Interviews

Having been here more than 25 years, there are some people I have interviewed that I would like to interview again. Some of them I can't because they have died. And there are some people who I would like to interview still.

Favorite interview: Gene Roddenberry, the person who created "Star Trek," when he was in town on (I think) April 1, 1984.

Person I most want to interview: Rob Paulsen.

Who's that, you say. If you're a fan of cartoons and you know who Pinky, Yakko Warner, Carl Wheezer and Principal Willoughby are, you know Paulsen is the voice of those characters. He must have the funnest (to purists: most fun or most enjoyable) job in the world.

I would also like to interview the actors on the Dodge Hemi commercials. One line stands out. It's where one of the dimbulbs has climbed onto a flatbed truck and pulled back a tarp. The tarp covers the windshield of the car the dimbulb's buddy is driving, and the car goes over the cliff. The dimbulb on the flatbed says, "That can't be good." I would love to know how many times he rehearsed that line and how he came up with that specific delivery.

Beverly Hills and Enslow

Tuesday evening, I went to the Beverly Hills Middle School PTA meeting to hear what folks think about the possible consolidatio of Beverly Hills and Enslow middle schools. What I didn't hear was any talk about the K-8 school that people at the Enslow meeting two weeks ago endorsed.

Most of the talk Tuesday dealt with whether Beverly Hills had room to absorb the Enslow kids, or whether a new middle school could be built on Norway Avenue next to the Vo Tech Center.

Nothing really stood out except that several teachers and retired teachers were all for consolidation. One thing I did notice was the absence of men from the community. About three-fourths of the people at the meeting, not counting people from the school board central office, were women.

It's hard to say whether the Beverly Hills community would ever support consolidation. People at Enslow say they don't want to lose their neighborhood school. Just guessing here, but public sentiment at both places would seem to favor allowing the Enslow K-8 school, but the central office would prefer consolidating the two middle schools.

A joke that backfired

Back in the early 1990s, someone from Charleston was invited to speak at a meeting of Huntington's movers and shakers. For some reason, they let me cover it. The name of the speaker and his topic I have long since forgotten. But I do remember him saying this:

"People in Huntington think those of us in Charleston don't like Huntington. We do. In Charleston, if you have a Marshall University sticker on your car, you can park in a handicapped spot."

For some reason, no one laughed, smiled, chuckled or gave any response other than a silent frown.

More rules for driving in Huntington

On this morning's editorial page (http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060427/OPINION/604270316/1034), I gave some of the unwritten rules for driving in Huntington. Space did not allow me to print them all. Some that did not get in:

Anyone with Ohio plates on his car must cancel liability insurance before driving in West Virginia.

Any communication between drivers is limited to hand gestures featuring one finger only.

If you must make a left turn against heavy traffic in the middle of a block, just sit there and wait. It is too much to expect you to turn right and circle a block instead.

At any given time, 17.4 percent of cars with Ohio plates belong to West Virginians. So don't blame Buckeyes for all the bad driving committed in Ohio's name.

Tailgating is neither allowed nor encouraged. It is expected.

Any overhead sign at an underpass saying "No left turn" can be ignored.

If you have any more, please send them along.

Tired of it

Am I the only person tired of hearing about a certain actor's new baby daughter?

$2.999

That's the prevailing price of gasoline in Huntington today, although I did find a station where the post price was 10 cents less.

At this point, we're dealing mainly with psychological hurdles. I mean, what's the difference between $2.899 and $2.999? Suppose your car gets 25 miles per gallon and you're buying $40 worth of gasoline. That 10-cent spread will get you 0.46 of a gallon more, or about 11 miles worth.

For a lot of us, that's not one round trip from home to downtown Huntington. It won't get you from the West End to the Huntington Mall.

So, will we have $4 a gallon by Memorial Day?

I could answer that if I knew what's driving these prices. Other than the fact the retailers will charge what they think the public will pay, I don't know what's going on. I don't know if there is any incentive right now for the people in the crude oil markets to hold down the price of crude oil. As long as no incentive to do that exists, there is no real incentive to keep the retail price lower.

By the way, The Herald-Dispatch has a policy against using the Voice of the People section on the editorial page to organize boycotts. So please don't write letters urging a boycott of a certain company. Or to urge a boycott of one company this month and one company the next month. Someone has already tried that, and I had to notify him we could not use his letter.

