UK, OTHER COLLEGES: Leave hoverboards at home, gadget not allowed. | 8D
Life
The Paducah Sun | Sunday, January 10, 2016 | paducahsun.com
Biggest cheapskate
Woman utilizes
coupons to save
BY BEN CARLSON
A lifestyle born of necessity
Hensler started using coupons
four years ago when her husband,
James, lost his job.
“We didn’t have much money and
started running out of things,” said
Hensler, adding that she’s saved
at least $25,000 since she began,
nearly half of that at Kroger.
“I told him we’d have to figure out
a way to make ends meet and I’m
going to try the couponing thing. It
took off from there, and it’s amazing.”
Photo courtesy of The Anderson News
April Hensler of Lawrenceburg estimates she’s saved at least $25,000
since she started using coupons to offset the cost of groceries and other
goods after her husband, James, lost his job four years ago. Her first experience is likely what
got her hooked. With just $12 in
the bank, Hensler and her daughter
headed to the grocery store with
a handful of coupons and a list of
must-have items.
“I told her I didn’t want to spend
more than $10,” Hensler said, “so
we started filling the buggy with
stuff we had coupons for. When we
got to the register, the total was $73
and my daughter was scared, but the
total after the coupons was $9.16.
“From that day on I told my husband this is what I’m going to do.”
‘I know what addiction is’
Hensler extols the virtues of
couponing with a big smile, plenty
of success stories and enough energy
to light the city for a week — for free,
of course. That is until the conversation turns to how well she handles
buying something without a coupon.
“It literally puts me in a panic,”
she said only half jokingly. “It really
does. My heart starts beating really
fast because I know if I hold off,
there will be a coupon.
“It’s bad ... really bad. My husband’s like, ‘Babe, you have to pay
full price sometimes.’ I tell him not if
I can help it.
“I don’t smoke, I don’t drink ...
nothing. I’m a boring mom but I
have this. I know what addiction is
because when I see my total is $400
and I don’t have $400 in my pocket,
I start panicking. But once the coupons start kicking in ... a rush really
isn’t the right word for it.”
Go ahead, roll your eyes
Hensler doesn’t bristle when it’s
suggested that she’s a cheapskate. In
fact, she relishes the term.
Please see SAVE | 2D
Associated Press
bet chart.
Appreciating that writing is
“something that stands for something else, it actually is a vehicle
for language — that’s pretty powerful stuff,” said Temple University
psychology professor Kathy HirshPasek, a specialist in literacy development who wasn’t involved in the
new work.
And tots’ own scribbling is practice.
What a child calls a family portrait
may look like a bunch of grapes but
“those squiggles, that ability to use
lines to represent something bigger,
to represent something deeper than
what is on that page, is the great
open door into the world of symbolic
thought,” Hirsh-Pasek said.
The idea: At some point, children learn that a squiggle on a page
represents something, and then that
the squiggle we call text has a more
specific meaning than what we call a
drawing.
Please see LEARNING | 2D
WOODSTOCK, Ill. — Jenna Dickson
expected to rescue only the miniature
horses in the worst conditions when
she headed to a farm in central Illinois.
No more than six would be coming
back to the Hooved Animal Humane
Society in Woodstock, she thought. But
then she saw all 14 miniature horses.
“They kind of greet you at the fence,
so you walk up and it’s like, ‘What cute
little ponies. This will be great,’ “ said
Dickson, the organization’s adoption
coordinator. “And then you look at
their feet. Some of them, their feet
were so long and curling up (that)
when they walked, their feet were flapping.
“We can’t just leave some of them
here to get worse,” she said.
The first rescue came in early
December after someone called the
Hooved Animal Humane Society to
alert them to the animals’ deteriorating conditions. One of the owners
had died, and the widower was in
poor health and couldn’t provide the
animals the proper care, said Tracy
McGonigle, executive director and
Illinois Department of Agriculturecertified investigator.
The animals’ hooves were overgrown to the point where it was likely
painful and could have caused permanent damage to their skeletons leaving
them with constant discomfort.
Among the worst of the pack was
Pony Boy, a 10-year-old stallion
whose hooves likely had not been cut
for about five years. In comparison,
Dickson said her organization typically
trims hooves every six to eight weeks.
