45th Annual Maple Leaf Festival

Commemorative Shirt Pre-Order.

Commemorative shirts for the 45th Annual Maple Leaf Festival are now available. Shirts can be pre-order at the Carthage Chamber, 402 S Garrison or Sports World, 2430 S Grand.

Shirts are available in sizes youth small – adult 3XL, featuring choice of reproductions of watercolors by Jeanette Westbay including the Historic Carthage Square Courthouse, the old high school or Whisler’s Drive-Up. Shirts can be ordered as short sleeved, long sleeved or sweatshirt design.

"Although shirts will be available at the Maple Leaf parade October 15th, make sure to order your shirts soon as they will be in limited supply by October," says Chamber Membership Director Neely Myers.

Shirts must be ordered by September 16th to be guaranteed for delivery before Maple Leaf.

"Get yours now for casual Fridays or start your own Maple Leaf Mondays," Myers suggests.

Jasper County Jail Count

183 August 10, 2011

Total Including Placed out of County

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Menard Dismisses His Critics

He has those jaunty sideburns that make him look a bit, you know, colorful. Menard has been criticized because his father is wealthy and has supported his son’s racing efforts.

Just who out there would pass that up?

In truth, Menard is quite modest, as reflected in the fact that he is quite terse. His answers to questions are seldom expansive, and he often speaks in sentences that aren’t complete. Examples from his press conference after winning Sunday’s Brickyard 400:

"Can’t change people’s opinions. ... Can’t control it. ... Definitely for him (his dad). ... Sitting up in a suite for the inaugural one (Brickyard 400 in 1994). ... Saw Rick Mast win the pole. ... Passed a couple cars. ... Just started trying to maintain some kind of lap time being easy on the throttle, easy off, earlier than normal, easy on."

You get the point.

But anyone who thinks Paul Menard is some international playboy, jetting around on his daddy’s money, has got it wrong. John Menard was able to make sure his son got the best equipment, but it was Paul who proved he could do the job. Some find Indy boring. Others complain about how hard it is to see. No one doubts it takes considerable ability to win here.

Richard Childress didn’t put Menard in his No. 27 Chevy just because of sponsorship from the Menard’s chain of home-improvement warehouses. It didn’t hurt, though.

"I caught a lot of flak back early last year when we decided to go with four teams," said Childress. "I’ve been watching Paul ever since he won the Nationwide race (Milwaukee, 2006). He doesn’t wear equipment out. He’s consistent. He’s really good. Got a cool head on him in all situations.

"I knew if the right situation came along, we’d win. To get ‘Slugger’ (Labbe, Menard’s crew chief) to come over, John Menard support us ... that was a big jump going in on a fourth team."

Menard bounced around, from Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2007-08 and to Richard Petty Motorsports in 2009-10. It took Childress to provide him with what proved to be a winning combination in one of NASCAR’s premier races.

As a first grader I was fortunate to be goin’ into a brand, spankin’ (no pun intended) new school buildin’. The summer before it opened, the janitor put out the word to the kids in the neighborhood that he’d pay a silver dollar to anyone who’d come and pick up rocks outa the school yard for a day. Prob’ly thirty or forty of us showed up.

We’d line up with a bucket in hand and walk the school yard. It was ‘bout a square block so we had plenty ta do. One kid my age was Frankie. At the end of the day, we lined up for our pay. The janitor wasn’t pleased with Frankie’s work ethic and talked as if he wasn’t gonna pay up. He finally handed the kid a fifty-cent piece. Frankie was obviously pleased. I don’t remember a lot about the janitor, but I do know I never trusted him again. I still feel like he cheated the six-year-old for no good reason.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Weekly Column

CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

Dear Tom and Ray:

My husband just bought a 2004 Chevy Tracker with a smidge over 60,000 miles on the odometer. We think the prior owner might have hauled the Tracker behind a recreational vehicle; there is a tow-hitch bracket under the Tracker’s front bumper and a bunch of rock chips in the hood’s paint.

So our question is this: When a vehicle is towed with four wheels on the ground like that, does the towed vehicle’s odometer register all of those miles? My husband thinks most of these miles are "towed miles" and therefore he got a low-mileage vehicle with a high-mileage odometer. Is my husband’s smugness justified? -- Di

RAY: A husband’s smugness is never justified, Di. Because even if he’s right about something, it’s only a matter of time before he’s wrong about something else. If you don’t believe me, ask my wife!

TOM: But you don’t even have to wait for your husband to be wrong, Di. He’s wrong right now. In the old days, odometers were mechanical. They were run by a cable that came up from the output shaft of the transmission. So, when the drive wheels turned, that shaft turned and the odometer turned, racking up the miles.

RAY: But on modern cars, speedometers and odometers are electronic. So unless the key is on, they’re not getting powered and won’t register any miles.

TOM: And if you needed the key to be turned -- to unlock the steering wheel, for example -- you’d probably disconnect the battery to keep it from dying.

RAY: So your husband’s new Tracker has 60,000 actual, honest-to-goodness driven miles on it. Plus maybe another 150,000 or 200,000 spent bouncing behind a Winnebago.