Bring on the fall
Phil Cobb
I fear we’re being spoiled by this Fall-like weather at the end of July and beginning of August, but I’ll take it.
Makes me turn my thoughts to pennant races and football and all the things I love about Fall, my favorite time of the year.
Speaking of football, absolutely no one was surprised when the Northwest Missouri State Bearcat football team was chosen by their peers at MIAA Media Days to once again finish at the top of the conference.
If you haven’t read Maryville Daily Forum Sports Editor Jon Dykstra’s two-page feature in Wednesday’s newspaper on the Bearcats’ prospects for the new season, which also includes synopses of all 11 of Northwest’s MIAA opponents, you owe it to yourself to do so.
Jon just started and is neck deep in creating our fall sports preview, along with still putting out a quality sports section five days a week.
I’m excited to see the kind of sports section Jon will produce with the help of Dustin Henggeler and others as we approach another action-packed fall sports season.
I think fans of the Bearcats, Spoofhounds, Rockets, Mustangs, Muskets, Bluejays, Eagles, Longhorns, and Trojans will be pleased with the volume and quantity of coverage their teams will receive.
If you want to see a broader sample of Jon’s past work, check out his Twitter page @Jon_Dykstra, and make sure you follow him and @SportsMDF for updates on all your favorite teams.
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Last week I wrote about how my family has signed up to host a foreign exchange student for the upcoming school year.
A week later, we have still not been able to make direct contact with her or her family.
Liting is from China, and as you might imagine, communication with the outside world, especially via online methods, is dramatically different than it is most other places.
Regardless, we remain excited about welcoming her into our home on Aug. 24.
I’ve been trying to learn as much about China and the Chinese culture as I can.
We have 26 letters in the English alphabet, and we are so proud of ourselves as kindergartners when we can recite them in front of our class.
Did you know that just to be considered literate in Mandarin Chinese, you must have a working knowledge of between 1,500 and 2,000 characters?
Try saying those in front of the class.
And that’s just a tiny fraction of the 106,230 Chinese characters.
I don’t think I counted numbers to 100 until I was in first grade.
I was surprised to find out that there are still exchange students who intend to enroll in fall classes in the United States who have not yet found host families.
If you’ve thought about hosting a foreign exchange student, but aren’t sure about it, you can become a welcome family, which basically is a place to stay for a student for six weeks, or until he or she finds a permanent host.
It’s my understanding that if it happens to work out, you can still become a host family of that student.
And don’t get hung up on the word “family.”
Students can be placed with individuals, too.
You don’t have to fit the definition of a traditional family to qualify.
But you do have to go through a background check.
If you’re interested in finding out more about it, let me know. I can put you in touch with some people who will be very eager to take your call.
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What is being billed as The Great American Eclipse will take place in about three weeks.
While I absolutely appreciate the significance and the rarity of the event, I can’t imagine booking a hotel room a year in advance, traveling to another state, and or crossing the ocean to witness something that will take all of about three minutes to happen.
Yes, the entire process will last for almost three hours, but “totality” seems like the real calling card of this phenomena, and I’ll be just fine if I don’t drive to St. Joseph, and fight through a million people so that the moon appears to cover the entire sun.
I’ll be just fine with the sliver of light that will result from me being a few miles north of the defined path of totality.
And yes, I’ll leave my $1 sunglasses from Minnie Lane on the entire time.
