Cook column: Shoptalk: Updates and requests

Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 12, 2009

Baby Kianna is still in Rowan County, still in limbo.
I wrote about the infant girl a couple of weeks ago. Kellie Corl and fiance Jeff Luttrell of Rowan County have been taking care of Kianna, his half-sister’s baby, since mid-August. The baby’s mother had called and asked them to take the baby after her boyfriend assaulted the mom, according to Kellie and Jeff
So they drove through the night to the Louisville area of Kentucky, got Kianna and her diaper bag of possessions and brought her to their home here.
Now, because of the instability they believe awaits 6-week-old Kianna in Kentucky, Kellie and Jeff are pursuing legal avenues to keep her.
Or they’re trying to. Kellie says they have talked to several attorneys in Salisbury and Kentucky about the situation. At one point, she thought it might be a simple matter. But nothing ever is.
“This case is like eye surgery,” Kellie said Friday. “It’s very, very delicate and has to be handled the right way.”
State lines complicate the situation ó do North Carolina courts even have jurisdiction on this issue?
“If I was like most people, I would just give up,” Kellie says.
People ó some known, some anonymous ó have donated money to the Baby Kianna fund at Wachovia. About $1,400 came in.
“A lot of people have been a blessing,” Kellie says.
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Remembering 9/11: It struck me this year that many children in elementary school had not even been born yet when Sept. 11, 2001, became burned in our memories as terrorists turned our world upside down. School students as a whole probably don’t grasp what that day means. It happened eight years ago.
This is the way we begin to forget as a nation ó younger generations come along who did not feel the pain of that day. To them, Sept. 11, 2001, will be a date in a history book, not a flashback.
So it was with Pearl Harbor. In the years when Dec. 7 came and went without mention in the Post of Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, I didn’t think a lot of it.
Until Sept. 11, 2001.
Only then did I realize how an act of aggression can shock and scar the nation, never to be forgotten.
I thought about that, sitting at the Firefighters Memorial Friday for the public service of remembrance. Other than law enforcement, rescue workers and firefighters, attendance was sparse. But the bell still rang, the bagpipes played, the wreath was placed.
In the bright sunshine, we remembered that dark day.
On to work.
“We forgot 9/11,” Elisha Hubbard in Circulation told me when I got to the office.
What? I just came from a 9/11 service.
But a reader had pointed out there was no prominent mention of 9/11 in the paper on The Day. The editorial headlined “United we stand” was not sufficient for him ó and maybe shouldn’t have been for us. We’ll keep trying.
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Share your photos: Here’s something you can try.
Instead of asking readers to shoot “A Day in the Life” by covering events over one 24-hour span, we’re asking for photos of everyday events that you have captured with your digital camera.
All photos go into the Day in the Life gallery on our site, and the best ones will be published on the Day in the Life page in each Monday’s paper. So far readers have shared pictures of everything from a kid laughing as a water hose sprays him in the face to a group of tractors. There’s been a teen dressed up for prom and a boy holding his Farmer’s Day trophy.
We’d like to do a few pages with themes. Consider this “Assignment: Day in the Life.”
– First day of school: I bet I am not the only mom who lined up her kids with their new bookbags and snapped a picture before they boarded the bus. Share your first day of school photos, past and present.
– Football games, beyond the field: Fans, cheerleaders, bands, concessions ó there’s a lot more to a game than football. Snap some photos to share.
– Pets: The possibilities are endless ó cats, dogs, horses, birds, snakes, you name it.
Digital photos can be posted on www.SalisburyPost.com by clicking on Post Your Photos, going to Groups, then Day in the Life. Just follow the instructions.
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Senior Idol: We’re also seeking contestants for the first Senior Idol contest, set this Tuesday at Salisbury Mall.
This is a new element of the Senior Expo that the Salisbury Post has sponsored at the mall for years. Oak Park Retirement is co-sponsoring Senior Idol, with a $100 prize for the winner.The performances will be videotaped (two minutes, max) during the Expo, which runs from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and posted on SalisburyPost.com. The winner will be chosen based on the number of times each video is viewed online.
On Sept. 30, the winner will be announced in the Salisbury Post and on SalisburyPost.com.
Amateur individual acts and groups are welcome, as long as everyone is 55 or older.
If you have questions, call Rebecca Alexander at the Post at 704-797-4229 or e-mail her at ralexander@salisburypost.com.
I have a feeling she’s about to become very popular.
Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post.