Hey! Remember Reddy Kilowatt? Loved that guy! What a stroke of genius it was for electrical monopolies to adopt a cute little cartoon figure mascot. But as I’ve been following a local controversy involving Westar, I’ve been mindful of a glaring omission in their public relations. They don’t have a cute little cartoon mascot of their own. And, boy, does Westar need an image-softening cute little cartoon mascot right now.

Right now. Right in the earliest, blooming-est, greening-est weeks of springtime, the season of rejuvenation, right now comes a soul-wilting tragedy: the devastating fire at France’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

These days, I take hope from whatever small corners of my world I can find it in. After all, we live among folks who can easily get outraged about a former vice president who has two accusers who say he made them feel uncomfortable. One woman says he kissed the back of her hair and the other says he rubbed noses with her.

Today’s the first day of spring and I welcome it with all of my heart. Every year at this time when the birds start their early morning singing, I get excited about it. Lately they’ve almost been loud enough to drown out the drumbeat of tragedy. Almost loud enough, but not quite.

So I stopped in at the Dollar Tree yesterday. Tempted as I was by the one-dollar bamboo back scratchers and the one-dollar iridescent purple pineapple trays, I had something else on my mind. I finally got the attention of the clerk who was diligently arranging an attractive display of one-dollar 30-inch plastic shoe horns. “Excuse me, but could you direct me to the acerage?” I inquired.

Oh, give me a home, now that Brownback is gone Where the schools get the money they need Where seldom is heard that their funds are deferred So our kids get educated to succeed

I do love Rat Fink. Rat Fink always cheers me up. But some people don’t feel the same way about him. My much better half, Karen, for instance, confessed recently that Rat Fink is just so ugly she can hardly stand to look at him. I just gave her (what I imagined to be) a vaguely cryptic smile, thinking to myself, “She can be forgiven. She doesn’t have the history with Rat Fink that I have.” To those of you sadly unfamiliar with this cartoon character, Rat Fink is a hairy, grinning rat, who stands

I hate to play the “age card” again (who am I kidding – I love playing the age card), but I am old enough to remember a time when the moon didn’t do tricks.

He’s a controversial president who’s known for telling fibs About a crisis down at the border, says it’s caused by all us libs Shut down the government, threw a fit, claimed it’s a national emergency Just another fib delivered in prime time by every network on TV So blow up your TV, throw away your remote Tell the network bigwigs they gotta quit giving in Don’t let ‘em spread hate and fear and anger I’m not buying this panic about folks with brown skin Back when President Obama asked the

What a mixed bag of optimism and pessimism Santa dumped down our chimney. Baby New Year has got her work cut out for her as she tries to sort out this jumble of happiness and horror.