Now that I’m becoming an older sports nut, I’ve found my needs are beginning to change.I’m no longer satisfied with just attending area sporting events. Instead, I want to leave our venues with a feeling that I’ve been entertained.Much to my pleasure, four assignments between last Thursday and Monday resulted in an entertainment fix that satisfied my new addiction.On Thursday night, a Luverne girls basketball team with a bright future exchanged blows with a solid Pipestone team for the better part of 32 minutes before falling by four points in the end. With better luck at the free-throw line, the Cardinals would have given coach Jason Phelps his biggest conference win since he took over the program in 2001.Friday night brought me to Adrian, where basketball fans were treated to a double-overtime game that was a tight battle from beginning to end.I retuned to the Cardinal Gym Saturday to get my first look at the Luverne boys basketball team this season. Coach Tom Rops and the Cardinals are experiencing their best season since the middle 1990s. Their come-from-behind win, that featured a 25-2 scoring run during the second and third quarters against West Central, was an impressive sight to witness.Monday’s schedule sent me to Hills, yielding an opportunity to watch an H-BC boys basketball team which currently ranked third in the state. I had a hunch the Patriots were going to be a powerful team in the future when they won the Red Rock Conference title with a young squad two years ago, and they didn’t disappoint anyone when they disposed of a solid Sioux Falls Christian team in front of a big crowd Monday night.Since you can read about any one of the games I attended in the surrounding sports pages, I’ve opened the door to be criticized for redundancy with the contents in this column.That’s a risk I’m willing to take in order to make my point: The opportunity to be entertained on cold winter nights doesn’t exist exclusively for me.For a small fee, you can attend many a sporting event at your favorite area venue on nearly a weekly basis. The athletes from Luverne, H-BC, Ellsworth and Adrian High Schools are great kids. They may be your friends, relatives or neighbors, and they will appreciate the fact that you took the time to attend one of their performances.The way I see it, showing support for local schools by taking in an event brings a community together.And who knows? You might find yourself being entertained like I was during my travels this week. That’s a risk everyone should be willing to take.

BMAT offers Valentine’s dinner and show packageThe Blue Mound Area Theatre, operator of the Palace Theatre, is organizing a Valentine’s dinner followed by live music at the Palace.The dinner and show will start at 5 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Blue Mound Banquet Center. The menu consists of chicken Kiev, pork tenderloin, baby red potatoes, glazed carrots, lettuce salad and a dessert.Following the meal, participants will proceed to the Palace Theatre for a 7:30 performance by Jack Norton and the Mullet River Boys on the Palace Theatre stage.Although the Twin Cities- based group is not well known in the Luverne area, BMAT has received several calls from fans in Sioux Falls who had heard they were coming to our part of the state.The group specializes in a variety of musical entertainment including honky-tonk ragtime, gospel, bluegrass swing and vaudeville. The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently referred to the band as one of the most entertaining acoustic groups in the Midwest.The combination dinner-show tickets can be purchased at the Luverne Chamber office for $20, or you can purchase the show-only tickets for $10.Chamber office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.Winter Carnival has another good yearThe 25th annual Winter Carnival, sponsored by the Luverne Music Boosters, was another big success this year.According to Mike Engesser, one of the event organizers, the annual event raised more than $17,000 this year, up from last year’s total.The Saturday afternoon crowd made their donations by way of bingo, cakewalk, minnow racing, face painting, raffles and carnival games.The money raised from the event goes toward choir robes, band instruments, flag corps flags, all-state choir contests, visiting clinicians and accompanists, as well as other music-related activities.Time to serenade your sweetie?If you would like to have your sweetheart serenaded for Valentine’s Day, the Good Samaritan Communities of Luverne are ready, willing, and able to provide that service.For $25 ($20 of which is tax deductible), a duet or trio will come to your sweetheart’s home or place of work, sing them a love song, and provide them with a box of candy and a Valentine’s balloon.According to Dawn Sandbulte, Community Relations director for Good Samaritan in Luverne, seven groups have volunteered to participate in the serenading. Three of them are from the Luverne High School choir.You can place your orders right up to Valentine’s Day. For more