Pickens County Meals on Wheels is hitting the fall running. The Sam Wyche Food Fight Bowl, sponsored by Save-a-Lot Food Stores, is scheduled for Friday night, Aug. 23, when the Pickens Blue Flame host the Easley Green Wave. The game dates back to October 1923, when Easley beat Pickens 7-6 at Pickens’ home field.

This year all four Pickens County high schools will compete for the Ultimate Food Fight Bowl Trophy. The trophy goes to the school that collects the most money for Pickens County Meals on Wheels. This is the first year that all four county high schools will join hands to help PCMOW reach more shut-in residents by renovating the former Liberty Middle School kitchen and cafeteria.

This is a pivotal year for the future of PCMOW, which is renovating the former Liberty Middle School kitchen so meals can be prepared more effectively and services to other senior citizens can be extended.

OK, it’s time for me to do something about this weight problem.

I was down as thin as I’ve been since college. That’s not too thin, but its bearable. As I went through my long unemployment problem, I just kept adding and adding pounds. My bathroom scales finally gave up and said, “One person at a time” when I tried to weigh.

I suddenly found pants that I used to joke and say, “I’d better be careful or I will have to wear those,” were now too tight on me.

I need to get back to exercising every day, and that means more than walking to the bathroom twice a day.

I need to play basketball, which I did daily while growing up. I was the star then, dribbling the ball on our driveway.

There are times when I can’t believe what I’m reading. For example, did anybody see the headline saying, “Marijuana issue goes to joint committee”?

How about this one? “Homicide victims rarely talk to police.” And, from the Associated Press, “Missippi’s literacy program shows improvement.”

I always wonder if this kind of thing is done unknowingly or on purpose. Personal experience has taught me not to be smug about other’s mistakes. Even spellcheck won’t protect you if you write, “Lighting kills cows.” One of my very own, and not the only one. Often these things happen late at night before going to press, and everybody who should catch it just doesn’t. We sometimes read what we expect to see rather than what is actually on the page.

Why not look close to home to fill offices?

Dear Editor:

Now that I have retired, I have been paying attention more to the different paid officials we have in office, and also how proud we are supposed to be of our education system and how smart we are supposed to be after schooling.

We also have some pretty good colleges in the area, so what I’m getting at is this — why do we have to go out of state to get others to hold down highly paid positions in our communities? Do we not have employment problems too?

We have laying hens. They lay eggs. But when we refer to the act of actually laying the egg, we say the hen laid the egg. It’s confusing, but this is just the beginning.

We all hear people talking about laying out in the sun, but actually this can’t be done unless they are laying something out in the sun, such as their sun-damaged bodies. The person can correctly say they lay their body out in the sun or that they plan to lie out in the sun.

And to split hairs even further, it would be more accurate to say they plan to lie out in the sunshine or sunlight rather than sun. If you think about it, it would be rather difficult to literally lie in the sun.

When children pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” this is perfectly correct because they are laying themselves down. They can say “Now I lie down to sleep” if they like, but this doesn’t have the same

Newspapers and the media are often accused of only reporting the bad things that happen — and there’s some truth in this. And it’s particularly easy to fall into this trap in South Carolina, where it seems that there is a lot more bad news than good.

We all know the saying, “If it’s a list of bad things, S.C. is at the top, and on a list of good things, we’re at the bottom.”

As true as this may be, there are some good things that are happening in our state that have been generally overlooked by the media. Here are five of them, and though they may seem unrelated, I think there is a common message for us in all of these examples.

First, South Carolina ranks sixth in the country in the number of new businesses owned by women. In the last seven years, the number has increased a whopping 78 percent, a full 10 percent more than the national average. And, new businesses

A federal nutrition program that places new restrictions on snacks and beverages sold in schools also provides an opportunity for some fresh thinking about school fundraisers.

As reported by The State newspaper recently, The Smart Snacks in Schools program creates a dilemma: how will schools raise private dollars if they can no longer sell snack foods?

“If we can’t sell a candy bar anymore, what can we sell?” asked one school official. “We are going to have to get creative.”

How creative would it be simply to stop selling?

When was the last time your college asked you to buy a candy bar? Non-profits, colleges and universities don’t sell stuff to raise money; they simply appeal for support based on the organization’s mission. Why don’t our public schools?

I don’t start checking the clock until late afternoon, because keeping up with world news seems important to me at this time. We watch NBC with Brian Williams and Lester Holt because we like a calm, measured and dignified delivery of the news. Also, we used to really enjoy Tom Brokaw, who predated Williams and Holt, so for years our custom was to watch NBC news.

One of the most offensive features of some news coverage, at least to me, is the perky and amusing newscaster. I don’t want to see the reporters and anchor dancing on Friday. Particularly disturbing to me is the too happy, too dramatic, too fakely sympathetic and/or too intense delivery of some.

I don’t like newscasters or reporters with frozen smiles and too white teeth. And I don’t want them to interview any, and I mean any, bystander at a horrific event and ask them how they felt about what happened. What possible difference can it make, and what on earth are people supposed to say to this? It just seems particularly

For a change, let’s have this week’s column with no complaints.

My car is running again, thanks to the efforts of my father. For a couple of weeks, I had to run my route with my great-nephew Nicholas, who could not understand why I insisted on going into the stores, when he thought I should just ride by the stores and throw the papers out.

Explaining accounting to a 5-year-old is difficult.

But my car is running again, and I can only hope I live long enough to pay for it. I have made one payment already, and by the time you read this I should have made another. Only 40 or so more to go.

Then I have my problem with taxes to straighten out. The government is claiming I took too much money with my “retirement” fund when I used to work for that other newspaper. They kind of decided my “retirement” would come much earlier than I had anticipated.

According to the government, I got an extra $10,000 or so. When you are suddenly unemployed after 25 years or so, you are not good with details.

Either way, the government is next in my list of folks to pay back.

They’re not going anywhere, so I’m sure I can find them when I have the money.

After that I want to use my money for selfish things. I plan to go on a mission trip to Kentucky next year, even I have to go by myself. I love those kids up there, and as has been my experience on the trip for 20 years, I know that whatever new kids I meet on my next trip will also earn a spot in my heart.

I probably need to work on developing that special relationship that I am supposed to have.

I really don’t want my tombstone to read, “Here lies Ben Robinson. Most people never cared for him. Others are glad he is gone.”

For the second time in a month, the S.C. Supreme Court has ruled against openness and punted important issues back to the Legislature for change.

Last week, the court ruled that autopsy records are exempt from release under the FOIA because they are medical records.

Why does this matter to the public?

It matters because the next time police shoot an innocent man, don’t expect the public to have access to the autopsy report giving the details of the death.

That is what this case was about… the shooting of an innocent suspect. Supposedly in self-defense. Problem is, the autopsy showed the suspect in Sumter County was shot in the back.

Can you see now why autopsy records should be public?

This is a terrible ruling that will allow coroners to withhold information the public has a need to know.