The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1396495
My So Called Millennial Life By Stephanie Hayes For years, we had a lovely furniture showpiece in the bedroom. The microfi- ber chair from Crate and Barrel was roy- al blue, plush, with matching throw pil- lows. And for years, we did not set eyes on this chair, let alone sit in it. Why? You know why. It was the Laun- dry Chair. Maybe you pretend not to have one. Perhaps you shove the laundry into a closet moments before company arrives, and then show off your elegant sitting ar- ea like it's a Victorian fainting room for recovering from boned corsets. But you know the grisly truth. Oth- er versions of Laundry Chair include Laundry Window Seat; Laundry Otto- man; Laundry Secretary Desk; Laundry Treadmill/Peloton; and Laundry Basket So Full It Has Become A Flat Surface For More Laundry. Laundry Chair blends into the scenery, melting into an amorphous blob between the wall and the floor. Once the room ab- sorbs the soul of Laundry Chair, like a haunted Ikea, Laundry Chair becomes immutable. Occasionally, it catches your eye. You think, "If I get murdered and the crime scene photos end up on '48 Hours Investigates,' this laundry situation is go- ing to be so embarrassing." Our showdown with Laundry Chair came suddenly. We got a new bedroom set and decided to reconfig- ure the space. A fter mov- ing everything, the room still felt cramped and chaot- ic. The conversation between my husband and I went some- thing like: "I feel like there should be more room in here." I eye Laundry Chair. "Yeah, weird." He eyes Laundry Chair. "Maybe ... we should ..." "Later." Plenty of articles and blogs are devoted to "accent chairs," a phrase like "jumbo shrimp." Apartment Therapy argues that "accent chairs give you another place to play with color, pattern and texture, but they're also a perfect spot for reading, lay- ing out your clothes and setting down a bag or another oft-used object." See? Most of the paragraph is devoted to setting things on the chair. It's time to stop the lies. There is no point in a bedroom chair. What, are you going to just ... sit? Think about interna- tional conflicts? Bedrooms are for lying flat, ruminating on failed dreams. Bed- rooms are for checking your phone, even though it's harming your circadian rhythms. Bed- rooms are for trying on six outfits before choosing the same black shirt and jeans you wear every day, and then placing the six outfits on Laundry Chair. A fter we moved the bed, I flopped down to begin my God-ordained purpose of looking at my phone. Suddenly, laun- dry was flying about, and the chair was on the move. "We need to do this now, or we'll nev- er do it," he said. He was right. Laundry Chair is in the living room now, where we actually sit on it. The bedroom feels much more spacious, lib- erated from fraudulent seating. And yet, there is a new problem. We have to put the laundry away. In related news, I'd like you to meet my new friend: Laundry Stool. Stephanie Hayes is a columnist at the Tam- pa Bay Times in Florida. Follow her at @ stephhayeswrites on Facebook, @ stephhayes on Twitter or @ stephrhayes on Instagram. The last week has seen a flurry of overhead activities across crops in southwestern Indiana. At one point during Posey County fair week, two distinct fixed wing aircraft were within sight of the Posey County fairgrounds during the Horse and Pony and Goat shows. Later that day a helicopter could be seen over fields a few miles from the fairgrounds. The reason for their activ- ity is multiple, although preventing one disease in particular garners the most attention. All fungicides currently on the mar- ket perform preventatively. They are ap- plied to keep fungi from spreading on the crop. Curative fungicides when in- festations already occur are not avail- able. Crop scouting is important to de- termine what fields need treatment and when. Fungicides should not be sprayed when no anticipated fungal infection ex- ists, to prevent the buildup of fungi re- sistant to our current active ingredients. The aerial delivery mechanism ap- plies fungicides to crops, notably corn this year although application to soy- beans occurs. Aerial application to soy- bean is less common than in corn, due to the relative height of each crop and me- chanical damage prevention. Corn is a tall crop that would require quite a high boom height to spray at the agronomi- cally best time to do so, right after tas- seling, preferably just after pol- lination is complete. Soybeans would not require specialized equipment and tend to bounce back from wheel traffic a lit- tle more easily than corn. The other reason for aerial fungi- cide application is timing. The amount of time required to get equipment through each farm field that needs applica- tion takes in the order of days to weeks. Planes can apply the same amount of product to the same acres in a matter of hours. Fungicides are most useful in soybean when presence of a fungus is likely to occur. Although the humidity and rain- fall patterns make many years a possi- ble year to treat soybean with a fungi- cide, conditions are not right every year. When a fungicide is