information, contact Dawn at 283-3130.Does your project qualify for some free paint?The Southwest Minnesota Foundation is partnering with Valspar Corporation for the eighth year to provide free paint for qualifying projects.The purpose of the project is to help beautify historic buildings, senior citizens’ or handicapped facilities, community centers, public buildings, murals or other projects with visual impact.The criteria to be used to select the projects include the visual impact of the projects, public benefit to the community, volunteer participation, intended use of the building and the benefit to the needy.One of the many recipients of last year’s free paint was the Blue Mound Area Theatre, which used the paint to put a fresh look on the Palace Theatre.Applications are due March 1, 2005. If you would like to download the necessary form, go to the foundation’s Web site at www.swfoundation.org, and follow the links to the application.If you have any other questions, contact Liz Frisbie at 800-594-9480.Publisher Roger Tollefson can be reached by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com

Public shouldn’t have to pay for cigarettes and health problems they causeWith all the unlimited information available to the general public about how to live healthy, ignorance is no excuse for unhealthy lifestyles.Good health for many people is a matter of choice. It’s about a reasonably balanced diet (a little green on the plate), a regular exercise schedule (even if it’s just an evening walk) and, obviously, choosing NOT TO SMOKE.The correlation between these simple choices and better health is so clear that we’re seeing financial rewards for good choices and penalties for poor ones.Insurance companies, for example, are rewarding their members who participate in fitness programs. A fitness contract, in fact, can translate directly to cash discounts on premiums. Along those same lines, Minnesota legislators are considering penalizing smokers on public health and welfare programs.Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall), is proposing the "new social contract," questioning how a pack-a-day smoker who spends at least $1,200 per year on the bad habit can expect taxpayer subsidies."This adds to health care costs while also costing taxpayers money to subsidize," Seifert said in a news release e-mailed last week. "It makes no sense to give out health and welfare subsidizes if the payments go to smoking, and thus, the detriment of people’s health and welfare."He estimates 20 to 40 percent of public welfare recipients may be tobacco users, despite reporting they have little money in the household.Seifert’s plan would include help with enrolling in smoking cessation programs and periodic testing for compliance.He said he’s also considering making other tax-subsidized people (students who get free state grants, for example) equally accountable."The bottom line is that this is the taxpayers’ money," he said. "My people work too hard to see their money squandered on bad habits that contribute more costs to the health care system."Seifert plans to introduce the legislation during this session in the Minnesota House of Representatives.On behalf of the taxpaying public, good luck!Good health should be reason enough for healthy choices, but for those receiving public assistance, there may be new incentives for sticking with those New Year’s resolutions.Now, if we could just figure out how to curtail steady diets of Big Macs, alcohol and gambling …

As a participant in the American Heart Association Shape-Up Challenge, I am required to do 45 minutes of aerobic activity each day to reach my optimum points goal. I have taken up the art of crocheting lacy-doily units as my aerobic activity. I expect there will be some difference of opinion regarding the aerobic nature of lacy-doily making. I will explain. Any time you try something new its inevitably aerobic. On my first doily effort I had to run downstairs every five minutes to display my accomplishments to the loving husband. Then there were aerobic moments when I couldn’t understand the instructions, flailing of arms, hyperventilating, expressing words of frustration, and yelling, "I need my Grandma." It’s safe to assume that mistakes may occur when attempting a new enterprise. It’s disturbing to have to rip out three rows of tiny crochet stitches to repair a large gaping hole in your lacy doily. Oftentimes, it involves jumping up and down, pounding the couch cushions and yelling other "words of frustration." It’s obvious, lacy-doily making is much more strenuous than walking the treadmill, and I have the sore muscles to prove it. Several years ago I tried to explain how fishing was aerobic, but they didn’t go for that either. I won’t try to pass off reading as aerobic, but it’s definitely an activity that contributes to your wellness. New on the shelf this week is, "Survivor in Death," by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts). The members of the Swisher family were murdered in their beds with brutal, military