A farrier and veterinarian visited
the animals after they arrived and it
doesn’t appear they sustained any irreversible injuries. It cost the nonprofit,
which is responsible for about 140
animals in total, more than $4,000
for the triage. The ponies will need
additional trims, as well as dental care,
but they’re in good shape otherwise,
Dickson said. Most will be ready for
adoption in about two months.
Some will use that time to get comfortable with people. Dickson said the
horses in the second lot were hard to
catch and seemed as if they had never
had a halter put on before.
“Even the ones who are hard to
handle, you can tell they’re curious.
They want to and then they just get
nervous,” Dickson said. “So I think as
long as we’re gentle and keep working
with them, they’ll come around really
nice.”
Tips for helping youngsters
link written words to language
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Celebrate your
child’s scribbles.
A novel experiment shows that
even before learning their ABCs,
youngsters start to recognize that a
written word symbolizes language
in a way a drawing doesn’t — a
developmental step on the path to
reading.
Researchers used a puppet, line
drawings and simple vocabulary to
find that children as young as 3 are
beginning to grasp that nuanced
concept.
“Children at this very early age
really know a lot more than we had
previously thought,” said developmental psychologist Rebecca Treiman of Washington University in St.
Louis, who co-authored the study.
The research published Wednesday in the journal Child Development suggests an additional way to
consider reading readiness, beyond
the emphasis on phonetics or being
able to point out an “A’’ in the alpha-
14 miniature
horses now
in recovery
after rescue
The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald
Long before learning ABCs,
tots recognize words are symbols
BY LAURAN NEERGAARD
D
BY KATIE DAHLSTROM
The Anderson News
LAWRENCEBURG — April
Hensler didn’t pay for a single roll of
toilet paper in 2015. It’s been three
years since she’s paid for toothpaste,
four since she’s purchased laundry
soap or even shampoo.
It’s not what you think.
Hensler’s pantry is stuffed with
the above items — she has an
estimated 100 tubes of toothpaste
and 15 bottles of Tide stashed amid
dozens of toothbrushes and countless other items.
The difference between her and
nearly everyone else is that instead of swiping her plastic to pay,
Hensler whips out coupons — lots
and lots of coupons.
Hensler recently scored the best
shopping trip she’s made since she
began life as a hard-core coupon
user four years ago.
“My total bill came to $219 and I
paid just $2.43,” said Hensler, the
office manager at Lawrenceburg
Family Dentistry. “But, they gave me
$4 toward my next purchase, so they
actually paid me $1.57 and all I had
to do was take it all out of the store.”
There are other stories, plenty of
them.
“There was another trip where my
total was $432 and I only spent 32
bucks. Thirty-two bucks! I even got
a 16-pound bag of dog food for 99
cents. Ninety-nine cents!
“Then there was the time I went
into Walmart and paid 43 cents on
$63 worth of stuff.
“I came home one time and my
kids were in heaven. I got 50 — 50!
— mac and cheese cups and 10 rolls
of Viva paper towels and paid zero
dollars. Zero!
“Did my dog need that food at the
time? No, but it will. Do I need 15
tubes of Polygrip? No, I work for a
dentist, but someone might need it
and my motto is if it’s free, take it!”
Section
Reading to very young children
is crucial to help them eventually
learn to read. But researchers
studying how kids begin to understand that text conveys meaning
differently than pictures — an important concept for reading readiness — say parents should pay
attention to writing, too.
Here are some suggestions:
■ Run a finger under the text
when reading to youngsters. Otherwise, kids pay more attention to
the pictures and miss an opportunity to link written words to spoken
language, said Brett Miller of the
National Institute for Child Health
and Human Development.
■ Show children how you write
their names well before they could
attempt it, said Temple University
psychology professor Kathy HirshPasek. That’s one of their first concrete examples that a mysterious
squiggle on a page is a symbol for
a word they know.
■ Often a child’s name is his
or her first written word, thanks
to memorizing what it looks like.
Encouraging youngsters to invent
their own spellings of other words
could spur them to write even
more, said developmental psychologist Rebecca Treiman of Washington University in St. Louis.
■ When youngsters scribble,
don’t guess what they produced —
ask, Hirsh-Pasek said. It’s pretty
discouraging if a tot’s about to announce he wrote a story and mom
thinks he drew a house.
■ Post a scribble they’re proud of
on the refrigerator, she said. Children are figuring out patterns with
their scribbles, and that’s more instructive than merely pasting copies of, say, apples onto a page to
make a recognizable picture.
