Jim Krumel: Things we say, do and let ourselves believe

Often, these villains earn every amount of angst we throw their way. All I need to say here are two words: Jerry Sandusky.

But other times, people blow up on someone without really having a clear idea of who they are or what they’ve done. A recent example is the Mercer County deputy who accidentally left his police dog in his cruiser. He was so busy thinking about all the work he had to do that he forgot about the animal in the car. The dog later died of heat exhaustion.

Was that a terrible thing to happen? You bet.

But, as one person suggested in a letter, should we hope the deputy is reincarnated as a dog and then suffers the same fate? That’s a little far out, especially when you consider the deputy has 12 years of outstanding service to the community.

Last week, the villain bull’s-eye was placed on a couple of us at The Lima News. A reader wanted to string us up because a movie listing was left out of the Sunday newspaper. The movie was “2016: Obama’s America” and the caller was convinced that we held some high-level meeting in a smoke-filled room, doors locked and curtains drawn, at which point we rolled out a plan to keep this film out of the paper because it was critical of the president.

Sorry, but exciting stuff like that only happens in the movies; reality isn't nearly as gripping.

It was actually a deadline issue. Sunday is our largest newspaper of the week, and a few sections of each Sunday’s newspaper are printed early because of press constraints. One of those sections is Entertainment. It goes to press on Thursday night and is inserted into Sunday’s newspaper. Regal Cinema usually has its weekend movie listings set at this time. Last week was one of the exceptions as the “2016” movie was a late addition to the lineup and not available to us when needed.

So please, take the noose off our necks.

There was no conspiracy.

Now, as to why there were no movie listings in Sunday’s newspaper. The manager of Regal Cinema was also upset the “2016” listing was not published, claiming it was available on time. She asked that we no longer publish any movie listings, even though the listings were published free of charge.

That was an unusual request, one I cannot recall any business dealing with ticket sales ever making before. We pointed this out, but she was insistent. Thus, we are honoring her request that the American Mall Stadium 12 movie listings not be shared, and we’ll continue to run movie listings for other towns.

ROSES AND THORNS: A few this week.

Rose: To Bruce McPheron, a native of Kenton, who was named vice president for agricultural administration and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

Rose: To Marty Glazier, of Lima. On his 84th birthday this year, he led the crowd at a Lima Locos baseball game in singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Glazier has been involved with the Lima Locos baseball team for 26 years.

Rose: To the Allen County Agricultural Society, which named David Grimm as its new fairgrounds manager. Finding a replacement for Jay Begg, who is retiring after 17 years, was a difficult task, but Grimm has the experience needed.

Rose: Some 650 people held patriotic signs and American flags as they surrounded St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Delphos during a military funeral. They gathered after hearing the wacko Westboro Baptist Church group might show up.

Thorn: A truck loaded with 30,000 pounds of beer spilled all of the liquid refreshment onto a road and into farm fields when it collided with a car. The driver of the car was cited with failure to yield.

PARTING SHOT: Some days you are the bug, other days you are the windshield.