Editorial: Thumbs

To the Albert Lea one-act team.

Thesbians at Albert Lea High School under the direction of Lilah Aas competed Jan. 27 in the sub-sectional tournament for one-act plays. The Tigers finished in first place, beating three other schools, and advanced to section finals in Lakeville. At the section finals on Thursday, the team finished third. The Albert Lea community is proud of its local high school actors, and we wish the best for the team.

 

To Punxsutawney Phil.

America’s top groundhog on forecasting the early arrival of spring must be off his rocker this February. The little fellow “saw” his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter. But the Lower 48 states haven’t even had six weeks of winter so far. Albert Lea has had a few snowfalls, but that’s it. Otherwise, it has been a brown winter, punctuated by days that feel like spring. We found it interesting that pretty much all of Phil’s competitors — French Creek Freddie of West Virginia, Gen. Beauregard Lee of Georgia, Woody the Woodchuck of Michigan, Buckeye Chuck of Ohio, Staten Island Chuck of New York, Wiarton Willie of Ontario and Shubenacadie Sam of Nova Scotia — predicted an early arrival of spring. To Phil, we say, “Duh! It shouldn’t take a shadow to see that.”

 

To Hockey Day at City Arena.

It is wonderful to see 300 young athletes romping around our city’s ever-useful hockey facility. Hockey Day draws more than 1,700 visitors to Albert Lea and has competition at multiple age levels. We salute the Albert Lea Youth Hockey Association for holding such a large event, which we all know is the culmination of the continuous fundraising that group does so well.