■ Give tots a pencil or pen instead of a crayon if they say they
want to “write” rather than “draw”
so it will look more like text, Treiman said.
Life
2D • Sunday, January 10, 2016 • The Paducah Sun
Anniversaries
paducahsun.com
Louisville Slugger
Museum breaks
attendance record
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE — The
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory said
it is celebrating a record
number of visitors.
In a statement,
museum officials said
314,149 people visited
the museum and factory
in 2015. That number
eclipsed the former record of 303,037 guests
in 2013.
Vice President Anne
Jewell said it’s exciting
to have such momentum going into 2016,
when the museum
celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The statement said
several factors contributed to the high
attendance, including
a popular exhibit of
trading cards and longer
summer hours.
SAVE
CONTINUED FROM 1D
James and Donna Young
METROPOLIS, Ill. —
Mr. and Mrs. James E.
Young of Metropolis
celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary on
Dec. 26.
Mr. Young and the
former Donna Jane Mason were married Dec.
26, 1965, by the Rev.
Harold Allen at Twelfth
Street Baptist Church in
Paducah.
Mrs. Young is retired
from Massac County
Unit 1. She is the daughter of the late Harry and
Estella Mason.
Mr. Young is retired
from the Fort Massac
Broadcasting Co. He
is the son of the late
James and Corrine
Young.
They have one
daughter, Kathy Martin
of Metropolis; and two
grandchildren.
Engagement
Jerome-Woodruff
Elmer and Fran Keipp
of Auxvasse, Missouri,
announce the engagement of their daughter, Bonnie “Jeannie”
Jerome, to Gregory
Ray Woodruff, son of
Elizabeth Woodruff of
Madisonville and the late Ray Woodruff.
Ms. Jerome is the granddaughter of the late Chester and Julia Blake, and the late Phillip and Christine
Keipp. She is a 1986 graduate of Mexico Christian
Academy in Mexico, Missouri. She is employed as
the assistant manager of Food Giant in Murray.
Mr. Woodruff is the grandson of the late Major
and Eunice Barnes, and the late Ernest and Mary
Woodruff. He is a 1979 graduate of Madisonville
North Hopkins High School in Madisonville and a
1983 graduate of Mid-America College of Mortuary
Science in Louisville. He is a funeral director and
embalmer employed by Lindsey Funeral Home and
Keeling Family Funeral Home.
Wedding vows will be exchanged at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30 at Trace Creek Baptist Church in Mayfield. All friends and relatives are invited.
Make your announcement
as special as the occasion
The Paducah Sun continues to offer free engagement,
wedding and anniversary announcements, subject to our
established guidelines and limitations. Announcements
of engagements, weddings and anniversaries are printed
on Sunday. Photos and written information for free announcements must be turned in to the Sun by NOON FRIDAY, NINE DAYS PRIOR TO THE PUBLICATION DATE.
Photographs published with free announcements are
subject to a $30 handling fee.
We also offer the option of placing customized, paid
announcements for these events. For options and pricing
on customized engagement, wedding or anniversary packages, please contact Linda Cocke at 270-575-8678.
Janice and Jerry Harrington
CALVERT CITY — Mr.
and Mrs. Jerry Harrington of Calvert City
will celebrate their 50th
wedding anniversary
with a reception from 2
to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan.
17 at Zion’s Cause Baptist Church. All friends
and relatives are invited.
The couple requests no
gifts.
Mr. Harrington and
the former Janice Travis were married Jan.
20, 1966, by the Rev.
Francis Howard at St.
Francis de Sales Catholic Church. Their attendants were Catherine
Dineen and Charles
Hayden.
Mrs. Harrington
retired from BellSouth
Telephone Co. with
30 years’ service. She
is the daughter of the
late James Harold and
Pauline Travis.
Mr. Harrington is a
retired carpenter. He
is the son of the late
Minor and Dorothy
Harrington.
They have two
daughters, Jennifer
Burnett of Reidland
and Jill York of Benton; and four grandsons.
Births
Oliver — Barrett
Cole Oliver, son of
Chad Oliver and Crystal Davidson Engler
of Paducah, Nov. 21,
2015, Jackson Purchase Medical Center,
Mayfield. Grandparents are Randy and
Billie Davidson of
Paducah, and Linda
Nall of Hardmoney.
Great-grandmother
is Martha Harper of
Hardmoney.