needed, the recom- mended growth stage to treat is R3, or when pods have emerged and are 5 mm long at one of the four uppermost nodes of the plant. For corn, we spray when Southern Rust is likely to occur. In 2017, the dis- ease managed to take hold in mid-July, severely affecting yields in southwest- ern Indiana and resulting in many a crop scout to take on an orange to brown hue when exiting fields. As a result, more intense scout- ing for Southern Rust oc- curs in Indiana. We gen- erally find infection com- ing from due south of us, with airborne spores rid- ing along and being de- posited out of the air with storm systems or being brought in by the remnant of a hurricane. As of this writing, University-confirmed samples of this disease exist in Gibson County. Cue the helicopters and airplanes. Aerial application of fungicide is a little less precise, with potential over- spray possible. The bad news is wast- ed product. The good news is that fun- gicides are generally not harmful to the unintended target. Mild inconvenience or accidental treatment of athlete's foot certainly could occur. Most of the in- formation in this article is taken from "Foliar Fungicide Use in Corn and Soy- beans," a University of Kentucky publi- cation by Hershman, Vincelli, and Kai- ser. For more information, contact Hans Schmitz at 812-838 -1331 or hschmitz@ purdue.edu. The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 28, 2021 D-5 able Care Act was created, many red states wisely re- fused to take the bribe of free money from Washington be- cause they saw the new pro- grams would puncture holes in their state budgets. So now Democrats in Congress want to offer new subsidies under Medicaid for residents of the 12 states, including Flor- ida, Georgia and Missouri, that opted not to widen their Medicaid benefits. They are calling these "Medicaid look- alike programs" to be admin- istered by the federal author- ities. Readers may be amazed that we have to continue to expand Medicare, Medic- aid, "Obamacare" subsidies and the like because 12 years ago, we were told that the tril- lion-dollar A ffordable Care Act was going to provide uni- versal coverage for everyone. But we keep spending hun- dreds of billions of tax dol- lars, and all we hear is how many millions of people con- tinue to lack health care cov- erage. Maybe that is because all the money the authorities spend on health care makes the whole system way more expensive. If all of this isn't enough, starting this month, people of a certain income will receive checks of $ 3,000 on an annu- al basis per child. That is on top of the $2,000 per person we sent out earlier this year. University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan and I recently published a study sponsored by the Com- mittee to Unleash Prosperity. Thanks to Biden's new wel- fare state expansions, fam- ilies can get up to $100,000 in government benefits (tax- free) without anyone work- ing a single hour all year! The government will feed you; pay your rent; educate you; take care of your chil- dren and your grandpar- ents; pay for your college and day care; pay you if you aren't working; and pay for your health care, your tooth- brush, your internet service and, soon, free iPhones (that should be an entitlement, shouldn't it?). The real mystery about this new cradle-to-grave en- titlement state is why people still bother to work at all. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Founda- tion and an economic consul- tant with FreedomWorks. He is the co-author of "Trumpo- nomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive the Amer- ican Economy." BEST FRIEND Continued from page 4 vote of 92-2. The "yes" votes included then-Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. Let's move on to the sec- ond concern: making voting easy. The charge against Georgia's new voting law is that it prohibits voters from access to water while they wait in line. One has to ad- mit that sounds harsh. But, if we dig a little deep- er, we find that like most other states Georgia prohib- its electioneering within 150 feet of a polling place or with- in 25 feet of any voters wait- ing in line to vote. The new law simply add- ed that within such distanc- es, no one can "give, offer to give, or participate in the giv- ing of any money or gift, in- cluding, but not limited to, food and drink, to any elec- tor." In other words, a candi- date, his supporters, or an activist group can't show up at a polling place with a truckload of Happy Meals and start handing them out to voters standing in line. The clear intent here is to prevent operatives from any party from unduly in- fluencing voters with money or gifts, including food and drink. The idea that Geor- gia is somehow doing some- thing nefarious by prevent- ing gift-giving at the polls is, to put it mildly, bizarre— especially considering that this is a standard practice (as it should be) in most oth- er states including New York and New Jersey. By the way, the law says it's OK for poll officials to make available "self-service water from an unattended re- ceptacle" to "an elector wait- ing in line." And, of course, you can bring