Cold Comforts

By Don Shearon First Published December 11, 1973Early morning thoughts in a patriotically under-heated houseBrrr - Tryng to comply with the president's call for fuel-saving practices. Some of us are beginning to feel a sort of kinship with George Washington's shivering soldiers enduring that winter at Valley Forge. As did they, we know things are going to get worse before they get better and spring is several calendar pages away.Brrr - The Father of Our Country was no fool. The reason he was standing up in the boat was because he wanted to be ahead of the pack in reaching the nearest bonfire.Brrr - Luke Warm wishes he were.Brrr - Discussing energy conservation, Howard Crilly, retired editor of the Superior Express, observed in a column he still writes for that newspaper that a lot of wisecracks were made a decade ago about Lyndon Johnson turning off lights in the White House. But, Crilly commented, LBJ was just 10 years ahead of his time.Brrr - During that same period, I recall, LBJ ordered White House housekeepers to douse the floodlights illuminating the executive mansion after dark. But he didn't make that one stick. Public outcry against his order prompted the president to restore the floodlighting. I'll have to admit, the darkened White House did look like something to be found in a Charles Addams cartoon.Brrr - Sitting on the highest ground in the District of Columbia, the starkly white dome of the capitol building, floodlighted at night, stands out against the blackened sky and can be seen for miles, smog permitting. It's often been my thought that if the day ever arrives when I don't get a thrill out of seeing that nighttime spectacular, then it will be time to cash in my chips. After the better part of 20 years in that area, I got as big a charge out of seeing it the last time as the first.Brrr - Maybe my age is showing through, but without the Christmas lights downtown, it occurs to me that someone should rewrite the lyrics to that song, “It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” to make it read “It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas.”Brrr - On the subject of age, Geneva Editor Jerry Pickerell said he sometimes gets a pain in his right knee. A friend told him it was just old age, but Jerry says be knows his friend is wrong because the other leg is the same age and doesn't hurt a bit.

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