Marion makes the news

My hometown of Marion, KS has a population of around 2,000 people. In a town this small, things don't get too exciting. However, recently Marion has been in the news. The husband of one of my sister's former classmates was recently arrested for stalking members of the Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps and his crew). Ryan Newell is a retired war vet whose time in the military was cut short when he suffered a severe accident over in Afghanistan and lost both of his legs. He's been in the news before when "Homes for Our Troops", a non-profit organization built a new handicap-accessible home for him and his family. The articles I've read have stated that Newell was arrested for following members of WBC while armed with an M4 military assault carbine, a .45-caliber Glock pistol, and a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol in his car. Newell has been arrested and his bond has been set at half a million dollars.

Below are some articles about Newell:

War vet charged with stalking church that protests soldiers' funerals
Veteran charged with stalking protesters
Felony charge for vet accused of targeting Westboro

And now, members of Westboro are coming to my hometown this weekend to picket at 5 different churches in Marion....one of them being the church where I grew up. These people are sick. What bothers me the most about this is the fact that young children will be leaving Sunday School that day seeing people with signs that say "God hates fags", "Your pastor is a whore" and "Thank God for dead soldiers". It disgusts me.

Ryan Newell's community prepares for Westboro protest

I find this really interesting...

I subscribe to my hometown newspaper, The Marion County Record. I like to keep up on what's going on. Marion is such a small town, so I inevitably know someone who was arrested or married or whatever.

Anyway, one of the articles led me to the Marion County website. On the website was a picture of the Marion County Courthouse. James happened to be sitting by me while I was looking at it and asked "Is that the courthouse in Manhattan?" I told him it was not and he insisted it looked just like the Riley County Courthouse. I told him that probably all courthouses look the same and that it wasn't that big of a deal.

Well, I decided to look up the Riley County Courthouse and sure enough...it's almost identical! The similarities are astonishing. I did some historical research and what do you know...both courthouses were built in 1906. Coincidence? I think not. They were clearly designed by the same architect. I don't know why, but I think this is very interesting.


Marion County Courthouse



Riley County Courthouse

I feel better now

After many responses on Facebook to my Rudolph note, I'm now feeling a lot better. All my friends last night had me feeling like a crazy person because I sing it the "fudge face---football---Columbus" way. It turns out...a lot of people (outside of the Taylor family) sing it that way too!

It took a few people stepping up to say something to help me get my reindeer pride back. But I'm no longer living in red-nosed fear. I will stand proudly and sing that holiday favorite from the top of my lungs. And I will not say "Pinocchio". I will not say "Monopoly". And I will not say "George Washington"! I will sing it the way I learned it and I will not be ashamed.

I also decided to google "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer like fudge face" and found this:

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose (like a lightbulb)
And if you ever saw him (saw him)
You would even say it glows (like a lightbulb/flashlight)

All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinocchio/fudgeface)
They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer games (like Monopoly/football)

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say (Happy Birthday/Ho-ho-ho!)
"Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him (loved him)
As they shouted out with glee: (Yippee!)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, (reindeer)
You'll go down in history! (like Columbus/Mickey Mouse/George Washington/The Yellow Pages)"

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

After surveying an entire bar full of people, I realized yesterday that all my life I've been singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer totally wrong. I'm trying to figure out how this could have happened. Is it a family thing? I called my sisters and they sing it the same way I do...

Or is this a regional thing? Perhaps all Marionites sing it this way?

I'm distraught. Can you please help me out with this? Fill in the blanks below so I can perhaps get to the bottom of this.

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose (like a light bulb)
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a light bulb)
All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like _____________)
They wouldn't let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer games (like ______________)

Then one foggy Christmas eve
Santa came to say (Ho, ho, ho!)
Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

Then all the reindeer loved him (loved him)
As they shouted out with glee (yippee!)
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (reindeer)
You'll go down in history (like _______________)