Quonset WHAT?

So in the middle of the day today, I read a brief on Kansas.com saying a fugitive was found sleeping in a Quonset Hut.

I kept scanning the story, certain that it would tell me what the funk a Quonset Hut was. It didn't, so I asked (out loud) the obvious question. "What the funk is a Quonset Hut?"

Lori and Chris acted like I was the most illiterate moron on earth. To me, the object in this picture is a metal shed. I have never IN MY LIFE heard the term Quonset Hut before today.

This bugged me, so I polled the entire newsroom and here's what I discovered: No one under the age of 40 had ever heard the term Quonset Hut. Everyone over 40 knew exactly what it was.

Weigh on on this debate, please. And don't forget to claim an age group.

She probably doesn't need the money now

I doubt many of you will care about this since the only person I know who watches "Big Brother" besides myself and Nick (because I make him) is my OB Dr. Jensen, but I had an interesting Jessica Hughbanks moment tonight.

For those of you who don't know, Jessica is a Haysvillian/WSU student/Thunder dancer who appeared on the CBS reality show this summer. She was just evicted from the house last Thursday. (But will still take home a decent cash prize.)


Tonight, I was going through our SPJ scholarship applications, finding e-mail addresses so I could contact our winners about claiming their checks, when I came across this.

It appears that Jessica applied for one of our scholarships this year. We didn't give her one, but I remember when we were going through the apps we decided that she looked like a promising student but just didn't send us enough examples of her work.

The funny thing is, I've had to write about Jessica several times for the paper, and there were days when I was desperate to find someone, anyone, who knew anything about her. And all that time, this application, complete with her SSN, references, email address and phone number, was sitting in my desk.

I took it

This morning, I got up waaayyyy too early to participate in the Eagle's "Takin' It to the Streets" fundraiser for United Way.

Volunteers must agree to arrive at 6:30 a.m. then dart out into pre-dawn traffic to sell papers. I was at Main and Market, which is a surprisingly dead corner, as it turns out.


One bright spot from the morning -- a lady just happened to show up with a baby pug puppy. His name was Jackson. Awwwwwwww.

Thanks to fellow street takin' it toers Stacey Jenkins Deanna Talbott for their photo work.

Suzanne, I did it!

I finally got the guts up this morning to try to put in Lexi's ponies myself.

So the part is not exactly straight, but I didn't think it was a bad first try. And Lexi was happy with them...


...for the most part.

Pukey cukeys and fried Coke

I spent Friday and Saturday working at the Kansas State Fair, and part of my job is to uncover all the, ahem, unusual culinary offerings.

I've tasted some strange stuff over the years, from Fried Twinkies to Fatballs (don't ask.)

But what I found today... Ugh. I upchuck a little just thinking about it.


The sweet lady selling it calls it "Bling on a Stick." She says she found the recipe on the Internet. Basically, she soaks giant dill pickles in fruit punch for 24 hours, impales them with a stick and then serves them on a bed of powdered fruit punch drink mix. They also come in margarita and grape flavors.


Here they are soaking in their fruit punch bath. The vendor told me that she hates dill pickles but loves these. Claims she ate FOUR of them yesterday! She made me sample mine while she was watching, and it was hard to keep my composure. I can't describe to you how horrendous it was, so I won't even try. But the lady was so sweet, I pretended like I loved it.


Earlier in the day, I'd tried this year's Big Thing -- deep fried Coke.


Not as inedible as a fruit punch pickle, but still pretty craptastic.


Here's the other Big Thing this year. A hollowed out cuke stuffed with crab salad. It looks good, doesn't it?

It wasn't.

A poll

Which meal looks tastier?

Mommy's lunch?


Or Lexi's dinner?

A bloggish moment

The other day at lunch, Lutzy was complaining bitterly that he was never on my or Lori's blogs, (despite the fact that he was my main topic during Name That Tune week.)

In response, we both WHIPPED our cameras out of our purses at the same moment. Needless to say, he wasn't prepared.

I do think he's being won over by our little blogs, slowly but surely. He's even talking about putting photos on his now. If you wanna read it, I can't stop you.