Custer County Chronicle

Goodbye and good riddance, 2020

Published by admin on Thu, 12/31/2020 - 8:50am

What an honor it is for me to be able to write the final column of 2020. I’ve thought long and hard how to give this year a proper sendoff. And since I can’t just print a photo of middle fingers in this space for a variety of reasons, I will try to do it with words.
In retrospect, I should have known how 2020 was going to turn out at around 11:59:45 p.m. Dec. 31, 2019.

Check out the Christmas star

Published by admin on Thu, 12/24/2020 - 8:33am

Merry Christmas!  Here’s something to get everyone in the Christmas spirit and feeling better after all that’s happened in the year 2020. It’s the Christmas star! Yep! From Dec. 21-26, the star that was over Bethlehem at the time of the Christ’s birth is showing up in our sky.  

A year to be thankful, glad

Published by admin on Thu, 12/24/2020 - 8:30am

This has been a year where we can truly be thankful for family and friends during this special holiday season. There is no place like home, and this is where most people will spend the next several days instead of traveling outside our state to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s.

Drop the blanket!

Published by admin on Thu, 12/24/2020 - 8:28am

 Last week in this space, the always astute Mr. Seth Thompson expertly skewered tech giant Apple for taking Charlie Brown hostage and making folks sign up for Apple TV in order to watch the beloved holiday special “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I wholeheartedly agree with Seth that this action was so devoid of Christmas spirit it would make both the pre-ghost Ebeneezer Scrooge and the infamous Grinch of Whoville blush with shame. To put it in the most current vernacular, it was about the most “2020” thing Apple could have done.

Check out Gov. Noem’s budget address

Published by admin on Thu, 12/17/2020 - 9:05am

Go Army. Beat Navy. The college game of the year was this last Saturday, Dec. 12. Army won 15-0. It was the first time since WWII the game was played on Army’s campus, West Point, N.Y. Because of so many reschedulings and so on from COVID, they play the Air Force Academy, at West Point again, this Saturday, Dec. 19, and the winner of that game gets the Commander In Chief Trophy for having the best football team among the military academies.

Media covering for the Bidens

Published by admin on Thu, 12/17/2020 - 9:01am

It used to be that we could count on a watch dog media to investigate all matters and present their findings to their readers and listeners in an objective manner. As you may know by now, those days are long over and gone.

Hey Apple, free Charlie Brown

Published by admin on Thu, 12/17/2020 - 8:58am

The SWAT team stood ready in the shadows. Grim operators in visored helmets and armored vests over their black uniforms crouched tensely in a line outside the door. No one spoke. They all knew the odds weren’t good, whatever awaited them on the other side of that door. Surprise, speed and shock action would rule the day. It would have to. Success or failure would depend on it.

Regarding the county courthouse

Published by admin on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 10:05am

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” You think you know where I am going with this, right? Well, maybe I’ll throw a little bit of a curve in that I am going to the Custer County Courthouse.

Courthouse guns need to go away

Published by admin on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 10:03am

Last week’s Chronicle front page headline “Commission sticks to its guns on guns” may have been a bit premature based on the reaction it got from the presiding 7th Judicial Circuit Judge Craig A. Pfeifle.

It takes a vision

Published by admin on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 10:01am

I never wanted to be a journalist. No, my dream was to be a scientist.
“Find a cure for the common cold,” my mother said as off to college I went to fulfill my dream.
But as life would have it, in graduate school I met and married a community journalist. And I caught the vision.
He told me emphatically early on, “Everything in our paper may not be important to you, but everything in our paper is important to someone.”