Use correct turn signals in roundabouts…PLEASE?

Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains here in the Midwest and Johnson County quickly is becoming the County of roundabouts.

Roundabouts: They are more prevalent than crop circles and people either hate ’em or love ’em.

My wife Terri can’t stand them. She gripes about them every time she has to drive through one of them. I’m thinking after the other day, she’s never going to drive on Renner Road again in Lenexa at least the stretch from 95th Street south to the Highway 10 interchange where there is a series of three or four roundabouts one right after another. The drive home went something like this:

Headlines I wanted to read in 2011

Between now and the end of the year, there are going to be many articles published and broadcasts aired relating to the top stories of 2011.

You can figure on hearing about the top national stories, such as the killing of Osama bin Laden, unemployment, the occupy Wall Street movement, the BP oil rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, American combat troops coming home from Iraq, government gridlock, the credit rating downgrade of the United States, the Casey Anthony verdict, the death of Steve Jobs, Charlie Sheen’s public rants and meltdown, the shooting and recovery of Gabrielle Giffords, the wild and devastating U.S. weather, planking, and the infestation of bed bugs.

International stories will include the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the Greek economy, the Euro and the European economy, and the Royal wedding between Prince William of England and Catherine Middleton, and the death of Moammar Ghadafi, who once said the Lybian people loved him.

And there will be recaps of local stories such as the disappearance of Baby Lisa, Missouri leaving the Big 12, Kansas after year one under the reign of King Brownback, the firing of Todd Haley and Turner Gill, the resurgence of Bill Snyder and K-State football, President Obama speaking in Osawatomie, Olathe South winning its first 6A state championship in football, and the hoop-la surrounding Gardner’s Bubba Starling signing with the Royals.

But then I wonder about the headlines of events I wish would have happened in 2011…

Never forgetting those who gave their all, but always wondering for what

For the past 40 years, I have been continually haunted by the more than 58,000 brave soldiers who gave their lives in Vietnam. The fact that more than 303,000 were wounded there, so many of them maimed for life, is never far from my mind. Whether they enlisted or were drafted, they did what was asked by their country.

What a waste of so many young lives.

 As a Vietnam veteran, I wondered then, and I will wonder until the day I die, for what purpose did they die?

One more attempt for Chef Chuck

Cooking, admittedly, is not one of my strongest traits. But it certainly isn’t one of my weakest, either.

Well, unless you’re asking my wife Terri.

She does, and always has done the cooking around the Kurtz household. And I’m the first one to admit she does cook some darn-good meals. Oh sure, there has been a minor flub here and there along the way when she’s experimenting or trying out a new recipe. But overall, I would put her food up to anyone’s.

It’s not that I haven’t tried to do some of the cooking over the years. It’s just that no one seemed to eat what I fixed except for me. I like cooking with butter and Terri prefers some kind of oil. She says it’s healthier. Terri might be right. But truth be known, I think everything tastes better with butter.

Anger at the House is widespread and bi-partisan

If you think it’s just crazy Democratic left-wing liberals who are irate and trashing House Republicans, well, then you’ve got your head in the sand.

Consider this excerpt from an editorial in the pretty conservative Wall Street Journal and its editorial board’s view of the way House Republicans have handled the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits issues: “(The House Republicans) have thoroughly botched the politics” of the issue and have “achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter. … Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly.”

And there was this today from Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain who said the WSJ editorial was “right on the mark.” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he also agreed with the WSJ editorial adding that there was “no question”  that Republicans are “getting killed now in public opinion.”