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♦ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2006 4A Houston .TJmmutl OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Managing Editor Henderson helps out South Houston County doesn’t make the headlines very often. In a rapidly urbanizing county, it’s still a haven of farmland and pine groves with homes set far apart, and families who have lived in the same area for generations. Kids in the southern end of the coun ty still have long rides on school buses. Homeowners, more often than not, have wells and septic tanks rather than county services. The time will no doubt come when those farm fields are sold for subdivision development, but for now it's still part of rural Georgia, and unincorporated communities like Haynesville, Elko and Henderson still have plen ty of peace and quiet - as well as some people who know' how to roll up their sleeves and get to work when one of their own needs help. Take Henderson, for example. On Saturday, a good part of the population of that small community was hard at work at Perry High School raising funds to help with the medical bills of a little girl with leukemia. Olivia Culpepper, and her parents, Cindy and Alan, are part of the Henderson com munity, and were the beneficiaries of hours of work selling tickets and still more hours setting up smokers to grill chicken for more than a thousand people. Most of the cooks were in jeans or over alls, and the cooks were wearing improvised aprons and caps. The work was hard, and the logistics complicated, with some trays being sent to pick-up points in Unadilla, Byron and Hawkinsville. It wasn’t glamorous like a celebrity ben efit, but in our mind, these folks are real stars and they typify the community spir it and goodwill of Houston County as a whole. As a postscript: In case you missed the chicken barbecue, you can catch the small town spirit this Saturday. B-K Connection, a group from Bonaire and Kathleen, will be selling baked goods and Brunswick stew at Ace Hardware in Bonaire to benefit the Joanna McAfee Foundation, and the Balvaunuca Club in Perry will have an all-out Mistletoe Festival at the Georgia National Fairgrounds to raise funds for a wide array of community services and charities. Letter to the Epttor A big thank you During the past 12 years while working for Houston Healthcare, I was extremely fortunate to work with many outstanding colleagues. Houston Healthcare afforded me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. Although I have left the service of Houston Healthcare and Occupational Health and Wellness, I cherish the rela tionships I have built over the years with the residents of Houston County. I thank the outstanding personnel who worked with and for me. I deeply appreciate the loyalty, caring and hard work that these employees exhibited every day! I am also thankful for all the businesses which chose to utilize the services of Occupational Health and Wellness. I look forward to seeing all my friends while out and about in Houston County! Linda R. Easterly, Kathleen Worth Repeating “Congress can pass a law to do whatever it wants to do.” Nancy Pelosi U. S. Congresswoman (Democrat, CA) Minority Leader of the House NBC Meet the Press, June i, 2002 Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus On Saturday, a good part ol the population ol that small community was hard at work at Perry High School raising funds to help with the medical bills of a little girl with leukemia. Unlock die secrets of 'The Drawer' On a recent day off from work, I felt the urge to start a fire in our backyard (don’t ask), but I couldn’t find a match anywhere. Building a fire from scratch was out of the question, because although I joined the Boy Scouts as a child. I couldn’t get to the meetings and never learned about anything combustible. I could light paper on a stove eye and run outside with it, but quickly dismissed that idea for several reasons, most of them involving the curtains. There was only one option left: The Drawer. You probably have one in your house: a black hole into which house hold items go, never to resurface. You, too, might be hesitant to open this catchall storage bin because of what happened to that Pandora girl. If there were matches in my house, though, they would be in The Drawer. It was only a little 6-by-19-inch draw- . er beside the kitchen sink, but here is some - by no great means all - of what I found in my search for matches: - A package of pink balls that, the label said, you drop into the garbage disposal to make it smell good. I knew we had never used these, because our disposal has chronic broccoli breath. - A canister of cook’s balm that “keeps a cook’s or dishwasher’s hands soft,” a container of moisturizer, a packet of pain cream and two tubes of super glue whose caps were on so tight I couldn’t open them. - A yellow highlighter pen, a black permanent marker, a pen from an Army recruiter and half of a No. 2 pencil. - A business card from a business school my wife used to work at that went out of business. "Isn't he the same one that pulled the plug to start with?" Cheese + Book = Best-Seller!?! The compliment was of the left handed variety. “Hey, why don’t you put all your best columns in a book? I’d buy it,” an unknown caller told me years ago. “Well, thanks,” I responded warmly. “I’ll consider that.” “Yeah, see, that way, I won’t have to buy a paper when you write a stu pid one,” he added, extinguishing my moment of glee. Since that