Writes Sugar Babe: "Subject: The kindness of snow-blowers.

"Winter has returned to Minnesota, covering the ground with fat flakes of gorgeous moisture-filled snow. This morning I looked across the street and saw two people snow-blowing driveways that were not theirs. The first driveway was being cleared for our retired neighbor Judy, whose loving son Dave drives a considerable distance to make sure that his mother has no problem getting in and out of her garage. The second driveway was being cleared for our neighbor Katie, mother of two little boys (the younger one being 7 months old) by Grampa Bob, her loving father-in-law, who also drives some distance to help out his son and daughter-in-law whenever he can.

"Winter comes and goes. Two different generations helping out their loved ones endures."

No good deed goes unpunished?

RugWoman of Red Wing: "I tried to do a random act of kindness today. I decided I would anonymously pay for the meal of a fellow diner at the local cafe.

"The first two patrons I picked out had already paid their own bills. So I said to the waitress: 'How about that guy over in the corner? Has he already paid?' When she said he hadn't, I said I would pay for his today. 'But don't tell him who paid his tab.' (It's a random act of kindness. It's supposed to be anonymous.)

"Well ... apparently this waitress is unclear on the concept. Next thing I know, she's over by his booth ...


I heard her say MY NAME (!) and jerk her thumb over her shoulder IN MY DIRECTION! I was mortified! What is this guy going to think? I stuck my head in the paper and tried not to think about it.

"The waitress had already given me his bill. When I left, and tried to pay it along with mine, she said it wasn't in the computer anymore -- he must have paid it. Well, I'm not paying again, then! YIKES!

"Who knew trying to be nice could be so hard! I guess I won't be trying THAT again!"

Unclear on the concept

Saturday email from RoseBud of Vadnais Heights: "I had my laugh for the day!

"I went to the Dollar Store today and was looking at cards. From the aisle just ahead of me, I heard a fellow ask: 'How do you know how much everything is?'

"I looked up, and he was talking to me. Because I am someone who is very gullible, I was hesitant to answer. Was he joking? Was I going to be the butt of his humor? It felt like I was on 'Candid Camera.' So I very carefully said: 'Everything is a dollar. You're shopping at the Dollar Store.'

"He was silent for a minute, and then said: 'I guess I shouldn't have had to ask, then? I can't believe I just asked you that.'

"Turned out he was shopping for beads for the Winter Carnival parade. I am sure someone gave him the job to get these beads quickly and get downtown. Evidently he had never shopped at a Dollar Store before. So, to any of you who were lucky enough to get some colored beads at the parade today: Know that someone was out there shopping for the first time at the Dollar Store to make your day a little happier."

The little treasures

Winter Carnival Division

Floater: "My parents built the float the Dionne Quintuplets rode on back in '52. The float and visit by the Dionnes were sponsored by Brown & Bigelow of St Paul. Dad said that he'd never seen such tight security as they had on those girls -- tighter even than Vice President Humphrey had when he was in the Carnival in the '60s!

"For several years, the parade wound its way through downtown by a variety of routes, but always ended at the St. Paul Auditorium, where a large ramp led into the building's main door. (A large glass window is there today.) The float was a large carriage 'pulled' by a team of winged horses supported in such a way as to appear to fly above the front of the float. Mom said the crowd in the auditorium went wild as the float crested the ramp, and once the decorated jeep towing the main trailer (still on the ramp) leveled out on the floor, the horses appeared to be flying ever higher as the float came into the building!"

Blotter Mind-Off Phenomenon

GramB of Nisswa: "Honestly, I could not make these situations up if tried my best!

"Last week, Brainerd police reported that a female flagged down an officer at 5:41 p.m. Monday on the 700 block of North Sixth Street reporting that there was a skunk walking around in the area with a plastic cup on its head. A short time later, a male citizen was able to remove the plastic cup from the skunk's head using a garden rake. It was reported that the skunk and the male were not injured."

Verbing of America

Walt of Wayzata: "From Sunday's New York Times Book Review, Page 5, an ad for a book: 'Read the inspiring story of six young widows who cut loose, confide, and adventure their way forward....'

"I think I'm going to adventure my someplace where I can throw up."

Our living (and/or dying) language

TXTransplant: "While I was watching TV this morning, a TV host used a new adjective that, to me at least, needed no explanation. In a critique of a theatrical performance, the host described it as a 'Honey Boo Boo' performance. When asked to explain that description, the host just said: 'A lot of noise that made absolutely no sense.' Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, including Honey Boo Boo; I hope it's over soon."

This 'n' that

Writes joegolfer: "Lest anyone think a January thaw (remember the warm weather a few weeks ago? Neither do I; my memory froze) is a new phenomenon or side effect of global warming, consider this (from The Radical, Waseca, Minn., Jan. 16, 1889): 'The St. Paul ice palace is abandoned -- no ice nor cold weather. Ice palaces and thundershowers do not go well together.'

"Tired of the litigious society we live in? My husband is. After reading recent news about some threatened action regarding the 11-inch 'footlong' sandwich, he harrumphed: 'Next thing you know, someone will sue because a two-by-four is only one-and-a-half by three-and-a-half!' "

Frontiers of science

Sunday's Bulletin Board concluded with a note from The Mambo King: "I recently heard that the DNA cloning research community is all abuzz about a newly discovered species of rabbit.

"It seems that instead of reproducing through multiplication, as most other animals do, these rabbits produce offspring by dividing, the way protozoa do.

"The researchers have named this new species Splitting Hares."

The Bulletin Board Hot Line presently took a call from Nothing Surprises Me Anymore of Oakdale: "The Mambo King left out the real amazing part of the story.

"These rabbits are known to line up in a very long row and then hop backwards.

"Then you have a receding hare line."

Band Name of the Day: The Fat Flakes -- or: Spank the Meatloaf

Website of the Day -- from Double Bogey Mike: "The Home Run," at http://tinyurl.com/clear-bases