Yuan Xiao Ji - And a Night at the Museum.
We attended The Chinese Lantern Festival celebrating the End of the Lunar New Year, at the Greater Vernon Museum. We found the displays and settings created an ambiance for the event, lending it to become an extremely enjoyable and intimate affair. We began with a meet and greet with our table companions, followed by displays of authentically costumed folk and modern dance, (Okanagan Chinese Rejoicing Team), then a by a very tasty meal of Mainland Chinese dishes (The Royal Garden). After the meal Tracey (Museum staff) introduced us to interesting facts surrounding the celebrations, followed by door prises. Further conversations led us to discover our table mates were nearly neighbours, connected through work, or shared mutual interests. The conversations continued as Gabriel (Museum staff) joined us grabbing a bite from what remained from the evening’s repast. After much more banter all round, we had to be gently reminded the Museum wished to close for the evening. We hope that that the Museum makes this an annual event and recommend to all to put on your calendar for next Yuan Xiao Ji.
John Raikes
Vernon
I feel the need to express my disdain over recent cumulonimbus formations in the north Okanagan. I have been a resident here for nearly 50 years and I cannot remember a time when clouds were as unruly and inconsiderate of people lives. In my youth I distinctly remember the clouds parting ways for me when I returned home from the Boer war. They had enough respect to know how important that day was to me and to all Canadians. Is it too much to expect of today’s clouds to think of us people first? Perhaps it is. The way things are trending clouds may become the largest problems for all of us, not just old men who yell everything.
Abraham Simpson
Huge thanks to all the awesome people of Vernon, who constantly step up to help each other out. A woman at Superstore recently was unloading her cart, while holding a baby. The woman in line behind her offered to help. Turns out, it wasn’t even her baby! She’d offered to help the mom in front of her, who was shopping with three kids. You ladies rock!
Meanwhile in the line I was in, the cashier was offering to watch a little one in a cart, while Dad ran to grab his free turkey. Such a kind gesture. It’s wonderful that Vernon still has that charming small town vibe.
Jasmine Finlay
First World Problem rectified, thank you. I know this is going to sound petty and certainly not worthy of print, but I need to say it for me. A little over nine years ago, I started a life of slowing down and enjoying the details of what life has to offer. One of those rituals is the arrival of The Morning Star three days a week. I never know where the newspaper delivery person will manage to throw it from day to day so part of the routine is the adventure of searching outside my front door to see where it has landed. Sometimes I can reach it from inside the house and other times I have to look for it around the nooks and crannies of my entrance or it occasionally it will have bounced into the garden. Once retrieved, I bring the paper to the dining room table and fetch a pen. I then scan the stories of the day and read the ones that catch my eye. Usually ones that tell some sort of good news story or are about people I know in town, or the write-up on the sports team I was playing for. Anyway, when all that is done, I settle down to the page that has the crossword and the Sudoku puzzle. I love the challenge to my brain and it forces me to slow down my day. Recently, I have had several days when I have been unable to find my daily crossword and Sudoku page. The first time it happened, I assumed I had just missed it or there was a missing page in the paper. I was disappointed, but I moved on. The second time I verified that all pages existed (thank you for telling me how many pages there are in each issue) and carefully checked each page. Still no crossword. I let it go, although insult to injury occurred when the next issue had a new crossword, but the answers for the previous puzzle clearly were from a puzzle that was never printed in the Star. I even “googled” ‘crossword puzzle missing Vernon Morning Star’ to see if others were noticing the same thing, but got no hits other than more puzzles. Then on Friday, March 2 it happened again - no puzzle or Sudoku. The following issue (Sunday) I got the paper and I see that you have resolved the most frustrating piece of my first world problem. The new puzzle is printed, plus the answers from Wednesday’s puzzle. Thank you, you have solved what may have been a serious “issue.” Keep them coming, and if you have to choose in future whether to eliminate the crossword due to lack of space, or some letter to the editor about a first world problem, I hope you will choose the latter.
Roland Riedstra
Vernon
@vernonnews
letters@vernonmorningstar.com
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