Based on the applause and standing ovations, it's pretty safe to say that the roughly 500 people who attended the U.S. Navy Band concert last Tuesday evening in the gymnasium at Kennett High School had a good time. It was an opportunity to see and hear some world-class musicians.

Personally I enjoyed the performance and also enjoyed watching Dennis Nail, a pretty good band director in his own right, enjoying the concert sitting just a few seats over.

Hearty kudos go out to "Mr. Entertainment," also known as Jack Astrachan, for his Herculean efforts in making the concert a success. Jack meets with the band's site coordinator months in advance, then greets the band when they arrive in town and is pretty much their host for the time they're here.

If my math is right last Tuesday was a three-peat for Jack.

We've worked with him on an ensemble from the U.S. Air Force, the U. S. Army Band and Soldier's Chorus and now the U.S. Navy. Jack says he's through, that this is his last one.

However, I've checked and yes, the U.S. Marines do have a band. Whadda ya say, Jack?

A large tip of the hat also goes out to KHS for setting up (and taking down) the chairs and preparing the gym ready for the concert.

It was also nice to see six of KHS band director Tom Ryan's students have the opportunity to sit in on a number with the band. I imagine there were a few proud moms and dads in the audience.

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From the mailbag

Under the headline, "Grandma Would Have Thought Some New Grocery Items Were a Joke" comes the following from Whit Thrower.

"We simply cannot make up our feeble mind which would be the most amusing, to see Grandma go thru a modern housewife's day or to see a modern housewife go thru one of Grandma's days.

"It is rather difficult to picture Grandma dropping the week's laundry into an automatic washer and taking off for afternoon bridge and at the same time it is sort of a hazy vision to see Mrs. Jones out in the back yard stirring a wash kettle.

"We know exactly what Grandma would say if we handed her a box of cake mix and tell her all she had to do was to mix water with it for a really nice cake. She would promptly tell us to go feed that junk to the chickens and then snicker around all day about how dumb we were trying to pull a joke like that on her. In the grocery today she would inform the clerk that hominy was no good in anything buy a crockery churn and that after fruit and vegetables were frozen they weren't fit to eat. We can't imagine Mrs. Jones sending Junior up to the market before he went to school with the simple message, 'Mamma wants something for Wednesday," then find out that the butcher knew exactly what would be food for Wednesday dinner, tenderloin just brought back from the slaughter house and a dozen eggs (if the chickens weren't laying at the time).

Tip of the hat to the DDD's unofficial, but much appreciated, historian Vivian Helton for that missive from the pages of the DD's Tuesday, Feb. 28, 1950 edition.

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Out of jail free

The game of Monopoly has a "Get Out of Jail" free card and anyone who holds such a card can use it when the need arrives.

There is a fellow in town that might hold such a card in real life, but only if he is in Stoddard County.

There is an old wives' tale that we all have a double in this life. That somewhere on earth there's a person that looks enough like us to be our twin. Carl Hefner is the sheriff in Stoddard County and if that old wives' tale is to be believed, the sheriff has a twin living here in Dunklin County.

I'm talking about Bob Tomlinson. Bob could pass for Sheriff Hefner's double. So the way I've got things figured, if Bob were to ever get in trouble, or even pulled over by the law in Stoddard County he's home free. When the officer walked up to the window he would just look in and say something like, "Oh, hi Sheriff. My apologies," and let him go.

The bad news is that Bob lives in Dunklin County. He'll need to grow a couple of inches and shave his mustache to resemble Sheriff Holder. That's probably not going to happen because I don't think his wife is gonna let him shave the whiskers.

The good news is that Bob's probably not going to get in trouble, so he won't have to worry about trying to pass himself off as the top lawman in Stoddard County.

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Not likely

"China called on the United States Thursday to provide information about its shooting down of a defunct US spy satellite and voiced caution about the potential international impact of the operation." From the AFP.

Note to the Communists (lest we forget) who is still in control of China:

The potential international impact of this operation is that the missile defense shield is operational and apparently works as intended. That's basically all you need to know.

That would also apply to the Russians who expressed concerns:

"Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday that the US plans looked like a veiled weapons test and an 'attempt to move the arms race into space'."

Bud Hunt is the publisher of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.