Retired, but still carrying a lively tune

The ever-wonderful Janet Heller retired from the Carson school system last month ... after cooking at Fritsch for many years and working at Empire this last year, she has opted for an easier life by giving voice lessons to several students and taking a well-earned rest.

Janet has been with the Sierra Nevada Chorale for many years, and has entertained many people in Carson at church and in her home while singing (and dancing and carrying on ... oh? Jeepers, Janet, do you know how hard it is for us to be good for a whole paragraph?) ... have a grand retirement ...

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Vote today, if you haven't already ... and remember the last four years ... we started out with a balanced budget ... then 9/11 came crashing down on us. We set out after the perpetrator, the venomous leader of al-Qaida, but instead ended up invading Iraq, the land of a petty despot who had threatened our 41st president (who, in 1991, knew that a war in that country was a "no-win" situation).

Since then, more than 1,100 brave American men and women have lost their lives, thousands have been wounded, and we're still counting ... in the meantime, that bearded SOB of a raghead still lives and dares to come on TV and threaten us again. Gas prices are at an all-time high, medical costs are soaring, more than 800,000 jobs have been lost, the stock market is down overall, most of the world hates us, and some people still want "four more years."

Now, there's a plank we'd want to run on. Neither of the candidates is perfect, but we'll take our chances ...

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And while both sides are praying for the outcome ... we have some church humor for you off the Internet. "A Sunday school teacher asked her class, "What was Jesus' mother's name?"

"Mary," one child answered.

"That's correct ... what was Jesus' father's name?"

"Verge," came the answer.

Perplexed, the teacher asked, "Where did you get that?"

"Well, you know, they always talk about Verge and Mary," said the little boy." Amen ...

Carolyn met a lady from Canada at Lefty's the other day who works for East Tech here in town ... she wants to welcome her to Carson City, but didn't get her name ... welcome anyway ...

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Now, some of you might wonder why we weren't in the Nevada Day Parade ... first and foremost, Maizie's been sick as a dog since last Tuesday night ... you know, the chills and fever thing ... sort of the "run over by a Mack truck" syndrome.

No, it's not the flu (they have a test now to see) ... and she did have her flu shot four weeks ago ... and she's still cruddy, but getting better.

The other reason is that when Maizie called Maria, the float lady from the Boys & Girls Club, she knew nothing about it (however, she was lovely and said she would be glad to have us ... a moot point by that time) ... Barry, Barry, Barry ... what are we going to do with you?

Here Bill Burnaugh gives us tiaras, the faux-fur coats are ready ... and zip ... wait 'til we get hold of you ... (draw evil grin in here ___) be afraid ... be very afraid ... and, as they say in sports ... "next year."

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Roger Maillard (of recent hip-replacement fame) asked us to thank the staff at Carson Tahoe Rehabilitation for being the best ever ... he had all kinds of nice, gushy things to say about them ... so now we can hardly wait to go there, too ...

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Western Nevada Community College's "Carousel" opens this weekend (without Maizie, darn it) at the Community Center (445-4249 for info); and Proscenium Player's comedy "I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running" opens, too (883-1976 for info). You can't go wrong seeing both ...

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And thank you for the letters, calls and e-mails ... we don't always get to them right away, but we keep working on them ... last, but not least, we'll be having breakfast with Terry Ozawa soon ... she won us in a raffle ... bon apetit ...

Carolyn DeMar and Maizie Harris Jesse are longtime Carson City residents. Write to them at editor@nevadaappeal.com.