Lassie, what is it, girl? You know where our First Amendment rights are?

At last, a good seat for the Mardi Gras parade, or should I say parades. Looks like the New Delhi's new deck will be the hot spot for viewing the goings-on come Feb. 11. ... I hear the date is also being marked for a grand celebration of the birthdays of Brian Manire, Trella Laughlin, Bridget Thornton, Rae Hahn, Superman (really?), and Marie Howard. ... Anyone else who has a February birthday should just hop right on board about 5:30 and try out the New Delhi's new reno.

Good thing the cell tower finally went into operation a couple of days ago, now that the ESPD has all those new radios, eh?

I idly note on the bottom of the front page of the Jan. 17 Carroll County News there's a section called "lassifieds." ... Possible meanings: List of lads with girlfriends. People who've been lassoed and left tied. People with collie dogs.

Speaking of Lassie, by the time you read this Wikipedia will have been offline for a whole day (tell me you didn't notice). ... Anyway, the English Wikipedia, to be exact, was to be blacked out globally in protest of SOPA and PIPA. ... SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) proponents say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. ... They cite examples such as Google's $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to illegally import prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. ... Opponents say it violates the First Amendment, is Internet censorship, will cripple the Internet, and will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech actions. Opponents have initiated a number of protest actions. ... Perhaps like I just did by pirating and pasting the above paragraph right off the 'net (except for the Lassie reference). ... Anyway, PIPA is something like Protecting Intellectual Property Act and is similar to SOPA. ... Although, when you really take a look at the caliber of "intellectual" property on the Internet, who cares?

If you do, you can email me and say so at oliverdeplace@hotmail.com (at least I won't ask you a stupid Question of the Week).