Rogers — Jonah
George Rogers, son
of Chad and Brandi
(Bynum) Rogers of
Benton, Nov. 23,
2015, Baptist Health
Paducah. Grandparents are Ted and Julie
Smith of Paducah,
Lawrence Rogers of
Princeton, and Judy
Davenport of Paducah.
Great-grandparents
are Delbert Powers of
Paducah and Wanda
Capps of Dawson
Springs.
Polivick — Sawyer
Daniel Polivick, son
of Dusty and Brandy
(Logsdon) Polivick
of Kevil, Nov. 24,
2015, Baptist Health
Paducah. Grandpar-
ents are John and
Tammy Summers
of Kevil, and Larry
and Teena Polivick of
Wickliffe. Great-grandparents are Danny
and Mary Davidson of
Kevil, Alma Summers
of Kevil, Mae Polivick
of Wickliffe, and Anna
Mae Pace of Arlington.
Choat — Evan
Layne Choat, son of
Brandon and Leigh
Ann (Guill) Choat of
Grand Rivers, Dec. 29,
2015, Baptist Health
Paducah. Grandparents are Ronnie and
Ann Guill of Carrsville,
and Thomas and Connie Choat of Iuka.
Announcements of
births and adoptions
are published on
Sunday in the Sun.
Notices must be submitted in writing within
30 days of the birth
or adoption. Send to
Births, The Paducah
Sun, P.O. Box 2300,
Paducah, KY 420022300, or fax to 4427859. List phone number where you can be
reached during the day
for information only.
She does bristle,
though, when people behind her in line roll their
eyes and make snide
remarks. Undaunted,
she continues plucking
coupons from a binder
so heavy that it makes
the seatbelt alarm in her
car go off when placed
on the passenger seat.
“I’ll hear them say,
‘You’re one of them.’
When I’m in line and
it’s taking a few minutes
to run the coupons, I
look and say, ‘You know
youre order is going to
cost $80, and you’re
going to pay $80. Mine’s
going to be $80, and I’m
paying $2.”
Then there are those
who question how much
time she devotes to couponing and whether it’s
worth the effort.
“Does it take a lot of
time? Sure it does,” she
said. “But my kids are
fed with me spending
a buck and had dessert
that costs nothing because I’m using coupons
to pay for my stuff.
“People see coupons
as paper, I see them as
gold.”
Some store employees
— they refer to people
like her as shelf cleaners
— sigh and moan when
they see her coming.
“Some don’t mind
but others, you can see
on their faces that they
don’t want me to come
through their line or
they’ll just go on break.”
Family buys in
Hensler says her husband was a bit dubious
at first. “He said, ‘Seriously, there are coupons
just everywhere. You
have to do something
about this.’ He was kind
of frustrated, but once
I got going and started
getting stuff for free —
$400 purchases for zero
— he loves it now and
he’s proud of me.”
Then there’s her
daughter, a college student who scored a pair
of Nike shoes for her
brother for only $5.
“She was real excited.”
Groceries aren’t the
only items on which
Hensler saves.
“We dress really nicely
but, you know what?
That shirt my husband
is wearing maybe cost
$1,” she said. “My outfit?
Maybe $3. You’re in the
exact same outfit and
cost you $100.
“I got my two boys
their entire school wardrobe — 12 to 13 pairs
of jeans and 10 to 15 Tshirts — for maybe $60.
I was paying $3 to $4 for
Levi’s. That’s amazing.”
Sharing her
knowledge
Hensler has no problem helping others get
started, and recently
held a class for about a
dozen people.
“I made them a spaghetti dinner and some
iced tea,” she said. “I
asked how much they
thought it cost to feed
everyone and they were
like, $30?
“No, how about $4?
It cost me four bucks to
feed 12 people because
almost all of it was free.”
One of her main
sources of coupons is
The Anderson News,
she said, which features
hundreds of dollars of
coupons each month.
“You will not save hundreds of dollars buying
just one newspaper,” she
said. “You just won’t.”
Hensler said she buys
10 to 20 papers, takes
out the coupons and
gives the rest of the
papers away.
Here’s how she said
that works: “I bought 20
copies and got 20 bottles
of mouthwash for free,”
she said. “Each bottle
was on sale for $1.99,
and the coupons were
worth $2. I made money
on that.
“People think there’s
a technique but there
really isn’t. You get one
coupon per newspaper,
so I buy 20, get 20 coupons and get 20 items
for free.”