time, I’ve heard the same numerous times - or something akin - about compiling my newspaper col umns in book form for public consump tion. Admittedly, the majority of those suggestions came from my mother, but there were others as well, mostly from readers in prison (where I enjoy odd, immense popularity). And thus, I present “The Greatest Book Ever Written About Cheese,” my first and only book, now available in bookstores throughout the state. Why “The Greatest Book Ever Written About Cheese”? Well, first off, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was already taken. A more detailed explanation of the reasoning behind the title can be found on Page 65 of my tome (entitled “Scantily-clad Mandrell Sisters Write Book About Candy”). You’ll have to read it to understand, OPINION - A salad fork, a metal cooking fork, tongs, a nutcracker, a pasta strainer and a vegetable brush. The things we do to food. - Two 12-foot metal tape measures, a 5-foot paper tape measure and a 6- foot tape measure bearing the logo of a bank that hasn’t existed in decades. - A large Phillips screwdriver, two medium Phillips screwdrivers, two large flat-blade screwdrivers and three pairs of scissors, which explains why we can never find any of these tools. - A dispenser of cellophane tape, a roll of cloth tape for medical use and a roll of orange tape whose purpose mystifies me. - Leftover parts from when I replaced the kitchen faucet and the overhead light fixture - and somehow survived. - A candle I later learned is called a tea light, a seashell, emery boards, a woman’s watch and one jigsaw puzzle piece with an eyeball on it. - A Gordian knot the size of a child’s fist, made of rubber bands, paper clips, bread-bag ties, safety pins, nails, screws, picture hooks and toothpicks. - A plastic plug to put in electrical sockets so children won’t get electro cuted. (They probably don’t do much good in drawers.) - Clothes pins and a fondue fork, although we’ve never had a clothes line although that may not actually help either. Another reason this book is titled “The Greatest Book Ever Written About Cheese” is that we are try ing to penetrate a market heretofore ignored by the book publishing indus try - cheese-eaters who read. The way I figure it: People who eat cheese + people who read = People who would buy “The Greatest Book Ever Written About Cheese.” Yes, I realize I am very clever. The first column in this book was written back in 1997, when I was freshly married to my beautiful bride. The last entry is from May of 2006, where I comment in detail about the trials of being the father of three. Following the columns from front to back, you will basically see a mini autobiographical succession (notice I didn’t say maturation) of my life, from my days as a childless newlywed through the birth of our first child, then second, then third and all the Glynn Moore Columnist Morris News Service Len Robbins Columnist airpub@planttel.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL or fondue. - Two matchbooks (aha!), souvenirs of our daughter’s wedding. In 1985. Also, matchbooks from the Pirates’ House restaurant in Savannah and Augusta National Golf Club. All were empty. - Chopsticks, including a pair held together by a rubber band so a child could practice. (Actually, they were for me.) - A lot of 12-inch wooden skewers for shish kebabs, some bent and broken but still sharp enough to gouge. - A bottle cap with the message “You win a 20-ounce Sprite.” (I suspect that offer has expired.) - A wet-napkin packet from a cruise we took years before we moved into our house. - Three Bic lighters, none of which flicked. Finally I gave up and walked next door to borrow matches. After my wife came home, I excitedly told her about the treasures I had found in The Drawer. “Where is all that junk now?” she asked. “What do you mean?” “Did you keep anything, or did you throw it all away?” she asked. “I put it all back. We might need that stuff someday.” She gave me one of those looks that not only could kill, but also could bury in the yard. Women are funny that way. Now, put down your newspaper and go delve into The Drawer in your own house. There’s no telling what you might find. Reach Glynn Moore at glynn. moore@morris.com. fun, woe, pity, woe, despair, and pitiful woe in between. Basically, this book was made pos sible by the newspaper you’re read ing. This column is now syndicated in 21 newspapers throughout the state, in big cities and small towns, from Donalsonville to Dalton. Without these newspapers putting my column in your paper, I doubt Indigo Publishing would have been so gracious as to publish it. To them, and you, the very attractive and obviously intelligent reader, I am thankful. For those of you who would like to purchase “The Greatest Book Ever Written About Cheese,” it’s available online at the book’s website, www. cheesybook.com, and also at www.ama zon.com. Retailers that will be carrying the book include Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble, Betty Webb LTD in Valdosta, Country Bumpkins in Blackshear, City Market in Valdosta, Carriage Trade in Albany, and PJ.’s in Perry, among others. I will also be appearing at sev eral book signings over the coming months, to meet and greet personally the very attractive and obviously intel ligent folks who would like to purchase this fine piece of literature. So, to the gentlemen caller and his sorted brethren, I have produced the book you wanted. You be the judge if I left in a “stupid one” (I did).