a bottle of wa- ter with you if you're wor- ried that you're going to die of thirst waiting to vote. But wait, there's more! Georgia added addition- al weekend voting days for those who want to vote early. To call these reforms "the new Jim Crow" as some have done, or an example of "vot- er suppression," is simply not true. In fact, it's so far from the truth, it makes one won- der about the accusers' mo- tives. But more than any- thing, it is an insult to the people who really did suffer under restrictive voting laws of the past. But those days are long gone. And the numbers prove it. Georgia has seen record levels of voter regis- tration and turnout in recent elections, including 2020. That includes blacks and His- panics. And that's been the trend for a decade. Anybody who wants to vote can vote. Introducing a few safeguards to build confidence that only legal votes are cast and counted just seems to make common sense. So why all the controver- sy? Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amend- ment, immigration. CHINA Continued from page 4 Court Report FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Arthur D. Ward charged with count I dealing in marijuana, a level 5 felony, and count II possession of marijuana. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANORS Pike County Circuit Court Timothy D. Kline charged with driv- ing while suspended, prior. Montana Michael Halterman charged with invasion of privacy. Lunden Rashaad Nunn-King charged with possession of marijuana. Richard Dillon charged with count I operating a vehicle while intoxicated and count II possession of marijuana. Meredith A. Renschler charged with operating a vehicle with an ACE of at least .08 but less than .15. Rick D. Duncan charged with invasion of privacy. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Chase A. Kelley charged with seatbelt violation. Sharon A. Culbertson charged with seatbelt violation. Shannon R. Palmer charged with seat- belt violation. Jean R. Vanmeter charged with speed- ing, exceeding 70 mph. Michaela M. Jones charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Michelle R. Dixon charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Kendall J. Startzman charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Bradley S. Simmons charged with count I driving while suspended and count II seatbelt violation. Jennifer L. Hochstetler charged with seatbelt violation. Antonia Caneza charged with speed- ing, exceeding 70 mph. Wkayla D. Franklin charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Colton M. DeJarnett charged with seat- belt violation. Damon M. Hayes charged with seat- belt violation. Emily T. Berry charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Paul Baker charged with driving while suspended. Stacey R. Vaughn charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Bo A. Myers charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Kristina M. Myers charged with speeding. Samba Sow charged with speeding, ex- ceeding 70 mph. more often.'" It's as if America is mov- ing toward "1984," George Orwell's novel, in which gov- ernment controls people's thoughts by creating a new language, Newspeak. The only way to stop it, says McWhorter, is to push back. "Enlightened America needs to develop a backbone and start getting used to be- ing called racist on Twitter. Just withstand it. Keep their voices out there. Make us un- derstand what true justice is." John Stossel is author of "Give Me a Break: How I Ex- posed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media." RULES Continued from page 4 SPACE Continued from page 4 in space. One last element needed for long-term space explora- tion is "gravity." NASA has discovered that humans in microgravity can lose up to 20 percent of their muscle and bone mass in less than two weeks. Outside of the constant pull of Earth's grav- ity, humans experience mus- cle and bone density loss, vi- sual impairments, and poten- tial heart and lung problems. Musk's dream of colonizing Mars has a major obstacle to overcome which is how to surmount the laws of gravi- ty. Some scientists believe a human trip to Mars is a "one-way ticket" to fame and death. The supreme obstacle to overcome is sin. Wherever humans go, sin goes with them. Some people envision space travel and the coloniza- tion of the moon or Mars as a doomsday escape; like a Star Trek episode where humans can start over and build a bet- ter world. The reality is hu- mans will take all their sus- ceptibility to violence and corruption with them. In a short time, the plague of sin will overcome them; and they will realize that liv- ing on the Moon or Mars does not differ from living on the Earth. There is no escaping sin. Paul gives us a hint about future space travel. He writes in 1 Corinthians 15:47-48, "The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the sec- ond man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven." In Acts chapter one, Jesus went to heaven unaid- ed by rockets or a spacesuit. He says we will do the same. Think about it. An ode to my laundry chair Purdue Extension—Pike County news By Kristen Lowry Planes and helicopters