LEARNING
CONTINUED FROM 1D
“Dog,” for example,
should be read the same
way each time, while a
canine drawing might
appropriately be labeled
a dog, or a puppy, or
even their pet Rover.
Treiman and colleagues tested 114 preschoolers, 3- to 5-yearolds who hadn’t received
any formal instruction in
reading or writing. Some
youngsters were shown
words such as dog, cat
or doll, sometimes in
cursive to rule out guessing if kids recognized
a letter. Other children
were shown simple
drawings of those objects. Researchers would
say what the word or
drawing portrayed. Then
they’d bring out a puppet and ask the child if
they thought the puppet
knew what the words or
drawings were.
If the puppet indicated the word “doll”
was “baby” or “dog” was
“puppy,” many children
said the puppet was
mistaken. But they more
often accepted synonyms for the drawings,
showing they were starting to understand that
written words have a far
more specific meaning
than a drawing, Treiman
said.
Language is “like a
zoom lens on the world,”
said Hirsh-Pasek. This
Scientists have long known that reading to very
young children helps form the foundation for them
to later learn to read, by introducing vocabulary,
rhyming, and different speech sounds.
study shows “even
3-year-olds know there’s
something special about
written words.”
It’s not clear if children who undergo that
developmental step at
a later age — say, 5 or
6 instead of 3 or 4 —
might go on to need
extra help with learning
to read, cautioned Brett
Miller, an early learning
specialist at the National
Institute of Child Health
and Human Development, which helped fund
the research.
But because some
children did better than
others in the experiment, Treiman plans to
study that.
Scientists have long
known that reading to
very young children
helps form the foundation for them to
later learn to read, by
introducing vocabulary,
rhyming, and different
speech sounds.
But it’s important to
include other activities
that bring in writing,
too, Treiman said.
Look closely at a tot’s
scribbles. A child might
say, “I’m writing my
name,” and eventually
the crayon scribble can
become smaller and
closer to the line than
the larger scrawl that the
tot proclaims is a picture
of a flower or mom, she
said.
“It’s very exciting to
see this develop,” she
said.
Previous studies have
shown it’s helpful to
run a finger under the
text when reading to
a youngster, because
otherwise kids pay more
attention to the pictures,
Miller said. If the words
aren’t pointed out, “they
get less exposure to
looking at text, and less
opportunity to learn
that sort of relationship
— that text is meaningful and text relates to
sound,” he said.
Make sure children
see you that you write
for a purpose, maybe
by having them tell you
a story and watch you
write it out, adds HirshPasek. “That’s much
richer than just learning
what a B or a P is.”
paducahsun.com
Comics
The Paducah Sun • Sunday, January 10, 2016 • 3D
Sunday Comics
JANUARY 10, 2016
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The Paducah Sun • Sunday, January 10, 2016 • 5D
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The Paducah Sun • Sunday, January 10, 2016 • 7D
Austin essentials
Music venues set beat for city
BY GLENN ADAMS
Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin
is the capital of Texas, but
it brands itself as the “Live
Music Capital of the World.”
And for good reason: On
any given night, 200 venues across the city host live
performances. The city is
also known for South by
Southwest, its annual festival
of indie arts, media and tech
culture.
What’s new
Austin’s ever-changing
musical scene is a melting
pot of global styles. Clubs
and other venues host rock,
jazz, blues, hip-hop, punk
and Latino performances.
Events for this year include
a gospel concert series, celebrations of Asian-American
and Pacific Islander food
and heritage, and Brazilian
Samba culture to name a few.
For Austin’s marathon and
half-marathon, scheduled for
Feb. 14, 40 local bands will
play outdoors around the city
as runners stream through
neighborhoods.
Austin City Limits Music Festival, now held over
two weekends, features
130 bands playing on eight
stages, Sept. 30-Oct. 2 and
Oct. 7-9.
Classic attractions
South by Southwest,
or SXSW, a showcase for
new talent that has almost
become synonymous with
Austin, features original music, independent films and
technical innovation, March
11-20.
The Texas State Capitol is
worth a visit, with its mammoth dome, hundreds of
rooms and windows, and
many paintings and sculptures (including a portrait
of Davy Crockett). Wash
the experience down at The
Cloak Room, an unobtrusive,
dimly lit bar near the Capitol
where legislators mingle with
lobbyists. The cooler should
be well-stocked with Lone
Star, which labels itself “the
National Beer of Texas.”
