Columbus’ annual free breakfast in honor of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was scrubbed last month as COVID cases surged dangerously high. But the African American Pastors Alliance announced recently the event will take place Saturday, Feb. 19, for a limited crowd of 250 at The Commons.
After last year’s commemoration went virtual due to the pandemic, pastors and many in the community are looking forward an in-person event. But as organizer Fred King noted, health and safety remains top of mind. “Should COVID numbers greatly increase, we will still have the program, but announce several days in advance that we are switching to virtual via Facebook Live,” King said.
Let’s hope case numbers continue the recent declines we’ve seen so this venerable event can once again bring people together.
What’s a groundhog know, anyway?
If you really needed to know whether we were in for more winter weather earlier this week, you could not have possibly missed the forecast of a winter storm virtually anywhere you looked, followed by the actual winter storm.
But when it comes to prognosticating which way the wind’s blowing weather-wise in early February, it’s never official till the groundhog weighs in.
Our local marmot, Hope, over in Hope, had no use for the immediate forecast on Wednesday, calling for spring to arrive early this year. Meanwhile, the better-known Punxsutawney Phil of Punxsutawney, PA, predicted more of the same — six more weeks of winter.
Much as we respect the tradition of Punxsutawney Phil, we’re going with Hope.
How about those Super Bengals!
This is Indianapolis Colts country, but they couldn’t make the NFL playoffs this season, could they? We digress.
This is also, to a lesser extent, Cincinnati Bengals country. Back when the Colts played in Baltimore, which some of us can remember if we strain hard enough, the Bengals were on our local TV screens every week. The NFL considered the Bengals our regional home team.
It’s almost been that long since the Bengals went to a Super Bowl. The Colts arrived in Indianapolis in 1984; the Bengals last competed for a title in 1989. Just two of the the 53 players on the Bengals roster had been born then.
The Bengals will play the Los Angeles Rams a week from tomorrow in L.A. They’ll be underdogs, just as they were when they knocked off the top-seeded teams in their conference during this remarkable run. Many of us are looking forward to rooting on the (other) home team.