Back on topic: One person in the newsroom has already said he has curtailed his travel to visit family because of these prices. For him, the point of pain has arrived.

ATV safety

When I got to work this morning, someone had left a message on my voice mail. He was complaining about this morning's editorial on ATV safety. His main point was summed up in this one sentence: "It's nobody's business but the person riding it."

Maybe. As long as the person who rides carelessly has insurance that covers the entire cost of medical treatment. But if that person does not and expects someone else to pick up part of that cost, it becomes the public's business.

Also, too many drivers don't wear seat belts, despite overwhelming evidence that wearing seat belts saves lives. And how many people still don't buckle their babies or toddlers in child safety seats while driving? Last year I saw a child that couldn't have been two years old standing in the back seat of a car on 8th Street in downtown Huntington. I got a good look at the child because I was in the next car back.

No one's business? Not as long as people who refuse to follow basic rules of safety and common sense expect other people to pay the cost of their mistakes.

Cabell County Bus 666

Actually, there is no Bus No. 666 in the Cabell County school bus fleet. There is a 665 and a 667, but no 666. A school system spokesman says the number was omitted for the obvious reason.

Middle school enrollments in W.Va.

We plan to have an editorial in The Herald-Dispatch on Monday regarding the future of Enslow Middle School in Huntington and, by extension, the future of Beverly Hills Middle School.

There may be a preference in the Highlawn neighborhood for a new K-8 school replacing both Enslow Middle and Highlawn Elementary. The new school could be built on on the present Enslow site if some adjoining properties are purchased.

People at a meeting this past Monday said they don’t like the idea of consolidating Enslow with Beverly Hills.

While researching Monday’s editorial, I came up with these figures:

This year, West Virginia has 37 K-8 schools. The closest are in Logan, Mingo and Kanawha counties. They range in size from 1,256 at Keyser Primary/Middle School in Mineral County to 63 at Hacker Valley Elementary School in Webster County.

West Virginia has 78 middle schools housing students in grades 6 through 9 only. Their sizes range from 1,094 at Musselman Middle School in Berkeley County to 15 at the Cabell County Alternative Education Middle School. The next smallest is Tyler Middle School in Kanawha County, with 66 students. A consolidated Enslow-Beverly Hills would have 838 students, making it the sixth-largest in the state.

Such a large school does not sit well with many people in either the Enslow or Beverly Hills neighborhoods. People are not comfortable with such a large school. That can be expected in a region with some of the smallest middle schools in the state. Among them, Cabell, Wayne and Putnam counties have eight of the 14 smallest middle schools in West Virginia.

For those who want to know, those are:
Cabell Alternative Education, 15 (78th);
Crum, 150 (76th);
West, 219 (72nd);
Fort Gay, 262 (69th);
Vinson, 267 (68th);
George Washington (Putnam) 273 (67th);
Ceredo-Kenova, 277 (66th);
Enslow, 283 (65th).

Enrollment numbers come from the annual headcount taken on October.

$2.859

So gasoline prices went up today to $2.859 a gallon in Huntington. I bought $10 worth at $2.719 a gallon last night to tide me over until payday. Buying only 3.4 gallons seems kind of useless, but it got me home and back.

We've seen prices increase in 10-cent increments for a while now. As one of my co-workers says, whether it's because of shortage of ethanol or a lack of hurricanes, we're headed toward $3 a gallon before Memorial Day. Maybe the refiners and the retailers should spare us the weekly jump, go ahead and make the big jump to $3 or whatever and keep the price stable for a while.

Enslow and Beverly Hills

Yesterday evening, about 25 people gathered at Enslow Middle School to discuss the school's future. Rachel Gensler covered it for a story in today's newspaper. What struck me was how much the people there liked the idea of a K-8 school in their neighborhood.

That idea would probably work out best. It will be interesting to see what happens in a couple of weeks when the school board has a similar meeting with Beverly Hills Middle School parents. Beverly Hills (do kids call it "The Hill"?) has a structurally sound building, but access is a problem and the place doesn't have a real front door. Just guessing here, but people in the Beverly Hills area probably aren't going to want to consolidate with Enslow.

Again just guessing, but Beverly Hills parents will want the same for their kids what kids in Barboursville, Milton and Cammack-West will have when those new schools are built. And what kids in a K-8 school in Enslow will have, assuming that is the way the school board goes.

There will be more thoughts and ruminations on the topic later this week on the editorial page.