precision. The state-of-the-art security was breached, and the killers used night-vision equipment to find their way through the cozy, middle-class house. Clearly, Lt. Eve Dallas is dealing with pros. It seems the only mistake they made was to overlook the 9-year-old girl cowering in the darkened kitchen. Now Nixie Swisher is an orphan and the sole eyewitness to a seemingly inexplicable crime. Kids are not Dallas' strong suit. But Nixie needs a safe place to stay, and Dallas needs to solve this case. With her partner, Peabody, back on the job and her husband, Roarke, providing the kind of help that only he can give, Dallas is running after shadows and dead-set on finding out who's behind them. Also new on the shelf is, "The Real Mother," by Judith Michael. Sara Elliott has been forced to give up the life she's dreamed of to return home to Chicago and take charge of her sisters and brother. She finds a job and settles into the house she grew up in, building a life for 10-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby. But Sara has another brother, Mack, now 20, who left home three years earlier. Suddenly he reappears, cheerful and unconcerned, as if he had never broken his promise to stay and help Sara with the children and the house. With bewildering volatility, Mack swings from kindness to cruelty, affection to hostility, keeping the family always on edge, his past and present a mystery. But with expensive gifts, storytelling, and the excitement of his presence, he is winning over the children, and sometimes the four of them stand together against Sara. Then she meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York. As Sara helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they discover a closeness neither has known before and share new ways of dealing with conflicts each has always faced alone. New on the non-fiction shelf is "A Brother’s Journey" by Richard Pelzer. He is the brother of Dave Pelzer, who authored "A Child called It." Once David, the elder of the two, was removed from the household, the author became the target of their mother's alcohol-induced rage. As Pelzer details his outward struggle to survive, he assaults readers with the graphic facts about being beaten for falling asleep, and being forbidden to bathe and forced to eat scraps from a dog bowl. By looking back at the skinny, red-haired boy who wanted nothing more than his mother's love, Pelzer discovers his true spirit, which he shares with us in hopes of healing himself.

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." These words were preached by John the Baptist and by Jesus Christ. They were powerful words when spoken by these two men so long ago. They changed many lives when people believed them and came to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. They also condemned a lot of people when they refused to believe them and they continued to trust in their own works for making them right with God. God’s word is always active in these two ways.During this Lenten season God’s word will be proclaimed in many different settings. But its purpose is always the same as that stated above: either to create faith and comfort God’s people, or to warn and condemn unbelief in those who reject or deny his gifts. No one comes to faith or enters the kingdom of heaven in any other way than through the gifts of God that are given through His word and sacraments.Repent means "to turn around" or "to turn away from sin and return to walk with God." This is not a decision based upon a person’s own abilities; instead, it too is a gift of God worked into the hearts of sinners by a gracious God for the sake of his son, Jesus Christ, who died to pay the debt of sin. This is what makes it certain and eternal. This is why Christians can be so confident in their faith because it is the work of God and all we have to do is trust what God has promised.Our lives have been changed through the grace which God showers upon us. Even though we still make our mistakes every day, He has promised to forgive them all for the sake of Jesus. This is what sets the Christian apart from the non-Christian. We are not afraid to admit our sins because through Christ they are removed from our record. He also continues to give us the proper guidance we need to live an obedient life to God. God is generous with his gifts and makes them available to all people. He wants all people to live with him in heaven forever. He sent his son to satisfy the debt of sin so that no one else need ever suffer for a single sin. This is his promise of truth. All anyone needs to do to be assured of their place in heaven is to believe what God has said. It is no different today than it was in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus and even before. God’s word changes lives and reveals the heart of the triune God. Some people believe and experience the wonderful love of God while others refuse to believe and are condemned to a life of hopelessness.During this Lenten season listen to the word of God and be blessed for all eternity.