The Bullock Texas State
History Museum tells the
story of Texas since France
and Spain claimed the region
centuries ago. Artifacts
include the 17th century
French expedition ship, La
Belle, which was recovered
more than 300 years after it
sank in a storm. You could
easily spend the day at the
Bullock, so consider dining in
the museum’s Story of Texas
Cafe. But save some time for
the Blanton Museum of Art,
right across the street.
You’re at the edge of the
University of Texas campus,
which dominates a good
chunk of downtown and
brings zest to the city. Look
up and you’ll see the 30-floor
administration building, also
the former UT library. Tours
of the school’s clock tower
offer a spectacular vista of
the city and its hill country
environs. (The tower is also
where, in 1966, a gunman
killed over a dozen people
and wounded more than
30.) Also on campus, the
Lyndon B. Johnson Library
walks visitors through the
turbulent and historically
significant years of LBJ’s
presidency.
The Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center, a unit
of the University of Texas
located on a satellite campus, offers trails, gardens, an
arboretum and more.
Ready to cool off? Try
Barton Springs Pool in
Zilker Park. This three-acre
gem (where Robert Redford
learned to swim) is fed by
underground springs and has
an average temperature of
68-70 degrees.
Tips
Austin is divided into six
entertainment districts:
Downtown, East, Rainey
Street, Red River, Sixth
Street and South Congress.
The city is bicycle-friendly,
with bike lanes on many
main routes. Drivers tend to
be conscious of bikers, and
riding opportunities extend
to open-road course, parks
with dedicated biking areas
and city trails like the 7.8mile Barton Creek Greenbelt.
CapMetro bus service
serves many stops along the
MetroRail rail passenger line.
Downtown, Capitol Pedicab
drivers work for tips.
Hanging out
A million bats can’t be
wrong. The largest urban
colony of Mexican free-tailed
bats in North America hangs
out under the Ann Richards
Bridge on Congress Avenue
between April and October,
and at dusk the bats billow
out as they commence their
nightly feeding. This spectacle can be viewed from the
bridge itself, from a park
below (both free), or from
a riverboat on Lady Bird
Lake below, which can also
include a tour of some of the
city’s other highlights.
Matt Palmer/Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows via AP
Dog supervisor Craig Noble puts his border collie Wylee through some paces on the mountain in Olympic Valley, Calif. Noble says dogs are better than any beacon or echo, as a good
dog can check part of an avalanche grid in five or 10 minutes, the same time it would take 50
people hours to scour the same area. He has Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows and Crested Butte
Mountain Resort all up to the same Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association standards.
When an avalanche hits
the slopes, let the dogs out
BY SUE MANNING
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Wylee the
border collie can search an
avalanche the size of a football
field in five or 10 minutes. It
would take a probe line of 50
people using poles a couple
hours to cover the same
ground.
When 30 minutes can mean
the difference between life
and death for a skier lost on a
snowy mountain, most people
would bank on the dog.
“The fastest thing is a dog —
faster than a beacon or echo,”
said Craig Noble, ski patrol
and dog supervisor at Squaw
Valley Alpine Meadows resort
in Olympic Valley, California. “We respond to a lot of
avalanches that don’t involve
any people. But we don’t know
that before we leave. We just
get there and get the dogs
working.”
Speed is crucial in avalanche rescues, with minimal
chances of survival if victims
are buried for 30 minutes or
more.
Noble skis 220 days a
year by following the snow
from California to Chile and
Australia. He also takes yearly
classes from the Canadian
Avalanche Rescue Dog Association, with trainings at
Whistler Mountain in British Columbia among other
locations. Noble relays what
he learns to the ski patrollers at Squaw Valley Alpine
Meadows (the site of the 1960
winter Olympics) and Crested
Butte Mountain Resort in
Colorado. He’s brought all of
their dog programs up to the
same CARDA standard.
Matt Palmer/Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows via AP
Border collie Wylee is taking
a ski lift to get up a mountain in Olympic Valley, Calif.
He also teaches classes for
students in the mountain
communities. “The kids love
the dogs,” he said.
Every dog and handler must
recertify as a team every year,
he said, but before handlers
get a dog to work with, they
train for a year without one.
“It’s easier to teach animals than people,” Noble
explained.
