away if you really think about it. Have you gotten your shopping done yet?

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Overheard: “The power of the people lies in their ability to protest. It’s time to exercise our power and protest something. Anything.”

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People should really not let me write columns when I’m tired and not thinking straight. What should really happen is someone else should write a column every week in my stead, as it would invariably be better than whatever I could cobble together.

Seriously, I’m losing my mind. I don’t know why this decided to happen now, but I hope I can hang on to enough of it long enough to make it to graduation.

At any rate, if we start covering nesting birds, etc., on the front page, at least you know why.

Save me from myself!

As a theatre major, Todd VanDerWerff, our editor-in-chief likes to over-dramatize. Slap him straight at [email protected].