We are always looking for ways to make our content more relevant to our readers either in print or on the Web. We’re hoping we did that with our school calendar page that debuted last week.

In the last issue of each month, our sponsors are bringing you the next month’s activities calendar for the six school districts in our coverage area. The information is also posted on our Web site in the “Schools” section. You can download and print a pdf of your school’s calendar if you wish.

We’re always open to feedback from our readers about what they’d like to see in print and on the Web.

• A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting about agri-tourism. The featured speaker was Jan Jantzen, who owns a ranch near Emporia.

  He has developed a following all over the world. People come to his ranch and pay for trail rides and for the privilege of lighting the prairie-grass pastures each spring. I think he called it “Fire in the Flint Hills.”

  Forty-two people paid $100 to participate, which included an afternoon burn, a break for food and music and then a night burn.

• I don’t know if this would work, but we could try to find big-city reporters who think Kansas City is Kansas. They would come to Hillsboro during wheat harvest and pay us for the privilege of covering it.

• So far it has been a great ride for us Jayhawk fans. Since the beginning of September, KU’s combined record for football and basketball is 26-1. In my view it could well be 27-0 if the Big XII North title game would have had one more quarter. I’m enjoying it while it lasts. It could be a spell before it happens again.

• I’m now delving into the world of RSS feeds from the Internet. Basically, you can subscribe to an RSS feed that delivers content on topics of interest to your Web browser or e-mail box.

  It’s not a perfect science, but I subscribe to a Google RSS feed that sends me information about Hillsboro, Kan. By “not perfect” I mean I get stuff about other Hillsboros, too. But it keeps me in the know about things I may not otherwise see.

  RSS feeds are available on the Free Press Web site. Go to the left navigation bar and click on “RSS feeds” and subscribe. Then you’ll be first to know.

• Life has changed a lot in the past 14,600 days—another way of saying 40 years.

  Everyone wonders why the end of the money comes before the end of the month.

  Many things in relation to wages cost no more than they did 40 years ago. Even though the price of gasoline is 10 times higher now, so are our wages. And cars get much better mileage and have less mechanical problems than they did.

  What’s changed in the past 40 years is that we have added a second car, increased the square footage in our homes, have air conditioning, a cell phone, Internet connection, cable or satellite TV, buy bottled water, consume soft drinks in multiples each day and on and on.

  I didn’t even mention taxes, which have increased substantially during this period.

• We bought a new Chevelle in 1972 (in Hillsboro) and paid about $3,000 for it. Over the past 10 years we’ve bought six vehicles (in Hillsboro) and all for less than $15,000. If I figured right, that’s only five times more.

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