Some TP ads given a bum wrap

Don\'t Ask Why

Written by David Vogel Tuesday, 30 April 2013 11:58

Lately I’ve become increasingly alarmed by the explicitness of TV commercials for toilet paper. For example, the other day I Old-Faithfulled the soda I was drinking when this ad played: “This is one way to keep your underwear clean. This is another: Ta-da!”

That’s a recent plug for Charmin, the TP brand that uses animated bears to discuss bathroom tissue issues. The subjects range anywhere from needing less squares to the amount of tissue fragments get left behind on the bear’s bottoms.

It’s cute—until you start to think about the real-life implications the scenarios set up. And then it’s disturbing.

Whatever happened to the old-fashioned ads that simply spilled a blue fluid on a few squares, stacked a bunch of coins...

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Looking ahead

Editorials

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Tuesday, 07 May 2013 14:10

With the graduation season upon us, we add a word of congratulations to the high school and college students who will be receiving their diplomas and are beginning the next stage of their life journey.

We have no sage advice or insight to offer that they won’t have heard, thought or read over these next few weeks. But most of us, whether we were there 10, 30 or 50 years ago, can recall that mix of excitement and dread as one very familiar stage ends and the next one looms before us with no clear understanding or defined expectations.

If we look too deeply into the future, the outlook can be foreboding because even the familiar earth beneath our feet shifts from week to week with the undulating tremors of change. Graduates have...

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Keep children safe on the farm this summer

Opinion

Written by John Schlageck Tuesday, 07 May 2013 14:11

The dream of many young farm boys and girls is to ride on a tractor. For a youngster, the mammoth tractor epitomizes raw power, responsibility and coming of age.

Nothing is more exciting to farm kids than the belch of diesel smoke, the roar of engines and rubber wheels on powerful tractors, combines or silage cutters. They draw children like a moth to a flame and, like fire, can be dangerous. Such equipment can cut, crush or trap children. It can harm the ones we want to protect the most—our children.

Soon children will be home from school and the chance of farm accidents will be greater.

During the summer months, never invite children to ride in the tractor, says Holly Higgins, Kansas Farm Bureau safety director.

“Stress that...

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Recital showcased kids’ talent

Partly Nonsense

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 07 May 2013 14:12

We were invited to attend last week’s piano recital put on by the Tabor College preparatory school at the Wohlgemuth Center. I was very impressed with the talent on display.

What was amazing to me was that none of the students appeared to be nervous. If they were, it sure didn’t show.

The youngest players performed first and on up the line to the oldest. The talent escalated as they went.

I wish now I had stayed with the piano when I was a kid. My brother Mark, who plays in two bands in Tulsa, says the same thing. My sister, Elaine, did stick with it and is an accomplished pianist and organist today. She has given lessons in the Minnea­polis, Minn., area for about 20 years.

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I think it’s important for every kid to be good...

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