Tornado in 1884The following appeared in the Rock County Weekly on July 25, 1884:(Continuing from last week:)THE INJUREDA carpenter whose name we can not learn was injured in the ruins of the Norwegian church in Martin township. James Barry’s father-in-law, living a few miles north of Adrian, was carried 80 rods by the wind and very seriously injured. The only person in anywise seriously injured in Luverne was Gus. Nelson. His face was badly cut by glass from the broken store front, and pieces of glass penetrated his eyes.Mr. A.A. Noble was out in the storm and was slightly injured by hail stones. Emmet Raymond, of Springwater township, was badly injured by the timbers of a falling barn. His head was seriously cut and it was found necessary to remove a portion of his jaw. Dr. Killgore was called to treat the case. Ed. Ross, a carpenter engaged on a new house four miles north of Rock Rapids, had his cheek bone broken.OUR TURN AT LASTThe prediction most of us have made that this section must some time come in for a share of the destruction which terrible storms have so frequently visited upon many portions of the country, was fulfilled to the letter yesterday afternoon. The means by which the elements saw fit to vent their wrath upon us had nothing, very fortunately, of the character of a cyclone, but even in its less destructive form the tempest was terrific and left in its course a scene of wreck, devastation and disaster unparalleled in the history of the county. THE TEMPESTEarly in the morning indications of unusual commotion in the elements were noticeable, and later in the day the excessive heat, coupled with the appearance of heavy banks of lowering clouds which darkened the west and north-western horizon, presaged the proximity of a violent storm. Toward four o’clock in the afternoon the outlines of the approaching tempest became clearly defined in the northwest, and very soon after a huge mass of over-hanging clouds, plainly indicating the approach of a strong wind, rolled toward the town with startling rapidity. The appearance of the storm, though unusually threatening, was not such as to occasion serious alarm, and after the first vigorous gust the impression prevailed that the worst was over. In this the appearances were STRANGELY DECEPTIVE. After a brief cessation of the first violent outbreak, the rain began to fall in torrents and the wind gathered strength. A moment later and the wild tempest began its work in real earnest. The rain was driven before the wind in vast sheets, with appalling force, and the tempest steadily increased its fury. By this time, under ordinary circumstances, when a cessation of the storm might have been expected, the force of the now thoroughly maddened elements had developed into frightful violence, and each moment the terrors of the tempest grew fiercer. There was now good cause for genuine alarm. The spire of the Baptist church was hurled to the ground, the strongest structures trembled to their foundations, others RACKED AND SWAYED in momentary danger of destruction, while others less substantial or more directly exposed to the wind, were blown into a thousand pieces. Tin roofs, shingles, and cornices were torn from the business buildings, signs were wrenched from their fastenings, and dashed into store fronts, and broken boards and windows were driven through the air in wild confusion. The tempest raged thus furiously for over half an hour and the scene during the time was indescribably appalling. For a time it seemed that destruction would be general, but the force of the tempest finally diminished and toward five o’clock completely subsided. (To be continued next week).

