Debut of new comic strip

Stephen Woody

The Notebook

Billionaire financier Warren Buffet was interviewed recently. The reporter asked him the inevitable epitaph question: ‘What would you like chiseled on your tombstone?’”

Buffett replied, “God, he was old!”

  • Kaye Hotsenpiller, regional director of Hilltop services, chimes in with a shout about the Run for Shelter event.

    It’ll be April 28 at Baldridge Park. Runners and walkers are welcome. The entry fee is $25 and proceeds will benefit the Tri-County Resource Center and Girls on the Run.

  • Dept. of incidental (sports) info….

    Forty years ago, NBC was selected to televise the NCAA basketball tournament for $547,500, which exceeded the half-million dollar mark for the first time. The tournament’s income was just over $1 million.

    Today, that same TV agreement, signed over 11 years by the NCAA and CBS, is for $6 billion.

  • Today, on the Daily Press’ comics page, is one of those tear sheets (copy of a printed page) where you can rip and save for posterity.

    It’s the debut comic strip of ‘Whatitsooya,’ the life of Zeb Connors and his pals as he navigates life “between school and getting a real job.”

    Zeb is the alter-ego of Joey Ungerer, who is graduating next month from Colorado State University. Joey grew up in Montrose, and has done intern-type work at the Daily Press in graphic arts and photography. His work has appeared regularly in the Rocky Mountain Collegian, and Ridgway Sun.

    (We’re moving the beleaguered but silent office dweeb, ‘Dilbert’, to the classified pages to accommodate the placement of ‘Whatitsooya.’)

    If you’d like to give a shout to Joey: 970-596-3433; or: joey@whatitstooya.com

  • The Montrose High School Drama Club will be performing ‘Life of the Party’ this week (Mar. 29,30,31), at the Magic Circle Theatre. Performances begin at 7:30.

    It is a family comedy, set in 1959. Tix: MHS main office.

    Contact: Jerry Harvey, MHS; 249-6636.

  • Last week, Daily Press Managing Editor Bill Swaim and Circulation Director Phil Ashley spent a few days with the Uncompahgre Valley Leadership Program, (city of Montrose/Montrose Chamber of Commerce.) Bill & Phil are UVLP graduates who last year, narrowly escaped with their lives as a truck knocked them off the road going up Vail Pass en route to Denver. (To show Phil - since he was driving last year - Bill wore a crash helmet to work, before leaving.) Bill’s column Sunday was noteworthy, and newsworthy. Political parties aside, it appears the Front Rangers are coming for West Slope water and it’s no longer a matter of if, but when.

  • Visiting the state capitol and its grounds is always a treat. There’s much contrast, architecturally-speaking, when you have one piece of terra firma with a spectacularly domed, historic building, capped with gold; then across the street, the Denver Art Museum in its new building, an avant-garde tribute to glass and shape. Some details about the capitol, from the state archives:

  • Capitol construction started in 1890, and wasn’t completed until 1908 when the gold leaf was applied to the dome.

  • Two-hundred ounces of gold leaf were used to gild the dome.

  • The cornerstone of the capitol weighed 20 tons; 240,000 cubic feet of granite was used in the construction, along with 332,616 cubic feet of stone and 5,482,114 bricks.

  • There are 94 steps to the dome’s observation deck.

  • The Olathe FFA, the oldest FFA chapter in the state of Colorado, celebrates Friday with its annual awards dinner at 6:30 p.m., at the Olathe High School Gym. The Olathe FFA was charted in 1928.

  • Quotable

    “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

    —Calvin Trillin, author/playwright

    		•