Wylee is 8, but he’s fit and a
lean 42 pounds, with plenty of
time left in his career, Noble
says. Most patrollers use
Labradors or golden retrievers, but Noble opted for Wylee
partly because he weighs
about half what the other
breeds weigh. Patrollers have
to carry their dogs to search
sites in addition to hauling
60-pound backpacks with
shovels, probes, headlamps,
water and other equipment.
The dogs need the lift so they
don’t get tired before they
start working.
Dustin Brown, a ski patroller at Crested Butte, is going
on his second year handling
Moose, a Labrador retriever.
Moose “comes to life in the
snow. He feels free. It’s playtime. There’s a new adventure
around every corner,” said
Brown.
Other employees on the
mountain help with training.
Some buy clothes at thrift
stores and wear them repeatedly so the fabric absorbs a
human scent that’s used to
train the dogs. In the event of
a search, there won’t be time
to get a lost skier’s scent, so
the dogs are trained generically.
Dogs are not a requirement
for ski patrollers, though. In
fact, for every dog team there
are six patrollers who go it
alone at Squaw Alpine. And
one critical part of keeping
slopes safe is something dogs
don’t participate in: early
morning rounds to identify
where snow needs to be
blasted off the mountain so it
doesn’t fall.
During the past five winters,
avalanches have killed 145
people in the United States,
according to the Colorado
Avalanche Information Center, the central archive for U.S.
avalanche data. The typical
victim was a skilled male skier
age 25 to 40. Many fatalities
take place in the backcountry rather than on groomed
slopes.
Apple says Jan. 1
biggest sales day
for its app store
Associated Press
AP Photo/Eric Gay, File
The La Belle, a 54-foot oak French frigate, is moved to a
display area at the Bullock Texas State History Museum
in Austin, Texas, in May. Archaeologists reassembled the
ship recovered more than 300 years after the vessel was
lost in a storm off the coast of Texas.
NEW YORK — Apple had an app-y
holiday season.
The tech powerhouse said customers
spent $1.1 billion on apps and in-app
purchases during the two weeks ended
Jan. 3. New Year’s Day was the biggest
day ever for the store with $144 million
in sales, with Christmas Day second.
Overall in 2015, shoppers spent $20
billion in the app store, which sells
apps for the iPhone, iPad, Mac and the
Apple Watch and Apple TV which were
launched this year.
Apple didn’t report total billings for
2014.
The company launched the App Store
in 2008. The store has more than 1.5
million apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod
touch users in 155 countries.
Apps are available in 24 categories, including games, social networking, photo
& video, sports, health & fitness, travel
and kids.
Please contact 731-697-2397 for more information
Life
8D • Sunday, January 10, 2016 • The Paducah Sun
paducahsun.com
Reader wants more inclusion with son’s family
Dear Annie: Six years
ago, our son married a
woman with a 4-yearold daughter. We
immediately fell in love
with this little girl. There
is no biological father in
the picture, and her maternal grandparents live
out of state. We have
always told her that we
consider her to be our
granddaughter, with
everyone’s blessing.
This will be the
second year that my
husband and I have
not been invited to her
birthday party. Over
the years, we have tried
to do special things for
her, such as outings,
new clothes, toys and
books, just as if we were
her grandparents by
blood. She never calls us
“Grandma” or “Grand-
pa,” but her parents say
she refers to us as her
grandparents to others.
Our son was also given
a birthday party by our
daughter-in-law, and we
were not invited to even
stop by.
I don’t know why
we are being left out
of these celebrations
and we are incredibly
hurt. We spend other
holidays together, such
as Thanksgiving and
Christmas, and we are
always very generous
in contributing toward
those times. We also
help them if they run
short of money.
If relations were
strained, I could understand, but we always
seem to have a great
time together, both
alone with our grand-
Ask Annie
daughter and with the
entire family. Please tell
us what to do. And if we
just need to accept this,
how can we get over
the pain so that it won’t
jeopardize our future relationship? — Unhappy
Grandparents
Dear Unhappy:
This girl is now 10
years old. It may
come as a surprise
to you, but most kids
stop including adults
in their birthday
parties around the
age of 7, if not sooner. They want parties
with their school
friends. Some kids
include the grandparents, but many
do not. It is perfectly
normal and not a
reason to be hurt.
Also, it could be one
way your daughterin-law chooses not
to upset her own
parents, who live too
far away to attend.
A similar dynamic
applies to your son’s
birthday. He wants
a party with friends,
and as much as he
loves his parents, it
doesn’t mean you fit
in to such a gathering.
