More Activity on the Square.

Main Street Carthage has scheduled more activity on the Square for Saturday June 1. "Horsin’ ‘round the Square" is the theme of the activities sponsored by Uptown/Downtown.

Beginning at noon, the animals will be gathered in portable stable furnished by Race Brother’s Farm and Home. Visitors will be able to safely get a close look at various breeds and gather information.

After the horses are removed from the Square at 2:30, the gunfighters from the Missoura Six Shooter’s Club will stage a hold up of Uptown/Downtown. The City has been consulted and blanks are expected to be fired during the fake hold-up. It is scheduled to occur between 2:30 and 3 p.m.

On Saturday June, 8, Main Street Carthage will sponsor the first Carthage Acoustic Music Festival. Nine musical groups are scheduled to perform from 1:30 p.m. until 10 p.m.

An open stage will be held from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. for any acoustic musical groups. Sign up for the open stage will start at 9 a.m. No tapes or electrified instruments will be allowed.

Letter to the Editor

Opinions expressed reflect those of the
writer and not necessarily those of the Mornin' Mail.

Dear Editor,

Someone should say it, so that it won’t happen again; so I’ll be the the devil’s advocate.

Because Carthage’s Memorial Day program was effectively torpedoed on May 27th, many caring people were saddened and hurt.

By 9:30 a.m. there was no moisture in the air and the ground was drying out from an earlier shower.

Veterans of several of America’s wars were there to pay tribute to fallen comrades; the Boy Scouts were there to honor past and present military personnel; relatives and friends were there to remember loved ones. None heard the traditional sounding of Taps, the final closure to such an occasion.

I, too, was saddened, for on Memorial Day 1942, 60 years ago, I stood an Honor Guard for members of my battery and regiment who were killed or wounded in America’s first battle of World War II.

Some things I just don’t understand.

Thank You,

Dick Ferguson

NASCAR to the Max

Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte, NC looked to be a cinch win for rookie Jimmie Johnson. Johnson led 263 of the scheduled 400 laps around the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway. With only 42 laps remaining, Johnson bumped back marker Hut Stricklin, sending Stricklin into a spin and bringing out the 9th and final caution flag. From there, Johnson’s luck grew progressively worse. When he pitted for tires and fuel, he stopped outside his designated pit box and had to be pushed back so that the necessary maintenance could be performed. These valuable few seconds relegated him to 9th place when he exited the pits. Mark Martin’s crew performed a flawless pit stop and were able to get him out of the pits in first place. Martin was able to hold off several hard charges by his teammate Matt Kenseth to claim the win. Martin had not won in over two years, a span of 73 races.

Not surprisingly, Ricky Rudd became NASCAR’s Iron Man starting his 656th consecutive race.

The previous week’s Winston, produced plenty of surprises with its new format. The field for the Winston is comprised of race winners from 2001 and 2002 as well as previous Winston winners and active NASCAR Champions. Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman were added to the field of 25 through two preliminary qualifiers. With the laps winding down in the final 20-lap segment, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. bumped race leader Newman but allowed him to regain control before resuming the pursuit, a significant departure from the norm of today’s young gun racing tactics. It was also not lost on the crowd that Earnhardt’s late father had almost made the bump and run an art form and would have immediately set his sights on the win once the bump was administered.

This week’s race will take place at Dover Downs (Delaware) International Speedway. The one-mile high-banked oval track is commonly called "The Monster Mile" because of its long straight-aways and steep banking. Jeff Gordon won this race last year and will be among the favorites of the 43 starters.

The City Council failed to muster a quorum Tuesday evenin’ and will hold a special meetin’ next Tuesday to make up.

Although there were no especially timely issues that had ta be attended to, there are the housekeepin’ items like payin’ the bills that do require the Council approval. Waitin’ for another two weeks might create a bottle neck in the typically efficient day-to-day efforts to keep the City in good standin’ with vendors and employees.

Council members from time to time are not able to make meetin’s, but I think this is the first time in the last ten years or so that a regular Council meetin’ was called for lack of quorum. Just so happened that several had planned ta be outa town.

Back ta work next week.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I’m planning to buy a Chevy truck. I got a price from one dealer and am now going to other dealers to see if they will beat it. The first dealer showed me the invoice price with all the options I wanted and added $700 to that, saying, "That is what they have to add when they order a truck." The second dealer cut that to $300. My question is, what IS this invoice price? Is this the actual price they pat for a vehicle, or just a bunch of bull? -John

TOM: It’s a bunch of bull, John. Years ago, the world had absolutely no idea what cars really cost dealers. And now, thanks to services like Consumer Reports and other who publish the "dealer invoice" price..we STILL have no idea what cars really cost dealers.

RAY: The "dealer invoice" number, which is widely available now, is supposed to represent what the dealer actually pays for the car and the options. Armed with this information, lots of consumers think they’ve got some sort of inside information. But they really don’t.

TOM: The actual price that dealers pay for a car (or "dealer net") is known only by Wayne Huizenga, the Amazing Kreskin and perhaps, God. We do know it’s less than the publicized "dealer invoice" price. There’s something called a dealer holdback. That’s a chunk of money the manufacturer gives to the dealer after the car is sold. How much is the holdback? We don’t know; that information is held back! They say it’s another 2 to 4 percent of the price of the car. But who knows? There’s also financing assistance, marketing money and other money paid to the dealer and that brings the real cost down even lower.