ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JOEL KLAASSEN
Never has a photo run in this space in the almost five years we have been publishing, but this week we have one that is deserving.
Photographed below is a parakeet named Chirpie that belongs to Malvin and Darlene Schmidt of Hillsboro. Darlene brought the photo in last week to tell us about Malvin’s bird, who has taken to eating the Hillsboro Free Press.
She said this has been going on for about six months now. As soon as the Free Press arrives and Malvin picks up the paper to read it, Chirpie jumps on his arm and begins reading (pecking) too. Could it have been the headline in the photo below that got him interested? No one knows.
Chirpie will peck only at the Free Press, even when it is stacked with other area newspapers including the Wichita Eagle.
We were told Chirpie also has taken a liking to the Bible, but we won’t try to make any comparisons there.
At first we thought maybe it was the ink, but the Eagle uses soy ink and so does our printer. Then we thought it might be the paper, but it’s all printed on newsprint…. The only thing we can figure out is that Chirpie has very good taste in his choice of newspapers.
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I wonder if news reporters dream in AP style. For that to happen, one would have to dream that you were reading a newspaper, too, I guess. Well, I read in my dreams sometimes. Don’t you?
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It’s a no-brainer understanding where the saying “Hotter than the Fourth of July” comes from.
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The word on bringing back fireworks in Hillsboro is mixed. Some are happy and some complain, but then isn’t that the way everything goes? I do know none of the campers at the reservoir complained about receiving a free bag of ice and a welcome from the Hillsboro CVB this past Thursday night.
