A little twist to this year’s Secret Phrase Game

Trent Knuckles is publisher of The News Journal.

Too much bad news lately.

I simply can’t allow my mind to marinate for too long. So, let’s talk about some good things.

• This week is the beginning of our third annual Secret Phrase Game contest, but there’s a twist this time around.

Very quickly, the rules.

Basically, there will be a word hidden somewhere in the News Journal each week for the next 12 weeks. Get all the words, assemble them in the right order, and be the first one to call us on the last day of the contest with the right phrase and you win $500!

The word will be written in a distinctive font, so you should know it when you see it.

Now, the twist.

Things are a little trickier this year. In the past, the phrase has been a famous quote. That may or not be the case this time. It could be altered some, or it could be a phrase that we totally made up out of our own heads. Get a News Journal and play the Secret Phrase Game. You’ve got nothing to lose.

• Congratulations to Corbin High School graduate Tony White for winning the Moonbow Ultra 50k race this past weekend at Cumberland Falls State Park. That’s 31 miles of running on some very tough trails. Lots of elevation and tricky footing.

He ran the race in 5 hours and 44 minutes, about 23 minutes faster than the second place finishers. That’s impressive!

The Moonbow Ultra was actually a series of three races — a 10k, 25K and 50k. Nineteen-year-old Samuel Callahan, of Corbin, finished third in the 10k portion of the event, and Abigail Callahan, 17, finished eighth. Congratulations to both of them against a very competitive field of runners.

• Thanks to everyone who participated in the News Journal’s License Plate Lotto contest. I noticed a lot of “We Read the News Journal!” stickers on cars all over the area. It was a lot of fun, and we had some very appreciative readers that won prizes.

• Just a point of clarification for Corbin residents who are concerned about an impending property tax increase. When you hear or read there will be a four percent increase, that does not mean the tax rate goes up four percent. It means the rate will go up just enough so that the city will collect, in real dollars, four percent more than the year prior. One reason for this, among others, is to keep pace with and slightly ahead of inflation. Rule of thumb, inflation increases the cost of goods and services about two percent per year. Sometimes less, sometimes more.

Also, it was reported in one story that the proposed increase would cost someone with a home worth $100,000 a whopping $10 a month! Not true! It is actually about $10 a year.

• October is my favorite month of the year. It is just so pleasant and amazing, especially in our part of the country. Take time next Monday to get over to Octoberfest in downtown Corbin at NIBROC Park. It’s a great event.

This Saturday will be the last City Yard Sale of the year on Depot Street. Always great deals to be found there. Hopefully the weather will cooperate to make it a great end to the yard sale season.

• Lots of discussion about the horse track planned for Corbin recently. Anybody who has followed the frustrating progression of this project knows the cadence of news regarding it — flashes of good news followed by setbacks and delays.

My take. Every indication I get is that it will happen. But … and I don’t mean to get too philosophical here … constant worry and concern does no good. Even if some worst-case scenario plays out, you can’t really lose what you never had to begin with. Life will go on.