Please think of
this differently. It is
not intended to be
hurtful. Instead, ask
to take your granddaughter out for a
special outing to celebrate her birthday.
(P.S.: What she calls
you is not important
if the relationship is
good.)
Dear Annie: “Frustrated Wife’s” husband is
being stalked by his exmistress. You suggested
an order of protection. I
say her emails are considered cyber stalking.
All of the emails should
be placed in a file. All of
the notes left on his car
should also be kept as
evidence of stalking.
He should inform his
former mistress that he
is collecting this evidence and will proceed
with legal action if she
does not stop. I’ve been
there, done that, and it
worked. — Mississippi
Lady
Dear Mississippi:
Several readers
pointed out that the
ex-mistress is guilty
of stalking and all
notes should be kept
as evidence. We
agree. But we also
hope the husband is
not tacitly encouraging this behavior.
That is unfortunately too often the case
when the wife can’t
understand why the
mistress won’t go
away.
Annie’s Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell
and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann
Landers column. Please
email your questions
to anniesmailbox@
comcast.net, or write
to: Annie’s Mailbox, c/o
Creators Syndicate, 737
3rd Street, Hermosa
Beach, CA 90254.
No hoverboards allowed at UK
Associated Press
LEXINGTON — Students, faculty and staff
returning to the University of Kentucky for
the spring semester can
leave the hoverboards
they got over the holidays at home.
The university says it
has temporarily banned
the use, possession or
storage of all such devices, citing reports that
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver B.J. Daniels rides
through a hallway at CenturyLink Field on an electric
self-balancing scooter commonly called a “hoverboard,” as he arrives for an NFL football game
against the Detroit Lions in Seattle in October.
Since December, several universities have banned
or limited hoverboards on their campuses, saying
the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe.
Colleges across U.S.
tell students to leave
hoverboards at home
Associated Press
BOSTON — One of the
holiday’s hottest presents is now considered
contraband at many U.S.
colleges.
At least 20 universities have banned or
restricted hoverboards
on their campuses in
recent weeks, saying the
two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe.
Beyond the risk of falls
and collisions, colleges
are citing warnings from
federal authorities that
some of the self-balancing gadgets have caught
on fire.
“It’s clear that these
things are potentially
dangerous,” said Len
Dolan, managing director of fire safety at Kean
University in Union,
New Jersey. The public
school of 14,000 students issued a campuswide ban effective on
Monday, telling students
in an email that any
hoverboards found on
campus would be confiscated.
“These things are just
catching fire without
warning, and we don’t
want that in any of our
dorms,” Dolan said.
Outright bans also
have been issued at
schools such as American University and
George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C. Other schools
said they will forbid the
scooters in dorm rooms
or campus buildings, a
policy adopted at colleges including Louisiana State University, the
University of Iowa and
the University of Arkansas.
After banning hover-
boards from dorms in
December, officials at
the University of Hartford in Connecticut are
now considering a full
ban because of concerns
over how to store them
safely, said David Isgu,
a school spokesman.
Some of the reported
fires have occurred while
the boards were being
charged, authorities say.
At Ohio State University and Xavier University in Cincinnati, students
were told they can bring
a hoverboard only if it
came with a seal showing that the board meets
certain safety standards.
Bryce Colegrove, a
sophomore at Shawnee State University in
Ohio, got an email from
his school on Tuesday
telling students to leave
their hoverboards at
home after the holidays.
It was bad timing for
Colegrove, who had just
received one as a gift
from his girlfriend and
had even plotted his new
routes to class.
“Honestly I was really
disappointed,” said Colegrove, 20. “I don’t think
it’s right to ban them.
I mean, it’s a college
campus; it’s not a high
school.”
Others took to social
media to voice their frustration, with some saying
they planned to bring
their scooters to school
anyway.
Hoverboards, which
are made by several
brands, already have
been banned by the
three largest U.S. airlines, citing potential fire
danger from the lithiumion batteries that power
them.
some have caught fire.
UK said in a news
release Wednesday the
ban includes residence
halls, university apartments, Greek houses,
academic buildings and
all other campus buildings and grounds. Also
included are off-campus
properties that UK
controls.
The ban is effective
immediately.
Several other schools
have implemented similar bans.
UK said its ban will
remain in effect until
more information is
available and better
safety standards are in
place.
The release said UK
will provide temporary
storage for students
who can’t get hoverboards home safely.