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Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
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Bryant Stockton: Don't Be Afraid to Show Your Emoticons About Bryant Stockton: He's an English teacher at Metcalfe County High School and has lived in Metcalfe County since 1998. Bryant calls Summer Shade (prettiest name for a community EVER) home. He grew up in Albany, KY, and attended Western Kentucky University. His daughter, Chloe, is the love of his life. - CAROL PERKINS Click on headline for complete column By Bryant Stockton I learned early on in my texting existence that a colon is eyes and a semi-colon is a winky face--valuable info, to be sure. I learned that some people use a hyphen for a nose, then parenthesis (depending on mood), but some people skip the hyphen altogether, creating a grizzly and grotesque visage that only a mother could love. :-) vs. :) The most important thing I learned, however, is that our society's generalized gender roles still apply. Please allow me to use sending flowers to draw a parallel: It is quite okay for a guy to send flowers to his girlfriend. Also, it's cool for a girl to send flowers to anyone. (Girls, like flowers, are delicate and pretty and smell nice.) Conversely, it is not, in our American Ethos, considered "normal" behavior for a man to send his buddy a bouquet of begonias or a sparkling silver-tipped rose. If I had made these comparisons earlier, I would not have texted a smiley face emoticon to my friend, Shane, many years ago. But--alas--the ignorance of my texting youth prevailed :-/ What followed was a barrage of "LOL'ed-by-the-sender" insults that questioned my masculinity, intelligence, and overall ability to be a productive member of Society. I was called things that are unacceptable to print anywhere except a locker room or the inside of a septic tank. In short, my man card got pulled :-\ Years later, I ask myself: who was wrong? Was Shane? His caustic banter may have been out of place for these more enlightened times, but, hey, that's what guys do with their friends. Most of us welcome it and would feel strange were we not part of the insufferably sufferable insult circle. :-o So, was it me? Possibly. But don't be too critical. All I wanted to do was convey the emotion of humor without using an inane "LOL". I guess I lacked conviction in the joke and needed that extra guarantee that he knew it was in fact a joke at all, hence the smiley face. [Hey, laugh at me. I'm funny!] :-D Or possibly, it was neither. Does every situation have to have a wrong or right? Can't some things just be chalked up to a funny few minutes of time in a friendship? That is the sauce of friendships. These simple and random moments are the ones we reference forever when something jogs our memories and we are sent back to a summer day when a text message elicited immediate emotion...and those emotions were mirthful and pure and there was no unhappiness ;-) To the reader: if you are feeling a shift in tone, you are very observant. Nostalgia crept in, right into my silly essay about using punctuation marks to make smiley faces. See, my buddy Shane is no longer with us. Accidents suck. Good, young people shouldn't die. We should never be forced into situations where the only recourse is the use of the open parenthesis for a mouth; yet, sometimes tragedy intervenes :-( Time passes though. It will always pass. And there will always be memories. Some are big, some little, some as minuscule as a colon, a hyphen, and a closed parenthesis at the end of a childish little text message. And those kinds of memories are the best memories of all :-) Bryant Stockton, an English teacher at Metcalfe County High School, has lived in Metcalfe County since 1998. Bryant calls Summer Shade (prettiest name for a community EVER) home. He grew up in Albany and attended Western Kentucky University. His daughter, Chloe, is the love of his life. This story was posted on 2015-02-08 08:02:29
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