If you’re looking for an unusual vacation, why not try Sing Sing prison? It might be a perfect destination for tourists who feel guilty about taking time off from their everyday lives and have an inexplicable need to be punished for having a good time. The dark, imposing prison, according to Reuters, is located on the Hudson River about 30 miles north of New York City and is still active. Many of its 1,745 inmates are held in maximum security, which leads us to believe they’re not in there for insider trading or other white-collar crimes. Local officials in Westchester County hope to receive start-up costs of about $5 million from the state to convert the prison’s old powerhouse into a museum and build a tunnel to the original cellblock, no longer in use. At least 150,000 tourists a year are expected to take the trip "up the river". Jerry Mulligan, a planning commissioner and a spokesman for the project, recently noted, "It could be the Alcatraz of the east. This could trigger a whole wave of tourism." Actually, the prison renovation plan could either "trigger a whole wave of tourism" or a crime wave, depending on whether you’re talking to Westchester County’s director of tourism or potential victims in nearby Ossining, N.Y. Inmates will undoubtedly relish the idea of the new underground tunnel. It could serve as a convenient exit for prisoners unwilling to dig one of their own with only a spoon over a span of several, painstaking years. It would be a perfect answer for prisoners longing for the bright lights, big city. In much the same way that inmates were recruited to build the original cellblock in 1825, it is hoped that present inmates might work in the prison museum. However, the planners should be reminded that prisoners in 1825 were there before the days of grand theft auto and drug cartels. They were a comparatively easy-going group of felons, guilty of horse stealing, stagecoach holdups, bank robberies, claim jumpings or piracy on the high seas. They were the stuff of today’s adventure movies. Many of the hardened criminals are there now because of domestic terrorism, serial murders and drug dealing. They tend to be not very nice people and you certainly wouldn’t want them to be chit-chatting with your daughters in the prison gift shop. You would be understandably leery about them handling your credit card numbers at the shop’s cash register or serving as tour guides through the prison’s new tunnel. On the other hand, a prison-based vacation spot might unlock other possibilities. The old cellblock could be turned into a bed and breakfast with chain-suspended cots for beds. We might expect to see an indoor amusement park, complete with exciting rides. After all, what could be more thrilling or chilling than a roller coaster ride operated by convicted killers who like to hear people scream? A prison-themed restaurant for tourists might offer barberry pies, Big House Bagels and Slammer Sirloins. A special dining attraction could feature hamburgers and steaks grilled to perfection on "Old Sparky", the prison’s infamous electric chair. But let’s not stop there. If the prison tourism project becomes highly profitable, why not release all of the convicts to the streets and make room for more attractions?

Food in America is affordable; it takes the average American 40 days to earn enough disposable income to pay for his or her food supply for the entire year, according to the Rock County Farm Bureau.To celebrate this event Farm Bureau will have a display from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, set up at Glen’s Food Center in Luverne, to hand out information and accept donations for the Rock County Food Shelf. The Luverne FFA Chapter and Farm Bureau volunteers will man the booth. Stop by the booth, visit with the volunteers, make a cash or non-perishable donation to the food shelf and register for door prizes.Linda WenzelRock Co. Farm BureauPromotion & Education Chairman

By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek girls posted their third consecutive basketball win by defeating Edgerton 66-50 in Hills Friday.H-BC raced to a 38-23 halftime lead and never allowed the Flying Dutchmen to get back into the game during the second half."We were in control of the game once we got the lead in the first quarter," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle."We did a nice job of pushing the ball and taking care of the ball. We forced quite a few turnovers, which allowed us to take more shots than they did."With Kerri Fransman scoring nine of her team-high 14 points and Chelsi Fink adding nine of her 13 points to lead the way, H-BC opened a 15-point halftime lead it wouldn’t relinquish.Cassi Tilstra, who led the Patriots with six rebounds, charted a double-double by scoring 13 points and passing for 10 assists. Fransman produced five steals and recorded four assists. Brittney Rozeboom added four assists to the winning effort.H-BC, 14-8 overall, plays in Adrian tonight before hosting Fulda for the regular-season finale Monday.Box scoreRozeboom 1 0 0-0 2, Fransman 0 4 2-3 14, Bush 1 2 0-0 8, Feucht 3 0 3-4 9, Fink 5 1 0-0 13, Tilstra 4 1 2-4 13, Roozenboom 1 0 1-2 3, Mulder 2 0 0-1 4.Team statisticsH-BC: 25 of 63 field goals (40 percent), eight of 14 free throws (57 percent), 29 rebounds, four turnovers.Edgerton: 18 of 46 field goals (39 percent), 12 of 14 free throws (86 percent), 35 rebounds, 18 turnovers.