Film cameras and West Virginia

In the past 12 months, I've taken some really good pictures of my kids with a point-and-shoot digital camera. I have two SLR film cameras at home, but I've hardly used them since I bought the digital. One is a Nikon FM2, at one time considered one of the better 35mm film cameras.

A couple of months ago, Nikon Corp., one of the leading camera manufacturers in the world, said it will reduce the number of film-camera models it makes from nine to two. The only two models left will be the top-of-the-line F6 and the low-end FM10.

Film cameras are rapidly losing their market to digital cameras. Quality, however, will still rule for serious photographers. Until digital technology can provide the same picture quality that film does, there will always be a market for good films and good film cameras.

Come to think of it, as long as West Virginia has a competitive business climate and a highly educated work force, it will continue to be one of the hottest places in the United States for growing new industries and for having a high standard of living.

Katie Couric leaves "The Today Show"

I don't care.

I really don't.

I really, really don't.

I do care about all the attention it's getting. Enough already, people.

Give me news. Give me weather. Give me accurate, timely content and I won't really care who delivers it.

Can we talk about something else now?

The GOP

A die-hard Republican of my acquaintance has some problems with his party.

“Well, the Republicans have not done themselves many favors lately. I'm discouraged over how they've handled themselves during a time when they could have made a real difference,” he wrote in an e-mail recently. “ ... I just think it's time we hold both sides accountable for doing what's right for the people and not what's right for the party. ... We've got to quit party thinking and get back to people thinking. That in itself would reduce the partisanship,” he wrote in a recent e-mail.

I wrote back:

“I understand what you mean. The GOP has squandered an opportunity. If it retains control of Congress, it will only be by default because the Democratic Party did not offer an alternative. I read something by one pro-Democratic columnist saying he hopes his party does not take control of the government this fall. Why would it want to? It can wait two more years, let the GOP continue to self-destruct and then take control of the White House and Congress in '08. ...”

I wish I could remember who wrote that column.

On the local level, you have to wonder what this means to the West Virginia GOP. The party had momentum in gaining more seats in the Legislature this year and maybe another statewide office or two in '08, but you have to ask yourself if the party’s troubles at the national level will trickle down to the state level.

We have between now and Nov. 7 to see what happens.

Cabell County schools

Tomorrow afternoon, Cabell County school Superintendent Bill Smith is scheduled to meet with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board. The prime topic of discussion is likely to be the construction of the new middle and elementary school buildings. Other topics likely will come up during the discussion, such as the new program for all high school freshmen next year.

The school system is doing a good job though the Internet of keeping people informed on the planning process for the new schools. From what I have seen of my limited time in them, Barboursville, Milton and Cammack middle schools needed to be replaced. It will be a shame to lose West, but the numbers probably aren't there to sustain West over time without some redistricting to bring new people into its territory. But redistricting is a bigger problem than consolidation, so there's little likelihood of that happening anytime.

I still wonder, though, about the future of Enslow and Beverly Hills middle schools. Beverly Hills could use some improvements, notably access, but it appears to be servicable for the foreseeable future. For what little I've seen of Enslow, it could use replacing. And that's the rub. The problem with saving Enslow as a free-standing school is similar to West's: long-term enrollment trends and problems finding a suitable site in the neighborhood.

Consolidating Enslow with Beverly Hills may be inevitable, but let's hope it's not done by simply moving Enslow kids to the Hill. If there is to be any consolidation, the county should build an entirely new school so the Enslow-Beverly Hills kids have the same quality of building as the other kids do.

This is sure to be a topic we will discuss with Smith tomorrow. If you have any thoughts, please send them this way.

Global warming

Tomorrow's edition of The Herald-Dispatch will have a column by George Will about global warming, now known as climate change.

Everyone, it seems, talks about global warming as though it is a confirmed fact, but I wonder about it. Everyone looks for a single cause for global warming, and every cause they find is related to human activity. There's no doubt that human activities can cause some climate change in local areas, but globally?

What about volcanic eruptions, variations in the amount of heat produced by the sun, the precession of the earth's rotation, ocean currents and who knows how many other natural causes that are beyond man's control?

And is a little bit of warming necessarily a bad thing?

Don't put me down on one side or the other. As I live in West Virginia, any of these comments could be dismissed as someone afraid of hurting the coal industry, but that's not the case. I'd just like some answers.

I guess I'll have to find last week's Time magazine and read it. Even after that, I'll still be a skeptic and waiting for more answers.