LITTLE LATIN LUPE LU AND OTHER TOPICS
   The news about the Diamond R-4 School District's lawsuit against Edison Schools finally reached a media outlet other than Wildcat Central. The Sunday Neosho Daily News featured an article on the back page of section one detailing the lawsuit, including Superintendent Mark Mayo's convoluted reasoning for filing it.
   I can't understand why this lawsuit was filed. Mayo and the school board insist that Edison is trying to screw the school out of $76,000 by charging the district more than it should have for operating summer school in 2002.
   What I would like to know is where all of this money went. According to a Joplin Globe article, board members admitted during a recent meeting that the district had a profit of more than $200,000 from Edison operating the school and not that's including all of the supplies that were presented to the district, free of charge, and which the district was allowed to keep. In another Globe article, Mayo said the district actually lost $4,500 from that 2002 summer school session.
   It would be nice if The Globe jumped in and did a little investigative reporting, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting.
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   The Eighth District Court of Appeals recently affirmed a state appeals court decision not to grant a new trial to Charles Jeremiah. Jeremiah and his girlfriend both got drunk one night in Cedar County a few year back and Jeremiah killed her by beating her over the head with a baseball bat. During the trial, which was held in Barton County Circuit Court in Lamar on a change of venue, a jury found Jeremiah guilty. He appealed, claiming that the judge should not have allowed the prosecuting attorney to say that intoxication was not an excuse for clubbing your girlfriend to death. The state courts and the federal appeals court didn't buy that argument.
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   My first big break on "Small Town News" ended today as another door was slammed in my face. Diana Finch, owner of the cleverly named Diana Finch Literary Agency rejected the novel and also said the writing was poor. That one is going to take a while to get over, but I am not going to give up.
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   Natural Disaster was back in action, sort of, Saturday at the Sane Mule Motorcycle Shop near Boulder City. Our drummer, John Scott, was visiting his sons in California and our bass guitarist Tim Brazelton didn't show up. We still did a set with Richard Taylor playing drums for the first time in his life (and doing pretty well even though John had only been able to give him one two-hour lesson), Mark McClintock on lead guitar (and only guitar) and Richard and I did vocals. There weren't many people outside listening. Most of them listened from inside the motorcycle shop or were out riding their motorcycles, but considering our shortage of manpower, we didn't do badly at all.
   My favorite song was that old rock and roll shouter Little Latin Lupe Lu, an old garage band hit from the mid-60s. Hopefully, someday we will be able to do that number (and the rest of them) in front of a little larger audience.
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   Tonight's movie was the 1987 thriller "Black Widow" with Debra Winger and Theresa Russell. The movie was implausible, but who cares? After all, it starred Debra Winger and Theresa Russell and that's good enough for me.
   Theresa Russell is a serial killer (the Black Widow of the title) who marries rich men, then kills them. Debra Winger plays the FBI agent who figures out there is a connection between the deaths of these men, all of which were ruled death by natural causes.
   The game of cat and mouse between the two men is fun. The attraction between the two of them is disturbing, but after all, you have to remember this is a movie about a woman who has murdered at least three husbands and is on the prowl for more. That's a little disturbing, too.